CLOSED JD Fabrication/81Trekker Suspension Group Buy CLOSED

They were doing one-off orders before the group buy, and spend a bunch of time making jigs for everything so they are set up to keep low rate production going.

 

If there is enough demand we will make them. The LT kits we do take a ton of time and effort and there isn’t a lot of profit in them because of the labor involved.

We are making 10 kits right now and once they sell out we will revisit the idea of making more.

 

Are the LT kits going to be on the site when available?

 

Clean shaven! Fj isn’t near as plug ‘n play as the Tacoma, but it’s getting there.

 

Nice...keep taking pics! let us know of any tricks or tips you come up with. Im going to start mine this week sometime.

 

Yeah will do. My install won’t be the same as yours only because I’m adapting this to the FJ. But still looks pretty dang doable. Lots of cutting and grinding. I used cut off discs, grinding wheel and 40 grit flapper. It’s probably about 3 cut off discs per side, and a single flapper. about 2 hours for the first side. Note I cut off my bump stop mount because I’m installing a set of hydraulic bumps.

I found it easier to cut the bracket off below the weld, then grind back. If you had a plasma cutter handy, you might cut 1/2 an hour off the cutting time.

 

Plasma ready to go !

 

This is the way.

 

I got one side done today , Cutting off a good stock mount was a tough call , Not a fun job , banged my head ,Lots of noise , Neighbors not happy , and a small fire , But I got it !
Probably the hardest part of this build ? I"m sure the rewards will be worth it !

 

I like the 90* bracket to save the tie rod boot.

I got my tracking #.

 

I’m so proud mike, looks amazing!

 

Neighbors love all day angle grinders. The only thing better is all day impact guns...

Awesome progress.

 

Has anyone completed an install yet outside of JD shop?

Got my kit installed at end of last month. Was a lot more effort than expected to do my entire project which was essentially replace everything suspension and brake related on the front. (But I also installed a LRA tank, what a major pain and time sink that was). Kit requires a lot of test fitting and grinding and customization, but after several hours of massaging truck and kit it was weldable. It didn’t clear the bumpstop mount on my 05 frame, Had to notch and reinforce that area. Please no comments about alignment, it isn’t aligned yet and someone (couldn’t be me) didn’t realize the upper joints are clocked backwards which necessitated the lower cams be maxed to get decent camber. That will be fixed. No idea how much caster I have at the moment but spacers are set at 3/4” forward on the lowers, and there is tons of room at the cab mount and rear fender, drives straight as arrow on a tape measure toe setting, and when cycling the suspension with no coil in place, I settled on a 3/8” bumpstop spacer on the super bumps to avoid upper fender contact with the 35x10.5 at full lock/stuff. Still lots more tuning and adjusting and trials/testing. I’m gonna get some mileage out of the Firestone lifetime alignment

I still need to work out how I will tie in the rear skid plate, and fab a forward skid that ties into the bumper. Thinking of cutting out the front crossmember to raise it up and gain that clearance, tie the skid all the way to the CBI bumper.

 

Looks awesome! Just a heads up for the rest of you guys the original kit and jig was built around my 2015 that had never been off road and the frame was in perfect condition. The second truck I did had some decent off road miles on it and the LCA kit required some minor grinding and test fitting. The third truck I did had been to hell and back off road, the frame was bent and in tough shape... this one required even more grinding and test fitment.

Every truck will be different depending on how abused they were. Be patient with the install and slowly tune the kit in for the correct fit.

As for the install it takes me about 16hrs total to do one-

4hrs to put the truck on jack stands and completely disassemble

8hrs to cut the old mounts off, clean prep the frame, test fit/tune LCA kit to frame and weld it all up

4hrs to paint and reassemble everything.

 

Given the offroad miles on my truck, I'll add a couple extra hours of test fitting.

 

Probably going to have to make a special one just for you! Lol

 

The complete Weld It Yourself version.

 

Yes

 

Sweet builds guys , So in the pics above are the alignment tabs in the correct position ? I"m confused
Also 35 x 10.5 tire ? Which one ? Kenda tire ?

 

yes the Kendas. love them so far, but not much offroad on them yet. but 1000x better than the Duratracs in 285/75/16 they replaced. My truck is SUPER heavy, and these, even in a load D, hold up the truck better at a given psi compared to the load E Duratracs could at a higher psi. And they have better road manners by far.

The pictures have the alignment tabs installed "correctly" but they are adjusted all the way out. That was because it was needed to get the tire more or less vertical, but only because on the SPC uppers I was too tired to realize that the ball joints were installed clocked incorrectly. They should be reversed to be correct, putting the upper joint closer to center and that would allow me to have the lower adjustment nearer to the middle while still having a near zero camber setting. Hope that makes sense.