Need your opinion

I'm at a point where my truck is capable but I'm still worried about being a trail tampon due to still being ifs up front. I'm considering selling the taco and possibly getting a jeep. My question is, how much stronger if any is a dana44 compared the 8" toyota front as well as it's related components such as cv axles, tie rods, etc....

Ill be in the market for a new trail rig in the coming months and stuck between 3 options.

Option 1: Keep my truck and upgrade to dual cases and rcv's. Drop back down to 35's for a little less driveline stress.

Option 2: Buying a stockish jeep and upgrading from there

Option 3: Buying a built jeep/Toyota on tons

Ill have a budget of about $30k when the time comes if I decide to shop around.

Thoughts?

 

Option 4: SAS the Taco. Removes any doubts on IFS front diff strength. Removes the Jeep unreliability factor because you don't have to buy a Jeep. You can probably SAS for less than $30k so naturally you should spend remaining funds on a supercharger.

 

Definitely something I'm considering as well. The shitty thing is my location. Being in Hawaii...Maui specifically, we don't have the luxury of junk yards and u-pull-it yards. Everything will need to be shipped and that shit adds up quick. Sourcing parts will be very difficult. I'm constantly on market place waiting for a superduty parts truck to pop up to no avail. I would love to go this route instead.

 

Maybe you could pick @Supr4Lo for an opinion on IFS wheelin.

 

SAS wouldn't be in the cards for you because it's not possible to set it up at 2" or less height above stock.
(sorry, just had to lol )


You didn't mention having problems with or actually breaking your IFS... But a 1-ton SAS (Dana60 & Ford 10.5") would definitely be something I'd have on my table if I was bumping into the limits of it.

The Toyota IFS IMO has come a long way since the days of small differentials & CVs, torsion bars, centerlinks, and idler arms (and everyone dogging on it and doing SASs by default).
Comparing it to a Dana44, the drive components are right about on par; 30-spline axle shafts (same as D44), CVs that nearly rival the size of 1-ton Chevy's. The ring gear is ½" smaller dia. than the 44, unless you're pushing big HP, that shouldn't be too much concern because the front axle normally does about 30-40% of the work that the rear does.
What really stood out to me as most concerning were the factory knuckles, the differential mount (the rear one at the frame), and of course the steering (the thin tie rods & rack). The first two can be eliminated with certain types of suspension lift kits (hint... hint...), the latter, maybe with a Tundra or LC200 rack and upgraded tie rods (I still need to research this more for if (when) the time comes I need to upgrade mine). And of course with having a welder (assuming you do since you didn't immediately rule out the SAS), the sky is pretty much the limit for reinforcing/upgrading/fabricating things (adding LCA pocket gussets, skids, etc.).

If your Taco isn't nickel & diming you elsewhere, I'd definitely say hang onto it. Build out the IFS further or SAS it... Your choice. Both options have merit (a long-travel kit might also be another option for you if the extra width isn't an issue).
Forget the Jeep though... While it might be easier to build/modify one with its solid axle, the whole reliability thing is a deal killer. And unless you're good at troubleshooting others' mistakes, I wouldn't bother with buying someone else's project.


I have two words about the dual cases: Do It!
If you rock crawl much, you will ask yourself afterward: "Why the F did I wait so long?".

 

I've broken axles twice now on the trail, both times with front locker engaged. Now days I'm scared of pushing the limits as I'd rather not do a trail repair. Because of this, I've been leaning more towards doing lines I know I can do which gets boring after a while. I know you gotta pay to play and breaking shit is just part of the game. I'd just like to have a little more confidence that an axle won't break when pushing harder lines.

Great information, thank you for that. Currently walking a fine line of what my weak point is. Gusseted my knuckles and running a Tundra rack. While I'd like to upgrade to rcv axles I'd rather a cv break than to grenade a diff. Still have 4 more spares . If anything I could upgrade to heim steering.

Currently long traveled so the only next step for my truck would be to SAS it. As far as having to once over someone else's half ass work....that's another thing keeping me from buying a built rig unless I know the previous owner or who did the work personally.

I had a taco box on order and canceled because I wasn't sure if I was gonna keep the truck or not. Currently kicking myself in the ass cause now they're out of stock for 6 speed . Could always go the ecocrawler route but I like the lower gearing of a tacobox

Anyways, thanks for the input brother I appreciate it

 

Normally there's a pretty wide strength margin between the ring & pinon gears, and the breaking of a (single) axle shaft from one tire getting bound up against a rock/caught under a ledge (bouncing around at high RPM while sending it is more likely to break things inside the diff than slow crawling will). Dual cases would further take a ton of stress off things since you can creep along real slow with finesse.

SAS is probably what I would lean toward then.
I feel for you out there in the middle of the Pacific now... Curious, I tried to look up F-250s & 350s on www.car-part.com for your state and couldn't find diddly squat (to the point I had to try something uber-common (Alternator) just to see if the site was actually working properly, and it finally returned exactly one single result in Kapolei).
Maybe keep an eye out for a (Dodge) Ram 2500 too. I would think both axles from that could be usable as well (has no 4WD lockout hubs though).

Good luck

 

@Strictlytoyz Hijack attempt:

Curious about 4-wheeling in Hawaii. It's an island, well a series of islands. Where do you go and what type of trails; do you take your vehicle via ferries to other islands? Never been there. Do you tear up tires on the volcanic rock?

Just some ignorant questions that came to mind.

 

The wheeling here is a mix up of dried river beds, lava rocks, loose dirt in forests and mudding (not into mud anymore). The actual crawling scene here isn't very large. Most of the toyotas here are skied to the moon with huge wide offset street wheels. Majority pavement pounders. The rocks here do tend to take chunks out of tires so tire selection is pretty important. There used to be a ferry that you could go between the islands on but that got shut down a while back so now the vehicles are land locked for the most part. Here's a photo of a riverbed we played in a few weekends ago. That jeep is on 42's for reference.

 

Thanks. Perhaps there should be a Hawaii forum here on TW with lots of pictures.

 

There is, it's just not very active.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/hawaii.90/

 

Since posting I went there and agree. Just did not know what Hawaii was like, or how much was there.

I was just reading through this thread - this is like much of what I wheel.
Barrett Lake Trail in my double cab long bed | Tacoma World
Not my thread and I have never done Barrett successfully as I broke an axel long before the lake.

 

Looks like a super fun trail! We lost access to a lot of our good spots on Maui. Due to being on private land or fences/gates being put in place. There's still a few but most are either way too easy or way too hard my my taco. Here's some throwback videos

https://youtu.be/BFVtNm4GLKI?feature=shared
https://youtu.be/M6i9mk0-6b4?feature=shared
https://youtu.be/Lv-OJjx_oK0?feature=shared

 

Watched the first video, not a lot of that could be taken with our LARGE current Tacomas. Lots of old straight axel short wheelbase vehicles on that trail and rightfully so.