Hammer Hangers® by Archive Garage 2005-2023 Tacoma Shackle Hangers

Wow! I had no idea.

 

Looking to purchase a set of HH. Anyone who went with using their stock shackles regret not going with the 3.6" shackles? Would installing the 3.6" shackle decrease the ride height by 0.2" compared to the stock shackle at 3.4"? Was also thinking of getting the poly bushings if I were to reuse the stock shackles but there is no grease port to grease the bushings on the stock shackle. For reference I have the Kings, nonadjustable ext travel 2.5 shock paired with the Icon RXT leaf pack. I do not plan on going to 12" or 14" shock route.

 

I would just stick with stock shackle and OEM bushing in this instance.

 

@pp2small I agree. You don't need poly bushings in stock shackles for your current combo.

But we do get a significant amount of people who come back for 3.6" shackles later on, always an option

 

Does anyone know of a good shop in the atlanta, georgia area that has experience installing these? Would love some recommendations. I have my hammer hangers and hardware ready to go. Thanks in advance. Apologies if this has already been answered.

 

Unfortunately I cannot speak from the Atlanta area, but we Have actually installed a bunch of them, I believe at least seven different sets as of right now, during our TW modification meets that we have every month Up here in Massachusetts. Most shops, even if they do have experience with these, are more than likely going to charge you $100-$150/ hour to install them and they generally take about 5 to 6 hours on a good day (our best time was about four hours with fast drying primer and paint after the grinding the area on the frame) But you know that they will more than likely charge you a full eight hour day. If you are willing to travel for a weekend, save some money, spend it on maybe a motel for the Weekend, drive up to Massachusetts when we have one of our modification meets (about once a month), And then drive back down. In all honesty, PM me if you're interested. Drive up on a Friday, stay the night, we start at 9 o'clock on Saturday morning, bang it all out all day, get some food have some good drink, you spend one more night and drive back on Sunday. In all honesty it is actually going to be cheaper for you even with gas prices.

 

This is such a straightforward install; if you don’t want to do it yourself, find another TW member willing to do it in a driveway near you for far less than a shop can charge. If I was in ATL I’d knock it out for you for half of whatever the going rate is at a local mechanic.

 

@01Tac0ma is based out of Columbia, SC (3 hours from Atl) and specializes in Toyota fab work: https://www.bashfabrication.com/shop/toyota. He can 100% do it for you. @marinemonkey is somewhere in North GA and does fab work too. You could also try posting your question in the GA BS thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ga-tacoma-owners-bs-thread.17642/

 

Are greasable bolts compatible or recommended? Anyone done it?

I’m guessing red n tacky isn’t bushing compatible

Edit: nvm found post few pages back recommending against

this makes me wonder if a vehicular air compressor such as ARB could operate air hammer for the job…

rather than having to get and store an ugly store home compressor that would sit and take up space when not in use.

to plug air hammer into truck

 

i looked into using my ARB Dual for an air hammer to do some cam tabs on my GX recently. The ARB only puts out 6 cfm at 0 psi and drops to 4.5 cfm at 30psi. That may be enough to run a small Harbor Freight hammer but not much else. If you have a couple gallon tank to use then you could probably get away with intermittent use but holding down the trigger would deplete it in a few seconds. I wound up asking around and found a 30 gallon compressor to borrow.

 

does anyone know if this is a concern with Icon RXT op3

do they need shaving also?

looks like the leaf ends on the Dakars moved around. Causing that.

hoping Icon RXT doesn’t. Don’t want to trash a good new shackle.

 

Icon RXT don't have the interference issue
I've also seen pics of brand new OME springs which finally fixed the issue, also Dobinsons 112s fixed the issue.

 

i read all post from 1 to 3677. whew!

i read that it doenst work well with ausie leafs.
i didnt see HH used on ironman suspension. will the HH work with ironman strut in the rear?
i'm on stock leafs with icon 3leaf aal

 

Actually it's the Aussie leaves that aren't designed for Tacoma hanger style.
I think the Ironman haven't fixed their design issue, it still extends inside the shackle, but haven't had anyone say there was any interference.
Some Aussie packs have finally fixed their design.
Ours is the best solution for you anyways.

 

pic angle flex testing checking clearance post pinch weld hammer + fender trims



ride quality improvement is noticeable. Rear now rides equally as good if not better than front.

used to be it was lagging behind and ride worse in back with stock hangers

hopefully these regular 5160 can handle any more droop capacity that may have been added

relocates the goal but not today

 

Sounds like @r3k was asking about a shock though, and not the leaf springs?

 

yes, was wondering if the ironman rear shocks would work base on length. 27" extended , 16" compressed.
i already have stock leafs with icon aal which i plan to replace with the AG medium leafs alter down the road.

 

Yes, Hammer Hangers work with any and all shocks that work with stock hangers, so there's no issue there.

Unfortunately, that is an excessively long shock (collapsed length) for the stock location mounts, and you'll need to space your bumps or bottom them out

 

I posted this as its own post but someone recommended to post it here so here ya go! Hope it helps!


Hey everyone. I just recently installed the archive garage hammer hangers on my 2018 tacoma trd off road and want to give a few tips that would have saved me a little bit of time and made it easier.

First Tip: Have another person there with you to help. Doing the truck under the truck there is really only room for one person at a time. With that being said have someone else there to help by switching out with you. Your arms WILL get tired from holding tools up and moving around under there. I did it solo but would have been awesome with another person there to just help when my arms got dead tired.

Second Tip: Multiple drill bits and multiple sizes. I would suggest having ATLEAST two of the 1/4" and 1/2" drill bits. Once I got to drilling out the second OEM shackle the drilling became way more difficult with the bit becoming dull. This may seem like common sense to some people and to me it kind of was but I did not feel like taking the time to go to the store to get extras because I was ready to start working on the install.
The second part of this would be to have multiple size drill bits. On some of the rivets when I tried to start the initial drilling the bit kept slipping and would not stay centered. I did not have a center punch but I took a big heavy duty screw and tried to hammer a center spot with that. Ultimately I used the smaller drill bits to get the drilling started more than anything.

Third Tip: Rivet removal and drilling. On the first one or two rivets I realized once I cut them off I was looking and wonder where in the Great Ceasar's Ghost is the center of this thing... Well the lesson was learned fast and here is what I did on all the other ones that helped a ton. I took a sharpie and marked lines all around the rivet before i started cutting it off. I will post an image below to what I mean. And I can hear some of you say, "but when you cut/grind the rivet off then it will take off the sharpie marks." Well yes you are correct BUT it wont take all of them off. There should be plenty of marks left to be able to see where the center should be.



Fourth Tip: Grinder/Cutting Size. The smaller the better (to an extent). If you can get one that you can easily handle in one hand then I would use that (I am not saying do the cutting and grinding with one hand I am just using it for size reference. Be safe and use two hands if possible to hold it steady). Also, the size of the cutting/grinding wheel needs to be compact. Some of the angles are a little tight so the more room you give yourself the better.

Fifth Tip: Exhaust pipe. As I have also read in other posts, the exhaust pipe is a pain in the butt. The way I worked around it was disconnecting the rubber support that holds it up and that gave me enough wiggle room to pull down to get it out the way. This is also where another person can come in a huge help. If the other person can hold the pipe down to give you room and focus then it should not be bad at all.



So here is how I tackled the rivets and drilling. This way may help you or you may have a better way but this way felt balanced. I first would mark my rivets as I talked about above. Then take the grinder with a cutting wheel and cut the head of the rivet off. Was every cut perfectly flat? No. But the goal was to cut the bulk of the head off and give you a flat surface to drill into. Once the head was cut off my goal mostly through if not all the way through with the 1/4" drill bit. If the 1/4" drill bit kept slipping and wouldn't stay centered I then went to small drill bits to just try to get a hole for the 1/4" drill bit to grab into. Once I cut and drilled the 1/4" hole, I then I took the 1/2" drill bit and drilling through each hole. Once you drill the 1/2" hole the OEM shackle should come off with relative ease. A good sized flat head screw driver, a chisel, or a crow bar should make ease of helping pop the ORM shackle off.


There are a few videos going through the install and I have read a few posts on their experiences but these tips are some of the things that weren't exactly spelled out and I just want to share my experience to help anyone in the future. The overall job is not bad. The cutting/grinding and drilling is the longest part. After that it is basically just bolt up.


I hope this post helps and if anyone has any questions or comments please let me know. I am not a mechanic and I don't have a bunch of experience doing work on vehicles outside of minor maintenance (oil change, changing brake pads, etc.) so I am not claiming to know everything about this install. I just hope to help anyone who may be looking at doing this or is ready to do it but nervous about getting started on it. Have confidence and go into it saying "I will get this done!" Mindset is something that some of us that are newer to doing installs must have. Have a plan and set your mind to it and knock it out the park!

I will answer any questions the best I can and refer you to any videos or links if you want.

Good luck and have a good day!

 

Thank you.
I looked up your order, doesn't appear you bought the Archive drill bits. Your experience is exactly why we offer them because ours are shorter length, stay sharp and are higher quality than you can find at your local store

https://archivegarage.com/products/drill-bits-for-hammer-hanger-installation