97 4Runner Crawler

Depends how high you will be able to mount a 14. If nothing else you will be able to mount a 14 low on axle side for up travel, just not ideal. I cant say I ever noticed being hung up on the low oem shock mounts, but they always have new scratches so just build it stout. With a 10ish inch travel shock on mine and about 12" bump to (non existent) strap mine could still drop a tire below the slider though so I think either will be ok.

selfishly I want to see how 14s fit especially if you disregard their directions and keep no body lift lol, If you aren't pushing it fast you could also do some cheap short body 14" 7100s (bilstien #AK7114SB). They are shorter collapsed than most 12s

 

I’m going to do a 1” body lift to fit it like they suggest. Should raise the mounting point up 1.5” over the regular OSR. Was thinking I’d grab some of the basic fox 2.0 with resi’s since 2.5’s apparently dont collapse very short. Need to investigate the collapsed length of the 2.0’s.

 

Debating just doing 37s, but I feel like it’s going to be hard as shit to steer and if it ain’t 40’s why bother are they worth the trouble??

 

The extra ground clearance is super nice pared with the wheelbase. I can run low psi and almost never drag. I like to think I could hang with almost whoever I want short of tons and 40s without a big issue. And ifs keeps the small stuff fun if you want to wheel bunny trails that day.

I think if I break it on 37s I would have probably broken on 35s there as well. RCVs might help me there but I break jack shafts often enough I think that’s null. I’ll spin tires, let it wheel hop and whatever when locked. That hasn’t caused a break for me yet but slick stuff it’s a matter of time like you know. Just so far for me it’s always when it binds or I fall of a line being dumb. I only avoid bumping the front up ledges while locked.

steering… does suck for me right now but I’m pretty sure it is a clogged pump issue from no boots on rack for over a year. It was basically the same as 35s at first but got a lot worse. I still muscle through it while locked and not moving when I want without issues. Go for 0 offset or maybe up to -12 to keep scrub radius ok. 0 offset with the 37 yokos and 35 pbrs fit for me.

I do highly reccomend the camburg rack clevis and heim inner tie rod welded to half an oem inner to go to an oem outer. Stock inners are weak and will fold.

side note, I think gas tank skids on these are dumb. It will get dented up and loose capacity but I drag all the time and no holes. Carry jb weld for if you get really unlucky.

 

It’s tempting….makes me want to find the lightest 35 at the same time though haha I don’t plan on wheeling super hard in this thing. Needs double duty as a trail vehicle for the family, too. Plus the tubbing and relocating shit to fit them…

have you thought about doing full hydro? Looks like “plenty” of room to fit a ram back there.

 

You could probably do 35x10.5 with almost no cutting. Only thing I relocated is my battery and ditched airbox for uptravel when I was still on 35s, it is all about how high you want to bump it. Could do like a bfg 37 to or something that runs smaller. The yokos seem true to size actually.

I have heavily considered hydro. Maybe I just say fuck it and jump off the deep end, but people keep stressing me out saying it is sketch with no mechanical link. Do have a guy I know working on a box to DE ram setup in a first gen tacoma too.

I’ve never driven something full hydro and want this to stay ok on the street hopefully. I think it would be fine but maybe I get unlucky. What was the bouncer steering like? I assume it was full hydro?

 

Do you have a body lift? I’m definitely going to do whatever it takes to get all the travel I can out of it so if I need to relocate all that I will. I need to check the weights on 35 vs 37. Might be enough to motivate me if I can find less of a difference haha

the taco on tons had full hydro and a load reactive valve (return to center) I didn’t align it worth a shit because it was a trailered rig, but I rode it on a backroad for a bit and it definitely could have worked fine. Biggest thing is probably having enough caster to make the wheels want to fly straight and getting the proper sized orbital to not make it too twitchy on the street.

@Robertocritser drove his 2nd gen full hydro ifs on the street/highway a shitload. His and @CGoss builds have pretty detailed descriptions.

The bouncer was a different story. It was full hydro front and rear and 1.5 turns lock to lock in the front. You’d go right in the ditch if you so much as sneezed at highway speeds with that on a road vehicle haha it was also non load reactive since I didn’t want anything to move my tires except me.

I wouldn’t be opposed to having full hydro on the street if set up properly. Would keep an extra diy hose and fluid. If a pump shits out I guess you could strong arm it enough, but I’d probably call it quits at that point.

 

Trail gear has a kit for like 2k ish the the 5vz with most everything I need, would just have to figure out how to do outer tie rods to the LBJ. could keep stock outer tie rods but they would probably fold up bad. problem is the outer tie rod ball joint is angled weird so most heims run out of alignment fast. This is probably the time for me with pump or whatever issues, I need to get under it and see if I could keep it reverse compatible with a stock rack.

since I raised the front ride height caster is around 3-4 from 7-8 but I could bump it back up to 5+ and keep the ride height. have seen videos of the pump loosing power and it seems like you can still steer to the side of a road in emergency.

I think the trail gear has a load reactive valve in it... is that in the orbital? ad with the load reactive I assume you get a little feedback to the steering wheel?

For reference, this is what I cut that clears 37s, pushed up 2-3" and back into the hinge, it clears body mounts no problem. I doubt you will bump this high because my coilover is set into the LCA to compress up higher, but the JD kit does push the coilover up through the oem bucket so I could be wrong. LCAs are aligned in the middle on one eliminator plate and pushed full forward with the other, LCA itself pushes it forward probably about the same as JD from stock.

 

Not sure if the JD kit goes through the bucket. I think it has to get drilled to match the first gen mount though. I could be wrong. The 1” body lift and LT would probably clear 35’s pretty easily with some hammer time hopefully lol

I think the trail gear orbitals are all load reactive if I’m not mistaken. Don’t let me tell you wrong but you’d feel feedback with those in the rocks, but you’d want that on the street. I don’t think it’s a deal breaker on the trails though. Probably more natural to what we know. The bouncer was a different beast. I didn’t spend enough seat time with either to be an expert.

Pretty sure unless you get an Eaton or some name brand shit they’re all the same thing so I wouldn’t spend more than you have to on that part. Hell

Side note: abs light is on. Any sense in making abs function? I want to ditch the sensor wiring.

 

Oh yea forgot no body lift on mine. @theesotericone might kill me if I add one after all his work to fit duals without lol.

Abs light on mine has been on from disconnected wires above the gas tank. I fixed it once and I think it ripped them back out when it drooped because it is back on.

Abs on these sucks ass anyways, but sensors might be hoked up to speedo idk. My speedo works with just the front two

also the jd kit through the top

 

Oh snap I couldn’t find anything but the pics on the website haha where’d you find that??

my front sensors are good. I fought with the rear ones, gave up and cut them when pulling the rear axle out lol

 

I only this because someone on here had problems with their bypass hoops, and I was wheeling with a guy the other weekend with a 3rd gen 4R and a JD kit and the coil buckets looked cut up some.
https://jdfabrication.com/collectio...ta-tacoma-95-to-04-weld-on-bypass-shock-mount

now you have me tracking down pics of the guy I wheeled withs suspension lol. wonder what the hell that tie rod is or is it just a sleeve? either way still stock inners

 

Well hot damn. I’d like to know what that tie rod situation is for sure... Investigating double shear UCA mounts, too. May try the TC ones if they fit the JD arms.

 

I would recommend against the TC ones unless you like grinding to fit. Heard that from a bunch of people
The solo ones I have went together very nice. they'd be more likely to fit the JD arms due to how they fit together vs the bent pieces of the TC ones

 

Nice. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Looks like total chaos. It is a waste in my opinion unless you are replacing inners as well. The factory outers are stout.

 

What’s to keep someone from just welding up some clevis and tie rods like the diy kits? Did that for full hydro and it’s pretty much the norm for stuff like that. Might be difficult to find a clevis that fits I guess

 

As far as making a tie rod vs paying 600$ for one? Idk people spend money on stuff they don’t need.

I have a camburg rack clevis going to 3/4 left hand heim to a bung in a 1.25? .120 tube welded to half a stock inner. Then thread the outer in there. I think camburg clevis is important despite being twice as expensive because it is as short as possible to keep that inner pivot close to stock to keep bump steer down.

I kinda wonder if I could get away with a stock outer tie rod to a full hydro ram haha worst case I make full heim tie rods lol

here are the camburg clevis measurements (red) vs like a tmr? clevis. Stock inner tie rod is .875 ish from mounting face to pivot if I remember right.


My tie rods

 

Damn that seems like a big range of motion to ask of a clevis. IFS is a good bit more involved steering wise I suppose. If I out wheel the steering maybe that’ll be my sign to SAS it lol.

 

Most of the swing on it is up and down so just the ball rotating in the heim.

Only a little swing sideways against how it rotates which is why my cam eliminators arnt maxed forward, it gets a little tight.

but setup like this I can do another 1/2 of travel past bump and droop and steer lock to lock at either point without bind.