Intro to fitting 35s (< 3" Lifts for those that wheel and love alignments)

That’s actually a great point. I was not thinking about the steering. I do miss my old 85 t4r. I built that thing more than what I was capable of handling. I have never wheeled an IFS hard so I don’t know what the limit of the steering rack is. I will leave it to you guys. If you say 35s is the limit of what it will take than I believe you. I see that @JoeCOVA brought up the tundra/LC steering rack as a possible solution. I am actually more worried about the knuckles, I know there are weld on kits to brace those and the shock towers as well.

I know with 35/37s on the old Toyota solid front, the steering box was braced and frame was boxed, I also had every available upgrade for those things. Trussed, knuckle gussets, six shooter knuckle, trunnion beating eliminator, etc. I really went all out short of a custom housing.

 

I know what you mean. Welded up all the gussets and armor yesterday.

Wheelbase is another one. The departure angle sucks. Unless you bob your bed like big mike. I got stuck cuz of my bed being too long. My buddy in his 3rd gen 4runner walked right through it.

 

I've updated the advanced section a bit to cover additional fender trimming, bump stops and spindle gussets.

Hopefully this helps others out.

 

Sweet I finally found what I was looking for!
This is my problem on a 2011.

Cut everything and still hitting when turning.
Great write up Thanks.

 

@fatfurious2 read post #139!
LCAs

 

Theres a bunch of things going on with suspension.

Cmc, pinch weld, UCAs, LCAs, mid travel/long travel/stock travel, tires, wheel offset/bs all come into play. And I don't understand all of it.

This got me to not rub though..

 

Im going to put this out there too when I get aligned.

 

When you get an alignment the tech will adjust the LCA, which are some of the specs on that sheet. They also will adjust your tie rods which directly affects your steering wheel

If you wheel hard, even your cam tabs can bend, which is why some companies make reinforcements for them.

 

Personally I strongly recommend not hammering or cutting the pinch weld, at least until you read the threads on it. There are countless reports of it failing to keep water out after being smashed or cut. There is a reason they made it the way they did and heavily coated it with a waterproof material.

What I would recommend however is, BENDING it. I haven't gotten around to my write up yet, but I was able to successfully and pretty easily bend my weld over using a set of parallel clamping Knipex channel locks. You only need to bend it about 45deg or so to clear the radius for 33s. It also leaves a nice spot to drill new mounting holes for the inner skirt. Call me crazy but I drive in some heavy weather and don't need a door jam full of muck especially in freezing weather.
If you do it in a controlled manner you can bend the pinch weld without significant damage to the weather sealing. I did end up having to do some minor hammering at the end of the job but did so with a plastic dead blow, but by this time the weld was bent in a way it wasn't taking direct hits either and hits were more easily controlled due to the 45deg angle.
There are also a few other reasons not to smash way.
By crushing that weld that is put there to hold two piece together you potentially are going to break the spot welds and synthetic welding material that they use between the two pieces of metal. If you ever watch the way they seam those two piece they use an industrial grade material like JB weld to help in adhering the two sections, then they add spot welds through the two pieces. Smashing away IMHO may break all that up and weaken the body there. And again there are multiple people who have stated after bending it all flat they had water in the inside footwell of the cab, so I'd guess my understanding of the manufacturing is sound. My other reason for not smashing it flat in there, is actually what appeared to be a drain plug just to the outside of the pinch weld on both sides. Whhen smashed flat the pinch weld would cover the plug almost completely, if anything it would no longer be able to be removed, so i figured leaving it some spacers to be pulled would be good for sight, I thought.
Not saying my way is the right way, but I've found going at things HAM FIST usually produces a sloppy product.
I'll try and add this in a full write up soon.
Thanks

 

Here's a picture of my Knipex bending the pinch in. BTW if you don't own one of these Knipex or a couple yet, your wife should divorce you.

 

After I finished I pre drilled holes then use LG sheet metal screws and LG flat washers to re affix the skirt which I trimmed down slightly and used a heat gun like others to form the way I needed it.
I was also able to bend the lower sheet metal that held the lower section of skirt which also rubs on 33"+ tires, with the KNIPEX, out of the way with no cutting and able to use the factory mounting again, just in a position that was further from the wheel turn radius.
I also learned a couple little tricks with the square clips used to affix the inner skirt. If you use a knife, you can push in the two prongs behind the flat flange to unlock it without doing much damage to them. You also can lock them into position when you reinstall them by lightly driving a small screen into the center which forces them to flare.

 

I'm hopefully soon going to be attempting to trim down my Bushwacker flares, and reconstruct my own skirt. I have ZERO rubbing currently, even fully flexed or on hard hits, but I prefer the way the trimmed fenders look and I'd like to start working on this project before I stuff 35s.
I would also highly highly recommend aftermarket bumps. I personally use the Wheelers Off-road ones, but I found that they decreased hard compression significantly and helped prevent a full hard compression at the same time you get heavy tire deflection which I found to be one of the only times I got tire rub, before and after cab mount chop.

 

Both racks are on the shelf here. The 200 Series Land Cruiser rack is similar to the Tundra (Tundra is based heavily on the 200 chassis), but has many notable differences. The 200 rack diameter is 37mm instead of 38mm. The 200 has a variable gear ratio, slower on center, fast towards the outer extremes. The 200 rack is one piece gun drilled, the Tundra is two piece friction welded. The housing, and I believe the piston, are a bit larger on the 200.

I also have a 100 Series rack, but have not disassembled. There are two versions of it. The rack diameter is 35mm according to the seals they sell for it. It may be a better fit into the taco chassis... I'll likely pick up a Taco rack for comparison.

 

Jtekt technical paper on Tundra rack development.

http://eb-cat.ds-navi.co.jp/enu/jtekt/tech/ej/img/no1003e/1003e_08.pdf

 

Nice in depth look at em, appreciate it @Jowett , definitely get a kick out of the technical side of things. Staying tuned for your break down of the 100 series LC and Taco racks.

 

Ok so how bad am I going to be with +4 degrees caster?

 

Sub

 

What UCA’s are you running?

 

Total chaos

 

How does the order process work for the TacoBox? You pay in advance, and then six months later you receive your ‘case?

Also, are you auto or manual transmission?