Scuba's 99 Single Cab SAS.. 5 Years in the Making

Yeah, if you have all your ducks in a row, you can easily do a leaf swap in a weekend. I did the same on my last Tacoma. Hopefully I can get my truck on the road soon! Probably about a 2 month build working weekends on it.

 

Finally got the shocks mounted up today.
I was given a free pair of 12" Bilstein 5125's by a good friend. They ended up being too short. Another friend of mine had a pair of 14's that were too long for his truck. We ended up doing a straight trade and we're both happy.

I drove home 20 miles on the freeway and man, the truck drove like a brand new truck again! It was awesome! I'm fully in love with this truck all over again!

The ford shock towers were perfect. No cutting the inner fenders. There is about a 5* difference in the angle of the shocks because the steering box was in the way but, that's no biggie. It won't be too hard to get the box out if/ when that ever needs to happen. I'll simply need to turn the steering shaft 90* to get at the lock-nut from above. It's all good!









This coming week I have a couple last minute things I need to do to get the truck ready for K2.
I need 1 more birfield snap ring, drive shaft hardware for the front, hardware for the halfmoons on the back of the axle, and hopefully get some front bumpstops. I've got the material for the front bumpstops but I don't have any actual bumps.
Other than that, this thing is almost 100% again!

 

Looks good man! I must have missed it somewhere, but what are your plans for the front bumper?

 

Truck is looking awesome! Where did you get the ford towers and how much were they? I need to pick up some of these or some hoops to get some longer shocks for my rig

 

Thanks bud!

For the bumper I think I'm going to bend it up to look basically like the 4xi one I had previously. Just weld the stinger to the top of the frame horns and go from there. I don't plan on running a winch, but I might put a receiver in there for a hitch mounted winch. Not worried about a winch anytime soon, though. The bumper will probably get bent up in the next month. I can roll without one for now.

I got the towers from low range. They're $35 plus shipping. Priority mail was almost as much as the towers themselves.
I've read you can buy them at a ford dealer for around $15 each. I didn't feel like going to the dealer and haggling so I just ordered them online.
Google search "ford shock towers for toyota" and you'll find part numbers and whatnot.

 

Something like this?



Not that I'm biased or anything

 

thanks man.

i figured at 13 bucks a piece, for as long as i will still have this stupid ifs i might as well carry spare TREs. Interesting on the axles as well, guess ill see how moab goes, and the subsequent wheeling out here after.

 

Over the past few days I had a few things left to button up before this coming weekend at K2.
I got the bumpstops, knuckle felts and wipers, steering stops, driveshaft, and birfield snap rings installed.
It's basically 100% now.
No close up pics but here are a few others from yesterday and today.



Full width probs.



Worked on getting Andy's 4Runner done tonight. His cab chop is almost done (but ready for the trail) and the hydro assist fully installed.




I'll try to get some pics up over the weekend.

 

Hell yeah, love twin peaks got anymore pics of the first gen in the first pic?

 

Had a good time today. It works, plain and simple.
I wouldn't say it's so much better than before but I'm not worrying about the front end as much as before.

 

Wouldn't say it's so much better than before. That's an odd way to say it

 

Lord Scuba and his harem.

 

X2

All that additional flex has to be pretty sweet, right?

 

I'm finally back from a weekend on the rocks out at Katemcy 2 Off-Road Park.

Initial impressions of the truck: Everything works great. I hardly lifted a tire and when I did it was the rear because the 10" bilsteins are too short and I need 12's.

I only had 2 small issues with the truck: A loose TRE on the pitman arm as well as possibly having the pitman arm skip a tooth on the gear box. I tightened the TRE and the pitman arm nut and went on my way making sure not to force the steering into a rock. Will have to look into that issue later.

It was VERY awesome not having to worry about breaking something constantly.
I'm really happy to finally have some beefy parts up front. Being able to spin the tires at 3K RPM in first gear low while attempting to make it up a huge ledge was.. fun. Before with IFS I would have thrown the clutch to the floor the second I had any wheel hop. Not anymore.

For this run being a "shakedown" run, I definitely pushed it. I tested the hell out of the new approach angle. LOVE IT!
The wheelbase is great, too. Pretty perfect in my opinion. Not too long, not too short.
The full width axles give me lots of extra stability.

I definitely need new tires ASAP. 2 of mine are pretty bald and that showed. Especially after the rain hit.
I'm looking into 37x12.5R17 MTR's within the next few months. I'd go 40's but I don't get an employee discount at work yet so I'm going with what I can afford more easily.
I'll most likely be sticking with the same AE alloy series 101's except I'll need new 17x9's. They'll end up silver like my current ones.

Anyway, enough talking, here are some more pics!









Side note: ever since I fist went to K2 back in February I was watching my friends on an obstacle called "smoking butt hole." I said to myself "once I get my truck done, I'm trying that!" I knew I couldn't make the full line after seeing Jason struggle (picture 1) (and his is more built than mine) so I figured I'd settle for the line on the right (picture 2)
Well, after we finally made it to that obstacle on Sunday, I really began having second thoughts. So, I nosed up to it and just sat there for a few minutes thinking about it (picture 3 and 4). I eventually said screw it, I'm here and I might as well go for it. I ended up making it ALMOST all the way up. I had to smoke the tires a little, then gave up. Before my recovery vehicle got there I tried again and came within inches of making it.. Had to take a winch to get all the way up. Oh well, that's life. I need new tires!













Waiting for a tow..


2nd try.. ALMOST!



That's about all the pics I've got from this past weekend. More should be surfacing soon after everyone gets all theirs uploaded.

 

The truck was definitely much more stable than before. I didn't get a chance to really test articulation from the front, but as stated in the post above this one, I never lifted a tire in the front. Only in the rear.
Also, as stated in the very first post of this thread, this swap wasn't about making the flexiest truck out there. It was about making a beefy front end that I don't have to worry about on every obstacle which I definitely accomplished.

I'm still on bald 35's. I don't yet have a crawl box. The new front end was definitely a huge improvement over the IFS but that doesn't mean the truck is 100X more capable. It means I have the opportunity to continue to increase the capabilities of the truck (bigger tires, lower gears, etc) without having a weak ass front end.
I'm happy with it, that's for sure. So don't take that statement the wrong way.

 

I like your approach to the SAS. Gonna share that with my brother because he thinks sticking a solid axle under his '94 Ext Cab will make it that much more capable when capability comes from locker, gears, and eventually bigger tires.

 

I'm torn between 37's and 40's in the GY MTR flavor. Thoughts, opinions?

 

37's will only make you want to go bigger after a few trails, especially if you're already contemplating 40's.

I'm in the same boat. I love my 39.5" Krawlers but man do I wish I did right the first time and got some 42's instead.

Don't forget to upgrade your rear axle shafts to chromo right away with bigger tires....like I didn't do and end up with a pair of twisted splines

 

Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, it's only an extra $500 or so difference from 37's to 40's.

Not that big of a deal when I'll already be dropping $2k.

I haven't been driving as much as the past few years. Hopefully these things will last longer than 2 years.

 

Actually it is a Trekker. Jay has a build on TTORA and Pirate.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toyota-truck-4runner/1007476-81-trekker-build.html