So you push your 1st gen offroad - what cracks next?

I trashed the driver and passenger guides and it was starting to rotate internally making it notchy... leaked too but that was a minor concern. I've bent three ITREs though, so you're right they aren't great either.

 

I've definitely had Notchyness/worn guides as well, but with enough miles on it that it wouldn't be unusual to replace on many street only driven vehicles.

 

Yeah and I agree, but not after 2 years on a new rack. I've started hoarding junkyard OEM racks now. Most are fine but just leak, big whoop, they last a few seasons and then you toss em in the trash. At $30 a rack it's a no-brainer vs a $600 rack that lasts just as long. But I would like to run a stronger rack and avoid changing them all together.

 

I haven't broken a rack to where it was inoperable anymore, just wore out. I believe that's the most common case with those that wheel their rigs. Had tons of slop in the main rack slide to where the steering was super wonky and poor feedback. Still kept fluid in though

Bent my fair share of ITR as well
https://youtube.com/shorts/3GQK6nqwgtg

 

They just get to a point where you can no longer hold an alignment and you have enough tough spots in the steering that they're unpleasant to use, but a rack has never stranded me thankfully. You can only change the driver side rack bushing unfortunately too so once the pass side goes you're kinda just done unless you wanna spin up some oilite bronze on the lathe yourself to replace it.

 

This is one of my favorite sayings.

 

Full hydro ifs first gen pics

And I bent both inners in three trips so I am going to heim inners with a camburg kit and I am leaving stock outers so I don’t need to change the lbj.

This is on LT and would be cramped with stock outers on stock width.

 

ooo ooo I've split racks in half!!!

There was a guy that swapped a hydro ram into his 1st gen tundra. Im sure you could on a 1st gen taco.

 

I don't think it counts when you neglect balljoints long enough for the entire spindle to fall off taking the rack with it

 

Busted the welds that hold the window track to the door. As you'd imagine it makes a ton of noise if the window is not rolled all the way up into the window frame



How it's supposed to sit:

 

That makes a lot of sense, probably the case on mine, I just always figured the window tracks had plan in it and just rattled when it wasn't all the way up.

 

Before I opened it up I was thinking I just needed to tighten the bolts that hold the glass in to the regulator but was unpleasantly surprised. I'll do my best to throw a weld on there and see if it lasts any amount of time lol

Do you have the black 1st gen with tan soft topper I see around Longmont from time to time?

 

I bet mine is snapped off, its got a real bad rattle when its cracked. slightly better when all the way down, but still a knocking style sounds on the inner or outer door panel.

That is probably me, I lived in Longmont up until about a month ago when I moved to Firestone. But I usually drove the Tacoma around for errands and up and back to lyons.

 

Is this only possible with aftermarket shocks/lift kits? I have a 3” lift kit with the HD Toytec springs, but I have a stock front bumper and factory UCAs. It seems like limiting straps would only be needed with aftermarket UCAs that give you more droop than the engineers were accounting for.

Also, like the other guy said, I wonder how much of a factor the weight/size of your wheels and tires are. I just put on 32” BFGs that weigh around 53 lbs, so hopefully that should help minimise metal fatigue. However, they are pretty heavy for a 32, being MTs.

Finally, I’d think the type of terrain the truck sees must be another big factor. I’m mostly on slick muddy forest trails, but it looks like many of y’all are frequently out in dry rocky terrain with the kind constant traction that puts a lot more stress on the driveline.

 

I think this is a thread you should keep away from for your own health

 

Threw some booger welds on it and it's quiet and smooth. Hell yeah! What was I doing again? Oh yeah back to my stereo install

 

Lol I’m not really worried about it with my truck since I mostly do mild trails, but I do wonder if the HD coils I have on it now could be overkill for me, and potentially doing more harm than good. I am going out almost every other weekend now so I do wanna minimise any cumulative fatigue since it’s also my DD.

 

First off, what Zane said

As for whether this is only possible with aftermarket - nope, this is possible with any setup where the shock becomes the limiting factor to downward travel. This can happen for any of these reasons:

1. heavier wheels tires (usually due to being larger than stock) that pull down the suspension more.
2. heavy duty coils that push everything down more.
3. aftermarket (usually non-rubber) bushings in your UCAs or LCAs, allowing for more articulation.

#1 and #3 are easy to do with OEM shocks, which is why I say it's not limited to OEM shocks.

The other key thing to run into this problem is to completely unload your front suspension. This can happen one side at a time, but it's essentially getting a wheel "in the air" even if only for a fraction of a second. This can happen when going up/down over rocks and ledges, or when going fast on forest trails and hitting whoops.

The solution is always the same. Limit straps. Or slow down.

 

Interesting, I appreciate the insight. I've always heard things like washboard roads and whoops are more damaging than crawling off road. It's logical that the coil bucket would better be able to handle the stress of lifting a wheel or even hopping up a rockstep while negotiating a slow technical section, as opposed to miles of washboards or even a bad pothole on the highway. It doesn't appear to be a common issue even with all the first gens out there (many of them lifted), but who's to say how many have cracks without the owners noticing.

In any case, this thread is making me want to change to some lighter/shorter coils, although with stock UCAs/LCAs, maybe those are the limiting factor on my droop before the shock is maxed out..

BTW, I just found this write up on your site: https://adventuretaco.com/protecting-the-front-shock-towers-with-limit-straps/, which was very helpful as well. I'll try to jack it up and test whether the shocks are my limiting factor. As I said I don't do any hardcore stuff, but I still want to avoid any cracks developing over time. I also would ideally want to avoid limit straps since I don't have a welder.

Thanks again.