cbechtold's Long Travel IFS Crawler Tacoma Build and BS Thread

Icon, oh yeah ba y god dang good shit right derrr, yee yee!

 

I'm dead.

Ah yes. The good ol' day where I was young and Icon was all the rage.

 

I'm stoked on the progress I was able to make these last few days. Everything, outside of the steering rack, is on the truck so I can cycle suspension for limit straps and bump stops. I will be putting the rack back on to ensure nothing in the steering binds at either full bump or full droop, but that's for another day.


PXL_20220321_011913224 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

It's also not even funny how much up travel I've gained. For reference, at full droop the center of the hub is at 29 1/2 inches from the bottom of the fender, and then at *near* full bump, I'm looking at 16 inches.


PXL_20220321_011818991 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20220321_011559855 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

So roughly 13 1/2 inches of suspension travel. The upper uniball bolt does contact the inner fender on both sides. Driver side is worse, but I can fix that. There's definitely at least some sheet metal work in my future to make everything clear with no issues.

I also decided to bolt up on of my wheels to see how much work it's going to be to make everything fit with no issues again. Remember when I said full bump is 16 inches from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender? and half of 35 is 17 1/2, so that equals....


PXL_20220321_005643412 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr


PXL_20220321_011050560 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

I need to cut the fenders more for the tires. There's a slight change that I need to take some of the inner fender out, but I don't know yet. Need to pull the fenders off to make sure.

Once I fix all the clearance issues, it'll then be time to put these in.


PXL_20220321_012834136 by Cory Bechtold, on Flickr

Like I said at the beginning, super stoked on the progress. In terms of suspension travel, I am going to try and keep most of the travel. I have zero intention of gimping up travel so the goal is to have roughly 13 inches of travel strapped and bumped. Depending on how obtainable that is is basically dependent of how much cutting I end up doing.

 

fender and bumper. I had to wack by Elite bumper back to clear 35s.

when you cycle make sure to give it a spin too, CVs can be binding. Not sure if i saw you modified them to make them good for 14'' or not.

Looking good though!

 

That's the plan so far. I going to have to pull the fenders off to be able to clearance everything. I might be dumb enough and try and clearance for 37s, but that's all dependent on how much work I feel like doing.

So far CV axles feels good. Nothing binds at full droop or full bump. CVs have been modified for LT. I'm aiming for 13" of travel. Should be possible, but I need to do some cutting to make that happen.

 

13'' is totally doable. Think mine got strapped at 13.5''.

 

That's what I like to hear! I might look at pulling the fenders off during the week and start getting an idea of how much I'm going to need to cut at full bump.

Just off the bat, I know 2 inches more have to come out of my front bumper and fenders. It also looks like I'll have to cut a good chunk of my inner fenders out, at least in the areas where the battery and air box sit. I'll find out soon enough though.

 

I'd scrap the inner fenders and make your own.

You'll for sure need to beat a few areas by the air box and battery up with a hammer to stop rubbing....or they will self clearance depending on how you drive

I think I took off 1.75'' off my fiberglass fenders to clear it all well. Probably didn't have to do that much on the top section of the fenders but whatever.

 

That's kind of what I'm leaning towards. That or cut the majority of it out and rebuild it. Similar to this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRO5QKtNBJ2/

I've seen a few people who just let it "self clearance" and I am not about that life. We're gonna do this right the first time. Might clearance with a 37 for giggles/futureproofing.

 

lol clearancing for 37's you're gonna be damn near into the hood

 

ah i didn't mean the full aprons haha but if you wanna spend that kinda time. Go for it! looks nice.

 

I'll be close. If I have to touch the firewall again, then I'll just clearance for 35s for now. I ain't redoing the tub right now.

The other option of throw a tube in between the core support and cab is still an option, but we'll see. Sunday is the next time I'll be working on the truck so I'll have a game plan by then.

 

Shit if you're doing that should just run a 10" coil over and set it up for xlt kit and spindles.


This is escalating quite quickly..

 

Scary how fast it happens. Right now, the best plan for me is to just make the suspension work as is on 35s and clearance what I need to clearance. Depending on how true I stay to that depends on how much work I feel like making for myself. Keep in mind, I still have to tackle the rear suspension, the rear axle, the brakes, and I still have a motor to throw back in there eventually.

 

Pffft…you make it sounds like it’s a lot of work or something?

 

To me at least, it feels like a ton of work. Working 50/60 hours a week on cars already and then only having Sunday as my given day off, the other is random. I do feel overwhelmed at times since I'd like to take a day here or there and no work on the truck, but I'm trying to have the LT and axle swap done before the engine is back in my hands. Likely it won't happen, but I'm doing to go for it.

 

Build burn-out is real. If you feel the need to step away for a day, week, month then do it. It helps get the stoke back up when your not constantly wrenching on your shit box. Because once you are running hard trails again shit will be constantly breaking and you'll be constantly wrenching on your shit box. Trust me. lol

 

I wouldn't say that it's burnout, but definitely when the engine first let go I was very overwhelmed. I thought the engine had more time on hand before something major would fail and that I could retire it from daily driving before this happened or before I do and engine swap.

 

For sure.
I was actually thinking it’s a crazy amount of work but you’re making great progress.
It takes as long as it takes.

 

Yep. Thanks man. Hoping this weekend that I'll have everything clearance properly at full bump. Trying to avoid going into the cab, but we'll see.