BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

March 6-8, 2020: Four Wheeler Adventure Expo (Costa Mesa, SoCal) (continued)

HOLY GROUND CLEARANCE BATMAN



I put together two animated comparison images... This first one is 2.58 MB, hopefully the forum loads it correctly. If not, here is the direct link.



And this second one is 2.80 MB, direct link. I removed shadows and driver side rear tires to isolate purely the front ground clearance difference.

A couple points I'd like to make are

• Jason is running a custom low profile Dana 60 axle housing that gains a lot of ground clearance over a factory housing (made by our good friends at Diamond Axle), and
• We're both running Dana 60 axles: The SAS has Dana 60 U-Joints and my IFS has RCV's 35-spline Dana 60 CV Joints. Believe it or not my IFS axles are stronger than his. (When used in a live axle, RCV guarantees the same joints I'm running will not fail with up to 46" tires!)

I asked Jason what RSG charges for a late model Toyota SAS and he said point-blank without hesitation, "RSG won't do a front SAS for less then $25K". That's what I was expecting and is the third shop I've seen charging over $20,000 for SAS.



While RCLT HD is not meant to replace a SAS, here are its benefits from our booth flyer:



And if I may side track a bit and inject a quick future photo drop, short of portals no other SAS -- or any IFS for that matter -- can do what we're accomplishing with RCLT HD.

I'll be discussing this later in more detail, but RCLT HD has taught me an entirely new way to Rock Crawl that I've never done before. While I've been complaining about the massive size of the new Tacoma, how it's the same size as the original Tundra and how it can't fit through lines I grew up driving Toyota Hilux pickups through, RCLT HD has enabled me to intentionally straddle objects rather than being forced to climb over them, which has opened up entirely new lines on every trail I've been to so far that I never could have done before in a live axle rig.



For example, we encounter many corners in our densely seeded Sierra Nevada Mtns where you have to maintain a straight-ahead line through rocky corners so that your rear tires take the same line as your fronts to avoid being high centered on the rear diff. In other words, if you try turning in early, whatever object you undercut will simply get high centered at the rear. So you delay your turn-in, cranking the wheel at the last moment and hoping you don't jack your headlight or fender on trees at the outside of the turn. Now with RCLT HD, this is not a problem any more and you can shift your focus solely to your rear tires and undercut many obstacles clearing corners easily without body damage. As a bonus, because you'd have to be drunk to try the new line in a different rig, there are fewer large holes to fall into since you're pioneering your own path that others can't follow.

For my wheeling style this has been such a revolutionary concept that when I'm loading up for the next event I'm already thinking of what new line I'm gonna try out now that I have such massive ground clearance from RCLT HD.

It's good to have things to look forward to and RCLT HD has made trails I've spent my life wheeling such as the Rubicon and Dusy/Ershim now re-born mentally as I plot new lines and angles around rocks and trees I never could have done before.



This isn't just because I'm on 40s.

RCLT HD + Stock tires = More ground clearance than a typical-style LT + 40" tires:

If you haven't seen the following from our RCLT HD announcement thread, then now is a great time to include it. This is a 2006 4Runner with our original RCLT HD Prototype (V1) & stock tires being compared to my Tacoma with a typical Long Travel arm design & 40" tires.

The stock vehicle with RCLT HD has more ground clearance with stock tires than a truck on 40" tires with typical LT. And that was only Version 1; Version 3 onwards has more ground clearance due to an additional bend in the lower plate.

Also note the ground clearance advantage of RCLT HD is 82% the length of the arm (84% on our +3.50 LT version) whereas other control arms on the market are designed with a downward slope losing ground clearance starting at the frame. We even offset our lower arms more than half an inch above the frame mounts themselves! It's no contest.

 

March 6-8, 2020: Four Wheeler Adventure Expo (Costa Mesa, SoCal) (continued)

Can't be a wrap up without a few pics from the trip back home! We stopped for dinner at my favorite State-side Okonomiyaki restaurant (お好み焼き), Chinchinkurin! I have emailed this company probably a dozen times in both English and Japanese begging them to open a location in Fresno and so far nothing >_< A man can dream!



I would drive to LA just to order another one of these. やさいお好み焼きは私の一番すきなわしょくですよ‼



A quick stop one more time for fuel...



...and after a 128 mile stretch we got an even 20 MPG with cruise control set exactly to 70 MPH.

 

March 6-8, 2020: Four Wheeler Adventure Expo (Costa Mesa, SoCal) (concluded)

And last but not least, throughout the event I posted random Instagram Video Stories which I later compiled into one 5 min video for your viewing pleasure

Description from YouTube: Last week we placed @SlowestTacoma with our final RCLT HD prototype on display at the inaugural Fourwheeler Adventure Expo. It was our first time as an exhibitor at an Overlanding Event and we were quite impressed with the informed and intelligent questions and feedback received from the many people we met.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5TYTa9FJw0

 

You mention that the increase in ground clearance allows you to straddle obstacles (large rocks pictured) rather than go over them. Out of curiosity, do you then have to adjust the angle of your truck so that the rear will hit the obstacle with your tire due to the lack of clearance on the solid axle?

 

Great video and description of parts @BigMike . It's cool to see you carry on the tradition of making things better than factory. I'm not that familiar but assuming your Marlin's son. I remember reading articles back in the day when I was a youngster.

 

Exactly.

I planned on saving these for later (and quickly added annotations), but here are two examples teaching me how to get the most out of RCLT HD. This is dropping down Thompson Hill on Dusy/Ershim near the top of the hill. This is in the middle of a downhill left corner.

The normal line is to continue straight from my position following the blue lines. If you get too far to the passenger side then your rear diff will get high centered at the Yellow dot. If you go too far to the driver side then your front diff gets jammed hard into the rock near the green dot. It's downhill and you can't see over your hood so placing your driver front on that green dot is a nice challenge. There is also a medium sized rock under my belly that is a diff dragger for the normal line and has rocks stacked around it for aid.

If you try to cut the corner right at the tree then you jam either your front bumper or front diff into the rock at the Orange dot.



Opposite that, if you go wide and scale the slab near the Magenta dot then you have to go so high up the dirt wall (causing erosion) or else you'll get the rear diff high centered on the Yellow dot again. Also, this is downhill to the driver side so going up high passenger isn't the best idea.

So a new line I've never done before is I straddled the Yellow dot with the front end (impossible with a live axle, impossible with my old custom All-Pro Long Travel, see next image down) and then cut hard tracking my driver front to the right X, passenger front to the left X, and passenger rear on the middle X atop that Yellow dot avoiding high centering in the rear. Moreover, it was nice getting the truck squared with the hill sooner through the corner which added stability.

Here is another view of the Yellow dotted rock. There is no way my old Long Travel would have gotten over that peak, but I glided right over it now. This view also shows the rock under my belly, dotted Green, with some stacked rocks visible to the right. If we get a good winter then stacked rocks like these are gone by summer and the fun starts all over!



Flipping through my pics I found another one. This one is slightly higher up Thompson.

The line most rigs take are the blue lines drawn, using that large rock someone rolled into the tree to prevent destroying your headlight and fender. The thing is you have to continue past that Yellow dotted rock almost an entire truck length before you can cut hard left for the corner, otherwise you'll absolutely cream your rear end and probably wouldn't be able to reverse back up hill and would need a tug as anyone who's been here can vouch for how loose Thompson Hill is.

If you have an older CJ or a Samurai you could probably squeeze between the yellow dot and the bounder on the far driver side, but you sure as heck don't want to try high siding that boulder because it's already off camber and it's a nasty downhill 4 or 5 foot drop on the other side.



Instead what I did was peg it hard left and I admit this one caught me off-guard and I should have cut over sooner but still managed to get my passenger rear to climb that Yellow dot again getting the truck more squared up with the downhill slope for stability. Having ground clearance like this has been a new learning curve which is why I'm so passionate about it

Toyota has made the new Tacoma so large it makes things look small. This following pic helps give a better sense of the size of these rocks. This is the same Yellow dotted rock and you know my tire size



I have not begun preparing for this Dusy trip report and have hundreds of pics to go through, definitely looking forward to posting soon. This trail is famous for having tight tree squeezes and even has a section uphill from Lake Camp called "The Dark Forest" and one year we had to cut and clear over 60 trees before the trail was passable creating the new nickname Tornado Alley.

 

Here come some tree squeeze pics from the same trail. The added challenge trees present is they greatly restrict available lines. Sometimes you have to hold a line far longer than desired and risk being hung up or high centered in order to prevent body damage.

Large rigs like K5 Blazers and International Harvesters struggle and scrape many trees. Hell, my Tacoma now measures 86.75" wide sidewall-to-sidewall in the front at normal ride height. (Roughly 2.5-inches wider per side than my 1981 Hilux with an FJ80 Land Cruiser front end.) (The Tacoma is 85.75" sidewall-to-sidewall in the rear with 1" wheel spacers.) (A slightly wider front end is desirable for Rock Crawling.)



Another squeeze requiring the folding of my passenger mirror...



And one not only requiring the folding of my passenger mirror but I actually couldn't fit because at this exact moment the front passenger tire was climbing up tree roots on the other side pushing the body into the tree! Side note: The next time I visit Dusy I will be able to get through this section, but more on that later



And finally a completely different section near Dusy Meadows where I was able to just barely squeeze through in first get Triple Low Range 580:1 idle speed hahaha Clearance on the passenger side was like an eighth of an inch but I refused to fold the mirror!!

 

While posting these I remembered this pic of the freak'n humongous tree in the center of the upper section of The Big Sluice on the Rubicon. I still haven't learned a comfortable line through here in the Tacoma yet. In my 1981 it was so easy: Just go straight down the center where the Tacoma's front passenger tire is with your driver side mirror folded in to safely clear the tree and then get out and make a sandwich. Not possible with the Maibatsu Monstrosity that is the 3rd gen Tacoma.



Now that I've completed a particular new mod I keep hinting about but haven't gotten to in the timeline of this thread, the next trip here I'm going to try the far driver side line through the boulders which is the blue arrow path to the right of the below image. I think the Tacoma will be able to make it now. Thank you "rapier46" Jamie for these pics



I've had my 1981 on 37s through the boulder section.

"Yeah, I remember that, day." -Mitch Hedberg



The questionable line choice is dictated by which differential you want to get hung on: Front or Rear Not much you can do to avoid that.....

Unless...... someone developed an IFS setup with certain advantageous rock crawling features.......









It could have gone better but I made it through unscathed with help and a Triple Low Range of 511:1 + riding the brakes



As you can imagine I haven't taken the Taco through here yet. But. I have a particular new addition to the tuck I'll be sharing soon that should make this possible in the new rig.

Oh man. I hope to get out a lot more this year. Going through these pictures is making me absolutely SICK! Here's for hope of a usable 2021 wheeling season

Regards,
BigMike

 

Any plans to double sheer the upper control arm bolts? Or will the arms work with the available aftermarket ones?

 

Was not expecting a place that's only a mile and half from my house to pop up in this thread.
Their okonomiyaki is pretty good.

 

Yessir, I've got some very big shoes to fill!

We've designed our UCA Bushing Bosses to be the same OD & ID as the former USA-made All-Pro UCAs (RIP), which I believe are the same as Total Chaos: 2.25" and 1.75". So the backside clearance around our UCAs should be compatible with most kits.

The length of our bosses, however, are slightly longer due to there being sufficient length of thread remaining on the factory UCA bolt. So our UCA bushings have more meat than others providing a larger surface area for grease and a longer service life than both All-Pro and Total Chaos, probably others. Due to this, if you already have an aftermarket double sheer kit welded in place currently, then you may have to tweak or bend it slightly to get our UCAs to fit.

Otherwise, ...

...Stay tuned

We really love their location in Little Tokyo, LA, and have been there many times since it's right off the 5. I've been to Okonomiyaki resturaunts in many cities from Honshuu to Kyuushuu and my favorite is a little hole-in-the-wall place in the southern end of Kanda, Tokyo, serving Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Been eating there since 2005 and the owner even remembers my name, granted Maikeru (マイケル) is pretty typical for 外人 (gaijin). I hope they are still in business!

I envy your ease of access!! Here is a small collage of some of my wife's homemade okonomiyaki that I used in my emails sent to Chinchinkurin:



In case anyone’s wondering I’ve been to Japan twelve times since 2001 and have logged over 2,000 KM driving stick-shift with my left hand on the wrong side of the road My Japanese is borderline conversational. りゅうちょうでわないよ笑！ which means "I am not fluent!" I can read and write all Hirigana and Katakana, but only about 100 Kanji. Therefore, I only post the very few Kaniji I know because having a computer is straight-up cheating! (To put this in perspective, most natives know over 3,000!) Longest stay was 2-1/2 wks so by the time I just begin grasping immersion I'm back at the airport flying home. I haven’t returned since I got the Tacoma. Another trip is overdue. Plan to retire there someday!

I used to compile Japanese Trip Report and Picture threads over on our MC forum but never finished them. Here is the first I posted in 2005, which was my 4th visit to Japan I think: BigMike's Big Japanese Vacation. The thread links to four other trip report threads, all incomplete!

I even took my parents with me in 2014 to meet my in-laws. Toured the Motomachi factory in Toyota City, Japan with Marlin! Was a great trip.

Here are my folks with us in Nagoya on our way to Aichi: Marlin aka "Mr. Crawler", Mrs. Crawler, my wife Misato, and this goofball!



And can't leave without a castle pic, this one from 2013 of my favorite castle, located in Kumamoto City in southern Japan, the prefecture where I've spent the most amount of my time in Japan. くまモン大好き！

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel

When I fit 40s the first time I was mainly concerned with turning clearance, so I only trimmed fore and aft both tires. Now that I'm finally at the point where I'd like to start tuning the suspension, the first step is to set the up-travel

When I built my 1981 Hilux I ran 14" shocks up front (leaf sprung). The typical design on these trucks is to only run 12s, but being in my early 20s I wanted that "mad flex, yo". It ended up being a bad decision because the up-travel was greatly limited and I discovered that when a truck is heavily loaded, up-travel is more advantageous as you can maintain a level body when it's needed the most. Having a ton of downtravel isn't always useful anyhow: Just because a tire can drop doesn't always mean it'll have weight acting on it to convert into sufficient tractive force. In contrast, the tire which is stuffed the most by definition has the highest force acting on it which is precisely when you want the suspension to work to maximize a tire's ability to use traction

Here is an old pic of my Hilux with 14s in the front. As you can see the driver front shock is nearly at it's bumpstop yet there is a large amount of clearance over the tire



Limited front up-travel will result in things like this. If there was more up-travel on that driver front tire then the body would be more level and we'd have less of a load on the passenger rear tire
There is no reason to be this sideways, or for the poor rear to be maxed out, or for this to look so difficult



Finally, perhaps not the best pic, but this is many years later where I've switched to 12" front shocks providing something like 4 or 5-inches of more up-travel at the tire when articulated. Note how level the body is despite being crossed-up. This wouldn't be possible if that driver front didn't have sufficient up-travel

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

Case in point, here is my Tacoma last year on the Rubicon. This is towards the bottom of the Big Sluice and is one of my favorite spots of the entire trail:





Because the front bumper was built prior to moving the front knuckles forward two inches, my up-travel is limited by the bumper...



It also prevents full steering lock to the side opposite compressed



Even without the bumper, more turn-in will cause interference to the cab



At this position, here is what that passenger front shock looks like. It's hard to tell from the pic but there is a good 3-inches of compression I'm missing out on, and 3-inches at the shock equates to nearly double at the tire, so we have an abundance of tasty up-travel waiting to be realized. The only question is how much cutting of the cab do I want to do...

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

Here is a head-on comparison of this same obstacle with my '81 and it's tuned front suspension vs my untuned '16. The lines aren't the same and the dumb Tacoma has a behemoth wheelbase (106" vs 130"), but it's a decent comparison. The Tacoma has both more front up- & down-travel yet to be unlocked. If it wasn't for the rear 3-link, that driver front on the Tacoma would be hanging in the air due in part to a lack of passenger side up-travel.

My plans should put the Tacoma at roughly +5" more up-travel and about the same gain in down-travel than shown here:



Side note as to why I love this section on the 'Con:
It's right after a nasty tree & rock squeeze that greatly limits your entrance angle to this section, and if you use a cutting brake such as what I have installed to both my Hilux (hydraulic) and Tacoma (mechanical, info @ Reply #579 onwards), then you can juuuuuust barely make this corner wide-right around the boulder as shown without backing up and it's a great feeling when you nail the line just right without backing up!

Without cutting brakes, most long wheelbase rigs will have to make a 3-point turn to get repositioned for the standard center line shown below. (The large boulder shown above is the rock at far left below, left of the second tree.)

Compare the angles between my Tacoma and the blue 4Runner (Hi Larry! ) -- It's like 120+ degrees of vehicle rotation If you try to take the corner without backing up you'll add a significant amount of off-camber to the hard-left steep-drop where I've seen people roll. The line shown below was before I had cutting brakes and resulted from a four-point turn to get the rear end over before the drop. Thank you Amanda for the cool photo!

One more thing is that this corner is made worse due to often needing at least one locker engaged where the 4Runner is at. So you're screwed if you have an automatic locker (Detroit, Grizzly, lunchbox, welded) and you're screwed if your selectable locker won't disengage (Toyota E-Locker, Air Locker, etc). You'll have no choice but to reverse. Therefore, I always challenge myself to try this section with no locker and no backing up which is a lot of fun!

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

So on to Step 2 of 4 of my plan to tune my front suspension: Extra body clearancing!

Removing bumpers on these 3rd gens really showcases why over the hood visibility is so horrible





And this is WITH the front tires relocated two inches forward from the factory!



But at least we have a nice view of RCLT HD

I don't think I've expressed this in the build thread before, but if I wasn't building this truck to feature commercially viable products then a lot would be changing starting with that horrible lower radiator support. If I was building this truck only for myself then I would have cut that stupid crossmember off years ago and designed a lower profile front bumper with a much better approach angle. It even gets in the way of my split-screen dual rock crawling camera system. When you undress things these sore thumbs really stick out and glare at ya. Approach and departure angles were not a priority for Toyota

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

Next I dropped my truck off with a good friend and local customer Bryce, aka TimberlineBryce (formerly: TaroVr6) at his new self-employed business called Timberline Offroad and Auto Body in Clovis, CA.

Bryce is a domestic and foreign collision repair and restoration expert with almost 25 yrs body & paint experience. He worked at one of the largest collision centers in the Central Valley and voluntarily quit to pursue the American dream. Best thing is that he is a fellow off-roader -- wheels a fully built 2nd gen SAS V6 4Runner, -- and is amazing at repairing trail damage. So if you're in the Fresno area then I highly recommend giving Bryce a visit!

Bryce's Facebook: Instagram: http://instagram.com/timberlineoffroad
Phone number: (559) 704-0830 (accepts txt msgs)

This was Bryce's first time working on @SlowestTacoma and I was impressed because its not everyday you find a body guy who understands wheeling and what needs to be done relating to off-road performance. I didn't have to haggle or continually explain "why" I wanted the body cut in such a way to clear the tires in a downhill sharp turn because he's been in that situation on the trail and knows what it'll take to make it work right. Even all of these pictures were sent to me by Bryce so special thank you for taking the time to take pictures for the build thread Sir!



First step was to cut into the cab and then check for tire clearance

"So let's go" -Zohan



It's becoming less and less painful each time the truck gets cut. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing



Made extra supports for the fender mounts

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

With the inner fender walls cut some it was time to check for clearance



Special thanks to Billy at Brute Force Fab for letting Bryce borrow his forklift!



Marlin happened to be nearby and walked over, handed Bryce his phone, and then texted me this pics hahah Too funny





No fork lift flex is complete without a couple RCLT HD pics!



I should just drive around with no fenders all the time!!

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

After marking and doing extra trimming here and there it was time to start on new panels

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

Looking great Bryce. Nice 40" curve!





Weather seal & paint matched to Toyota's paint code

 

March 10 through March 27, 2020: Finalizing Front Up-Travel (continued)

Detail work on the passenger side