cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

Sweet. Thanks!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3-essential-mods-for-aftermarket-steering-wheels.802267/

Done. Obviously, ask questions if need be. Always glad to help.

 

Well in an attempt to get the truck ready for Summer, I'm trying to wrap up my "Winter Projects." It ain't going to plan lol

I start on a good note, here's a photo of the truck with the new wheels. Still can't get enough of how these look.


PXL_20230525_013036565 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230525_012910317 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Now on to the main thing I'm working on over my 4 day weekend, fixing my steering rack leak.


PXL_20230526_182231805 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

I'm also taking this as a time to upgrade a weak point for these trucks. Hello Total Chaos Lower Uniball Conversion.


PXL_20230526_201723362 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230527_002953173 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

These things are beef. I did install some ARP hardware for the connection to the spindles. Can't wait to see how they hold up. Also going to run dual sheer heims now and see how those work. Hopefully I don't kill a steering rack quickly or break mounts like a wet napkin.


PXL_20230527_002646717 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Now into my biggest road block now. I'm still completely confused on how I didn't see this when I did all the work for the long travel last year, but one of the fittings for the power steering is completely rounded off. I'm hoping I can get parts tomorrow if by some stroke of luck a local Toyota dealership has the power steering lines. I'll be making calls in the morning, but worse case I guess I'll order parts that I need and go a head and start working on the electrical stuff for the truck again.

 

You know i have a steering rack. OEM too…


That flex f*cks! So sick

 

I fortunately have a brand new steering rack and I plan on later rebuilding my current steering rack as a backup.

Flex ain't to shabby either. The rear works pretty okay, but I'm working on a fix for that.

 

Finally wrapped up my time in wiring purgatory. As much as I'm happy I took the time and stoked on the outcome of the wiring this time around, I'm so over wiring right now and I'm still not done yet. Still have a few things to wire up, but that's a problem for future me. Anyways, here's where everything sits in it's mostly final form.

I last left off on putting the finishing touches for the box prior to installing it in the truck. Afterwards, I went ahead and started getting a good base with ripping out all the previous wiring outside of the winch controls and got the box bolted to the bed.


PXL_20230530_231742842 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230531_023529243 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230606_051403077 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

There are 8 5/16" bolts holding down the box, which is not at all overkill.

Once I had everything ready to wiring, I started with figuring out where to put an in-cab battery cut off switch. Ended up sacrificing the lower center console in the truck, but I never use it anyways, so it's fine I guess.


PXL_20230528_010453393 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Easy access and hidden out of the way. This is mostly for the event of an electrical fire.


PXL_20230528_013121529 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Also added a 12v sockets and usb outlet inside that going to be constant hot power to the 2nd battery.

With everything mostly laid out, I could finally start rewiring the auxiliary accessories. I started with wiring the Switch Pro head unit, battery cut off switch, and power/ground leads for the main battery to the terminals under the hood. For those curious, the truck was swapped over to 1/0 gauge wire. I'll explain more on this later.

I also ran terminal pass thrus under the driver seat as well as I found grommet that I could run the Switch Pros harness through without cutting another hole. This couldn't have worked out more perfect.


PXL_20230602_052049835 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230604_224555691 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

This is also where I decided to add a cut off switch for the winch. While I doubt I'll use it often, or ever, I've had it laying around for a few years and it actually works out perfectly since the winch is going to be ran on a separate circuit from the truck. I was actually able to reuse some of the 4/0 gauge wire that I had on the truck previously for this circuit with minimal amp/voltage drop from the battery to the winch.

With all that ran, I made a quick little harness for the lights on the front of the truck, wired up the winch, and started cleaning up wires. Also had to replumb the front locker since I moved the ARB compressor as well to the box.

PXL_20230606_043815008 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230606_040924944 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

If anyone is interested, the loom I'm using is off of Amazon. It's made by Alex Tech. Looks a ton better than the old wire loom I had under the truck. I used a variety of sizes and mix between their braided expandable loom and their split sleeve loom. Anyways, back to wiring.

I ended up having a little bit more time while I was still waiting on parts for the steering, so I also ran the wires for the 12v socket and usb outlets and a future HAM radio through another grommet I found on the passenger side of the truck. This side was going great until I realize that there's basically nowhere to zip tie the cables too. Eventually landed on just wire loom clamp and bolting it to the underside the truck to keep the cables out of the way. Yes, I put a little bit of seam sealer on the threads before I finalized install. Ideally, I wanted to put the whole harness harness on the frame, but I'd need to order up some weld on zip tie brackets and I don't have time to wait for that unfortunately.


PXL_20230616_014817194 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

And that just about wraps up the majority of the wiring. Like I originally said, I still have a few things I'm going to get done at a later date, but I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out this go around. While definitely not the last time I'll dig into rewiring this truck, I'm willing to bet this will probably stay in the truck for the longest period of time.

Here's what the battery box ended up looking like. It's a little tight with everything now wired and installed, but it's cleaner than what I had before.


PXL_20230616_022759414 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

I still have a little more cleaning to do as well as I'd like to label everything eventually to satisfy my OCD.

Also here's the end result in the cab with the Switch Pros and the HAM radio head unit.


PXL_20230617_020005209 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230617_015703931 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Not half bad if I don't say so myself. Now to wrap up the steering this weekend and stop wrenching on this truck all the damn time.

 

Dude this looks sick. Definitely makes me think about dual batteries for the future. But one thing, why didn’t you consider just using a normal truck tool box? You’re already losing the space with this little box, why not just upgrade to the bigger one?

 

I did consider that, but I'm trying to keep space loss at a minimum. If I wasn't planning on linking the truck at some point down the road, then yes, bigger tool box would be sweet!

 

Time for another update before I start beating on the old girl this Summer. Got some fun trips coming up that I'm excited about especially after no wheeling or camping last year. She's pretty much wrapped up at this point with a few small projects that I'll work at a later time. More wheeling, less wrenching Cory!


PXL_20230625_004212410 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

I start off with where I left off with the steering.


PXL_20230618_181502103 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Out with the old, in with new new. Most likely the original steering rack, so a new one will be nice.


PXL_20230619_033722236 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Along with a new rack, I also added a 333 Fabrication billet rack clamp. Super tight fitment on this, so hopefully this helps keep the rack in place better the stock one.


PXL_20230618_222452345 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230624_213350075 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Also added a Derale cooler for the power steering. Factory steering setup never had one, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to add one for some better longevity on the power steering fluid.


PXL_20230624_213045051 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Steering setup is pretty legit now and I'm pretty happy with it. Been driving it for a little bit and it's feels great so far. Now only time will tell if the rack and the mounts can keep up.


PXL_20230628_025442135~2 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20230628_025520447~2 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Ditched the swingout and lowered the rear suspension about an inch as well to level out the truck more. Flexed out the truck as much as I could and thinks clear great fortunately. Handling is so much better without the swingout!


PXL_20230706_161905312 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Took the truck to Stellarbuilt to get aligned. Truck drives better than she ever has. Hopefully it'll last for a little bit before I need to get another one haha!


PXL_20230709_222321389 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Lastly, a new carrier bearing was a must! I was getting so tired of the vibrations being so random on the freeway. Little disappointed that the last one only lasted just around 3.5k miles since the driveline was rebuilt.

Now, enough wrenching for now. I'll be doing hoodrat shit with the buds this weekend!

 

See ya there

 

Yeah buddy!

 

I haven't followed your rig in a year or two.... I had a lot of reading to get caught up on. I'm pretty jealous of how nice this project is turning out. Once @Fernando gets his truck back and my daily has a motor in it again I definitely want to wheel with you guys again.

I am curious though, my truck lives with a dual swingout, 5g fuel, 35 spare and camper and I'm about to run fernies old expedition leafs because the dakars with aal sit perfect empty but with the even 100lbs in the bed they sag. How come you decided to go the leaf spring route you did an no spare? I am constantly filling the bed and camper roof rack with things. I can't imagine not having all the storage.

 

I'm definitely down for some wheeling. Got a couple trips coming up in August and a big one in November, but I can definitely get some more in whenever I can fit it!

The OME Dakars are okay. They were better when this truck was on mid travel, but now with LT, they struggle in a lot of the go fast stuff I'd like to do. They don't provide the up travel I want, but they're good enough to rock crawl and do some go fast stuff. I actually didn't want to go the leaf spring route to begin with when I did the rebuild last year. I actually was planning on selling off all the stuff I bought for the rear and buying coilovers and 4 linking the rear, but when I went to look for coilovers they were either on a year long back order, or silly expensive on the marketplaces. That being said, I am in complete agreement with the fact they are amazing when there's no weight in the bed, but they sag almost the first 100/150 pounds of loading stuff into the bed.

As a bit of an elude for a future project, I recently got a set of a coilovers for the rear, but I looked for almost a year before finally seeing PolyPerformance get the coilovers I wanted. Apparently when PolyPerformance got them in, it was the first batch of 2.5x16 Fox's that they've gotten with DSCs in quite awhile.

As for the spare situation, I have a full size spare in the bed at all times. I just prefer having the peace of mine there more than anything really. Space is definitely a luxury at this point with the dual batteries in the bed and the spare back there. I still manage to make it work, but packing for one and being fairly minimalist helps a ton. King of the Hammers is the one trips a year where a week or more in the desert definitely makes me with I had a little more space in the bed, but I'll make it work once I unload the majority of my stuff at camp.

 

I might actually be able to swing between Nov 5 and 15. I have 11 day off stretch

I'm actually super stoked on your build because in lieu of the rclt and mar-rack I haven't seen much for our trucks and the clamshell and steering make me nervous to go your route so I'm intrigued. Particularly since it sounds like you have a lot of exposure to sas.

My jaw did drop when I saw how much the tc lbj steering costs lol But for now my truck is a mid travel camping rig and i plan to copy @betterbuckleup 's triple set dual case set up and eventually dive into all this electrical nonsense you guys are on about but man it looks overwhelming. Wife and kiddo take a lot of money though so it's a slowwwwwww process

You gonna do a traditional 3 or 4 link or trailing arm 4 link?

 

I'll be at Sand Hollow from the 8th thru the 13th for Best of the West. Going to be a fun and rowdy event from the sounds of it.

Well there's a few things in the works that I'm not really allowed to talk about for these truck, but beefier parts and more robust setups are a hint. The diff, intermediate shaft, and the steering rack are the tough weak points to address. I feel like I have a good solution, but it's a lot of custom work unfortunately. Once the company releases more information about it, I'll probably just let them talk about it.

Yeah. The Total Chaos LBCs are silly expensive, but it's one step closer in the right direction for me. Steering wise, likely the get the best performance to reliability ratio, I'm going to have to ditch the factory steering rack for a swing set steering setup with a Saginaw steering box and hydro assist. Still I'd have to do a lot of R&D as well as draw it up in CAD before anything since it's so involved and a bit of a PITA.

Ian has a well setup rig. If my plan was to SAS it and call it done later, I'd definitely be looking at a build more similar to Ian's. 35s with mid travel, dual cases and lockers is all I'd really need until it gets to buggy lines or tougher trails.

Plan for the rear suspension is likely going to be a 3 link. I'd love to relocate the gas tank and do a double triangulated 4 link, but it's more work than worth for a street driven rig.

 

You pretty much pack like a backpacker so you really don't need much space.

 

Yep. That's my thought as well. Well I try to keep packing minimal where I can. Just need to find another alternative for a trasharoo on the truck since no more swing out.

 

Trasheroo in the bed. Problem solved.

Nice to see you about to enjoy all the labor you put into it. Lo/Lo dual locked is quite capable. You still on 35's or did you bump it to 37's?

 

That's a thought. There's also a tailgate specific trash bag that looks neat, but I'm not set on anything just yet.

Still on 35s, but 37s are still the goal. Just going to figure out the weak points and build from there. Linking the rear and a Ford 9" are bound to be next once I work out all the kinks from the front end.