4WD LT - Kits, Issues, Feedback, Other

Hey guys,
I'm in the planning stages of an LT setup for my 4wd 3rd gen and looking for personal experience, pitfalls, and general feedback.

Front LT options in the order of who im considering:

BTF - (4.5 over kit) Local to me, but never dealt with them directly. I hear good things, Seems to be a good value considering axels and all. I like the idea of a local fabricator I can establish a relationship with directly.

Dirt King - (3.5 over kit) They seem to well supported experience in the 3rd gen, don't hear anything negative about them. Offer full builds in-house.

Total Chaos - (3.5 over kit) OG in in long travel. A more conservative approach, well established. Wish it was a little wider.

JD Fab - (4 over kit) Obviously legit in LT. Likely more than I need. Leads to buying ALL of their products which I feel would be overkill for my daily driver.

Solo Motorsports - (4.5 over RACE kit) They built most of my last truck in-house, but they are no longer fabricating/installing. Their race kit is likely overkill for my needs.


Has anyone had issues with CV's or axles on any of the above setups? My truck will likely see way more street miles than dirt. Im interested in long term reliability - I drive a Toyota for a reason. I don't want to destroy CVs and bearings every year if that can be avoided through a better kit or proper setup.

Other Question is alignment Cam Tab bracing. JD subframe is more than I hope I'll need, thoughts on Marlin Crawler or Total Chaos alignment cam bracing?

I've owned nicer LT trucks before, a fully built T100 with a simple old school Duffco kit that turned tens-of-thousands of issue-free miles. A Gen2 Raptor that immediately disappointed me.

 

Currently running a total chaos +2 expedition series kit. No fitment issues what so ever. Great quality and great customer service. I don't do any go fast stuff or hit any jumps. Truck is used for slow crawling. How wide are you trying to go? They have a 2" and 3.5" over kit. I've also heard great things with JD fab's kit. I don't think you could go wrong with JD or Total Chaos.

 

Minimum is +3.5 over.

The whole thing is too much effort for 2 over in my opinion. (Im a desert guy)

 

Well from the companies you've listed, the widest kits offered are BTF and solo at 4.5" over. Solo has a higher advertised number for useable wheel travel at a wopping 19" while BTF advertises 14". JD's 4" over also advertises 14" of wheel travel. In my opinions the best "bolt on" option would be with JD's kit but I only play in the rocks so what do I know. 4.5" over would be too wide for what i gwt into. Never done any desert stuff. Heard nothing but great things about the company though.

 

Thanks @Strictlytoyz , I appreciate the feedback. Yes JD is probably the most robust in a bolt-on scenario. Solo also puts out very high quality parts (more fab required). Both 100% reputable shops and hardware.

Both are also likely more than I need and that's why they're at the bottom of my list.

 

@Wwjvd as far as cam tab bracing the marlin's kit is pretty beefy. For a mainly street driven truck with occasional desert stuff I probably wouldn't hesitate to run that kit. I had a set that I was gonna put on the truck but sold it thinking I was gonna go with JD's lower pivot kit instead. Decided I don't need JD's kit and will be ordering a kit from marlin again. A benefit to JD's kit is it locks out your alignment.

 

I have 3 years on my TC kit, I nuked a high mileage CV axle while driving pretty hard in 4wd. I haven't had any issues with total chaos products and their customer service has been top notch. Shipping was crazy fast, from order to delivery was less than a week for the LT kit, gussets, four kings and Deaver SUA.

 

I run the JD fab 2.5 but I only do slow stuff. That said I run pretty much all their front stuff. Never had problems with their axles. No issues with the pivot kit. Only issue I had were the EMF’s on the lower ball joints always coming loose on top cap. However, they saw the problem and sent everyone who wanted to change to uniballs a set of new ones free of charge. You can’t beat that kind of customer service.

 

Ive got the BTF kit on my truck, bumped and strapped at 15.5". Love the kit, super high quality. No issues with axels either. It was nice they came preassembled.

 

TC 3.5" on my 2005 for well over 100,000-miles now. 60,000-miles on the cv's. It was 2wd now is 4wd hence the miles difference.

 

You will out drive the rear deaver 62” kit (with a 14/16” bypass shock and hydro bump) with any one of the kits you listed when taken to the limit . If you are not going to link the rear end all the kits you listed will outperform the rear 62” LT so they are all great . arguably a mid travel ,stock length arms (with new upper / lower uniball arms and secondary bypass) is ample for a leaf spring 62” LT rear end.

side note : The only reason that solo kit claims so much more travel is because you take out the entire inner fender, and run a 10” shock. theoretically, if you bought the JD kit or TC kit and completely got rid of the inner fenders plus did a 10” duel rate , you can gain a bit more up travel like solos kit . But cost to benefit hard to say ….

u said u we’re interested in high speed desert stuff. U might want to post up on another site like race dezert or DM ppl on IG with experience. This is taco world after all.

 

JD Fab's lower control arm mount system I feel is paramount to establish a solid foundation regardless of who's kit you use or length you use. Reinforcing the stock tabs is just the lazy way to do it. As is said "you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig". As far as dealing with Harry/JD Fab they have NOT given me any reason to even consider going elsewhere.