Inside the frame shock relocate options - for off-road flatbed work truck

I am going to pick up my flatbed in a couple of hours. Then my 02 will be going to shop. My leafs are frowning, my shocks are probably original equipment (can not really tell, prior owner spray painted them black). I guess the normal answer is just do a budget job with Dakar’s and billstiens. But I kind of want the best ride possible, on and off road. King’s are calling me.

If I go extended Kings in the front, seems that relocating the shock mount might be worth the extra coin (given the number of coins already spent) to keep the suspension travel and lift balanced. Any suggestions of a slight lift inside the frame relocate kit that is still being manufactured. I don’t want to forfeit the spare tire mount, but don’t have to worry about the wheel wells being in the way.

 

You building a flatbed? Pics please, I want to do one.

 

I will post some work in progress pics as it gets done. Not sure were I will put them, so will cross link back to this thread. I picked up the bed about 2 weeks ago or so. Got it to the shop last week and it is now “painted” with a thin bed liner he uses on his restored custom trucks (he is working on an off the frame rebuild of an old Chevy right now-just funny seeing a early 60’s Chevy truck with a crate engine inside (not a restore, but definitely a show truck).

The bed liner needs a week to fully cure, so I was not rushing taking the truck in. Will try to bring it in Monday. Meanwhile trying to get in the group buy of some King shocks, and trying to get an ARB bumper and Warn winch in route. Currently not planning on pursuing the shock relocation as I don’t know if it helps get me a truck better suited for my needs. This will remain primarily a runaround work truck.
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While I would love to just get this all done at one time, that simply will not happen as a lot of the parts are not quite right off the shelf. The front coil overs will need heavier springs - so they will end with a moderate lead time. I doubt any dealer stocks the Gen 1 Tacoma ARB bumper anymore and know I am probably being a real optimist hoping one is even at the US distributor (lag on an order from Australia will really suck). Then I feel like I have to have pretty much everything bolted on before I attempt to order the Alcan leafs.

Here is a pic from the shops facebook page, kind of letting me know it was ready for me to bring the truck in.

 

Just a couple additional work in progress pictures. Shop installed the bed and bumper when I was traveling. They set the bed height to what they thought looked best - but it was at the expense of functionality. They sacrificed way too much suspension travel, and I was bumping the tires on the bed every time I left asphalt. Went from 2” blocks to 4” blocks - which will be real close to hitting the suspension bumpers (I have not measured it carefully yet). It shows a lot of air between the frame and bed and the top of the rack peaks a bit high over the cab - but I think it is a much better compromise.

I took pics with the aluminum side rails and without. I will be putting wood side rails on soon (but it was raining today), plus will probably skirt it a bit to hide the air gap between the frame and bed. Figured I would snap the pictures now, as I will be mounting a trip feeder on it soon (now that I have tire clearance), and it will start looking cluttered quickly.

I think my shocks are almost inbound, so as soon as the feeder is on I need to get the front and rear weighed and new leafs ordered. Have not decided how much feed to approximate as the average load - the feeder holds 350, but I occasionally purchase 500lbs of bagged feed. That said, I don’t want to preload it too much - as I will take the feeder off occasionally to actually play with the truck.