Fully polished TuRD

6.34.

The night I drove it home, damn thing was hopping like mad.

 

Im saying i dont think you have death wobble.

 

Breaking out the 409. Is there even a reason for you to keep the rear seat belt pieces on the back cab wall?

 

Probbily dont need it cuz its got a cage now! snowy wanted this out of his garage so we swapped it in today:

 

So my head whacks the cage despite it being tight to the headliner, so the next project will be figureing out how to lower the seats and or the floor. that will be a post thanksgiving project as i have to study for a certification test that im taking the day before thanksgiving.

 

Lowerd the seats today and my head no longer whacks the cage. i sectioned an inch out of the drivers side rear seat mount and dropped the mount that bolts to the trans tunnel. the seat lays back a bit more and is more of a bucket style. this is only temporary until i tie the seats to the cage and the cage to the frame next year.

 

So this summer i snagged my in bed tool box on a rock and destroyed it, so next season ill be getting an action packer and screwing that to the bed. This left me with a dillema, where will i stow my hi lift? It has lived for 10yrs in a rust free state in my tool box.... After the cage install i had a flash back to my jeep days when we would use muffler clamps and wing nuts to secure the hilift to the cage. So i picked up some 1 7/8 muffler clamps and this neat plastic handle thing, i mean im grown up now time to step it up from wing nuts. I clamped the muffler clamp to the cage, mounted the hi lift and screwed the handle thing on there. Now i have a secure cage mount thats out of the elements, and it will help hold whatever i keep back there in place. i know i lose some mall poser points because its not prominently mounted in the bed on display for all to see that i wheel, however ill gladly take the points deduction for a flawlessly working, non rusty hi lift that wont get stolen.

 

I finally got the rest of the SD trip pics off my wifes phone:

 

wow....those rocks were just begging for a bite of sheet metal

 

And some more:

Cabin tire rotation, eventually had to do the same thing in a rest stop on the drive home:




This spot kicked my ass and i Austin Powered it for like 40mins.

 

Funny thing is this was the first trip that i can think of where i didnt get ANY body damage. These were by far the hardest trails i have ever wheeled (all of John Bull).

 

Nothing like an uncomplicated tow hook install....

 

all you guys obsessing with building SAS low-riders. It ain't that fun being so low in the rear wheeling world, huh?

I'm with ZUK on this one. Replace the frame one piece at a time...though we know how much you love doing fabrication

Man, that's just too low! You need a lift kit now on that SAS lol

I really want to install a cage in the future. How is it driving around with that thing? Is it uncomfortable at all?

 

I built a low rider for a few reasons: I still have to drive it to the trails and around town and didnt want a cop magnent. Also i LOVED the stability of the IFS, i could side hill like crazy, with no real worries of flopping (although i did twice LOL) and didnt want to lose that. Plus i rockcrawl/trail ride so i didnt need much up travel. I have only 3" of up travel on the drivers side and 4 on the pax. And 11 and 10" of down respectively, so shes a stable girl!

As for raising it, i may try to raise the belly and get break over height back that way.

Driving with the cage isnt bad, this is my second vehicle so i drive it when its nice or when the DD camry breaks like last week. I have to wear business causual to work and rubbing my pants on dirty cage bars would get old if this was my only ride. My big concern is overhead clearence. I droppd the rear seat mount about an inch and my head now clears the cage, but not by much. I got the go ahead from my wife to buy new seats this year, so i want to tie them into the cage and dropping them further that way, or maybe even hacking the floor out and dropping that. These cabs are just so tight!!

And lockers and swampers SUCK in 1/2" of snow. I thought i was going to die the other day when i was caught in an unforcasted snow shower on the way home from work.

 

Going with full width axles takes care of 90% of stability issues. Keep that in mind for your next build

Up travel is over rated by the way!

I am wrapping my head around potential ideas for cages. I would love to have an internal rol cage. But my truck is a reg cab and it is already too cramped as it is.

The words "super swampers" and "nice highway ride" do not belong in the same sentence lol.

 

Im at 66 in the rear, so im plenty wide! The issue with fullwidths are that our trails can be VERY narrow, and reference the street issue.

Yea the swampers do ride like shit, however i never had a vehicle try to spin around letting the clutch out at a stop light, it was crazy! Even pre swap i preferred driving the camry in the snow accumulations under 4", felt way safer!!

 

if the trails are narrow, yea, that can be an issue with wide axles.

I had a few scary moments back in the northeast when it was snowing because of the lockers. I ended up driving extremely slow, like a grandpa, during snow days. It took forever to get everywhere haha

 

Yea thats what i get for deferring a starter change on the DD to a weekday after work because i was too lazy to do it over the weekend. It was one of the only times i was happy to see bumper to bumper traffic!

 

It was "better" but still sucked in snow under 4", even when i had an elocker/open compared to a FWD car. The problem is in snow you want the tire pack up a bit because snow grips snow better then rubber grips snow, but an agressive tire the lugs clean out and you lose that grip. I would take my camry anyday in the snow, as long as it wasnt super deep over the tacoma, but like you it was a dd for 10yrs before i got the camry.
My issue was in brakeing and handling, it took off fine in 4wd.


Now that i think about it, i dont think i ever drove the tacoma in the snow with an auto locker with 255s. We didn lt get much snow last year and i never took it out of the garage all winter.