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

Who said I have an idea?

 

Read my build thread! I'll give you my list of lessons learned as well. My recommendation is to find a pax side drop tcase and start from there, it opens up your options for axle swap candidates. If you get the desire to swap in a d44, go lay down until that thought goes away. Same with flipping a Toyota axle, glad I did it once, never again. I did have a different circumstance than you, with a lefty with $3k dropped in it and no one to buy it for more than pennies on the dollar.

I still vote wheel it as is for a few more seasons, seat time and knowing what you can and cant do will help you with what you want the end goal to be with the rig. It will also help you not instantly blow it up the first trip post SAS or put it on its lid. Just being able to attack big trails will leave with some abortion you will have to trailer everywhere with an empty wallet which blows. I'm at the point in life where I'm ready to dump toyota axles into the ocean and get a 1 ton rear and a d60 front for parts availability and cost alone. There I said it on a toyota forum, come fight me!! And in before you get suggestions to build some toyota Dana hybrid abortion that you cant find parts anywhere for because they are all custom and it's nothing but compromises.

 

I feel like you’re my off-road grandpa. Always dropping the wisdom.

 

White first gen mafia man, we gotta stick together. You are entering a great time to pick up parts cheap. I have a feeling there will be a fire sale of gently used offroad parts pretty soon.

 

Where does one look for those deals? Is there an active forum for serious off-road?

 

Slander pretty much touched base on all points.

Go one tons the first time around and be done with it. I loved my truck on the 44 front and 35s, and it did most everything I wanted, but having the strength and reliability of one tons now gives me piece of mind when wheeling/traveling to wheel. Not to mention, with my Super Duty axles, parts are absolutely everywhere and they are only getting cheaper to purchase.

 

Pirate4x4 for sale forum is where I found alot of mine. I would also look at hardlinecrawlers for sale forum. It's an extreme wheeling message board for South East wheelers, evreyones pretty cool on there as well.

I'm sure there is stuff on Facebook but I'm not down with the book of faces.

 

I would also argue that the stock tacoma IFS is about equal in strength to a d44 with its HP ring gear.

Being able to find parts for a d60 down at the bottom of toothless Joe's holler in no where TN is a huge plus. With my toyota axles I have to carry a scrap yard, or order $10 seals from dealer shipped to my house. Hell I'm in the 3rd largest metro area in the US and cant even find metric bolts!!

 

Do you go to fastenal?

 

Yea, worthless and overpriced. I may as well order from the dealer and save some $$ and the headache. I was able to find them at local hardware stores like ACE. But if you ever need things like metric brake fittings, just dont even waste your time going to an auto parts store around here.

 

37's?

Flip an FJ60 front axle and stuff it in on leafs.
-Quick and relatively easy/affordable
-Beef R&P
-Easy to set steering up but doesn't steer as tight as a Dana axle
-You have plenty of friends on Toyota axles with spares and it keeps you on 6 lug wheel.
-Matches up well with an FZJ80 rear axle if you ever want to upgrade the rear.

-Outers will probably be the weak point but not much of an issue.
-Flipping can be annoying...
-Your tcases will be happy on 37's

40's?

05+ SD Dana 60
-Cheap from junkyards
-Beefy outers and R&P
-Steers super tight and is wide enough to really limit scrub radius
-Future proof

-The short side gets really tight and can be hard to squeeze in a leaf pad, especially on a narrow first gen. Would probably require links.
-Steering is a little tougher to setup with cast knuckles.
-It's big enough that 40's are almost required for clearance
-You'd have to switch to 8 lug wheels and run adapters in the rear unless you swap an 8 lug axle in back.
-40's will start to push the limit of Toyota mini truck cases

 

Dont flip a toyota axle, it's a pain in the ass. Just get a pax drop tcase. If you are building tons from scratch just swap it to 6lug, you will need beadlocks anyway or there is zero point to even doing the axle swap.

 

@rngr Something to consider is that you're a 3RZ truck with 150hp...Same as me

On aluminum beadlocks and 37's, I can only do about 70 on the highway comfortably with 5.29's. Any kind of headwind and I have to drop to 4th and 65. I would have to imagine that it would be damn near undriveable on 40's on the highway.

Once you go tons, 40's basically are a requirement...

You can't convert SD60's to 6 lug without drilling your own hubs and machining your own rotors. 8-lug would be better all the way around at that point and swap in a matching Sterling rear.

 

Swapping in a gear drive case makes sense to avoid flipping a 60 axle depending on how you value time. I wouldn't swap in a gear drive case to open up one ton availability though. Better off to put an Atlas in at that point.

...If you couldn't tell already, it's all about how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

My combo of no power and 8"/9.5" axles with 37's works great. My truck is light, still can drive to the trailhead and is pretty capable. It exists in a nearly perfect state of homeostasis. More power would make it more driveable but would break stuff...Bigger tires would make it more capable but more breakable and undriveable on the highway...

 

You dont need 40s for tons.

Dont use a SD 60.

No matter what I wouldn't dick around with toyota axles on another build. The parts are like damn hen's teeth and the vendors shrink by the day, meanwhile dana parts vendors are literally everywhere (any auto parts store) and beef parts vendors are a dime a dozen. You do lose "toyota parts are the best" cult status points by not going with them though, so that is a consideration. The nice part about tons is once you mangle up the body or want to try really stupid shit you can swap them into a buggy with minimal worries. With toyotas you now need load bolts for the 9.5" ring gear so you dont eat teeth off the ring gear and you are limited with axle shaft strength and size.

Dont get me wrong it was fun building my toyota axles, but from a practicality standpoint I have axles there were pretty expensive to build hard to find parts unless I go OEM or move to Australia or buy from the trail gear chinese empire and I cant really use them in a buggy in the future unless I want it powered by a Briggs and Stratton. The knuckle design is fucking stupid on them and the housings bend if you hit a curb too fast. Plus by defacto you will be running a toyota junkyard out of your house because see my first sentence of this rant for finding parts. You start buying up any rusted hulk on CL because it has some retainer ring they stopped selling 25yrs ago and used they are $100 on CL because landcruiser mark up.

 

FWIW my 3rz holds 85 comfortably uphill with 37" razrs in 5th with 5.29s. Granted I pack light, have no cage, no beadlocks, and idk how w56 and w59 gearing differs.

I have no valuable input on axles or tcase. I'm inclined to take Geoff's word that flipping an axle is a bitch though

 

Why no SD60 Love?

 

They are cool, but not the only 60 option is what I meant.

 

ahh, I see. Definitely becoming the cheaper of the 60s though. I am still seeing kingpin 60s go for minimum of $1200, when SD 60s are $350 all day at the savage yards

 

Yea. Do the sd60s suffer from fords issue of making parts for like 1.5 model years and changing them?