Redeemed: rngr's Trail Taco w/side of T4R

Sounds like flat spotted swampers that finally broke in to me. Driveshaft would be more predominant at higher speeds than lower.

If you're willing to pull the driveshaft though, go ahead and you'll know for sure.

 

Gonna have to get a new drive shaft anyways. Pull it and see if it goes away

 

Cool cool.

 

For some reason, pulling a driveshaft is my least favorite thing to do on the Tacoma. The inability to get an impact or ratcheting wrench on any of the nuts or bolts is maddening to me. It's just far enough above your head too that your shoulders are on fire by the end from just turning a wrench 81553753 times to get all eight bolts out.

 

It's easy to get one on there: use a deep well 14mm and a short extension and you can get an impact on there. Jack up the rear of the truck up you can rotate the shaft so the bolts are on the bottom. After you get the axle end off, it's easy to then get the impact on the center flange bolts. Gotta be smarter than the truck yo!

Duct tape the teloscopeing section of the shaft so it doesn't come apart on you.

 

Socket with extension works for me.



You might be able to see it if you chock the front wheels and lift the rear off the ground and put it in 1st.

 

I'm typically too lazy to jack the truck up to spin the shaft. And it's not the third member flange that's tough, its the carrier bearing side that you don't get any room to get an impact on it.

 

That's why you take the axle end off first or drop the carrier bearing.

 

At least it won’t be on the side of a mountain like when we pulled Tim’s Friday.

also, found the problem. Huuuuge chunk of a root stuck in the inner bead of my rear tire. It was in there good. Had to drop tire to 3lbs to get it out.

 

My driveshaft is bent and I feel it at random speeds. It's fine at 75 mph but death shake at 77 mph. Haha so you probably feel it but may be hard to differentiate between that and the tires at random speeds.

 

Had to pop a bead on mine to get a root out that was causing a slight leak last time up at Coppingers Cove. Made for a good time after I dunked the truck

 

I'm pretty confident in these tires at 8psi after two hard wheeling trips on them, but dang... they get all sorts of shit stuck in the bead. Spent about 30 min with a flat screwdriver digging mud out of there.

 

I tried the same and was just gonna throw my spare on until my buddy said "why not just pop the bead and clean it up" Worked like a charm and got some experience in using a hi-lift to pop a bead

 

My km's were like that back in my jeep days. Had to pop the tires off the bead every trip, mud would just pack in there. I had pit crew like speed popping beads and scraping out mud and crap evrey trip. So glad bfg ditched the "rim guard" aka passive mud bead impactor device from their tire line.

 

I believe what I am experiencing is due more to low air pressure than tire design.

I say that because in all the places where mud was caked into the bead, the tire had been visibly pushed inward maybe 1/2” away from the face of the wheel.

No biggie though. They wheel so freaking good.

 

Makes sense. You know what fixes that? Beadlocks

 

I’m too cheap right now

 

Beadlocks!!!

 

Let’s axle swap this pile. Discuss...




Calm down. I don’t mean right now. I just want to start planning for the future so if I find a deal here and there I can jump on it. I’m about a week out from closing on my probably forever home. Once I get in and settled I’m building myself a shop. I’d say best case scenario I could start working on the truck in a year, but nothing ever goes best case. Haha.

few things I’m thinking that are making me want to do it.

1. I don’t drive the truck anymore. I literally won’t miss is if it’s on jack stands for a year or however long.

2. I like to wheel hard. I want to run nastier trails, bigger ledges, bigger rocks. Truck does better than anyone would expect as it is, but I find that I’m limited by ground clearance and approach angle pretty often. Only way I see to remedy that is big tires on an axle that’s pushed toward the front of the truck.

3. Time - I don’t have as much time to head off on trips as I used to. So, when I go, I want to be able to go hard.

4. I like tinkering on the truck. Yea, I get it... my truck is super reliable and extremely capable as it sits. But I’m pretty much capped on things I can do to make it more capable. I’m going to have a shop, welder, and just enough knowledge to get me in trouble.

So, why not?

 

Yolo

So what's your idea? Keeping your cases I'd assume, so you'll want a driver drop axle. Trail gear or diamond housing, axle flip, or old dana 44?