Long travel kits for a beginner

I would seriously hope you have LT if you're running a 12" coilover lol. The only kit that I've seen that uses a 12" is Trac Performance.

 

I don't have 12" coilovers lol, 12" stroke rear shocks bud, gusseted shock towers, cam tabs, spindles, relocated crossmember, bumper mounts, rear frame crossmember( in process) and that's just my truck mid travel, and I beat on it

 

you sir, I believe to have half-ass quoted me in a context completely opposite of what I tried to type.

the "quote" button is there for a few reasons, not only does it save time, it also serves to limit confusion. read my post again without getting so defensive

 

Read it again and again, and I must be missing your point. All I was trying to reiterate was that some LT suppliers put a lot of engineering in their parts to work for many different applications, not just desert racing. That's why their parts are so much more expensive and better built than factory stamped steel you get from Toyota.

 

ok, I might have been a little ambiguous I guess.

I meant that any lt kit has been tested hard, and like I stated will perform better than stock while being stronger, but not necessarily for every-day jump in and drive to work people that don't care to look things over under their trucks on occasion

for the record im completely neutral on the subject and would love to have a kit if I had an extra few $k, but am also happy with near-stock because I know it works

 

I think the +2 kit would last you the life of the truck. There is a little more maintenance than stock, but not much.

 

Thanks.. now I have to reevaluate everything I've read... LOL

 

& re evaluate you should, I'd be asking myself how much $$$$ am I willing to spend you can easily spend 10K setting up just the front to an LT status, easily another 5k + for the rear & this still isn't top of the line for LT's, you mentioned about wanting a go anywhere,do it all kind of truck, so does every member here, what I'm saying is be realistic about what you want & you're expectations... No matter how much $$$$ you throw at an offroad/onroad/DD it still comes down to 20% truck 80% driver for successful enjoyable offroading...good luck

 

Thank you sir.

 

The difficult thing about asking for advise on the web is that it's hard to tell who is a subject matter expert and who is living in their mom's basement. The cool thing about TW is you can look what the dude drives that is giving the advice and decide with a fair level of accuracy whether he is blowing smoke or not. That said, find guys that have a +2 All Pro kit and see what they have had to do. For my TC kit, I replace the bushings and uniballs every 30K miles or so. I'm hard on stuff though, and if you are mostly cruising around the woods you may get a much longer life out of all the moving parts. Yes, it's a big investment that you will never get back, but it's worth every hard earned penny in my opinion.

 

Thanks. I've asked DefconBrix about his build and so far everything seems to be working great. Roughly 20k or so miles driven and not a problem.

 

I just went Long travel from a drop bracket lift. So far, it's been great. I did do the install myself with the help of some local guys but what makes me nervous for your sake is your new to the truck scene. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew - depending on where your located you might be forced to do all of your own work because there is no one local with long travel experience. sounds like you'd be happy with a mid travel set up though.

Worst part of the whole job was rebuilding the CV axles even then it wasn't horrible just a messy pain in the ass.

I cant say anything bad about the all pro +2 kit but I will sway you towards the Total chaos +2 with race series lowers. Gains ground clearance, saves weight and it has secondary shock mounts for future upgrades.

 

not hatin on the LT cuz its awesome what you can do with it, but if your only gunna use it for minor offroad use i would recommend old man emu..ive had the full lift for about a year now and it is ample lift and comfort for anything ive asked it to do (wood trails, muddin, occasional rock climbin) and its great as a DD as well...bottom line is its your truck and your money just throwin in my.02...good luck either way!

 

I think first & foremost LT is for 1 thing, going fast over rough terrain with little interior movement or translation hauling ass over whoops & feeling almost nothing, does that mean it can't do other things? of course not but still is based on what we've seen/known for years from the desert & Baja
races...

This thread is almost like a troll thread

 

You also get gnarly articulation out of it

 

What is articulation? Sorry

 

No need to be sorry. That's how I learned all this too, but asking questions.

Articulation is how your suspension flexes up and down, whether it's the front or rear. In the above photo, my rear suspension is articulating up, and front is going down.

Also called full droop, or full stuff.

 

Ohhhh so articulation is equivalent to travel?

 

Thanks so much for your help lately too sir

 

Close, but not exactly. Most people thing travel in 2 dimensions, meaning up and down. Articulation, to me at least, means a 3 dimensional motion of each tire going from full bump to full extension in relation to the opposite side of the truck. Vehicles with solid front axles are said to articulate better because if one side of the axle is moving up (climbing a rock), the other side is forced to go down in an equal but opposite fashion. On IFS suspension or independent front suspension, like our Tacomas come with from the factory, each side is free to articulate independently of the other side, however, there are many limitations to how well it is achieved. I wouldn't say they're equivalent, per se.

And it's my pleasure. Always happy to help anybody who is willing to ask questions and learn. That's how we all started.

Here is an example of my truck "articulating" the front suspension (IFS):



And here is an example of one of the Jeeps at my shop doing the same with a solid axle.