Old Man Emu setups on 1st gens

To check fitment, measure the distance between the lower and upper shock mount at full stuff and droop. If those numbers are
Inside the extended and collapsed length of the shock, you'll be fine.

 

Yes, they work great on stock suspension if your wheels have 4.6" or less backspacing.

I bought my 235's from another TW member and they were already mounted on 2nd gen Tacoma wheels with 5.25" backspacing. That setup caused some frame rubbing at full lock but no fender or wheel well contact.

I had them remounted on 3rd gen 4Runner wheels with 4.6" backspacing and have had no issues since then.

As far as I know, all OEM T100, 1st gen Tacoma, 1st gen Tundra and 3rd gen 4Runner wheels have 4.6" back spacing.

I love how this size tire looks and performs on my truck. The only thing that annoys me is there are very few aftermarket 16x7 wheels available and 235's are not recommended for 8" wide wheels.

I have a bunch of photos of my 1st gen with 235's in my build thread. I hope this info helps!

 

Thanks alot for all the great info. My 03' Taco came with 2nd Gen Taco rims (like yours) from the previous owner. I have no idea what the backspace is, but I really wanted some 2nd Gen stock steelies (like you had) with the 235's. I just have to check the backspace I guess or get spacers. Great build thread!! Thanks again

 

All of the 2nd gen Tacoma wheels are 5.25" backspacing whether they're steel or alloy. That includes the spare tire steelie which looks the same as a 1st gen's but isn't.

 

Good to know. I guess 1/2" to 1" wheel spacers would be needed if I stayed with the 2nd gen rims, unless I could find 3rd gen 4Runner rims on the cheap. Thanks again for the help

 

I finally did it! Got the new suspension installed on the truck yesterday and couldn't be happier. Handling is amazing compared to the aging and overworked stock leafs and coils and blown P.O.S. KYB shocks. With the ARB bumper and the oversized shell I opted for the 2883 coils and the Dakar leaves with the additional CS046R leaf added into the leaf pack for extra support. I also did the OME nitro shocks on all 4 corners since they are designed to be used with the OME kit. I ordered everything from wheelers offroad and they were great to buy from and very helpful in answering a few questions for me.

I now have a little bit of cv boot rub in the front, but am planning on adding a warn winch in the near future and expecting to see everything settle a bit more with a few more miles. The ride is substantially more stable and surefooted on the road now. It went from felling like driving an overloaded box truck on mr toads wild ride to feeling like a normal car or truck on the road. Don't have enough off road time to report on that yet, but the bumpy, lumpy barely maintained county roads by my house feel much better than before also. It is a little more stiff in terms of small bump compliance at speed, but not in an uncomfortable way.

Before:

After: (~20mi later)

The cabover shell on the back was made by Access Mfg. (same company as Tradesman) and weighs about 400#. I got lucky and found it used locally. The home-built roof rack with 2x100w solar panels, cargo platform and awning ad an additional 125#. There's also a basic wooden bench/storage/sleeping platform/surfboard storage setup inside as well as an engel fridge, light electrical system and 125Ah battery for the solar system. I didn't see many picture examples in this thread of trucks with heavy bed loads so I hope seeing this could help someone else know what to expect. The extra set of (new/old) leafs, coils and shocks are in the back in each picture also. Altogether ~800lb extra on the bed and ~100lb on the front with the bumper. The truck is a 4wd manual V6 extra-cab.

Next up is all terrain tires and a winch. Looking forward to much, much, more!

A big thank you to everyone who has posted here in this thread as I read literally the entire thing and found it all very encouraging, informative and helpful.

 

@TurtleTruckTraveler

Looks awesome!! Like a rig out of the Austrailian Outback

 

OME front and rear with Light Racing UCA's. 16in SCS F5's

 

That black is too damn shiny

 

I would love to see more photos of that camper (inside, fully opened etc.)

 

When people are putting on the dakar's do you reuse the same U bolts or are people buying new ones from wheelers?

 

I bought new ones from wheelers. Been a minute but I think it's a bigger leaf pack so you'll need the longer U bolts.

 

you will need the longer Ubolts

 

I spoke with arb and they said the stock ones can be re used

 

Everyone recommends not reusing U-bolts in general though. Not entirely sure why this is, but if most Taco vets say to get new ones when changing leafs, I'll take their advice.

 

Yeah went ahead and got some from wheelers (plus i need some candy )

 

I'm looking forward to the day I buy from them. I can never have enough goodies to munch on. Oh that and suspension parts are nice too.

 

When you torque them down they stretch and the "stretch" is only good one time if you want a guarantee they'll stay tight with new springs.

 

U-bolts are manufactured with a smooth rolled thread, the nuts are made with a sharp cut thread, when a U-Bolt is tightened the U-Bolt threads stretch as they mate with the nuts. U-bolt should never be reused because when you remove the nut you cross thread the bolt.

 

Noted! Now I have reasons for not reusing U-Bolts.