Doing LT in stages?

I've been wanting to go full long travel on my 2012 Tacoma since I got it in 2011. I'm about to turn 100k and need to replace shocks and tires soon. I don't have the money to go all in yet. I could do front coil overs with UCA's and rear shocks with leaf springs.

I'm wondering can I Phase the LT setup?

Phase 1: Install front king coil overs with Total Chaos UCA's. Install rear 2.5 rear shocks with new leaf springs.

Phase 2: When I have the money, install Total Chaos LCA +2 or +3.5, with straps and bump stops.

Phase 3 would be to install front
bypass shocks, then rear would be to go with a rear shock tower.

My whole reason for doing this is to start working toward it in chunks. If this won't work and I need to purchase everything at once then so be it, but I want to know, since I haven't found anyone doing this.

Appreciate anyone's comments, opinions and experience on this.

 

No. Long travel ucas are not the same. You cant do normal uca then LT lowers. Literally EVERYTHING is different

 

You haven't found anybody doing it because no one has. Its impossible parts are different completely. I have gone my self from spacer lift to mid travel to long travel and now an extreme long travel kit haha. Defiantly find out what you want to do in the long run to save time and money. If mid travel it is or Long travel. But be aware of maintence and abuse long travel trucks go through.

 

I'm doing the rear on my truck first and just keeping the front mid travel so I can save up for the front kit. You could put some take offs from a 16-17 or some used rebuildable coilovers for the front to not spend a lot on that and put your money into the rear - it'll give you more useability out of your truck compared to doing your front first, but it just doesn't look as fun / cool / sexy lol.

 

you can start ordering and stacking parts in stages..
used market can turn up some great deals if you have the cash sitting waiting

 

You also need longer CVS. Hard to phase that in.

 

Best bet right here. Would be better to find a used front kit but they don't come around very often.

 

Not many people sell used LT. Its a build and be done with it kind of thing.

OP why do you want to go LT?

Mid Travel with lockers can hang with almost anything.

 

I wouldn't be too sure about that - most guys on here have bought used parts if not whole kits / trucks used to add to their builds. Until you get to weld in components it's like anything else that's upgradeable or worth selling off before you sell the vehicle so it's probably not seen as often in areas with less desert running, but we have a lt classifieds and Race Dezert has one too for people outside of the desert regions to scope out.

 

Depends on where you live I guess - between this site, OfferUp, RD, eBay, and CL I can find a lot of stuff used for LT - just not the stuff I want most of the time

 

Yes. When you have money you get better deals - the irony.

 

Your front shocks wouldn't be able to be reused as well. Mid travel shocks are different than the LT kits. Honestly, I would suggest a phase 1 kit. Its still capable unless you actually plan on using the travel an LT kit offers. I'm sure plenty of LT guys will chime in. I'm running essentially the same as your phase 1 and its great. Not sure exactly what your primary use would be but seeing that you are from the PNW, would that serious of a build be worth it without any desert to use it? To each their own, I would love a LT kit but I wouldn't use it for what its meant for as I live in MT and far from any wide open deserts. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks all for chiming in. I'm on my way back from Lake Tahoe now. Did some camping at Fallen Leaf Lake. I like to mob through dirt roads and trails around the west coast. I also want a smooth ride as this is my DD.

I think I will go with the Mid Travel setup. Because I am up in the PNW, the only shop near me that I know of is 4 Wheel Parts. They don't offer Total Chaos or King shocks. I will likely be doing the install myself. My only problem is that I don't know what exactly to get. Any build threads that you guys can recommend or exact parts? I want to fit 12 inch wide 33 inch diameter tires, so some body cutting maybe required.

 

Guess it can happen. I have seen a lot of LT parts fail, like ball joints and bushigns. I would not want to go with a used kit anyways. They are always beat up.

 

Hope you had fun in Tahoe, that's home for me. Check out my build thread, its in my signature. I'm running 35's though. Hope it helps you out

 

Cool! I grew up in the area, Nevada City. That's my home town. I wish I could move back, but I need to be in a major coastal city for work. Thanks!!

 

Yeah there's a small percentage of kits that get sold that never got put on and the seller sold their truck or changed their build plans. Then there's the lightly used and rebuilt kits that are probably like 30-40% of what I see. Then you got the beat up and mismatched sets lol. First getting into it buying new isn't a bad idea until you know what you're looking at in terms of price and what to look for I'll agree. Still keep an eye out and new / almost new kits come up on here and RD every once in awhile. I just sold a $5000 kit for $3000 that never saw dirt with 6k of daily driving on it.

 

I bought my coilovers first so that they could go ahead and be built (ordered beginning of june, got them beginning of july). In the middle of July I made a 2000 dollar down payment on my LT kit to have it built and ready to ship, then when I got the rest of the money I paid the rest and it was shipped the same day. Theres really no way to piece the kit together besides letting it sit in a box until you have all the pieces. You can use paypal credit or finance through Offroad warehouse to get it and install and string the payments out. I wasnt keen on financing something I didnt need at all so I just saved up for it.

 

Im doing the same with my rear now...collecting up shit for when I got the funds to throw it on. Unless you got a fat credit card to throw it on, many just save for the big day.

 

Check out my build.
It's in stages I guess and mostly used parts.
I did everything/installed/made it and finished what I could in a day to keep it street legal. Meaning I would drive out to my grandparents house in the morning install, fix, fabricate stuff and drive it home at the end of the day and go to daily drive it to work the next day.