Fitting 35’s with minimal trimming NOW ADDING LONG TRAVEL AND 934 CV’s

Run it at 4K plus rpms for hours in the dirt with 37’s and I promise it will over heat. Real off road stuff is much different.

 

I won’t deny mechanical fans are awesome for reliability, but they definitely don’t move air like a properly setup electric fan. But it takes lots of work to make sure every bit of air is being directed where it needs to go.

 

I was looking at my truck the other week and starting thinking how much better the oem fan system can work if the air was just channeled and sealed off to keep are directed through the condenser and radiator. So many air leaks.

 

Air dams make a huge difference. And are something many completely shrug off as unnecessary. Thin rubber, anything to put the air through the cores and not around. I've got lots of time under my belt building big big HP street cars. And they are a royal pain to keep cool. Air dams and shrouds are an absolute must for good cooling.

 

Don't get a CSF rad. Just noticed mine has the ~3/16" gap on either side with the fan shroud. Guess it's time to shave down those posts or cover it somehow. argh.

 

Have seen guys use rubber trim seal for small gaps like that on Chump cars or they will just use speed tape. Both of which probably aren't nice enough options for your truck.

 

If only someone would build a nice core support with cooling and strength in mind. Hint hint Harry….

 

At this rate, how soon till JD turns into the Singer Design of Tacomas?

 

“Tacoma’s are such amazing off road trucks” -every member on TW

“Can you build me a better version of every single part for my Tacoma” also every member on TW

 

I heard that the 81 Trekker is the prototype for their own ground up vehicle

 

Hey now. We are just too poor for the luxury pre runner shit!

 

hey…at least we can physically fit in our trucks

 

I see a truggy/buggy in my future. I don’t think it’s worth it to me to spend much more on the Tacoma. Too much trouble for limited returns. I want something I can roll and it’s not immediately destroyed. By the time I get around to doing it I will have wheeled the Tacoma enough to know what I want. Who knows what will happen by then. I’m still pretty new to all of this.

 

You may be right, I honestly do not know. It would be interesting to find out what a stock 4.0 V6 mechanical fan pushes at 700rpms and at 5000rpms. We just over heated the motor every race off road once we switched to the big boy SPAL fans, and always had electrical issues with them whether we were running hot or not. Lots of failure points from fuses to relays to wiring being damaged or being faulty from the many hazards of desert racing. They pull alotta amps too. We had the fan motors burn up from heat, or from who knows what multiple times as well. Then we were sitting around an overheated truck, in the middle of the desert trying to figure out how to fix it or limp it back to main pit while the competition blew by us and honked lol.

For a DD or weekend warrior truck its probably fine, but for the average race truck running 4500-5500k RPMs off road in sand and silt for hours on end putting a huge load on the motor, we never had good luck.

Off road racing is night and day from street driving or street racing. We blew up alotta transmissions off road with a 300HP Toyota V6 that were labeled as "good for 700 - 1000hp on the street" haha.

But bottom line if something works for you, then it is the correct way, and I firmly believe in that concept 100%.

 

Anybody with SUA running a single piece shaft? I am currently running a tom woods single piece and want to be sure it will work with the SUA. Maybe I’ll be the one that answers this question. I do have my stock 2 piece if push comes to shove, but I’d rather not deal with that flaming hunk of crap again.

 

It should be fine as long as it has enough plunge for full stuffing the tires.

 

you just have to set your pinion properly which for a double cardon one piece is straight up the shaft at ride height

 

2* down is what I set mine to and its grippier than it was before. Now I just need to get big boy shocks and keep the wheels planted.

 

So Harry @81Trekker my thoughts after finishing my install on the Long Bed. (I'll put the photos in when I get home.)
1. I believe the frame has a bit of taper to it where the shock towers weld in, as such, they are a bit off parallel. Either that or they warped but I doubt that since they are pretty thick.



2. The lower bolt holes on the front leaf spring brackets didn't line up with the existing rivet holes which led to a ~3 hour delay in my install.



3. The gas neck needs to be a complete relocate. I didn't have enough slack to realign the filler to the bedside as the filler tube itself contacts the shock tower before it could make it back to the factory location so if you update the kit, add fuel hose to extend it as well.



4. What is the extra set of plates for? Theres a short plate with 2 holes that makes sense for the top of the tower, a medium sized plate with 4 holes that align with the side holes of the tower which makes sense. Then there's a set of two plates that the holes are aligned in one dimension, but too spaced on the other to make sense anywhere. Am I missing something here?

I'll have to source a cross tube and angle the ends to match up with my towers. I hope the angles don't effect my shocks too much. To compensate I mounted the shocks in them and tacked my lower mounts using the shocks as a guide, so they are angled slightly. Guess we'll see when I get around to ordering 2.5 ADS shocks to replace the 2.0s. (I have spacers to compensate on both ends for the width differences on mounts)

This was a 3 day job that got extended into a 4 day job to get the bed on after the set back drilling out the bolt holes. Everything else went pretty smooth.
(3x 8-10 hours, 1x 3 hours)

I'll do a write up as best I can later for @WormSquirts so he isn't jumping in blind like I was.