Long Travel BS Thread

I'm looking at adding solos fabbed spindle to my kit mainly for the heim lower joint. But it comes with heimed steering and I remember some saying some interesting things about that.

Any reasons not too?

Would heim steering help retain my toe? My toe is the part of my alignment that seems to always go out

 

Afaik you can choose to not go with the heimed steering if you don't want to - they can machine a fitting for a stock ITR. I didn't ask about it too much on the phone so I don't have all the details - I'm not sure if the stock OTR is kept as well with an adapter...

 

Yes.

But if it's better then I'm all for it. I'd get the heim inner joints too.

 

I don't know anyone with a non-xlt kit with the spindles, but @Jon64l has TC heimed steering - I wonder if his toe stays in alignment well or not? Maybe guys with the xlt kit could let you know, although it might be a different ballpark with the solid mounted lowers and heimed steering working together to keep things solid with less play in general in the lower control arms & spindles.

Do your other specs go out of alignment at the same time to some degree, or just toe?

 

Haha, yeah I wonder too! First ride out after a full front end rebuild I bottomed out. Truck was feeling good and liking the skinny pedal, but when you start cooking you get burned. Basically stuffed the passenger Lca pick ups. Well sure that skewed the alignment. So I beat that back best I could, then re aligned.
Next trail was a closed (we didn't know) jeep trail in the Superstition mountains. There was a pinch and my driver front was forced into a rock wall. I had to throttle through it (no locker, some rain) and make it happen. Sweet, well that moved it a tad. Realign.
Yesterday was an easy trail, more exploring than tuff wheeling. Finally at the end there was a nice wash, so I gave it the beans. Nothing too bad but there were some semi aggressive perpendicular rain ruts that we puckered for. Wasn't even a thing, actually felt better on the gas than off. But on the way home I did notice the wheel was a tad off.
It may matter how you treat your things in certain situations, or my bolts are bending. I have heim steering through a Tundra LBJ, no double sheer tab yet. Maybe that will move up the priority list.

I have seen 2nd gen Tacoma LT stock tie tod failure tho. They are extra small.

@Dalandser @4Running Daily

 

From what I have read the plus side to not running helmed steering, is keeping the weak links your outside tie rods because they are easy to change. VS if you strengthen those and your rack because your weak link. Obviously much more of a pain in the ass to replace and a lot more $$$

 

That makes sense. No tundra rack swap for me sadly.

Usually it's my mainly just the toe. Does this on my dd too.

Very annoying and idk how to stop it.

 

Its also depends on your application though. If you crawl mostly, then yep might as well keep the tie rods the weak point. If you are constantly flying in the dez and you blow a tie rod...could be the end of the ride and you if you don't have a cage.

 

Not sure but curious if most with alignment issues/changing have 35" or larger tires? Wheel spacers? These are things that are talked about being harder on wheel bearings and steering racks but its obviously going to need more gusseting and strengthening to keep alignments too

 

I was just about to pm you about this ha

Well im asking for both of my truck. Frankenstein has 35s yes, and i have NO doubt this is a lot of stress on the steering components all around. That and i want to run the unibal lower BJ on the solo spindle so figured the heim steering would be good to run yes? Would it hold the toe better?

And i am also asking for my double cab. I recently ate a whole tire and swapped in the spare and got it realigned on the 12th. Literally just been driving the highway and about 4 miles of very smooth dirt road. And I just ate another tire, but the other side this time. It is worth noting i hit a deer early this month with this truck. Hoping to start the rebuild process this week, but i still usually have the same problem and that is my toe goes to shit compared to the rest of the alignment.

That's a general statement, as on Frank id definitely say that camber gets tweaked a lot too.

But how can i reinforce the tie rods? I have OEM parts and poly bushings so...yea.

Heim steering? Or no?

 

I have ready lift heimed tie rods right now. This is only for stock length arms though not long travel. They have been on for about 18 months and have been used for crawling, higher speed desert stuff, washboard forest roads, and daily driving. I have never had an issue with them and my alignment has stayed in spec over that whole time. I have skinny 34" tires so not quite as much strain as a 35".

 

thanks for the input! They are stock replacement tie rods? Huh..cool.

 

Damn they don't make anything for 1st gens.

 

DMZ
GIANT
CAMBURG
what do u think ?

 

DMZ

 

DMZ

Love my kit and customer service is great

 

camburg

 

DMZ, you can get the hangers perfectly plum. My frame was a bit twisty in opposite directions from the front to rear.
As far as those damn rivets go, I just cut a quick X in the heads and sheared them off with a hammer drill chisel attachment in seconds, ground them smooth and called it a day.
I removed them all the way when I had the Icon bolt on bump kit and it wasn't fun getting some of them out. Had to drill the centers out before they'd release from the frame.

 

any pic ? how much travel u getting

 

Me? It's over 17" of total travel. When I first let the rear down I was shocked by how far it continued to droop. I started to worry I didn't have my frame supported high enough and that the rotors were going to hit the floor first.
Sorry, not the greatest picture.