utah offroad shops?

Does anyone know of any good utah 4x4 shops? Like ones that can do suspension lifts not just sell them?

 

There's one on Redwood Road, 4 Wheel Drive Parts or something like that. I've never used them though.

 

The only one I know for sure is the one mentioned above. About 1700-1800 South and Redwood. There's also another shop a few blocks south that had something about 4wd and lifts in the name, but never stopped to check it out.

I really need to ask my uncle about it, as he has someone that does safety inspections on his days off that works at a 4wd place. I think he said it was around 21st and Redwood, so it might be one of the same places mentioned above. I'll have to ask him about it again when I drop the truck off for my timing belt/water pump later this week.

So, I'm curious, what are you planning on getting done?

Most stuff is simple enough that all it requires is a little time and some simple tools, so if thats the case, hit me up and I'd be happy to help out if I can. Some things I'm too afraid to do myself, dont have the specialty tools, or just dont want the truck to be offline for that long (the timing belt fits into all three for me). Sometimes all it takes to get some jobs done is just another set of hands to help hold things as well.

I am on the fence about the front suspension though, as if I have a 4wd place do it, I can just get the alignment done at the same time. Worth the money in labor though (0.7 hrs/side for CO, 1.8 hrs/side for UCA)? Its a tough one. I'll probably do the coil overs myself and later when I can get the UCA's, have them do that so I dont have to mess with the ball joints. Or maybe just get them all done at the same time. We'll have to see how soon I get paid when my next set of invoices go out.

 

I think there's another one off the freeway on 300 west South of 5300 South. They do truck tops, and other things. You can see their storefront from the freeway when you're Northbound.

 

I have yet to find a 4X4 shop in SLC that I thought was any good. I have bought a few things from 4 Wheel Part but they have never worked on my truck.

Like Greg said most stuff is simple and only requires simple tools. What are you thinking of doing?

If it's something mechanical/service related on a Toyota or Honda I have a guy (Noc) I have been going to for years that has been AWESOME!!! He has done work on my Accord and has been honest and very fair on cost.

General Automotives (THIS NOT AN OFF ROAD SHOP -BUT GREAT FOR MAINTENANCE STUFF)
(801) 954-0371
267 W 2700 S (Behind the equipment rental place)
Salt Lake City, UT 84115

4 Wheel Parts
1789 S. Redwood Rd
Salt Lake City UT 84104
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMJy6e_dlLI

 

Sorry man dont mean to thread jack, but do you live near enterprise utah? Do you do any hunting?

 

Thanks for the feed back! And the offers to help, ill probably take you up on that haha.

Well... here is my list

1. Paint n' body work - i have a guy that can do this hopefully

2. Front and back bumper + exo-skeleton i also have a buddy lined up to do these as well.

3. Lift 3 or 5 inch because i want to fit the fj trail team rims with some 33's or maye a little bigger and wide too.

4. Prrobably need to do some gear work so my truck can handle the bigger tires.

5. Then comes the full exhaust, snorkel and all the other accesories. i was also thinking about supercharging my engine.. pretty pricey but i only have 4cyl 2.7 might give me more power to push thr tires and extra weight.

Im pretty sure there is a bunch of other things that go along with my plans but thats about it... it might just be me buying all the stuff, my friends dad owns his own shop so he might be able to do the labor for cheap..

Idk what do you guys think would be a good lift? And good tire size?

And octaco, i live in west valley 10 min from slc.. havent gone hunting though, i can barely kill a bug in my house... but if your going hunting for spiders im all over that lol.

 

LOL. I might take you up on that offer.

 

I think Greg (Manlaan) is going to be your local man to talk to on your truck. He has a really nice quality first gen setup. For now you have really good agressive tires on your truck (when in four wheel drive )

If you need any help wrenching let us know.

 

I'm far from an expert, but I can give my 2cents anyway. I have researched a bit into it trying to find a setup I'm going to be happy with though.

1. Cant help ya much with this one, but you know someone so its all good. I have two different thoughts on this... A. If you want a nice paint job, spend the money to get it done completely and correctly (or know someone that will do it that way). B. If you want to off road, dont worry about paint quality as nothing will ruin your day more than spending 3k on a paint job and getting it all scratched up on a trail a month later.

2. Just make sure that if you want to pass safety that your bumpers are at least 4.5" in height. Most states only require 4", if they have any restrictions at all. Granted that most shops wont measure, but shops can get in big trouble for passing something that shouldn't (three strikes and they loose their license), and I'm sure it wont be a problem, but just keep things legal if its going to be on the street.

3a. Lift: Thats a tough one. Personally, my thoughts on lifts over 3" is that you're really pushing the limits of factory parts throughout the whole front end. I know of a 5" Tough Country lift and then theres the Fabtech 6" lifts, but both of those require cutting the cross member, which I'm just not a fan of and seems like its counter productive since the replacement cross member looks like it drops lower than than the gain you'd get from larger tires. It just seems like so much work for what it gives you. Most off roaders that do the toyota large lifts seem to go with the straight axles, which if you want to do some serious rock climbing, seems to be the way to go.

One thing to remember concerning lifts is that to pass safety, from the ground to the bottom of the frame measured under the drivers door cant be larger that 26" for 4500-7500 gvwr vehicles (24" for less than 4500). With my 2" lift and almost worn down 265/75R16 tires, I'm at 21", so adding another 3" of lift + tire difference would put me quite close to max legal.

As far as a lift goes, I'll eventually put in OME or Toytec Coilovers on some Blisten shocks and (haven't decided whos) UCAs since people seem to be liking that setup here. It almost sounds like you want to go the next step higher though, which I believe is in the coilovers with rebuildable shocks (Icons, Fox, etc) with UCA and maybe even some LCA and knuckles. A bit pricey for me though, but I believe thats pretty much the top end sticking with IFS and staying street legal.

For rear, really not that many options. Comes down to spacers, leafs (either full set or Add a Leaf), and/or shackles with the correct length shocks. Complete leaf packs would be the best option, but costly. AAL isn't too bad if your current packs are good.

For lifts, it really just comes down to how hard you want to beat the truck, how much you want to spend, and if you want to keep it street legal or not. I'm planning on about 1500-2k for my setup. Probably in the 4-5k range for the complete King or Icon setup, and 8-10k for the SAS.

3b. Tires. 33's are about 285/75R16 if I'm not mistaken, which should fit, but be pretty tight. This is the size of tire that I think most of the 2nd gens were running at the meet, and I have to admit, even just the inch wider and taller than 265/75R16 (what I'm currently running) made me jealous. I dont know if we can get away with it on our 1st gens with out much rubbing, but I certainly do plan on trying with my next tire purchase.

One thing to think about since you dont have the removable fender flares is that in order to pass safety, the tires cannot stick out wider than the fenders, so if you have to get spacers or anything to help with the rubbing, you're going to need to get some fender flares as well. Also, the top 50% and full width of the tire must be covered from the back (mud flaps).

The tires really shouldn't be that much heavier than your current muds so I really wouldn't worry about weight differences. Probably less than the difference between a full tank of gas and empty.

Any larger than 285/75R16 (or equivalent) and I think you're going to have to either go with a huge lift so the fenders aren't an issue, or completely replace the fenders with some after market ones made for long travel.

Of course if you go over the max lift and tire width, you can always cheat by keeping a set of much smaller tires around and swap out before inspection, but you didn't hear it from me and that still wouldn't stop a cop from giving you a fix-it ticket if they wanted after you swap back.

4. What gears do you have in your truck now? This is just more along the lines of how you think the truck should feel when you drive it. Someone posted http://www.brian894x4.com/Gearratiosanddiffs.html to find out what you have and what you'd need in order to keep close to factory power, but a lot of people with 4cyls (and 2nd gens) are running 285/75R16s and dont seem to be complaining. Considering that 2nd gens are bigger and heavier than us, I really dont see it being too bad if you drive conservatively most of the time. You may notice it a bit on heavy acceleration though. Just depends on your driving style and what you expect from the truck.

You can also play with http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html some to see the difference in RPM vs speed with different gear ratios (step 4) and tire sizes.

What I'm going to do is try the tires and just see what it feels like. I'm not expecting to have to change out gears, but I really dont know until I'm there.

5. I'm just not a fan of supercharging. Sure, its great for showing off and such, but its a truck. If I wanted to race around, I'd have bought a 'vette. I guess it does go back to gearing a bit as well, but I've never driven a 4cyl Tacoma either so I dont know what kinda response it has already.

Then again, I drove a Metro (3cyl - 1.0L) for a long time, so if anyone knows about an under powered vehicle carrying around my fat ass... But even going up parleys, I could maintain speed just fine by dropping down a gear or 3.

I think the same here as with the axle gears though. Try it with your larger tires and see what it feels like. Granted that your speedo will be off, so you cant go by that (if you do, it will probably feel like it is taking longer to get to 60, but only because 60 is really 70 (or whatever it is)).

 

I found out the place of the guy that works for my uncle once in a while. It is All Terrain Services ( http://local.yahoo.com/info-3084560...carstrucksmotorsports-salt-lake-city#overview ). His name is Dave and he's the owner.

I cant really vouch for the shops abilities since I really dont know first hand and I dont know any of his mechanics. My uncle says he does great work, so thats good enough for me. Also, I used to work with Dave a little, but that was mainly with small jobs and inspections since he was only there to help fill in so we didn't have to turn away business. Knowing the guy and because my uncle and him are friends, I probably wont be treated the same as everyone else so I'm not sure if my opinion really is all that impartial or helpful.

If it counts for anything, I do plan on having him do some of the more complex items for me, if my uncle doesn't want the work.

 

Hey thanks alot! That answered alot of questions that I had about what I should do..

But dont worry, ill probably have tons of questions along the way so atleast I know who to ask!

 

I told you Manlaan was the man.

 

What do you guys think about the Aussie Lockers..?

I was thinking about getting one for both the front and rear of my truck.

 

I've never really researched much on lockers since my truck came with factory rear already in place. The Arb lockers seem to be most popular, but the Aussie ones are quite a bit cheaper. Aussie doesn't look like they make a rear locker for Tacomas though.

It seems the main issue with the Aussie ones is that they're always on. You probably can get away with that in the front since you wont be running 4wd on the pavement anyway. I'd stay away from full time lockers in the rear and opt for a selectable type.

The theory seems sound (both wheels are getting 50% power all the time with the ability for the wheels to free spin faster than the 50%), but having something like that on both front and rears seems like it could be an issue. I think it would still effect slow movement tight turns (like in a parking lot) if you were to have them engaged, but just as with the factory rear diff lock, Aussie says not to run them on dry pavement.

Maybe thats why Aussie doesn't have a rear locker available for Tacomas.

Might want to read through http://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-serie...aussie-vs-arb-lockers-front-rear-choices.html this before deciding if you want the Aussie or not. Mostly sounds like Arb is the way to go and hassles/driving issues with the Aussie.

 

When I was driving through Heber I saw an off road installation shop, but I can't remember the name of it. It was next to the airport.

This might be it: http://www.rocky-road.com/index2.html

 

Jack-it http://www.jackit.com/ is just off Redwood Rd. and 3500 S.

 

anyone know where i can get a frame for a 2000 taco xtra cab .. this fine winter storm helped out another car slide into me and no my taco is going to be totalled .. i need to restore her ..any help would be awesome on suggestions for parts.. i have minor fender damage due to the height of the truck but the wheel was bent and they say i may have frame damage.. so far repair bill is 7,200 front driver side damage