My 5 Lug

Another update! Married life has been great, but along with it has come less time and less free money to blow on truck parts
However, in the midst of all the changes I finally managed to put the lift on the truck! Doing so was not an easy task however.. I thought me and my buddy could get it done in an evening, but we were very wrong. Every single bolt with on the front suspension components gave us grief -especially the uca bolts.. We struggled for a good 10 hours on the first day trying to get to get those seized suckers out. Most of that time was working on the one bolt that snapped off and was seized inside the bushing. Long story short, we eventually got it out but got the air chisel bit stuck in there instead. We had to call it a day and I was humbled by calling the wife at midnight to come pick me up.


I got the front lift installed by myself later that week and then the rear on another evening. Tires were done by myself in the driveway with my puny bottle jack.


The Mickey thompson I got really pop the tires out, but like others I still had to trim my caliper bracket down to get them to fit. Black boxes also had to be removed for clearance.



End result looks awesome though! Was a bit off compared to how I'm used to seeing the truck at first, but I definitely like the new look and stance!



Now I just need to find a garage that will align it. Apparently the kids at the toyota garage can't align anything other than factory specifications that they can select from a computer

 

Nice build so far! Looks good.

 

Nice buddy!! keep it coming i'm still waiting for more funds for my truck parts as i have way too many projects lol

 

Looks awesome man.

 

Hey boss, awesome truck. I missed what lift kit you went with? It looks great.

 

Thanks for the kind words all! Just keep in mind that these are the truck's better angles I've still got some body work I want to do on the passenger side and the rear.
One of the nice things about being married is she encouraged me to get some of these parts out of the dining room and on the truck!

Thanks man! It's just the basic 2.75 Fat Bob's kit with the short AAL. Luckily I got one of the older models with the solid aluminum spacer in the front vs the new steel bracket ones. (Purchased off TW, too)

 

Thanks for the response dude. Looks like I'll be needing to pay fat bobs a visit.

 

Nice

 

So, I've had the lift and tires on for a while now. Time for an update!
The truck is my DD, so I've put a lot of city miles on it as well as some longer stints on the highway (including a camping trip in the mountains a few hours away.
So here are my impressions:
The biggest thing I was worried about was the gearing with significantly larger tires. Like others have said, the truck is still very driveable on a day to day basis, but it is a bit lacking on the low-end. For example, there is one neighborhood that I live next to where the streets resemble something from San Francisco.. Driving the truck there is no fun, especially at a stop sign on a steep grade in a stick shift. The large tires make it really hard not to stall on a steep incline. Otherwise it is fine, but takeoffs do require noticeably more clutch slip.
On any 4cyl, you're probably going to notice a lack of power on rolling highway hills. While the new gearing wasn't horrible there, I really noticed going up to our campsite in the mountains with a bed full of firewood. That was no fun at all...
Overall, I am getting by just fine for now with the stock gears. However, I would like to have a small rec. boat in the future and I know that a regear would definitely need to take place before that. However that's not always cheap, so for now I'll just keep my eyes open for a prerunner 3rd on Craigslist.

Now that I've had my long winded musings, here are some pics for your enjoyment

The camp site.


The gear. I used our car top carrier to keep everything dry and organized in the back of the truck.


I also got a new riding buddy! His name is Cooper.


Chillin in the bed

 

If your looking for a prerunner you'd probably get a decent trade in towards a used one

 

Just looking for the rear diff. off of one

 

Gotcha, Misunderstood what you said.

 

Finally was able to do a little more work on the rear of my truck yesterday.
I've had a hitch bumper sitting around for quite a while and haven't been able to get a hand installing it, so yesterday I just decided I'd do it by myself.

So for the pics..
Before:


After:


And my custom lift for one man removal/installation:

 

Damn that's sweet bro!!!

 

The red single cab Tacomas looks really nice! What size tires did you get, exactly?

 

What gear ratio are you looking for? You should have 4.10's right now...

 

I'm running 31s. Sorry for the late response, but I haven't been on TW very much lately..

In a perfect world I'd pick up a complete 4.10 third member, but the price of regearing isn't exactly budget friendly. I am leaning towards purchasing the lce header to regain some of my low-end. Mainly because it would accomplish a similar goal for less money and the truck could be converted back to stock (or at least smaller) tires if need be down the road.

 

I thought all the 5-lugs were geared 4.10 stock already?

Is yours 3.73?

 

The manual trans 5 lug comes with 3.31's in a 8.4" housing. The non-e locker 4x4s and prerunners come stock with the 4.10 8.4 thirds.