New shoe’s for the Taco!(New to me anyway)

Happy new Year tacoma world!

The weather here in the Bay Area has been crazy! (I’m sure other places are also going through it).The roads have been hella slippery and dangerous, I hydroplaned almost 360° the other day (I was Running 32” Thunderer Trac Grip M/T 32/11.50R15LT on 1.5’ spacers with some decent uneven tread wear)



I went on FB Marketplace and picked up some 97 T100 Wheels with some good looking firestone destination on them (30x9.50R15) for only $200!





So some of you might wonder why i would do this, the Truck looked pretty good as is…
Only problem is as some of you remember, i lost a lower ball joint over thanksgiving. Having that replaced made me reconsider the stress these wider bigger tires can put on the lbj, especially after all you tacoma world folks put me on game in that last thread.

So I’m here to say thank you for all the info on that last post and its amazing how this community helps each other out. Anywho here are some before/after pics of the the truck at the shop and one of my buddy and Is tacos at the house. (Will post better before and after once the rain clears up)





Happy New Year!

 

Nice work. Be safe out there. I'm sure truck ride just improved

 

Looks pretty good! Did you take the spacers off? I don't think those do any justice to the LBJ or the wheel bearings.

 

Right on thanks! Yes the spacers are off!! Funny because I also had a rear wheel bearing leak when I bought the truck. So yea they are not that cool lol

 

ride is 10x better. Definitely a W!

 

I have a 99 Outback I picked up from California. Really good shape but it had these 1" spacers on the wheels. Low and behold every single wheel bearing was shot. Not an easy thing to do as it's very similar to the Taco. You have to use a press with the weight of the world on it to get them out. I threw the spacers in the garbage (recycling because I care just a little lol) because I didn't want to wish those things on anybody else or have the conscience to sell them to somebody. I think maybe they are ok in some things but in my experience they take some 1ups away from other parts so to speak.

 

Sheesh!? All 4 is rough lol. Yea in my last post this guy posted diagrams on how the torque on the ball joint is crazy on the taco as is and to add spacers to it is like pulling on it with a torque wrench.

 

Here’s the Before/After