ACT SUS Handling 1999 Tacoma PreRunner

After finishing today's suspension work, the took the Taco out for some fun in the rain.

I'm very pleased with the predictability and handling for this truck on wet pavement. In fact, it doesn't handle much like a truck at this point. Considering the ride height, its kind of hard to believe how well it handles.

It just sticks to the road -- wet or dry.

- OME 880 Front springs with Bilstein 5100s front and rear.
- Stock rear springs.
- BORA 1" spacers on the front.
- Spidertrax 1.25" spacers on the rear.
- Nexen Rodian AT Pro RA8 tires.

https://youtu.be/uHNvlpbv9HE

 

what size tires are you running? Factory wheels?

Also what's the reasoning for running taller spacers in the rear than the front?

 

Thanks for commenting. Let me try to explain this one. It's a part accident with some irony thrown in for fun.

After I finished the engine installation, a buddy who also has a 1st gen 4x4 stopped by to check it out the replacement engine. I had him take it for a drive since he knows Tacos and how they should drive. He really likes the way it handles. So we drove by a shopping center parking lot and I got the idea to take it to the high school parking lot where there would be no cars to see how it handled on wet pavement. My buddy was driving the truck while I recorded it on my phone camera. We both tried to push it to the limit to get it to break away on the wet pavement. I'm sure it would be possible to break it loose, but it just seemed to be sticking to the road. My buddy attributes its handling to the unusual spacer arrangement. Since I've only driven that Taco, I have no first-hand experience for comparison with other Tacos.

I was running some new Nexen Rodian Pro AT RA8 tires that were 245/75R16 at the time. Since that day, I decided to change tires to Michelin Defender LTX M/S that are 255/70R16. Slightly smaller OD and wider. Not a huge difference, but it totally changes the way it drives for the better on the highway and curvey roads. I need to find another rainy Sunday and get my buddy to put it through the paces on the wet parking lot. Kind of like driving an AutoX in the rain to find the breaking point on wet pavement for the tires.

The reason for the different spacer sizes was accidental. The ProComp wheels that I'm running rub the calipers and require spacers. For my particular PreRunner year model, the lug stud length is different between the front and rear. The rear lug studs are longer. I originally ordered a set of BORA 1" spacers for all wheels. The 1" spacers could not be used on the rear due to the longer lug bolts. So I bought a set of Spidertrax 1.25" spacers for the rear. Now I have a set of spacers that will mount up with the ProComp Wheels and support the different lug stud lengths.

Having a slightly wider stance in the rear is something I like. One of my other vehicles uses the old Nissan s-chassis (of drifter fame) that I modified and tricked up with some components from an Active Suspension Q45 model. It's a strange but great handling beast. It has a slightly wider stance on the rear than the front by design. There are a number of Infiniti/Nissan Z-Car/G35 Skyline people who like to run spacers with the rear being 5mm wider than the front. That's the reason I'm ok with the spacer difference and enjoy the difference in handling. Once you get some s-chassis feel in your blood, you crave it from then on.

Since this is a 2WD PreRunner, and it never will be a 4x4, I've decided to let it go the direction for handling curvy wet roads as best as possible. Slick roads can be a challenge for lightweight small 2WD trucks.

So that's the accidental reason for the spacer width difference. It was an accident of sorts from the lug stud length difference. The irony is my buddy thinks this is a great handling Taco on wet pavement. For me, I just want it to have a responsive feel so it can negotiate the type of roads where I spend a lot of time driving like the one in the picture during on rainy days.

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.

I can see how it would be a blast to drive with a wider more stable rear stance via the taller spacers.

Someday it would be sweet to have another taco like yours to use for commuting & daily driving that has better street manners than my current build.

 

Cool. A buddy would like to sell me a rock crawler. Body has been beat to hell. But mechanically sound. I'm so short on time these days. :-(

 

i'm right there with ya. Not much time outside of work to make a trip to go and wheel.
A built rock crawler would be a lot of fun though.