Marlin Crawler's New Rock Crawling Long Travel IFS Suspension System (#RCLT)

Regardless of what they say there is nothing stopping you from doing it. If you are willing to take the time to tune it properly you can alleviate that issue. But your standard customer does not usually have the knowledge or the know how to do it. Take me for example....I had 4 inch bumps on my DMZ setup....didnt like how quickly I would get into the bumps and the resulting quick rebound that didnt actually buck but was in the ballpark....so I made spacers to shorten them up to 2 inch bumps and lowered the pressure in the hydro bumps and messed with the rebound tube on the bypass and made it much better. More people than not dont have the tools or capability to do that.
My homemade spacer:

 

That makes sense. Tuning is a big part of the setup.

 

I have almost 10k miles on the black boots and lots of wheeling. I was told they were the same but I've seen lots of the orange ones go out.

 

Haha same thing happened to me after I had already notched my motor mount (the v8 mounts are wider). I had to go back in and cut more but it made a huge difference in steering feel. Luckily I noticed within the first 15 miles or so.

 

Keep me posted on this. If I remember correctly from my install, there was ~1/2" of shock shaft remaining when the RCV started to bind, so I strapped it with 3/4" of shaft remaining (then re-adjusted them after the straps stretched a bit). I had considered running a diff drop to get that extra downtravel, but decided against it because with little baby BFG 37s ground clearance is more important than an extra 1/2" of droop.

 

Did your ultimate axles come with black boots or did you get their standard axles? I havent dont too much wheeling yet, so it is disappointing that the boots have already torn. It looks like the inner boot is starting to tear as well.

BTW. what happened to your rig? I saw that insta post. Need details so I can make sure your stuff is good and we can avoid the same issue.

 

You did all the clearancing and it checked out, but once you got it back together the steering issue presented itself? I am curious if we didn't check the clearance properly before putting the diff back in, or if the RCLT instructions are not clear for that stage.

 

My ultimate axles came with black boots bc the orange ones were out of stock at the time. No issues so far.
My rig? Mine is all good, just ran a few trails over the weekend actually. You talking about @amg_t4r? He broke the stub shaft and add housing on a trail. Then looks like he drove it without the front PS axle and the bearing backed out and wheel fell off. The outer cv and axle nut keep the bearing in place. I keep a set of inner/outer CV stubs with me, no axle shaft, just the stubs.

 

Someone went a little too hard on their RCLT
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf2OdYDOetW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

The v8 mounts are wider and that wasnt covered in the original instructions. Mike added it in after he saw what I did. The shaft was clearing until I started driving it and got it aligned. Might have been not clearing for all I know, it was hard to see and work in that area.

 

Not sure why everyone on IG is slamming RCLT for this one. He broke factory components (add tube and stub shaft) bc RCLT is beef and moves the weakness to the few factory components remaining up front. Also, this guy wheels the crap out of his 4runner so it's got some wear and tear on it. Driving it around with no PS CV axle, and therefore nothing holding the bearing in place, wasn't the best idea. This scenario makes a strong case for keeping the CVs as the weak point and/or keeping it to 37s.

 

Hmm the more you know….. I didn’t read a single comment. Just saw the RCLT and posted it here.

 

Because you could SAS it for less and get more benefits and stronger components all around.

But ya not really an RCLT issue.

 

Ahh I got the trucks confused. Sorry! That is a bummer. Good to know it was no fault of the RCLT. I am glad I did the ADD delete. Dont want to drive around with a spare ultimate CV though. What else can we do?

Ahh Just noticed you mentioned carrying the stubs, not the whole CV. That makes sense.

 

Debatable on the cost. No doubt SAS with tons is stronger and better for rock crawling. For a jack-of-all-trades build like mine, I have zero regrets.

 

I see. My was rubbing on the aftermarket engine mount gussets. The 05-06 tacomas have a tendency for the frame to crack there, so the gussets were important to add.

 

Yep. You get the dmz ones? I plated my mounts and frame around them even though I couldn't find a single example of the v8 mounts failing. The 2uz is a boat anchor and I was in there already.

 

My Dana 60 that I built myself from an F350, including links, seals, gears, rebuild kits, ball joints, locker, hubs, OEM brakes, etc was about $5k, with shocks $6200.

However, I think the biggest thing is cost and Big Mike hyping everything up like it's the greatest thing in the world. If he didn't soapbox so much or the price was around $3-4k then they probably wouldnt get so much shit for it.

 

With current prices a SAS is gonna cost quite a bit more. Plus you need the experience/knowledge to make it work properly. I did my rear 3link and that was on the outside of where my fab skill level was at the time. Doing that on a steering axle with a motor in the way was out of my league. And paying labor isnt an option for me. Id love to have a crawler project someday, but not with a 4th Gen 4runner. Another advantage is i have no dash lights on. All road safety features intact, which was a must for me since I road trip with my kids. Also $3-4k? Even a TC +2 kit will set you back 6-7k, with no steering upgrade.

 

Dang had no idea the TC kit was that much, when I looked into them a couple years ago it seemed like only $3k