The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Another ChadsPride like in the bank...

 

He's certainly thorough. My build thread is mostly pictures. Haha.

 

Thank you Gregg! Good on the ECGS bushing. Very smart!

The VSC recalibrate was made a sticky thanks to OZ-T in the second gen forum. There were some positive feedback suggestions to improve it with a switch.

Yes I've been busy. It was a gamble to rebuild the front end in December with the holidays and all. In spite of the short days, and being plagued by a bad cold virus (still fighting ), it turned out to be a good time to do the work.

The Spindle post is here. I updated it to include contact information for anyone that's interested.

In short, it's a local design by a shop in San Diego. I don't think they have an online presence.

 

Speed bumps at the mall getting bigger every day!

 

Forced articulation - flex test

With the front end rebuilt and a fresh alignment done, I drove down the interstate for a little bit, around the city finding off the beaten path places to test. Test for about an hour.

Truck felt great and best yet, I finally found a place I could flex the truck out and take some measurements.

My anonymous pit crew!

Oddly enough, my kids liked the truck going up the steps almost as much going off road! lol


Ground to door sill / slider was 37"

Passenger Rear


Passenger leaf spring (full Dakar +

$81 D29XL Leaf Spring

D29XL + 3° axle shim)


A different view, with bump stop, fully compressed, shock is very close to max collapsed length.


Driver Rear

What's interesting here is that under forced articulation, the height from center hub is the same as if lifting in my driveway, but the truck body leans away as it's being forced down on the passenger side. I used one of my daughters books to square up the measurement at fender lip. lol Center hub to fender is still 32"

Driver rear

I put a tape on the shock. It's fully extended. E-brake cable gets very tight. Shock reaches full extension, just as the tire starts to lift off the ground.

Front Driver, tire near full stuff

No rubbing, tire finally clears all

Front Driver

Front Driver bump stop Wheelers with 1/4" spacer.


Front Passenger


Front Passenger


Thoughts. Conclusions.

I am happy with the 11" stoke shocks in rear.
I am happy with the new 6112. The ride is better vs. the 5100.
I am happy with bump stops front and rear.

Next up, go find dirt and rocks.

 

How's that leaf isolator in the 6th pic. Looks like she's coming out a bit.

 

Thanks for the reminder! Yes. The leaves fan out when they stretch all the way out. The isolator hasn't fallen out yet, but I've been meaning to put some epoxy on it to keep it locked in.

 

Probably already been discussed, but I'm curious as to the decision behind the 6112s and not going to performance coilovers?

When I first joined this site, I bought 5100s at the 'advice' of others on here. Three coil options later and still disappointed, I switched to OMEs. After a while with those, I finally got some proper coilovers, and I'm finally happy with how the suspension is performing.

Add up the cost of all that, and my time and effort constantly messing with them, I would have been much better off by picking up the coilovers from the start.

Seems like your in the same boat: OMEs + 5100s + 6112s = more than some Kings and a rebuild or two, not to mention your time, and the performance factor.

 

Sea to Summit - New Years Day Adventure Part 1

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We were fortunate that our local mountains received snow due to a winter storm on new years eve. With some confidence in my front end work, I wasted no time and took the family with pack lunches right after breakfast.

We traveled to Sunrise Highway, about 45 minutes east. It's a two-lane back country road that winds up the Laguna escarpment. Our destination was Mount Laguna. Numerous campgrounds and a few lodges are located in these mountains. The high point I believe is 5,740'. We bypassed a very busy pullout and continued up the mountain and found a nice little alcove to pull off. Only three other vehicles were here. The pullout was the start of Kitchen Creek Forest Service Trail. It was gated shut to block vehicles, but hiking is okay.

As soon as we got out, my kids starting making snowballs and we had a great big snowball fight. It's great to get out spousal aggression with snow balls. I had many thrown at me, haha, only a few landed. I think it's good for the kids too. My youngest daughter was relentless at throwing snowballs. She threw them at everyone, even if you weren't ready or playing! lol My oldest kid got to lay in the snow and make a snow angel.

Since the snow was so clean, I made a snow cone,

We played for about an hour, returned to the truck for snacks and decided to use the truck and explore further up the mountain.

​

 

Sea to Summit - New Years Day Adventure Part 2

I explored around one of the campgrounds. It was so neat to be in the snow again. I think the last time we got to play in the snow was in Feb. 2015!

Cold!

I stopped the truck at a slightly lower elevation and we ate our pack lunches on the tailgate. I finished first and began throwing snowballs at trespassing signs.
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After lunch I drove further down the mountain. My wife had some business to attend to back home and I promissed to return her in time... But not before finding a nice steep rocky outcrop to play on!!!

My wife took a video of me goofing around on it.



Everything performing quite nicely.

I dropped my wife off at home to handle business, and the kids and I headed to the beach!

​

 

Sea to Summit - New Years Day Adventure Part 3

I drove to La Jolla, CA. It took a couple tries to get parking. I was lucky and found a place right by the stairs that led down to the beach! Yes!

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I think my instructions to them were, try not to get wet. About 60-seconds later, mostly all wet! Haha I really laughed when I watched the ocean wave flow into my oldest kids boots!

Kids don't seem to care how cold things are. Not once did they ever complain, and it was I who had to drag them away from the ocean after about half hour of beach play.

Back at the truck, I cleaned them up good and put them in the cab and they wrapped themselves up in dry warm blanket for the 25-minute ride home.

Here they are being funny in their blankets.


So there you have it. Sea to Summit - in Reverse, in one day!


​

 

I'm glad your happy with your rig's suspension.

Well what I can tell you is that the OME shock experience was a very painful learning lesson. I learned a lot from it. I sold them for half of what I paid... From that experience, I learned how shocks work internally, and how to compare two different shock design technologies.

I bought the 5100 ($173 for front pair), after doing some research, they allowed 1.2" more wheel travel over OME. I bought the 11" stroke extended for the rear ($192 for pair) and they have been good for me, 3" of wheel travel gained from them.

The only reason I went to 6112 is that I got an incredible deal (used 5K miles), over the summer from a friend who was extremely generous, and kind. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be running the 5100.

As far as performance rebuildable coilover? I'm a utilitarian-needs-based person, and I don't feel that I need them at this time.

Things could change in the future, and when it does I'll survey the marketplace, but for now my plan is to keep with past practice, use, abuse, and replace as necessary.

 

I learn alot from this thread

 

I've learned so much from your build. Is there any chance you might have a measurement of the top of your top plate on your rear suspension to the bumpstop strike plate?

 

Think you can use the rivnuts on my fiberglass fenders? Will it break the fiberglass or anything?

 

Welcome!

I think so, but if I understand right, that measurement is dependent on ride height. See if this helps

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-and-adventures.362772/page-47#post-11409099

They make special rivnuts for plastics. I would only use those.

See the bottom of this post, 3 links to product which may work.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-getaway-croms-build-and-adventures.362772/#post-9853219

McMaster Carr catalog has others as well.

 

Chris look into this also. May be a better option for fiberglass. It's what we use at my work on fiberglass panels.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/04-06005.php or
http://dragonplate.com/ecart/produc...ROYVFp9CkX6o0IvrFejQqQ_oIxO4mWLFbNRoCyzLw_wcB

I can get you this in 1/4-20 thread for free if you want.

 

@nfs257 ^ I would take Tom's advice and use those.

Thanks! I like learning about new fastner options.

 

Yes please... as long as you think they will work to put mud flaps on the truck and stay on.