The old Taco Lean

I had this lean on my 2009 Prerunner DCLB. I had installed 5100's and was going to add the spacer, but I thought it much better to move some weight around in the truck to achieve the same thing. The front springs are equal from the factory, right?

It had only 30k in 2014 & I thought I would do the shim & also swap the front springs, as the left one had sagged a bit more.

Then the truck was totaled & I bought a nice 2012 DCLB. It had the same dang lean. I put 5100s on that one too. Now I bought new 10ply tires & will get it aligned, but I want to fix the lean. I can make a spacer no problem, BUT I think it's a kludge. Bogus. A patch.

The real issue is that the factory lean/balance promotes good handling under hard throttle, NOT under freeway cruising or trailing throttle. I want to re-balance the truck, and as an experiment I added weight far to the right front. Lean changed a little. Maybe less than 0.2" difference from before but it was different by over 1/2" The dynamic handling improved slightly, and I feel it would surely improve more with proper alignment and more weight transfer.

I have the nicer 2012 factory rears, and rear air bags, plus a rear stabilizer bar pirated from a big 70-something Squarebird. I don't want to change the front springs, but I will if necessary. I think before I make the shim I will try another test where I relocate the battery temporarily.

One thought was to permanently relocate the battery to the right front and washer fluid to the left. That alone could make 3x the difference I noted from my test weight, which would be welcome. I could just add a spare battery, but I'm not interested in increasing weight.

 

You are right of course. The spacer is quick and easy, but more of a band-aid than a remedy. I plan to relocate my battery, and add an extra gas tank on the passenger side. The two big swingers are the 21 gallon gas tank and the battery. That's probably 225 pounds. right there.

 

Could please take a picture of the rear swaybar instalation I'm trying to source one maybe from Helwick
Thanks
TOMB

 

The Helwig bar is good, but the links they give you are crap. Get better links for sure.

 

Instead of 5100s, install adjustable coilovers.

Then you can tweak out lean, and not do it all on one side.

Or since you are keen on driving dynamics, get it corner weighted.

That would freak most folks around here, as it will almost never result in being level side to side or front to rear.

 

I do have individually adjusted air bags in the back so that helps a lot.

The sway bar installation is documented here somewhere and its entirety.

 

The documentation is not fabulous but the photographs and text are in the middle of this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/good-universal-anti-sway-bar.389040/

On the Helwig bar the center section is reversed from mine. It's a W shape instead of a U.

I could have achieved a little more ground clearance by increasing the length of the links but I don't do any off-roading so it wasn't important to me.