Boxing the frame?

Hahaha!

Maybe it’s a Sasquatch though?

 

The body mount bushings on the 3rd gens have crap load of travel to them, I ended up bending my sliders up into the pinch weld overtime and the bed to cab movement stopped besides the rear frame flex/jitter. Axle wrap will definitely show the playdoe-ness of these trucks though thats for sure

 

FWIW, after a pretty brutal off roading trip, I had a loud clunk at the front when parking and turning my wheels. I went over all my bolts that hold the trd skidplate in place and clunking was gone. Mind you, none of the bolts were loose.

So from my understanding the frame in the front moves quite a bit, even when simply parking and turning the wheels. Not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing.

 

I can tell you my gen1 tundra bed moved around a lot on the same road i now drive my tacoma on. You run too much air pressure in the tacoma's tire's and your bouncing all over the road. I've seen the full size trucks move around to.

 

My Frontier's frame is fully boxed. Rides good, no rust after 12 Canadian winters. Factory Pro-4x suspension is still holding up.

Worst thing I did was put E rated KO2s on it. Way overkill, rode like a 3/4t truck even with the pressure stupid low for daily driving (20psi).

 

I can tell you e rated tires are really only good if towing something really heavy, otherwise for normal driving in most conditions just regular tires. You don't need all those plys unless driving off-road, or heavy towing.

 

A marketing fluff piece about Toyota sourcing high-grade steel from a Chinese supplier for electric and hybrid cars made in Japan (our trucks were made in Texas & Mexico, and now all Mexico) and a written anecdote from you are hardly proof that Tacoma frames are made of "chinesium scrap steel".

Until you provide something factual backing up your assertion, say, a metallurgical test for example, I'm going to just assume you have an axe to grind.

 

I'd settle for these. Probably work beautifully.

https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/pd/

 

Just considering the huge frame recall..I'd leave the frame bone stock without welding, cutting or drilling it as that would disqualify for a frame replacement if Toyota decided to replace frames again..may never happen or be needed again but who knows..

 

Yeah the front of mine I have it all plated, new front crossmember, sliders tied into the cab mount, marlin lca kit which kinda ties that stuff in better, etc. Making some solid-ish motor mounts here soon so then the motor will act more as a crossmember as well instead of a floppy jalopy.

 

This thread was an interesting read, lots for people to ponder.

My biggest question for people would be, what bearing the strength of steel has on the rigidity of the frame?

With some exceptions, most steel is going to have an elastic modulus in the neighborhood of 200 GPa, so unless you’re talking about plastic deformation, the strength of the steel isn’t really relevant to this discussion. To be honest, unless we’re talking about ultimate failure modes, which we aren’t, even other properties like toughness, surface hardness, ductility, etc., aren’t really players in this discussion either.

This topic is more a geometry/feasibility/feature question than a metallurgy question.

Long story short: changing a frame that isn’t experiencing permanent bending to a stronger steel of the same geometry is unlikely to result in a frame that is more rigid.

Jeff

 

I can tell you these tacoma frame's rust faster than anything i've seen when driven in the northeast if not protected. I use to see it with other manufactures, but they seem to have their act together much better now.

 

Flex isn't a sign of cheap or weak. Ever seen how much a semi frame flexes? Lol

 

Yup! But thats a totally different rig for a totally different purpose.
I'm boxing the frame/redoing all the crossmembers because I'm tired of my bed hitting the cab, my frame twisting where my hydro bumps are, and my frame pushing up around the bumper mounting area from dragging the bumper. I want everything to be controlled by the suspension, and not the frame thats meant to be quieter/more cost effective/give you a comfier ride. I'll proably end up just chopping the frame off at the end of the cab anyways.

 

You are an extreme use case putting your truck through stresses (rock crawling) that probably less than 1% of Tacoma owners will ever inflict on their truck. Makes total sense for you to reinforce it, but for everyone else the "noodly chinesium frame" is just fine.