allenfab's 95 Tacoma build

Made some geometry changes on the front end. Chopped the upper link mount off the axle and mounted it further forward, but kept it the same height it was. This allowed me to add 4.5" to the upper link which will greatly help reduce the castor and pinion angle change while the suspension cycles. I also dropped the frame mount side to the lower hole from the upper hole.

Castor went from 6* positive to around 3*positive. It does wander noticeably more on the road but it's still tolerable.

 

I've been told many times that the more vertical separation between the upper link and the lower links the better. Were you also thinking about making that upper link bracket at the axle end taller?

 

To an extent, I think that is true. I liked the way it was height wise at the axle, just needed that upper link longer so I kept the height the same.

 

Trip report from Hardrock today, 4/30

First time out with the Atlas and I was not disappointed. It is awesome to have so many gearing options with the 5 speed transmission. No major breakage, just some rock rash on the sliders, rear bumper, rear diff, rear traction bar, wheels, and tires. And I broke the zerk off the front shaft u-joint. No biggie though...

 

Such a monster

 

37s.

 

Seems like he really doesn't need them. He followed a guy on 37s or better around and did everything that guy did while I was there...well, except for one hill that I tried and got denied on and Todd then tried it and got to the top and decided the final ledge was a little too sketchy-feeling. The other guy (can't remember his name...help me out, Todd, haha) climbed right up it and made us all look like chumps. At any rate, 37s would just be causing him to break more shite with that D44 front axle.

 

More clearance so he don't drag his axles all over

 

More armor so he doesn't have to worry about it.

In all honesty, if he had bigger tars, he'd just feel more comfortable going over bigger rocks and then he'd have the same problem only with a bigger likelihood of popping axles. I think his truck is damn near perfect...or it will be once he gets those LTBs on it ...for his axles. I think he'd have to go up to a D60 in front to run 37s reliably, but then why stop at 37s with a D60. Go right to 40s.

 

Robert was the name. I really wish you would have stayed for what we were hitting after you left. We both went to that larger rock garden that is right up next to the mx track. He went up it no problem and I had to winch out. I tried a different line after and made it after some trouble. We've got video of everything, just having trouble transferring them to my phone from Josh's.

Oh and Robert tried the peanut butter and jealous hill and made it to the very top and was denied. I had to go around to the top so he could winch off of me. I didn't even bother attempting that hill lol.

35s will be the biggest these axles see. It's a good balance point between width, height, tire size, and the parts I have. I won't even look at a 37 without a one ton.

And on another note, I finally like the 63's. Cutting that third leaf down worked wonders and it rode almost as good as the front.... Almost.

 

Part of me wishes I had stayed, but I was pretty uptight on the way home waiting for either the wheel to come off a 70mph or to lock up, so it was best that I just got it over with before the heat started kicking my arse, haha. With as much damage as it turned out was going on in there, it was probably best that I didn't stick around and hammer on it anymore anyway.

 

Why you always breaking stuff, bad luck or something

 

Rcv

 

Because I'm running super aggressive tires, my front diff is lincoln-locked (for all intents and purposes, it's a spool), and I have a heavy foot and a mickey-mouse IFS front end. That and I have more balls than common sense so I'll try to follow those badass SAS rigs.

In other words, I wheel hard and when you wheel hard you break shit. It's the price of admission.

 

Tell me about it Yea...one things leads to another and before you realize it your rig ends up being something entirely different than what you had in mind haha

Your rig looks great man, and it seems like it performed awesome.

Makes me double guess my decision of not going with the atlas 4. Did you use the compound low a lot during this wheeling trip?

Also, glad to hear you figured the issue out with the chevys. Lots of guys end up hating those things.

 

For the price of those, I am already in stock one-ton range. I'd rather have the one-tons. Besides, I have chromos already lol

Thanks man. Anything technical like the rock gardens, I was in compound low and in first gear. Some situations I would bump it into second or third gear if I needed just a little more wheel speed. Most of the hill climbs were just in 3.8 low and in second or third gear. I definitely like the versatility of the atlas 4 and I am glad I got it.

 

That's pretty awesome. Tons of shifting options.

Glad to hear the rig is performing well. You built it right!

 

Few videos my co-driver/spotter got of me

 

Need some opinions.

I have a set of LTB's sitting in the garage and trying to decide on a couple things...

Should I sell the mtz's and weld on rock rings to my existing wheels and then mount the LTB's

Or...

Buy a new set of wheels (same as I have now), weld in a set of rock rings, mount the LTB'S to those, and keep both sets... One for DD purposes and one for wheeling only.

This thing doesn't get driven much on the road, maybe once or twice a week to keep a charge and I could make some money back on the mtz's and not have to spend $220 on new wheels.... I also will be trailering this thing 95% of the time to go wheeling.

 

IMHO, sell the MTZs. Changing tars every time you want to go wheeling would suck, especially with big heavy 35s. The LTBs aren't going to wear down that fast with just driving it once a week or so. If you're trailering it to the wheeling sites, they will more than likely rot away before they wear out anyway...well, assuming they don't get destroyed on a rock or something. Basically, you won't be replacing them because they are bald.

Edit: Oh, and let's not forget possibly the most important part, you really don't want to have a big stack of tires taking up storage space somewhere.