Montana Tacomas

Like shops to install?

Not really. I do everything myself, haven't had a shop touch my truck for anything other than an alignment in 10 years.

So I'd say do it yourself! Front kit isn't too hard to do yourself honestly.

 

If installing LT is anything like installing MT, then it's just basic hand tools, wrenches, sockets, ratchets, torque wrench, jack stands, jack, (depending on stubborness of hardware penetrating oil, or impact). Then there is the hand cleaner, beer, pizza, and pretty swear jar if you have kids or grandma around.

 

Yeah 2nd/3rd gen have cv axles to worry about and build. Most come with longer shafts that need swapped out.

But it's all bolt in otherwise.

Unless you want to do some welding of cam gussets, tower top plates, spindle gussets (though some kits have fully built ones) and stuff.

 

Just looking for a good place to buy the full kit not to install I can do that myself.

 

Ah gotcha.

Well that depends on the kit you want and what type of kit. Some you can get at just about any offroad retailer like Wheelers/Low range or something. Others are buy direct like Dirt King or LSK or MCM for instance.


It all depends on the kit you want and the features you want from it. Of which(lucky for you!) there are a lot. Uniball uppers and lowers. Fully fabbed spindles. Secondary shock mounts. Strike plates. Boxed uppers. Horizontal upper uniball. Extra ground clearance. Beefer steering options.

Ect.

Soooo...yeah. What kind of kit you thinking?

 

I have been looking at dirt king and total chaos with fox suspension. Fox has been my favorite ever since I started riding motorcycles so thats a must-have. But just trying to figure what kit can handle my love to drive fast and my love for weekend overlanding. I plan on upping the horsepower on it. Also I hear lt kits are cause for a lot of attention is that because of the kit or because how people use their trucks? Also, is best to buy a whole kit are buy parts separately over time?

 

you can't buy parts separately. And you can't run just the lowers with stock uppers or mix and match. Pretty much all or nothing. Same goes for shocks.


Foxes are nice. But I'd give ADS a look personally. They hold up much better and are stout all around.

LT kits are just..bad ass. And they really grab people attention cause they make the whole truck so wide, add bigger wider tires and it just looks big.

I mean, here is mine vs a stock(albeit wrecked) truck lol

Christina Lake 2016-12.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

It stands out to say the least.

People assume how you use it just based on how it looks. So yeah.


And if you go real fast, then a 3.5 kit is for you. But be ready to get turned around here and there due to width. Not often I bet though.

Also keep in mind in MT you have to have mud flaps that cover the wheels. Highway patrol will nail your ass if you don't have something. You'll need to make something that removeable likely.



Dirt king makes a solid kit. Super nice setup. You can get the axles assembled there. They don't make spindles though. Neither does TC though.

Dirt king also makes a decent looking SUA kit. I don't know many folks that are running it though. The TC SUA kit doesn't have a great rep though so I'd maybe avoid that.

 

Sorry terrible wording but meant to ask about the reliability if it's terrible because of just being an aftermarket kit or because its the way people use it. Bushing or heim inner pivots?

 

oh gotcha.

Well the uniballs and/or heims joints do not last as long. Thats just the nature of the part. Exposed bearing vs a rubber bushing of something stock. Much stronger and beefer. But they wear out faster as well. part of that is that you'll be beating on it more. part of it is just the elements.

So you do have to do more maintenance on the regular with the uniballs and spherical bearings. Depending on useage, every year or every other year. Not super hard to do but does mean you have to tear it down a bit often.

Race truck parts...

 

Is it easy and possible to upgrade these kits? Just wondering to see if I should save up and later get the best they got and in the meantime work on other things or work on lt kit now.

 

not exactly. The only way to upgrade is to either go wider, so from a +2 to a +3.5 or +4.5. Which if you do that, then you need different shocks usually, have to swap out the upper and lower control arms and new CVs and steering extensions anyways. So you basically buy a whole new kit.

Now you can upgrade the spindle on some of the kits. It just depends on the design. Some that are fully fab spindles use different setup so you have to run the kit it comes with.

That's really the biggest upgrade you can do on a Long travel kit. The stock spindles can bend and if you don't weld the spindle gussets on right you can shear the spindle as they are a forged piece of metal. So proper heat treatment is important when you do that.

You can also upgrade the steering rack and inner/outer tie rods to heims often later but that also depends on the kit. Solo and Marlin Crawler sell beefier racks. Various people do the heim steering upgrades. Just remember the more spherical bearings you put in, the more beefy it is but also the more often you'll likely have to replace that stuff. They aren't designed for longevity.

 

Anyone run Goose Lake Trail north of Cooke City before? Whats your real assessment, not the Jeep d-bag on youtube assessment?

 

I’ve run most of it, not terrible if you sliders and good tires. When you plan on going?

 

I'll be there Thursday with 2 of my college roommates who are driving out from the east coast. Debating between a couple spots to camp. None of us have sliders though, how much of a need do you think that is?

 

Beautiful trail with some fun spots nothing terrible though. Gorgeous area though. If you don't have 33s you'll really want skids and sliders. If you have 33s then you're good.

Ah..

No. No you won't.

Trails don't open till the 15th of July in that area to help keep damage in check from snow melt and people with heavy left feet.

Sorry man. Bad timing.












I ran Independence this weekend. Man it's gotten rough. A creek has started flowing though par of the upper section and take half the road with it. Much more of that and it'll be impassible even for utvs. Which seems to be the dominate thing there. But we had the place to ourselves mostly. Was great.

 

Did that in 2018. I hit the construction and it was a 2-3 hour wait. Didn't go through.

But yeah much different than when I first ran it in 2012 ish?