cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

Yep. No tubbing too. Get a wide wms axle and push it as far forward as possible and run 40. Issue solve

Or run 6 inch wheel spacers with a solid axle... please don't

 

Ha! 6 inch spacers would be insane

I definitely plan on just getting proper width axles when the time comes to cut my truck up yet again. 69" to 72" up front and 67" to 69" in the rear.

 

68-70 will probably be the perfect number. 72 might be too wide, imo.

 

I've been looking into the Chevy Dana 60 Kingpins recently since the Super Duty axles have sky rocketed in price. I'll probably throw a 14 bolt in the rear and shave it.

 

Chevy 60 would work if you plan to do passenger drop, or swap the tubes. How much are Super Duty axles going for now? Likely that all D60 fronts are 69" wide and 14 bolt rears are 67-68". Unless you're using a dually axle, you're not going to be over 69" WMS

 

Passenger drop Atlas would be the plan. I could get some money out of selling my setup to help recoup some funds, but it's definitely not cheap.

Super Duty axles were 300 bucks for the pair a year or two ago. The front is now around 1.5 to 2k easily. I've seen a few here and there for 500 bucks, but then shipping cost drives them through the roof.

Then again WFO has been snagging all the Super Duty D60s in NorCal so good luck finding one local.

 

Front bumper and sliders are capped again where I chopped them, welded on some Eimkeith STRs, and finally started plating the cab back together. I think the driver side needs to be hammered into place a little bit more, but that's for tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm aiming to have the cab welded back together, but honestly that depends entirely on if I can shape these final 2 pieces of sheet metal the way I want. Welder is dialed and ready to go otherwise.


IMG_6444 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


IMG_6447 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

The goal is to have the truck back together and driving by Thursday or Friday.

 

@jubei you got any advice on how you shaped the sheet metal for your tub?

 

When in doubt, bring a bigger hammer out.

 

That's my current plan.

 

Fuck it. Leave it. Free ball AC

 

Tempting, but I'd prefer to stay dry when it's raining. I have a rough idea of what I'm going to do to shape the sheet metal, but there's only so much I can do with a hammer.

 

Free ball wash?

 

Possibly

 

Gravel would like to have a word with you

 

Hammer will do a ton. Especially with the material partially tacked in place, it will move it all together. Another option if you wanted a slight radius is to make the piece slightly larger than you think you need and bend it over something round like a tire. Should get a simple radius that way.

 

Have you seen the recent (I think it was recent) Dirt Lifestyle where he goes over the cost comparison of used vs custom built axles?
If you go all out and rebuild and add lockers to the used axle they end up costing close to a used axle...but only if you rebuild the hell out of the used axle.

Singular?

Also, I have a suspension question.
Sorry for thread jacking Cory but there is a lot of knowledgeable people frequenting your thread and it's the kind of knowledge and good judgment I'm looking for.
I've been thinking custom Alcan springs for my truck for a while. It's a giant fat ass and I don't think off the shelf will work well.

But then last week I went down a Chevy 63" rabbit hole.
It appears most people do it for flex. I want weight capacity.
Every Now and then weight capacity comes up which coming off a 1500 or 2500 truck I assume it would be good for.
I'm not in it so much for the droop (droop is still good though) and I'd need a shock relocation and might be able to run longer shocks but I'd still need limit straps...no big deal. I already have Timbren load bearing bumpstops that are 5" and compress maybe 2".

I'm wondering if this would be a good option for my fat ass truck.

 

I cant speak to Chevy 63 swaps, but what I can say is that if you figure out what you need and go with alcans they are awesome.

I weighed my truck empty and then weighed it full. And gave that info to Alcan
ended up being like 650lbs over stock and a 3.5” lift.

they hold the weight great and wheel really good as well.

 

I had some heavy paper that had just enough stiffness to use as a template. I think I taped it over the hole and then used a pencil to kind of mark where the edges were by basically lightly rubbing it across the edges. I still had to kind of form the paper a little, though, since it really wants to be slightly concave.

Then I took it off, laid it flat, and added about a quarter inch offset all the way around the profile so that I could have a little extra material and avoid gaps when the actual sheet metal part will inevitably get bent and formed to fit. Then I just used that oversized profile as a template for the actual sheet metal cut.

Once the sheet metal was cut, I fit it up and started working on the various bends to get it to sit flush. That part blows goats, but if you’re patient, you can get thru it. Once it basically sat against the opening with minimal gaps, I just started working my way around the perimeter of the plate and shaved off the little bit of overlap until it fit in the hole all the way around. It sucked doing this, with multiple fit ups and taking it back off, but it made the welding way less shitty since there were basically no gaps.

Im sure there are far better ways to do it, but that’s how my dumb ass ended up getting it done. Good luck!