Intro to fitting 35s (< 3" Lifts for those that wheel and love alignments)

was able to make the reservoir bracket flush with the frame a little better and that solved this issue, but still tap the driver side of the sway bar while maxed out turning passenger. Doesn’t happen on the passenger side turning driver which is strange, that leads me to believe my sway bar is not centered. Gah. T-5 days until 3 days of some crawling up in the sierras

 

Slapped in some Poly Taco Tabs over the weekend to keep the alignment from knocking out and to try and gain more clearance for my 35s. Maxed the rear.. and set the front to neutral for now. Definitely seemed to help with caster/clearance.. but might be rubbing the frame a little more then before.. I can't remember exactly. Might play with the front tabs depending how alignment numbers come back tomorrow.

Edit: came out pretty good and drives pretty good. Think im going to leave it for now.

 

OK, edit #2. Just went out to the mountains and did some camping. The truck drives fantastic! I have to imagine its mostly from the higher caster, but also the inherent camber correction that comes with it too. It feels much lighter or even more responsive. Definitely feels more stable at higher speeds and overall is just a better driving feel/experience. Less input into the steering wheel as well when on forest roads. Suspension just feels like its back in its happy place. I would honestly say more, if not all, lifter Tacomas would benefit greatly with shifting the LCA's and getting max caster.

 

I have the DRT body mount relocation, flattened pinch weld, cut fenders, and high clearance bumper. Running 17x8.5 SCS Stealth6 wheels with 4.3BS -10mm offset. Mickey Thompson Baja Legend MTZ 315/70/17.
The problem, my tires hit the front of my UCA before full lock on a turn. I have the Camburg Kinetic billet uppers and I think the size of them is heavily contributing to the issue. I put on some 1in spacers for the time being and now I hit the back of the wheel well while backing up at full lock due to the larger scrub radius. My Caster is around 5 degrees.
I think the best fix is to replace my uppers with a non-billet/box tube style. Camburg, Dirt King or possibly SPC. I’d like to know the thoughts of some of the more experienced here please.

 

I too have the DRT cab relocate, cut/beaten pinch weld, cut fenders, etc. Running 17x9 -25mm offset wheels. 35x12.50 Baja Boss MTs. Camburg sealed uniball uppers. Plenty of clearance between tire and UCA. Might need more offset.. but that 1" wheel spacer might be too much.

 

Thanks for the info. It looks like your backspacing is 4.02 in while mine is 4.36. This means my tire is about 3/8” closer to the UCA, just with backspacing. I guess if you have more than 3/8” of space then changing back to the thinner, non-billet Camburg UCA’s, may fix my clearance issue.

BTW… I went with the 1” spacer because that’s the thinnest you can get with bolt on style and still clear the nuts.

 

Makes sense then. And got ya. I did a bunch of research prior to making the jump to 35s regarding wheels. I wanted the best wheel specs in hopes to avoid these little issues and without running spacers.. I refuse to run them. Just my personal preference. I know you're stuck with 1" spacers tho.. so maybe new wheels. Unless you are willing to stay on the spacers.. then I guess new UCAs.

 

I hate spacers so they are only temporary.

I think the new UCA’s may fit without the spacers. Our backspacing difference is less than 3/8”. The biggest diff is the size of the UCA. Mine are way thicker and square so the tire hits in the front. If you have anywhere close to 1/2” clearance than mine should fit with no spacer and the non-billet UCAs.

 

I'll go snag some pics real quick..



I barely rub the frame at full lock/stuff as seen in the right of the below photo. I clear everywhere else.

 

When you are turned full lock, how far is your tire from the arm on the upper? With the 1" spacer I'm 1/2" from the upper on full lock (pic below with 1/2" piece of plywood)
You can see the smudge where the tire hit the control arm without the spacer.

 

I don't think anyone answered this. Low caster causes tracking on the highway. For example, if you are travelling parallel to an uneven line on the freeway, when your tire hits it, the truck will get pulled to where the line goes. It's very annoying. I experienced this when I first lifted my truck and still had the stock UCAs. Anything below 3 and the truck feels squirrely and unpredictable on the highway. I can't even imagine a 1 or 2 dgree castor with swaybar delete, that would scary. (not saying you're doing that, just a PSA)

 

I didn't get measurements and the pics aren't the greatest.. was holding the steering wheel at lock and trying to snag pics at the same time.. I've easily got 1" of clearance at the UCA. Don't mind that rub mark on the uniball cup.. I got into an accident a while back and the tire blew out and rubbed on the upper.





This last pic isn't at full lock.

 

I really appreciate all your help. Unfortunately it's the front arm of the UCA that I'm concerned about. I clear the ball joint area. My tire hits the front arm of the upper before full lock when not using the spacers. The trick to checking at full lock is to turn the wheel all the way and then turn the truck off. The wheel will stay at full lock that way.

 

ahhh I thought you meant at the cup. I'll get some other pics in a sec..

 

Full lock



Thumb for reference... Lol

 

Awesome, thanks, that helps a lot. My tires will be about 3/8" closer but it looks like it'll be fine.

 

Thanks luckily I live in Colorado where we have no lines just massive potholes and things of the like. Lol

I haven’t noticed anything of the sort so far but will be trying a different shop once I decide I need another alignment since maybe I don’t know how it could feel better. I plan to remove the sway bar eventually for summers only but have left it so far. Maybe I should until I get a better caster setting

 

Good thing you haven't experienced any issues. One way to think of what's happening is to picture a shopping cart. They have 0 caster. I'm sure you've pushed a shopping cart and had the front wheels shimmy back and forth for no reason. Granted because there are no other suspension parts you would need to add negative caster to a shopping cart but it would stop that from happening. Also the head tube angle on a bike. They are never perpendicular to the ground because you'd kill yourself on a bike like that, they always have a forward rack or positive caster.
Good luck with your alignments and I highly recommend keeping the sway bar until you get it sorted out. There was a great place in Pagosa Springs for alignments years ago but I doubt you want to drive 5hrs for one, if it's even there still.

 

Replace that with 37s