tacomazach's double cab build

I got a new-to-me truck. Finally have a 4wd instead of just a prerunner

Really ??

 

Problem?

 

Strange seeing " just a prerunner "

 

just a prerunner gets stuck here:








and here:





and here:






While a 4wd doesn't and is in fact easy for a 4wd.

Strange seeing that need stating.

 

+1

 

Is that whats being towed out?? Prerunner? What part of Miss. are yall from ? Nobody asked you ( Barney ) Carlos. Ceeeee?

 

What is this guy talking about...?

 

That's MY prerunner from before I got the 4wd. Just three of the many times I needed pulling out on the trail.

South Mississippi

 

Yeah I dunno

 

OHHHH OK!!
I think I understand...YOU got a 4WD now and the truck you had before got stuck those 3 times.

mcdowell thinks its strange to hear you saying "Its just a prerunner".
And now for some reason, I'm being compared to barney..

alright awesome

 

yeah that's pretty much it. And it definitely wasn't only three times. thats just a few pictures.

 

Well I'm almost done piecing together the new suspension for my truck so I guess I'll start talking suspension a little.

The front seemed to be the largest radical to me. So I put a lot of focus on the front springs and trying to figure out what I wanted. After looking into different springs such as all-pro, eibach, fabtech, procomp, and OME I decided I wanted OME. Out of the hundreds of reviews with people that have OME springs I found one negative review stating it made his truck too tall. But I'm glad for that review.

So after deciding on OME I needed to figure out which springs would be for me. They offer 4 different ones that fit 1st gen tacomas (95-04). Here is what I've found about them on Wheelers:

OME 880: 16mm wire, standing 365mm tall (free standing), with a 500lb rate.
OME 881: 16mm wire, standing 375mm tall (free standing), with a 500lb rate.
OME 882: 16.5mm wire, standing 395mm tall (free standing), with a 500lb rate.
OME 883: 16.5mm wire, standing 375mm tall (free standing), with a 590lb rate.

I decided I wanted the 882s since they were the tallest and had a lower rate than the 883s so I could have a softer ride compared to the 883s. Both 882s an 883s are also recommended for double cabs with heavy duty bumpers. I don't have bumpers yet obviously, but that just means I'll be sitting taller and later on they will be able to accommodate the front bumper and extra battery up front.

Now the trick to this is being a college student and still being able to get these. Well after keeping an eye on the for sale section for a while I found a guy wanting to get rid of his 882 springs. It was like the heavens opened up. They were barely used. Paint chipping a little, but definitely barely used since you can see the paper tags still hanging on. This was the guy that thought they made his truck too tall . So here they are, not much to look at but look awesome to me

 

So the leaf springs are what kind of set the suspension thing into motion. About a week after building the box in the bed I noticed the rear was sitting a little low compared to the front and they were pretty flat even with the AAL thanks to the extra weight.

So I started poking around for different leaf springs. I wanted some that would hold up to a good bit of weight, frequently and still give about 3" of lift. The cheapest I could find was All-Pro's expedition leafs that give 3"s of lift with 400-500lbs in the bed. They are $360 plus about $100 shipping. This seemed like a lot of money, too much money for me. So I started looking into cheaper options others have done.

I ended up finding 4wd and brelandt that used junk yard leafs. 4wd used ranger leafs that gave him about 3" of lift and brelandt used Durango leafs for about the same, but ended up being a little over sprung.

I ended up getting some old ranger leafs from a junkyard in town. Ranger leafs are 2.5"s wide like the toyota leafs. So now the plans are to keep the current leafs on the tacoma and the aal, get rid of the overload spring and add a couple ranger leafs to each.

The current springs on the tacoma are the main spring and two supporting springs with the aal. Then I will cut the two ranger springs to go under these two and have the AAL on bottom with all of them still staggered. I also may put the bottom ranger spring on the bottom of the pack, but I haven't decided on that yet. If the pack is still sagging a little compared to the new front springs I have some replacement shackels that are 3" longer than stock which should give about 1.5" lift. Here's how the springs ended up.

Current top spring: in front of center pin: 29" behind center pin: 23"
Current second spring: in front of center pin: 24" behind center pin: 18"
Cut top ranger spring: in front of center pin: 19.5" behind center pin: 15.5"
Cut second ranger spring: in front of center pin: 15.5" behind center pin: 13.5"
AAL: in front of center pin: 11" behind center pin: 11"

My math was on, but my cutting wasn't. It'll be close enough I think. hopefully this will all work out as in theory. Now the pics:

 

Nice! I think you'll be really happy with those. I love the 882's on my truck.

 

Your truck had a lot to do with it. I love the stance of your truck. I also ordered a jk 10mm trimpacker today

 

a couple more parts came in today. a longer rear brake line and bpv relocation bracket, both from wheelers. a little bit closer

 

and today... 10mm jeep jk trimpackers

 

Nice. Let us know how they work out. Been great for me.

 

Awesome man. I like the leaf project. I want to see what it all looks like!

Are you doing OME Struts?

 

I've got some bilstein 5125s for the rear. I want OME for the front but the 5100s are so much cheaper and I've read about people running them with no problems at all. So I guess it comes down to how long I'm willing to wait to put everything on because is have to save a little longer for the OMEs