Fitting 35’s with minimal trimming NOW ADDING LONG TRAVEL AND 934 CV’s

There's 3 of us in NC doing them. I should have mine on next time we wheel and you can check them out then. The geometry thing Harry explained oh shit in the first handful of pages iirc

 

So going to a 1/4” skid plate or an additional .060 thickness isn’t gonna so much then. On the LCA kit the skid is supported by 1 1/2” .188 wall tube on either side and worst case is you can get a replacement for $50

 

I’m sure it’s stout, you make good stuff. It’s just not enticing enough for me right now between cost and labor and then fabbing connections to my rear skids and up to my custom crossmember. It can definitely be done though, and maybe eventually will when I run out of other stuff to do since I’m never done.

 

I think you completely missed my point.

 

Hell yeah, I’m anxious to see it.

 

Yeah my truck is going to be A LOT different!!!

 

I can’t find this anywhere either haha- What’s the most travel you can get in the rear while keeping SOA? Everything I see with a bed cage is SUA

 

+2.25” with McNeil 2” fenders on 35” Toyos and 3.5bs 16” wheels

 

Stock length leafs will be around 12” longer leafs, probably 14”

 

Pretty sure it’s 13” soa and 17-19 with sua like Jd’s, DMZ and dirt kings.

I think Dirt king uses same deaver spring as JD if I’m not mistaken, just without the god awfully long hangers that look like pogo sticks.

 

That's a loaded question. How much you wanna spend but can be a lot or a little..... You want to do some crazy shackles like the missing links???? Keep stock mounting locations or go linger springs. Soooo many variables.

I've seen some caged SUA set ups with travel #s similar to what a good AG HH and relocation is getting because of poor set up

 

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I interpreted your statement to mean that the ultra4 cars you work on are very good rock crawlers, and they do not require steel skids. Therefor a 3/16” steel skid on a Tacoma will survive rock crawling. I disagree with this statement, as the ifs Toyota 4Runner 4600 car I work on mangled it’s 3/16” steel skid plates at KOH this year. Now, they are not your skid plates and I have no experience with your skid plates, so I can’t say yours would not have faired better than those did. But between that truck mangling 3/16” steel skids, and my yearly ritual of bashing my 3/16” steel skid plates with a sledge hammer until they are straight ish again, I have to agree with @EatSleepTacos in saying a 3/16” steel skid does not hold up well to real rock crawling in an ifs Toyota truck

 

With a 2.25” kit, would anything over what hammer hangers can do be worth it? I’m down for whatever. I do like to find the point of diminishing returns though haha

 

I’m gonna build another set out of ar500 1/2” plate. Then I can scout out IED’s with the truck too. Really a dual purpose build.

 

Short answer yes long answer move to a different thread don't want to clog this one up too much.

 

I can’t say it enough, the answer is not thicker material it’s a better design. The reason ultra4 cars run thin aluminum skids is because they are designed properly with tubing behind the aluminum. For example if I was to build another Tacoma I would do my skid out of 1/8 aluminum and would connect each side of the lower pivots with a X under the motor. The skids fail because of the large, unsupported spans they see. Round tubing is far stronger than flat pieces of steel.

Unfortunately the Tacoma community has been force fed the cookie cutter, bolt on stuff for the last 15yrs because that’s where the profits are for these companies. This thread is all about educating people and there is a better way! If you are reading this thread and interested in these products then you’re not an Instagram overlander. It’s time to throw that heavy crap in the trash and start building things smarter.

Tacoma’s are already heavy, under powered trucks with light duty OE drivetrain parts, stop making things worse by adding thousands of pounds of unnecessary junk. I could go on forever on this topic but the moral of the story is if you make the truck lighter it will work better and tear up less parts. Don’t be a sheep and add a ton of bolt on armor because that’s what you were “told” to do

 

Yes 100 times over I meet my limit of my archive setup pretty fast as soon as I started going out on my 2.25 kit.

it’s the up travel that kills you. Archive is great for people that go slow, tons of down travel. As soon as you get speed you need more and more up travel, which is where something like JD‘s spring under comes in. I’m pretty sure it has close to same down travel though.

 

But why do you want boat anchors hanging off the back of your truck?

 

You have my attention with the X and aluminum skid. If you got time tomorrow I'll shoot some ideas off ya!

 

I don’t disagree with any of that, but I guess that’s where I’m confused on the point you are trying to make. The skid plate on your lower arm pivot kit does not have an X under the motor to support that style of skid plate. So the skid plate that comes with the set up you currently offer would have the same downsides as most “bolt on” skids have. I’m not trying to diss your product at all, I’m stoked to see people actually innovating with useful products for Tacoma’s, I just don’t see how that set up would fair better than any other 3/16 steel skid