My cheap Tacoma SAS

So I got the bug to stop fooling around with the IFS. thing was, I was like, "What good is living debt-free if I don't have a SFA under the rig??" And I got serious. And I spent way too much to get the SAS for my Taco.

But I decided to keep it simple, cheap, and quick: I work a decent amount and don't have time/inclination to do this job myself over the course of a half year. Two weeks and a (mostly) complete kit sounded much better Enter the Trail Gear C kit. expensive but affordable for what it offers, prebuilt with 5.29's to turn my 37"ers, and plumbed with an ARB. Find a local reputable shop to devote some time to it, get the turn around done, and BAM! Got some flex!

 

Dirty!!

 

How "cheap" was this?

 

Sick!

 

So… I started with a stock 2002 DC. Put on a 3" Fabtech lift and was pretty happy with the overall abilities, especially after adding lockers front and rear. but that was coming from stock rigs… eventually I saw a lot of opportunity to make it more capable. It became clear that we were going to have to SAS it in order to clear obstacles (such as large boulder walls designed to keep the riff-raff out of local spots :-D ) and traverse & visit more rugged spots such as the toughies on rubicon and MOAB.

So I got out the big guns (credit & debit) and got to work. Then shortly thereafter, my shop got to work!


The assembled front end

The front suspension tacked up



Whew! Getting close! I can feel the trouble brewing already!



… First bit of trouble we ran into. Finding wheels. I held off on this to spread the cost out over as many paychecks as I could. I figured that getting the wheels would be the simple thing! Wrong. The kit calls for 17x9 with 3.75" backspacing. However, Actually FINDING these wheels proved very difficult. Nothing in that backspace, save for TG's own models, which were a) FUCKING EXPENSIVE, and b) fucking OUT OF STOCK. Figured 4.00 BS would probably work, so I found these for affordable, and test fit. Houston, we have clearance!

 

We try not to deal with "actual figures." that would be disheartening

Let's just say we have decided we're keeping this truck until one of us dies

 

…2nd bit of trouble. You see, in the vein of keeping it cheap, we decided we could PROBABLY get away with reusing the springs I had in the rear. When I got the 3" fabtech oh-so-long ago, my lift height was limited by the fact that my rear springs were way worn. I eventually decided to get some custom Alcans for the rear. Got my specifics (weight, bias, current and desired height, shackle distance) and got to ordering. But I had issue when I received and installed them.

The springs were WAAAAAAYYYY too tall for a 3" lift. like, I was riding 3" fabtech front, 6" fabtech rear sort of "off." Never settled that much. So, doing some back of the envelope math I figured that with 37's and a goal frame-to-ground clearance of about 25"-27" I could probably just use them for this project and call it good.



This pic is with the front holding it's own weight, and the rear being supported by the lift to come level. Without this, it was probably still 3-4" off. Sadly, no picture as at the time I was bummed and slightly embarrassed. my truck looked like a scalded dog


…CLEARLY I HAD GOTTEN A BAD ENVELOPE.


Ahem. So, we researched perhaps adding in the TG rear matching kit. OMG NO WAY was that happening. $800 for the kit, then a left leg and 1st born child to install it. It looks to kit-tastic, but considering the dough we were in already, we decided to cheap out a bit more for the time being, and just "make it work" so we could get it out of the shop and at least daily driveable.

This consisted of lenthening the rear shackles, as well as teaming that up with an AAL on top (or should I say under) the Alcans. This setup actually works pretty well, decent-enough droop that I can off-road it until I upgrade it, and within 1-1.5" of the front height-wise (which I think means "level" after the front leafs break in and settle).

 

Sick!

 

Looks awesome!

 

…and, after some troubles tracking down a front driveline, today I got to take it out for the inaugural poser flex shots These are all I have for now and all I will have for a bit as this is about the hardest shit around here anyway. I'll have to take some trips before I can get anything else worth posting really. But I needed to get it out and start breaking it in, try to soften up the front springs and bring the height down a bit. Currently sitting at about 27.5" frame-to-ground, I'm hoping to settle these in to about 26" before all is said and done.







How tall are those tires? I hired a real dorky looking loser that was hanging out in my driver seat to stand next to them. This particular strange looking dork is about 6' tall:



… the actual figure (that SAME DORK took a measuring tape what a dweeb) is 28" tall for the tractor tires.


… AND, check out one half of the most awesome labrador brothers duo as a final parting shot. 90lbs, all-muscle, most awesome dogs evar!!! playing in front of the truck of course:

 

Nice looking truck.

 

Nice truck is sweet

 

this truck is sick!

 

Very clean truck! How much $ are we talking when you say cheap? One mans cheap could be $2,000 another could be $12,000

 

He was being ironic. A *lot* of dough went into this setup.

 

Exactly! I looked up the frontend he used and it was 5K out the door. It only piles on from there.

 

That is a solid looking truck. The bonus would be having your own shop and doing the fab work yourself. Good job
How many hours do you think went into it from cutting the old front end out to a shakedown wheeling session?

 

Good stuff. Sub'd to see just how cheap this gets

 

My god that thing is a monster! Man for being a "cheap" truck it sure looks like it has some pretty good parts under it

 

Thanks for the comments. The weak link right now is the rear springs. Will get that solved eventually but for now it's workable so... Off to cow mountain next weekend for an inaugural road trip to verify she's reliable, and to play lightly before doing anything too heavy.

To the cheap: yeah it ended up costing a pretty penny (think $10k or so) BUT: have you SEEN the truck??? Lol it does everything for me: haul firewood, haul pups, outings, it's a DD... And it keeps the fatties out

Also, it could be a lot more $$$. Considering this was a 1.5-week turnaround from drop off to delivery, during which time I worked full-time plus overtime, and got to stick to doing my house renovations which I have the tools to actually do, I would say it actually came out pretty well for me.