Jake's Lil' Baby Beast

Truck was working very well all last season. Had just gone through the whole IFS, finally regeared, finally put a front locker in, upgraded the rear axle, and put some 37s on.
Then we figured out we were expecting our first kid.
With a dog, the extended cab was already full, adding a car seat to there would make trips a lot less enjoyable as a family.
Looked around at my options, even picked up a built 4th gen 4runner as a replacement, but kept coming back to the idea of dialing the Tacoma in. It wasn't worth selling with 550k on it and far from stock, so I kinda set a game plan of getting it to work.

Tracked down a cab from another TW member. Cab was involved in a rear collision, needs a little TLC to get it straightened out, but will make a good starting platform. And here's a bit of a photo dump from the last 2 months-

After the new cab was on, it was time to chop the IFS. Plan is an FJ60 front flipped to driver drop with IFS hubs to match the fzj80 rear axle width. The appeal to this axle combo is the matching 9.5 3rds.
The idea was to pull the existing 1" BL off, but unknowingly when I raised the gas tank, it now touches the double cab at factory height. So I made the most of it and tried to achieve as much of a flat belly as possible. I was able to raise the drivetrain 3.5". Motor mounts are in, just need to wrap up the rear crossmember. Just making some crude cuts in the body until I get everything in.

That brings us about up to speed. Frame rails on, fishplates all tacked into place. Should be starting on getting all the brackets into place this upcoming week.

 

Silver double cab gang! I was also just eyeing up some race lines… they look like they will look good on there.

 

Yea they turned out good! Wasn't really planning on them, but got offered a killer deal I couldn't pass up on.

 

So cross posted this in the SAS BS thread, but currently considering options to gain the uptravel im wanting. The issue I'm seeing is the diff sitting a bit too close to the oil pan to get much uptravel.

So, my current idea is to get some PVC in there to cycle suspension, hopefully everything works out like it's suppose to.
With the possibility of it not, I would look into adding to the long side of the housing to kick the diff away from the pan. The fzj80 long side shaft is 2.6" longer than the fj60 (34.125" vs 31.5"). I like the idea of being able to run a stock length shaft vs a custom length one.

 

I had the same problem with the +3 mini truck housing I had built, I would’ve needed to widen the long side instead of the short side. I also recommend running RCV’s.

Any width you can get overall without running spacers will help in the end, I’m finding I can’t use all the up travel I worked for since my tires get into body, steering box and links.

 

I read your thread a lot when I was prepping to do mine. I already bought some RCVs, would need to purchase an additional inner shaft, they quoted me $275 which isn't horrible. Trying to not justify a fabbed housing right now.
I am worried how much sheet metal will be in the way with 39s. The 37s just looked small!

 

The 37s are small, it’s crazy how much work it’s been to make them fit. Now I know why people just make their trucks 10 feet tall haha. The front half of the inner fender is gone, the rad support under the headlight is all gone and now cracked since it’s so thin. Huge bummer

 

You'll have this all figured out and ready to build mine afterwards, right?


And about time you started this! Looking forward to following along.

 

Uhhh yea sure, bring it down!
I finally felt it was build worthy I guess. Hopefully I'll be good about updates.

 

Thats what the 37s and IFS did. I'm impressed with some of the guys on 40s still maintaining inner wheel wells. I'm sure I'll just be adding more metal to the scrape bin before everything is all said and done.

 

@dzuf how did you go about extending your housing? Did you throw it in a jig or what?

 

My buddy has a centering bar for them he uses. Then machines out a piece of tubing to extend it

 

Pros and cons at keeping it low. I thought about raising the engine and remaking the frame but I’m too lazy.

My buddy is at ~24.50 but drag his belly every trip and I’ll 2” taller and clear what he drag for the most part.

 

I raised engine, frame, and trans. Sitting at 21.5” or so frame height and have no complaints. I get hung up on leaf springs more than belly it seems. I wouldn’t be afraid to go up a bit though

 

That’s wicked. I’m too lazy and hate mud caked in the bay, I can live with 26 on 40s. All that matter is, I still fit the garage.

 

Careful, I looked into this and found the 80 Series has a different seal surface diameter. You could look through trail-gears replacement mini truck inner shafts to get a decent combo. I want to say the 67" housing long side with the +5 or +3 short side will get you about 66- 67" with IFS hubs and 8.5-9" diff offset. That's more than a stock housing which is about 8" offset.

 

Little bit of an update, hope to have some good steady progress as things warm up! Have a custom long side shaft on order from RCV. +4.5" over stock, with the IFS hubs I'll be sitting at 66" WMS.

Took a bit of reading on how I wanted to tackle widening the housing. I ended up ordering a section of DOM to slip inside the housing, butted it up as long as I could and drilled a few holes to get more weld on it. Tacked it all together until I have the shaft incase I need to make any adjustments to the housing length.

All the links are tacked into place. At least close enough into position to start cycling. I want to try and get a few more inches in the panhard by moving the axle mount outboard a bit.

And one pic of the shop dog who I'm sure would much rather be out chasing the mnt. bike than watching me work!

 

looks great! That must have net you quite a bit more room around the oil pan.

I think 66" wide will net you all the steering the Toyota knuckles will give you without frame interference.

 

rad build! do you have more photos of your IFS 37s setup?

 

Hell yeah, a real build! Great job. Linking the rear too?