Rear Shock relocation thread

No ragerts!

 

Hey, your rear setup looks really clean. I'm not saying this to nitpick, I'm saying this to help you and benefit others who are reading the thread and might copy, I think you need to rotate your axle tabs about 2" lower.
With a 12" bypass especially, you want to have about 6" of shock shaft showing at ride height, any less than that and the piston could get up into the first comp zone, and I also think you might be at risk of bottoming the shock out from looking at the pictures, and definitely during articulation. Also, getting Hammer hangers on there will really improve the ride, no amount of shock can fix the bad foundation of the stock hangers

 

2" is a pretty good guess. About 4" is showing right now. I did think that the truck sat a little low in the rear but do know that I need to replace my rear springs (The dakars are not up for the task anymore), so have chalked it up to that, new set of Deavers is next on my list. Around the same time a ton of weight was added and I lost about 1" or more in the rear. I can bring it up to the guy who did the work. The suspension was cycled, etc and all the good stuff when it was installed for the shocks and bumps so I assume they took that all into consideration. They normally build LT trucks. Def was looking into the Archive hammers. I already have a set of BAMF that have been sitting aside for awhile to be put on, but either way the hangars have to go.

 

Man those hoops are clean! How much did they run you if you don't mind me asking?

 

It seems for 1st gen rear shock relocation/extension, most put in a new crossmember rear of the axle and new shock mounts to extend the rear shock travel. This has implications of removing the stock spare tire location and sometimes having to reroute or chop the exhaust. To my knowledge, I have never seen anyone extend the stock mounting points upward and as close to the bed as possible. Basically taking those stock mount positions and not changing their fore/aft positions and just pushing the mount upwards.

I assume those who have successfully relocated the rear shock (@turbodb , @Speedytech7 , @Laxtoy , @Box Rocket , @SafetyDang to name a few) considered that but decided to go with the new crossmember. What advantages are there to the new crossmember as opposed to extending the stock locations upward?

 

There is a benefit in increased chassis rigidity with the crossmember, but not reason enough to not do what you're saying especially if keeping a moderate spare tire is a priority.

Archive offers an outside the frame rail relocation kit, but it requires big wheel spacers since the tires are so close to frame rails stock

 

I put in the cross member because

1. It was easy to copy everyone else. And, @Speedytech7 was helping me, and that's what he'd done.
2. I didn't have the spare tire in the stock location anymore anyway.
3. It got the shocks "more" vertical than the stock location.
4. It gave me a nice place to mount the resis.

I think you could probably get a couple more inches by moving the stock mounts, but here are the things I'd be concerned with:

1. I'd be curious to know if they would be enough to fit 10" shocks. No point in moving them if you can't put in the longer shocks .
2. I'm not sure if the mounts on the frame would hold the shock body - at least with a 2.5" body - too close to the frame and you'd get interference.
3. The OEM frame mounts are well supported through the frame. There's a lot of force applied to them, so I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with them above the frame and "levered" out. But, I don't really know if that'd be an issue, and you could probably surround the post in its own "boxed" area to make it work.

Might be worth trying to figure out - could be a cool alternative.

I might need to start talking about myself in the 3rd person now. (just joshin ya)

I'd have loved to run your kit, and probably would have seriously considered it if I didn't need lower backspacing on the rear wheels. While I loved that look on my truck, it made the mud situation untenable for me.

 

I just do things, no rhyme or reason. At least that's my alibi on here. Says that and removes my responsibility for anyone's actions while copying me right in the disclaimer in my write up.

 

What keeps your shock hoops from flexing and are you going spring under w/ the Deavers or still SOA?

 

Yeah, otherwise I'd have held you responsible for me having to do the job a second time. hahaha, I had a great time the first time though, so it was worth it. thanks again!

 

The good news is we learned something out of it. Well two things really, triple check any measurements "I" make. And that you basically don't have to measure on a 1st gen for this style of relocate. I'm gonna have to completely start fresh with my new rear, 14" of travel doesn't abide by the same rules unfortunately.

 

I feel like I was the beneficiary of you guy's fuck ups. Thanks for that.

 

The interesting part is, I still don't really know what got fucked up with Dan's. I know on mine it was wrong because I measured for other shocks. In the write up you can even see I designed it all for some FOA shocks I had. Mine would've been spot on for those, but I bought kings that were 7/8" longer.

 

It will be SOA for the trucks current use. Finally got it weighed and its sitting at 7K+. The hoops are bolted into the bed at the top for regular driving and trails its fine. I do plan to add a cross brace that will bolt onto the top of the bed where the hoops are mounted. When I had the hoops originally done I was about to head out on a trip so we did not add that at the time.

 

Whichever way you decided you have to take the bed off the frame/truck. Knowing this I bought a rear frame boxing kit and it came with the cross members. I boxed the whole frame while the bed was off because I didn't want to redo anything. Put the cross member in because it was super easy to weld in.

 

I know that many have taken the bed off. It's not totally necessary though - @drr did the relocation, with a cross member, without removing the bed. He does have a 1" body lift, however he also pushed the crossmember up an extra inch (for longer shocks) so it's doable without removing the bed, even without a body lift. You wouldn't be able to weld the end-cap plate on the very top of the cross member, but that little bit of weld isn't what's going to make or break the mod.

 

Thanks for the help guys!

Bed will for sure come off just to make things easier. My frame is already reinforced with the CBI plate that welds on the outside. I was thinking of boxing the sections near the mounts to reinforce them if they extended up. I'm not too concerned with the spare tire having to be in that location, I'll probably remove that and put it in the bed when I go froading. I was envisioning turning the area below the spare tire into a storage cubby accessible from above. Dare I say like the Honda Ridgeline cubby? But probably not as nice as that.



So deleting the spare tire crossmember, fabbing some other cross support to hang a weathertight box, and cutting an access panel in the bed to get to the box. Way easier said then done. Still in the concept phase.

 

I removed the stock crossmember that holds the spare and clearanced my spare another 2-1/2 inches (1 inch body lift required), did a new crossmember for both spare and shocks, stuffing the spare was part of my motivation, as well as doing a u-bolt flip. The shock locations were put in the easiest location I could get to make it all work, but several years later and they work well


I was able to weld both up crossmembers up without pulling the bed, but as said, it definitely helps, easier protecting your gas tank too- I eventually did so to repaint my rusty frame and redo my exhaust- dumping the exhaust under the bed as many people do had several negatives-
1) bed got really hot in the right rear corner
2) my frame rusted out like crazy
3) not good for spare to have all that heat on it
4) fumes while crawling and in traffic were definitely noticeable

 

Does anyone with the archive or bamf setup have travel measurement numbers?

 

The Archive 2nd/3rd gen kit you can use all of 12" shock with aftermarket leaves and retain as much bump travel as stock.
Can be installed with stock leaves, but stock leaves max out around 10.5" FYI
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-14-shock-relocation-2005-2nd-3rd-gen.519011/