Tundra Conversion - Adventure4x4's Build

Gotcha. Yeah the axle I got wasn’t in the best of shape as far as salvaging brakes and stuff so I didn’t know if you had found one that worked or just drilled them. And yeah I wouldn’t worry about having them plugged either.

 

I hear you on that. This will be the longest my truck has been out of commission. Hoping I can have things sorted out and back together by the end of April/ early May. Just got to work through some side jobs so I can pay for gears and locker then start working on mocking things up. Probably flip my shackles while I’m at it to get rid of the low hanging rear hangers since I’ll be cycling suspension anyways. Gonna shoot for 20” or travel out of the rear when it’s all said and done

 

Honestly, it would be great if I could just buy'em, but everywhere I looked just bought blanks with holes predrilled so that wasn't helpful. It seems so rudimentary; it sucks.

 

What locker are you going with? Still haven't purchased mine yet.

Kind of wish you didn't have a DMZ kit so I could buy the hangers and shackles from you haha

 

Actually, has anyone been able to get 20" before on leaf springs with a tacoma??

 

Gonna go with the Eaton e-locker and 5.29 gears. Pull front driveshaft for a month or two and then do the same to it to match. REM polish all gears and have the front cryo treated.

I am not sure if anyone has truly done it. I know a few companies claim to be in the 18-19” range but true numbers always end up less than that. I am just shy of 17” right now and only using 14” of the 16” shock. My hope is that playing with the shackle mount location and using a longer shackle I can maintain my ride ht but get useable clean droop out of it. Also make some longer lower shock mounts to push them further forward and increase the motion ratio. We will see how it all goes. Truck rides pretty dang good right now I’m just tired of dragging the shackle hangers when in the rocks. Figure I might as well do the flip and work on a design that can hopefully use more of the shock travel and try to get some more droop

 

Cool. Sounds like a plan. I am looking forward to seeing the progress. Is your frame notched? You may be able to gain some up travel there.

 

It’s not, I have bump set to right before the axle would hit the frame and the leafs are just barely negative. We’ll see how the new inverted shackle hanger changes this but I’d prefer to not redo my bumps again lol. But yeah stay tuned for updates. Hoping to have the money for the gears and locker closer to the end of this month and that’s when things will start getting more serious.

 

Whelp, new wheels are on the way. Just went black this time around; not as flashy as the bronze. There are some design cues from the new 4runner TRD pro wheels which I like. The main reason I bought them is because there is 5.46" of BS. Same width as the SR8's at 8.5" so it should suck the tire in about an inch or a little more. I have 1.25" wheel spacers up front to put the BS right about where my wheels were previously. Main goal was to suck the rear in and have the front match the rear. We'll see once they arrive...next week hopefully.

 

when you installed your fiberglass fenders on the passenger side, did you snip the wire that connects to the antenna to take off the stock fenders?

 

You dont need to cut it to take off the stock fenders. I just rolled it up and tucked it away. I dont use my antenna anyways

 

Rear shot with the new wheels. Hard to tell, but tires are about flush now with the fenders.

I did not like the idea of having the tent supported by the bedsides anymore with the fiberglass installed, so in order to eliminate any excessive stress and HFV/LFV on the bedsides, I made a bed "cage"; cage is used loosely here. I tied into the AG shock towers and the front bed bolts. I like the initial concept, but still needs some work. I was anxious to get out this weekend camping.

 

Looks perfect. I’ve seen similar done for people that actually wheel hard and have rtt

Side note, you need 35’s and 4.88’s. Trust me

 

I believe you haha. Everything works now and there's other things I want before I make another change...like an elocker lol. Its starting to warm up and I'm anxious to use the truck.

Edit: it's hard not to spend money on new shoes. I keep eying the grabber X3s due to the weight...65 lbs for a 35x12.5

 

Honestly I have been loving my Milestar Patagonia MT’s. Amazing performance and a price that’s hard to beat. Only negative comment I’ve heard about them is tread life. Not really a worry for me considering I only put 3k miles on the truck last year.

 

Despite having a daily, I do put quite a few highway miles on my truck when I camp, so would prefer good road manners and life if possible which always pulls me back towards an A/T. Maybe I will push for an MT this time around. I know its predominant in off road performance.

 

Yeah I was in the same boat until recently. 2019 we did 1000 miles to Tahoe, drove the Rubicon, and then drove 1000 miles home. Not the most ideal road trip in a caged truck lol. But as of recently I’m on that trailer life. Only done one trip so far over New Years but man is it a huge amount of less stress knowing you can just pull the truck on the trailer to get home if needed.

 

That is for sure nice! Maybe I just like the thrill of possibly not making it home

 

Meh, I was never too worried about it. But the wife was on edge stressing on any long trip with the truck. Gotta keep her happy ya know. So tundra axle so we don’t break parts, trailer to get to and from trails, next we just need to get our own diesel and a cab over

 

Nothing new; just been driving her. It's driving smooth and gearing is nice especially at highway speeds. Locker should be in by the end of next week, so she'll be coming back apart for that. The locker should be the last of $$$ changes for now. The plan is to travel and enjoy the truck this spring/summer.