Fully polished TuRD

Got pax side bump stop finished, god this sucked!

Drivers side tomorrow. That one will be mounted on the outside of the frame between the frame and the shock, predicting more suckage.

 

Drivers side air bumps are done. Going wheeling sat and we will see if this all works as planned. I cut out about 6" if the rear portion of my shock tower, braced it and burned in the can.

The last pic is clearence at full droop, i have 1/4". It should not hit the shock, but you never know with leafs and when you are out wheeling.

 

Went on a shakedown run yesterday:
- steering still sucks and overheats despite the cooler. Driving in 2wd between the hard sections helps
- probibly will be going hydro assist in the future (next year)
- air bumps are sweet! No more tie rod to steering box contact and no more tie rod to oil pan clearence.
- they are smooth as glass in whooped out sections of trail, i can actually keep up with the group now bombing between obsticles.
- just about zero body roll on the street.
- still have a major driveline vibe, dont know if thats because of my square swampers or because my center bearing is wore out. My entire trans/tcase vibrates back and forth alot.

Overall successful shake down and only a few things to fix before moab next month.

 

Did you have any kind of bumpstop before the air bumps?

 

No, i had some 2" polys ready to go in, but with the ride height being so low i would be constantly into them even driving around town. I was going to build my own daystar style progressive bump stop, however the guy i wheel with that came up with the design said to just get air bumps if i can afford it.

 

Tossed around the idea of them especially with the front end being so heavy to act as a dampner.

On slow articulation, do they compress all the way? Or are they something that doesn't compress unless your hitting it with some kinda force aka woops?

 

They compress all the way. They also reduce body roll in most situations as an added bonus. I was going to mess with the airpressures, but after driving 6hrs on them and wheeling all day im not going to mess with it. Im sitting on the bumps at ride height, so its a little weird you can fell when the truck comes off them and hits the pad again. Nothing major to be concerned about, just a WTF moment.

 

Interesting, appreciate the insight ! I'll have to look into these more.

 

No problem! They are kinda pricey ( i have more into these than the rest of my front suspension) however i justified it with ride comfort, they are rebuildable and are almost a one time purchase in that i can put them easily on whatever replaces my tacoma in the future.

 

You're toeing the bro-line pretty darn close with the air bumps!

 

Hey man it was the only option specific to my application, unless i raised the front end and really bro rake it LOL!

Please tell me your throwout bearing was trail gear or some parts store shit so we can make fun of you??

 

It was a Koyo pilot bearing. I don't cheap out on shit that actually requires labor to replace!

Operator error when I put the new engine in and forgot to fully tighten the trans to the engine and it allowed the pilot to walk out of the crank.

I can't sling too much shit about being bro. I own a 3/4 ton diesel so that automatically puts somebody into a new level of bro.

 

Tightening bolts helps!

And a tube bed with bed sides screwed to it elevates the bro status!

 

Just to further expand on how i built that incase anyone cares: all the braceing on the drivers side is 1/8". I managed to burn in the bump can without warping it, which is easy to do with these i guess. On tha pax side its a mix of 1/8 and 3/16s. 3/16 is in a triangle going from the top of the can down to the top of the frame in a triangle. I went a bit overkill with that side since i didnt have enough room to add a brace on the side due to my motor mount being in the way. I was going to use 3/16 for evreything but i read 1/8 is good enough if you are not doing highspeed wheeling or jumping it, which i wont be doing either of.

 

Reading back through cause I knew you installed a cage. Remember what brand it was? Looks like 4x innovations? Regret it allmm

 

I dont know who made it, i am the 3rd owner. It used to reside in snowys truck, and he couldnt sell it after removing it so i got it for free. Its ok for a free cage, it takes up a ton of room inside and my head can still hit it even with the seat touching the floor. I have been looking and thinking before this to rip the headliner out and all the plastic and build the cage as tight to the body as possible and cover evreything back up like those super high end pre runners, im way too impatient and hack for that though. Dont want an exo cage because i dont like how they look on 1st gens, and i still want to drive it on the street without getting pulled over.

 

The next project is a bumper for this thing. I was going to build a plate bumper but didnt want anything heavy as shit. I cut up my old all pro tube bumper and im thinking of using the main horseshoe shaped piece, with 2 angled pieces of tube coming up from the frame and meeting it right under the turn signal. Still trying to figure out what to do in the middle portion by the winch to support the middle of the bumper.

Bumper cut off:

Cleaned up:

My current "bumper".


Fun fact that allpro bumper was part of my first mods ever done to the truck back in 06. All pro bumpers f/r, winch and trail gear sliders which are still on the truck... barely.

 

And i have never notched tube, going to try using the chop saw method.

 

Learning curve is pretty steep for tube notching, and figures I'm learning on some crazy compound angle. Tacked on my hoop which will get 2 wings welded on that will go back under the headlights. The wings will be supported by a tube coming up from each side frame rail and meeting under the marker light. I had to section the hoop because it was too wide.


Wings


Been practicing notching the rest of the night, then distracted by beer that had to be drank.

 

It's an early 4xInnovations cage. I'm taller than Slander and really didn't fit with the internal cage. The first gen really doesn't have much room inside...dimensionally the same as a mini truck.

Mmm, beer.