Rear LT Setup Link or Leaf

Ok. Need the community. Don’t want to get this wrong again. 2020 DC SR5. 35’s. 4.88’s. Arbs front/rear. Front +2 TC with secondary triple bypasses. All the usual spindle, cam tab, etc reinforcements. Not sure there is much More up front I can do there without glass and wider. Rear just finished with SUA, Deavers, 1.5” spacer and shock relocation king bypass with air bumps.

Problem is still a little rough on the mountain, especially in the rear so going to do more, just not sure what and don’t want to do it a 3rd time with only about 1500 miles on current setup. Thoughts are bed cage and change the leafs or link it.

Constraints with build are I don’t want to give up the bed as I pack a dead elk fairly often or other piles of crap I need it for. Don’t want glass fenders as trees won’t be kind and I just wrapped it. No decent options for gas tank relocation until someone makes one for the spare tire area.

Planned uses for me. Winter travel in deep snow chasing lions. Spring snow chasing away cabin fever in soft clay ground and residual snow drifts. Summer travel for cooler elevation over dry dirt and rocks. Fall travel hunting sfuff over a mix of all. Most roads are narrow and rocky With pickup used 90% of TIME on dirt with maybe 50% of MILES on dirt. What is my best option, given the constraints to improve ride quality? Can steel fenders be flexed out to allow more up travel? Is there a gas tank option I haven’t seen?

Also adding the Matt’s twin turbo as soon as it arrives.

I appreciate the ideas and experience this forum has and hope you can apply your wisdom to help me with my specific needs and dreams. Free tours for all that care to come visit.

 

What SUA, TC? Shock tuning is often overlooked with shock upgrades and it's as important as anything you invest in while modding your truck. Even a linked rearend will ride like crap without shock tuning.

This is the cheapest legitimate link setup (you can just go out and buy) I've seen where you keep all the stuff you wanted. I imagine you could fit stock bedsides back on.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9UcvpbHCxl/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3-link-tacoma-prerunner-build-taco_sos.654010/

 

Spring Under Axle (rear) and Total Chaos LT (front)

 

Are your shocks off the shelf tune? Give the guys at www.accutuneoffroad.com a call they can help you with determining proper spring rates and shock tune.

 

Man I would definitely invest some time and/or money into shock tuning before I scrapped the whole rear suspension. Plenty of guys out there on Deavers that have them working great.

 

Working with Deaver and King now to improve bump. Any thoughts on how long to break in a new leaf pack?

 

1500 miles should be plenty to break in a leaf pack I would think. What does Deaver recommend?

 

@Arcticelf has a friend he’s helping with the TC kit. That kit used to be the “defined engineering” kit before it was the TC kit if you’d like to search for any info. Probably info you forgot to share, but have a good idea of, would be what you've got for weight / gear layout. Unfortunately keeping metal bedsides will limit up travel with big rubber unless they're cut to allow shock shaft or negative arch in your springs limiting it.

 

Bed basket for spare currently, but changing that to stand up the tire behind the cab which will move the weight forward some. Front engine skid. Front and rear steel bumpers. Typical load is tool box, cooler, recovery gear, handyman, tire chains and shovel. Other live loads vary and occur once a month on average.

The negative arch issue is a limit as haven’t boxed notched the frame to allow axle to push up in there

 

Good news is that with an open bed and a dead critter in it cutting holes in the bed for shocks isn't an issue.

4 link > 3 link > DMZ spring under > stock leafs > TC Spring Under

What shocks do you have in the back with the SUA conversion?

 

Not a fan of the TC huh? King bypasses 10”. Should have at least gone 12”, but won’t be an issue if I am ordering again anyway.

would be nice if someone made a gas tank for the spare tire area.

 

For the money it doesn't provide that much benefit, and a 10" shock is basically OEM, all you've done is move down travel into up-travel. 12" is about the most you'll get from the OEM spring hangers, with any leaf pack.

You can get a fuel cell and relocate the tank there pretty easy, I know a few guys have done it, I think a 25 or 30 gallon tank will fit back there pretty easy. But at the point you're doing triangulated 4link relocating the gas tank to a fuel cell is the least complex part of the job.

 

I don’t know what kind of driving you guys do, but a properly setup 3 link can out perform any front end you can put on your trucks using the stock control arm mounting points for jumping and whoops out in the desert. If you need greater fuel capacity and government smog checks aren’t a requirement then doing a bigger fuel cell in the rear is doable. Of course your spare won’t have a home under the bed anymore though

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFTSJHDHjDT/?igshid=mpmv9rt5m80c

 

Spare won’t fit anyway. Rear did the TC shock relocation, but not finding many options to keep steel fenders with a linked rear. Saw this though.

 

Most guys add glass bedsides because they’d rather do that and be able to stuff their tires with wider track width and more bedside coverage than cut the stock bedsides - no reason you couldn’t fit a linked system inside the stock bedsides. It’s up to you how much you want to prematurely limit up travel for saving your bedsides. If you look at @taco_sos his truck has the coilovers sitting inside the bed and @Evenflow has stock bedsides.



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gone-surfing.551113/

Here's another 3 link setup



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2011-pyrite-mica-lt-build-bs.310050/

 

Solo technically makes a rear cell that fits in the rear (spare tire area) of the 2nd gen Tacoma's. I've only seen it on the trucks they have linked: IE dirtaddiction and IrishSully

 

Thanks. Shot him a PM and also contacted Solo to see what can be done given my restrictions.

 

Don’t forget the Dirt Designs 3 link. I’m installing a version of this on my FJ.

 

Thread resurrection @amadougrand. What did you end you decide on? In a similar boat.