Lowered B.S. Thread

Wanted to share what i stumbled on worh everyone here. Found another company that offers coilovers for the 5 lugs. Since xII stopped making them and half way shut their doors, im gonna try these guys out. Apparently a couple guy here in hawaii have them since the company told me they have shipped a couple out this way. Anyone else hear of these guys? Seem like a pretty established and experienced company.

https://fealsuspensionstore.com/feal-coilovers-05-13-toyota-tacoma-x-runner-front-pair-only/

 

Shit look legit how.much drop get?

 

Not to sure, im just using mine with the djm arms to stay at 3". Hopefully gonna buy them and install in the next few months. Ill update on how it goes.

 

I’m ordering tires now and gonna put my 2” blocks under. Do I need to order shocks for the 2” drop or keep the oem replacements on?

 

New tires on. Now to find out how low to go. Needs rear shocks too. lil bouncy

 

One day I think I will lower my truck too, and that aint no BS!

 

Anyone in here have a lowered 2nd gen 4wd and have a weird clunk when turning the wheels at full lock while backing up or moving slowly forward? Mainly happens when parking, but im wondering if its the cv's or if it might just be the sway bar. Im running the sos 2"/3."5 drop kit for reference

 

Bad CV Joints usually make multiple clunking sounds when making slow hard turns. Not a single sound. There is a bump stop that you are probably hearing.

 

Yeah i got to thinking about this more, and i think it might also be the sway bar hitting the coilovers.. havent done any more investigating yet, but next time i work on the truck im gonna cut it lock to lock and see what that clearance looks like. CVs should be in good shape, only 72k on them and its been stock ride height most of its life. Lowered the front about 10k miles ago and thats when this started

are you referring to the steering stop on the spindle/lca?

 

Steering stop sounds right. My vocabulary on suspension is not great. I remember having fiddle with my sway bar some to get it even on both sides from the coilovers.

CVJ Axles have great options for lowered or raised suspensions. The stock cv joints have a bad angle on them when one lowers the 2nd gen

 

I made a call to nearby Deaver Springs today to "BS" about lowering my 2002. They will de-arch the leafs for $175 a pair and custom build front coils to my desired drop and rate for "roughly $350 for the pair". I am getting closer to the day of dropping my Tacoma, but first going to get my wheels and tires on there to determine roughly how much drop I want to go for.

I plan to run these Lexus wheels with Toyota center caps I ordered today wrapped up in some Yokohama Advan Apex V601's in 245/45/17:


Late night mock up after the center bores were opened to 67.1mm:

 

Not a bad price

 

Definitely a fair price and this is the way I will go for the leafs when the time arrives.

I am trying to improve the truck's handling and keeping a nice ride while adding my drop, in addition to going for a more aggressive and sexy stance! From what I understand de-arching the leafs maintains the factory ride as it does not change the rate. Plus I can choose how much exactly I want to drop, and even level side to side as more nifty bonuses. The truck likes to oversteer in the spirited turns but I am not into drifting (too much!), so I want to stiffen the front and keep the rear as is to help alleviate this. Also dropping the rear more in relation to the front should help this out too.

For the front coils I am not too sure what rate I would want exactly to justify the custom build at this time, although Deaver suggested normally a 50% increase works good for increased handling while maintaining a "decent" ride. I am pondering getting some 2wd 4 cylinder extra cab coils and cutting them to the desired drop, since these will have a slightly higher spring rate from the factory than my standard cab. An extra cab v6 would be a step higher if more rate was needed.

My thought is this would be a less expensive way to test out spring rates in my truck for myself to see what I like, and give me experience to order custom rates down the road if needed. I generally like to have softer springs but add more sway bar to handle better in the more spirited turns yet ride nice overall .

I actually got a front and rear sway bar from an S-Runner this weekend for this phase of tuning down the road.


It would be great to find out the spring rates for these factory coils, and obviously Deaver had the ability to look up this info since he said they start with the OEM part number and specs to build custom coils from there. I need to search more to see if I can find this info, unless Tacoma World can assist here of course?!

 

Alright so I’m looking to drop my truck as well. Can some one explain the point of de-arching the leaf springs? What’s the best way to go about it? I wanna do the 2/3 drop as well. What’s the best to drop the front 2” and do I need to c-notch for the rear to be dropped 3”?

 

De-arching and re-arching its bending the springs so you get drop basically, I have heard of folks doing it themselves on hot rod sites (its old school technique for old leaf technology) but I plan to take mine to local legendary shop Deaver Spring which specializes in springs of course to get it done right. Google can explain better than me if you want to look deeper into doing this yourself. Also google shows me there are indeed spring shops in Georgia for you to call, since these would cost more to ship than to re-arch you would want to stay handy to save cash.

I like this re-arching method since it retains the stock ride and I can have them drop to my own specs, say 3.75" on one side and 3.5" on the other as example to level the ride in the process. You can use blocks which are way cheaper and easy to install, but have cons such as not as sturdy, induce axle wrap, are limited to inch by inch drops, maybe others I am forgetting...

You should not need a notch for 3" from what I have heard, but you will probably want to change over to smaller bump stops if you bottom out to retain your travel. You dont need to change your shocks either, but I plan to again for a nicer ride. Bilsteins are what I like running on my Toyota's personally as they really smooth out the bumps, and feel stable yet compliant at the same time.

"Best" is always a relative term, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. If best = easy and cheap a seller called chassis_tech on ebay sells a 2/3 drop kit with coils and blocks for a measly $145 shipped pn#262835791225:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/D-1995-5-2004-Tacoma-2WD-2-3-Drop-COIL-Lowering-Springs-Blocks-Lowering-TAC2/262835791225?_trkparms=aid%3D555018&algo=PL.SIM&ao=1&asc=225074&meid=b5948a22de4b435693adb87b6549847b&pid=100005&rk=6&rkt=12&mehot=co&sd=271653490267&itm=262835791225&pmt=1&noa=0&pg=2047675&algv=SimplAMLv5PairwiseWeb&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

I have heard some folks find the above coils a bit stiff and I would like a more stock and forgiving ride, hence I am planning to cut my coils or get a step up in factory coil - extra cab 4 cylinder coils for my regular cab and then cut them to my desired drop. The rough measure is cut 1" from coil overall length (not coil amount) to get 2" of drop. Again you can adjust to your liking cutting little by little, and side to side leveling can be achieved. This take a few tries but you can fine tune to your liking. Oh, and dont use heat for this as you can degrade your coils to mush!

Since you have a 4 cylinder as well, you may not achieve the full 2" drop with the drop coils, and may find yourself cutting them or not being exactly where you want to be ride height wise. You may even want to go with a 3" drop coil to end up closer to 2".. results vary a bit of course! If you want to go for factory coils with slightly higher rate, I can suggest the 2wd v-6 extra cab coils. This will also preserve your stock coils in case things dont end up to your liking.

Hope this BS helps you get that drop and some pics on here soon!!

 

Do you have a link to the bump stops?

 

I’m also not worried about being exactly 2” in the front and right at 3 in the rear. As long as it looks level and lower than stock

 

Not sure if anyone makes a bolt on low profile bump stop. You could probably cut your stock stops down 3" to compensate for your 3" drop, or drill a hole for something like these:
Energy Suspension 9.9132G ULTRA LOW BUMP STOP.

$15 Energy Suspension 9.9132G Ultra Low Bump Stop

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Suspe...8DK87GWCATK&psc=1&refRID=ATXSFW3A68DK87GWCATK

I have seen guys wrap an inner tube around the frame and even remove them all together, it's going to take a bit of creativity to get it just right for your truck as far as I know.

Which way are you thinking for your drop?

 

I like the springs you showed me. Also gonna use blocks in the rear. I’m not sure what’s the best for the front

 

There is your conundrum - there really is no best, everything has pros and cons. It is just finding what makes you happy overall for how you want to use and feel in the truck!

For blocks I suggest to get steel over aluminum for more strength (though they do cost more), high grade u-bolts, and use lock washers, lock nuts and thread lock to keep them in place as long as you can. I believe it is also recommended to re-torque them bolts every couple of months to be sure they are on tight, especially if you drive hard at all.

There are not many options for a 2" drop on the front for these trucks nowadays, good news is they are not very expensive so if you dont like one you can try another! Buying drop coils is the least amount of work involved and not much room for error as cutting coils. Either pick a 2" or 3" drop coil off ebay, slap them on there, and go for a drive. Since you said you are not too picky and just want it lower this may be "best" for you.

If you got dollars to spend, then I highly suggest to call your local spring shops to build a spring based on their professional experience and tell them your needs. This would be the best as far as fine tuning ride quality based on what you feel is best for you and your desired drop, combined with a single installation vs cutting and tuning and trying different coils. Of course the results are going to depend on their expertise, and this is the most expensive route.

One thing I find when I customize vehicles to keep in mind, it can be quite common to not get things right the first time and I accept doing things more than once to get it right as part of the process.. I call it r&d!!

Follow your heart and add those mofo's to the cart tonight! Good news is you already got the best truck out there, a mighty fine first gen 5 lug!