I want a truck that Toyota never made

Thank you. I don't know at this point if I am stubborn, stupid, or just determined but I am definitely curious enough to see if it works.

 

Good luck with your build, man. Would an El Camino have been an option for you?

 

Those are nice but I love my Toyota Tacomas... just wish they would have made an automatic x-runner.

 

Just incase someone else is researching the difference between the Tacoma 5 lug suspension and the 6 lug suspension, I am going to share some pictures of the front suspension.

 

There is a diagram of the front 6 lug suspension

 

Here are some pictures of the 6 lug front suspension

 

There is a diagram of the front 5 lug suspension

 

Here are some pictures of the 5 lug front suspension

 

Some of the most obvious differences are the mounting location of the upper a-arm. On the 5 lug suspension it is mounted to the frame below the shock bucket but on the 6 lug suspension it is mounted to the top of the shock bucket. This requires a long extension from the knuckle to the upper a-arm on the 6 lug suspension and a much short one on the 5 lug suspension.

 

also notice the difference of where the rack and pinion is between these 2 different suspensions. On the 6 lug it is mounted in front of the a-arms and on the 5 lug it is mounted behind the a-arms.

 

some other obvious differences are the height of the factory springs.. on the 6 lug, they are much taller and on the 5 lug much shorter just like the upper knuckles on both respective suspensions. Plus the 6 lug suspension has an extension to lengthen the factory shock for this extra height, while the 5 lug suspension doesn't.

 

as far as I can telling with all my research on model numbers... none of the major suspensions parts are same between the 2 different suspensions... so you can not just swap out parts to lower a 6 lug suspension and maintain the correct geometry... for this reason, I am going down the avenue of doing a full rolling chassis frame swap on my Tacoma to get me that lower stance of the X-Runner and get me that truck that Toyota never built. Hopefully, this information is useful to others that maybe considering this.

 

This is ridiculous...ly awesome. I love your dedication and determination to create the truck you want, it's truly inspiring!

 

Next step of this swap is complete. I just got the donor X-Runner back from the frame shop and the small bend in the front frame cross bar is completely replaced. They cut it off the old one and welded back on a Toyota replacement along with left and right end plates. Then they checked the whole frame to make sure it is within factory specs. I wanted this done before I move on.

 

Next step for me in this process is to sell the complete engine with all accessories, 6 speed manual tranny, wiring harness, and ECU together as one out of this running 2006 X-Runner with 159K miles on it. I will be posting it up soon on TW. I didn't want to sell it before because it is cheaper to drive the truck to the frame shops to get quotes and the work done. Once I sell of this complete running engine, I can then tear down the whole X-Runner and start prepping the X-Runner frame for the swap. I will be parting out the rest of the X-Runner in the future but not until I sell the complete engine so that I can show the buyer how this engine runs. Of course, the X-Runner rolling chassis is not in play.. also the ground effects are not in play because I plan on using these in my swap.

 

Just went ahead and painted mine. Was BSP painted about 3 years ago

 

Dam.. that looks real nice. I like that a lot. I bet it is a manual tho. I need an automatic for all the heavy Dallas traffic I drive tho because this is my daily. I have tried driving my Suby to work but it just sucks clutching so much in that heavy traffic. But that is the nicest Tacoma I have seen... I am super jealous.

 

What size tire and wheel combo are you running? What have you done to the suspension?

 

thanks, it has came a long way. had it for almost ten years by the time i started modding it. i'm running 20x9 275/40s in front and 20x11.5 315/35s in the rear on a 1.7/2" drop (drop springs up front and 2" composite leafs in the rear)