y=mx+b's 05 4runner Build Thread

A sneak peak of todays project: skid plate V2! Someone reached out to me about building them a skid, so using this as an opportunity to test out my revised design, and buy myself a new tool. I'll do a little review on this Warfox plasma cutter when I finish this project. Pretty inexpensive for a dual voltage, pilot arc plasma cutter and I've been impressed so far.

And my dobinsons showed up!

Sorry for mediocre photo quality, I'm using Tapatalk app to upload pics on the fly. Will update later with full quality

 

I haven't posted much on here in a while. I guess I'm kinda getting burnt out on my current internship since its not as hands on as I am wanting for my long term career goals. I've been talking to been talking to a few of my connections both from this current internship and past to try and figure out a career path that really makes me passionate about my work. Essentially my main gripe is that the past two Mechanical Engineering positions I've been in involve a lot of desk work, looking at process data, and managing projects, etc and while I understand these are important tasks, I don't really like sitting down all day and trying to figure out an issue from a graph/data, or just watching someone else do work and "managing" the project.

Hopefully I can find a more fulfilling position for next summer. This was a tad on the personal side, but if anyone has some advice for long term career advice, I'm all ears.

On a brighter note, I got my Class B Commercial Driver's Learners Permit to start driving for the school and town bus system this upcoming semester. I've always really liked buses and have been saying since my first year that I'd like to drive the bus.

I've also been snooping around TacomaWorld, since its not blocked at work like T4R.org is lol, so I met up with a local group for some off-roading and camping:

Off-Roading with the Local TacomaWorld Group
Met up with guys from the Northern Virginia Roll Call TacomaWorld group, since MD is kinda close the NOVA lol. I was the only 4runner, but not the only stock guy. There was a variety of vehicles there from my stock 4runner, a stock TRD PRO Tacoma, a Bobbed ACLB, a Linked DCSB with tube bed, and everything in between.

Shortly after entering the trail, there was a pretty big ditch that we had to go down and up again. Everyone else did alright through there, but being stock height, I knew I was going to drag some. With a little bit of skinny pedal and some help from ATRAC, I made it right on up!


A little sploosh is always fun. Currently my diff oil is in a schrodingers cat state: If I don't open it to see, who knows if its either good or bad lol. I've had all the parts to do the extension for almost a year, just haven't gotten around to it. I probably should soon


This was a tricky area with a deep hole/fallen log on the right, which forced us left through a more off camber area. I was really worried my stock suspension wouldn't be able to keep all the wheels on the ground through here, but it was no problemo


Just after the previous tricky area, there were some deep ruts. Being stock height, I got stuck here from dragging my belly. EatSleepTacos from TW helped me get through one section with some traction boards, but I got stuck again. We tried the traction boards again, but without any luck, I got a tow out. Thankfully I had the legit recovery points on the front, or my front crossmember mighta gotten yanked off. We did use a kinetic rope, which was very pleasant. Regular straps are so harsh, but this was a nice gentile pull as the rope stretched and pulled


More ruts, this stuff I actually made it through without trouble!


I was really bad about taking pictures on this trip. Heres the only one I took on my phone of my 4runner and Betty White (EatSleepTacos' bobbed ACLB). An also a side shot of the bobbed bed.


When I got back, I decided that I like the look of the muddy tan wheels vs the Dorado Gold, might have to get fancy and paint my wheels as an experiment



SNEAK PEEK!!
:lookout::lookout::lookout:

 

I've been really bad about updating this build thread recently:

Finished my internship in MD and moved out of my Annapolis apartment. I then brought everything back to my Blacksburg apt to get everything ready for school and my new job. I'm really glad to only have one rent to pay now lol, and this place has a much better place to wrench and weld. 4runner was loaded to the brim inside, I had to use a hitch carrier to get my last totes, and I strapped my welding table to the roof. Really glad I kept the rake, otherwise it would have been super squatted. Suspension did also ride a bit better with some added weight vs empty


Things I've done that I still need to writeup for the build thread and/or an additional writeup. I've got lots of pictures as always

• Suspension Install (Build Thread + Stand Alone Writeup)
• Rear Brake Hard Line Replacement
• Rear Pad Replacement (nothing really fancy with this one, but just for documentation)
• Skid Plate V2 (Made improvements to the weld-together aspect. May make plans for this, but might not. I'm kinda burnt out on skid plates right now)
• Testing the New Suspension

Things I'd like to do in the near future (not in any particular order)

• Trans Cooler (Already have the part and fluid, just need some free time)
• Panhard Correction Kit (Already have this too, just need to weld on)
• Bigger Tires (I've already acquired these, size will remain undisclosed at this time lol)
• Fix leaks at Driver side CV (The one I fixed was passenger) and Transfer Case Rear Output
• Transmission skid and fix some of the frame weld nuts with RivNuts
• Front and Rear Bumpers (Really wanting to make some hybrid/tube bumpers since I don't really like whats out there, but need to buy bender rip wallet)
• Finish the "mystery" welding project from last summer (low priority)
• 4.88 Gears (Need to decided on lockers air vs electric vs Torsen, etc)
• Fab New Front Crossmember, since mine is swiss cheesed
• Plasma out frame hole near driver side cat and weld in new metal
• Cut out rear frame from body mount back and weld in all new. Would fab new rear frame sections, body mounts, and rear crossmember. Its getting pretty bad, somehow passed inspection just this month, but I want to get rid of all the crusties. Probably integrate into rear bumper somehow and try to improve clearance

A few of these probably need to think about upgrading my welding situation, but that little Titanium Welder is an absolute champ

 

Dobinsons Nitro Shocks with Rear Long Travel and Flex Testing!
Installation Writeup: Pending
My suspension finally arrived off backorder a late May, and I got it installed late June. Here we are late July and I am just now getting around to writing this up for my build threat and the install writeup. Took me two fully packed weekends to install after running into issues with the rear brake lines, but it is all now back together and better than ever

I went with Dobinsons Nitro Shocks with the rear long travel and SPC UCAs. The lift amount is supposedly 3", but I still have to get the lifted hub to fender measurements. The suspension parts I got were:

• Front Spring: C59-300
• Rear Spring: C59-677V
• Front Shock: GS59-220
• Rear Shock: GS59-575
• KYB Top Hats
• Apache OffRoad Extended Stainless Steal Brake Lines
• SPC UCAs - These are the half forged, half tube versions so not the newest entirely forged version. I read about the cracking, but seems that was mostly on the very first all tube versions. Picked these up for $400 BNIB, so I was really pleased with that
• Eimkeith PCK - Still need to install this, just need free time on a nice day to do it

Flexy Pics
I'll skip right to the flexy pictures, since thats what everyone wants to see! Thanks to @3pooches for having me out at the farm for some fun!

Rear was definitely all the way flexed here, the low tire was barely touching the ground beneath the water


All the way drooped, and all the way tucked. The baby tires certainly extenuate the wheel gap lol


A few more misc pics




Front
No real issues up front, except the top hats were crusted to the coil buckets. I needed to air hammer them for a decent amount of time for them to break free, but the rust didn't look that terrible. Cleaned that area up, and on the new top hats, I covered them in anti-seize


I used the no spring compressor method to install the springs, and it was simple enough. My recommendation, which is covered in the writeup, would be to run the jack under the 4runner and jack from the opposite side, just makes packaging easier and the angle the LCA hits the jack more safe


Rear
Rear is where I ran into trouble, specifically with the brake lines. The first weekends I had to call it quits when I ran into this sight. Only wet because I sprayed it with penetrating fluid, but the crusties on the right side brake line near the connection were enough for me to stop and order all new hard lines


<a id="rearbrakelines">Rear Brake Hardline Replacement</a> | <a target="_self" href="!287301!4th-gen-t4rs/287301-y=mx-bs-build-thread.html#directory" >Return to Directory</a>
I ended up ordering the hard lines from mid frame and over the tank, the lines down the rear axle to each caliper, and both flex line brackets. Wasn't too bad at around $120 for everything. This is what I ordered:

• TUBE, REAR BRAKE, NO. 4 (Top Line Along Mid-Frame)
  • 47324-35310
• TUBE, REAR BRAKE, NO. 5 (Bottom Line Along Mid-Frame)
  • 47325-35390
• TUBE, REAR BRAKE, NO. 6 (Passenger Side Along Rear Axle)
  • 47326-35130
• TUBE, REAR BRAKE, NO. 7 (Driver Side Along Rear Axle)
  • 47327-35100
• Frame Side Flex Hose Bracket
  • 47355-35130
• Axle Side Flex Hose Bracket
  • 47356-35010
• Brake Hose Clips (need 4)
  • 90468-A0007

Fast forward to the next weekend once I have all the parts. I am needle scaling the rear frame and coil buckets to paint while everything is out of the way, and that crusty ass rear line broke on its own. I wasn't even in the area or touching it!


To replace the lines, instead of actually trying to use a flare nut wrench to loosen the crusty connections, I just clipped everything and used a 6 point socket on an impact


Surprisingly too, all the line clips along the axle came out easily with an impact, and so did the lower flex line bracket


Not as lucky with the upper flex line bracket, this head rounded. The perks of having a welder, is that you can weld a new nut on the head of just about anything. I used one of the older ball joint nuts and it fit right over the head. One big ol' weld booger in there, and it came right out!


Don’t have any pics of replacing the hard lines, especially over the tank, but dropping it about 3/4” by backing out the strap mounting bolts really helped to get a little extra clearance. Also, the best way to feed the lines over the tank was from the rear forward

And once everything was back together, I was much more happy with this. Fresh lines and a little paint cleaned up this pig

 

Continued: Dobinsons Nitro Shocks with Rear Long Travel and Flex Testing!
Ran into 20 pic limit whoops

The last little hiccup was with the rear shocks. They're so long, that when all the way drooped, the body was contacting the lower shock mount and bending the shock itself and having the bushing wrenched to a pretty wack angle.


I pretty much could not get the upper mount on at all, otherwise it would banana the shock


To fix the contact, I put a little washer in as a spacer to get the shock body off of the lower mount bracket. This brought the shock body off of the lower mount at full droop. I'm happy to report that after my off roading and flex testing, I didn't observe any contact between the shock and the lower mount


I also made my own 2" bumpstop extensions, since I couldn't justify $75 for an off the shelf part that I could make with $10 in parts an an hour of time. I made two hole positions as I've seen on some aftermarket extensions for extended rear links, but for now its just setup in stock position


Did some wire wheeling and painting. These areas of the frame were pretty clean with just some surface flakies, so after knocking those off and getting them smooth, I sprayed with some rust reformer and a top coat of paint


Tires
I did also select some tires to pair with my now lifted 4runner, because these tiny ones look kinda ridiculous lol


Sooooo, I got some 35x10.5 Kenda Klevers :fro: Theres probably going to have to be a lot of cutting, trimming, and hammering lol. I do still have the original wheels and tires, so I'll probably be swapping back and forth until I have these at least fit properly for road driving. I also want to build a front bumper, so this may motivate me to get on that too

 

Painting my Skid Plates
Is this a skid plate?
No, this is Patrick


I got bored, so I painted it lol









Its likely going to get torn up the minute it goes off road, but I find it pretty amusing for the time being. Its setup so Patrick's face will show from the front lol. I'll get pics when it gets mounted up to share too

 

Transmission Cooler
As we've entered summer and I now have an Ultragauge, I'm finding that my transmission temperatures are higher than I'd like. I did a lot of highway driving from MD to VA during my last Internship, which was mostly flat with a lot of stop and go traffic, I noticed pan temperatures around 195-210° especially in traffic. Now that I'm back to Southwest VA where there are more and larger hills, temperatures are similarly high but hills can cause the transmission "cooler" integrated into the radiator to heat soak much quicker.

To solve this, I purchased the

$59 Hayden 679 Universal 11” Rapid-Cool Add-On Transmission Cooler to Enhance Cooling (not for direct replacement of the factory unit)

Hayden 679 from Amazon and plumbed it in series with the factory trans "cooler" in the radiator. I did this to get the engine heat from the coolant to try and help warm up the fluid quicker. The Hayden 679 is large enough that I don't worry about the fluid overheating once up to temperature from the added heat through the radiator.

The Hayden cooler came with about 2' of 11/32" tubing, but I purchased 10' of 3/8" (12/32") to use in once continuous run instead. Additionally, I used some thin scrap metal to make mounting brackets, 1/4"-20 bolts, and rivnuts for mounting.

Although if I had to do this again, I'd purchase one of Hayden's Internal Bypass Coolers (more info here: Hayden Patented Internal By-Pass Coolers) because mine takes a while to get up to operating temperature and I feel is overcooled. The internal bypass coolers flow cold fluid back to the transmission and bypass the cooler until the fluid is up to temperature. Once up to temperature, hot fluid flows through the cooler and its fins to regulate the temperature. I may end up removing this one and replacing with one of the Bypass Coolers. I could also add a transmission thermostat which does essentially the same thing, so I'll have to weigh options

Mechanical Install
I started by making little brackets to hold the cooler. I set mine on the passenger side of the radiator support because there was more room there AND I could eliminate the in-radiator trans cooler later and not have lines running left and right.

I started with the top corner bracket. I drilled some pilot holes in the center radiator support and into a small bracket. I wanted two holes on the support to prevent any rotation about the mounting bolt, if only one were used.


Then I could expand those bracket holes to accept a rivnut. I was using 1/4"-20 rivnuts, so I believe 3/8" was the hole size I used for the rivnut. The through holes for all the bolts were drilled to 5/16".


I did put blue locktite on all the rivnuts. This is my first time using them, so I'm a bit skeptical of them twisting


Next for the bottom corner bracket, I made an L-bracket to connect to the lower horizontal radiator support. Since these bolts are on different planes, only one bolt on each face was good enough to prevent rotation




Unfortunately, my rivnut tool was too big to get into that horizontal support, so I needed to compress the rivnut with a bolt, washer, and nut the old fashion way.


For a third mounting location, I didn't want to place it near any of the cooler outputs and possibly create congestion in that area


So instead, I decided to branch of the A/C refrigerant sight glass mount


And now my cooler is mounted in 3 locations, so I feel that is secured adequately


I then removed everything, shaped and cleaned up the brackets, and painted everything including the drilled holes. I also picked up new shorter stainless hardware to replace my mockup hardware that I was using temporarily


Installed with new hardware

 

Transmission Cooler Plumbing
I'm not really an expert on transmissions, but this how I did it. Open to feedback, of course. At this point, I should also mention that I no longer have the hard transmission lines running under the radiator. Mine were previously swapped to all soft lines, likely because its kinda crusty under there.

I made a brief illustration of the way mine is plumbed. On the transmission, the top line is the return from the cooler into the transmission, and the bottom is the feed from the transmission to the cooler. I didn't touch the cooler feed line going into the top port of the radiator, added my new hose from the bottom port of the radiator to the top port of the cooler, and ran a line from the bottom of the cooler to the transmission return line


I used some hose pinching pliers to not loose much fluid when removing the lines. Once I removed the line from the radiator, capped it with a small piece of vinyl tubing I bent over and ziptied as a make shift plug




This line, originally returning to the transmission from the radiator, was routed over to the transmission cooler. Now it will be the return from the transmission cooler to the transmission. Before installing, I cleaned up any dirt off of the hose, and snipped it below the hose clamp pliers to have a fresh and clean piece of hose


I then ran my new hose I purchased from the bottom port of the radiator to the top port of the transmission cooler. Both lines do share the hole with the A/C line, which is a bit of a tight fit, so I'll continue to monitor they aren't rubbing into each other


Finally, the transmission cooler was plumbed in. I also put a bit of wire loom over the cooler line to prevent chafing where they pass through the hole in the rad support

 

Transmission Cooler
Now that I've added some smaller volume to my transmission cooling system and my fluid has been a bit spicy, I wanted to do a drain and fill.

I followed this writeup on TacomaWorld: How to Drain/Refill Automatic Transmission

And this Video by Tacomaholic @boogie3478 on properly getting the transmission into Transmission Temperature Check Mode. I followed along and shifted exactly as he did in the video, and it went right into the mode
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qvcgIxW9VqA

Since this material is already well covered, I'll just share and document some pictures from my process

Draining the fluid, I got out exactly 3qts. This isn't the first time the transmission fluid has been serviced, so no surprise it was nice and red


Interestingly enough, my drain plug had an o-ring. For some reason I thought it would be a crush washer, but after a little bit of research, I guess the A750F uses an O-ring for this plug


I then pumped in the fluid. I ordered a long funnel to fill from the engine bay, but it didn't arrive in time, so I picked up a new hand pump from Walmart and used that. I also used Maxlife, which is rated for WS replacement. I didn't use Toyota WS, so sue me lol. I put in almost the whole 4qt jug.


Then I did the transmission temp check mode dance and let it warm up. To speed things up, I put some cardboard in front of the radiator and removed once up to temp. It took me only 7min, 25 second to get up to temp check temperature, which was faster than other times I've heard from 14-20 minutes.


Once it was ready to check the level, I pulled the overflow plug and a little bit of fluid came out. I put the plug back in once the streamed slowed to a slow trickle. No real pictures from this as I got trans fluid all over my hands when removing the check plug lol

 

Rear Brake Pads and 121k Pad Life!
While installing the suspension, I noticed my rear pads were low. I purchased the

$69 Akebono ACT606 Disc Brake Pad Kit

Akebono ACT606 pads from Amazon. Didn't take enough pics for a writeup, but this topic has already been covered well.

The pads that came out had Toyota written on them, so I looked at the online records, and these pads were installed at 108k miles. Now changing at 229k, these pads had more than 120k on them! They are rear pads and the brake system definitely biases the fronts, but I still think its impressive. Not much life left in these haha


Patrick Skid Installed
Its pretty dumb, but I love it haha





Flagpole Knob Camping
Went camping at Flagpole Knob in VA. This is one of the most memed "trails" in VA FB groups. Its essentially a Forest Service Road with a lot of loose rocks, some mud, and some medium sized ones up at the top. "Can I take 'x' truck with 'x' lift/tires up flagpole?" is asked almost as frequently as "What lift do I need to clear 'x' tires?". Also went with a smaller group that ended up being part of larger group, and there were a lot of people up at the campsite. Nevertheless, it was a fun time!



Patrick skid plate sneaking through


Turns out Tacomaholic actually lives pretty close to me. He took this pic of Patrick at the top. Unfortunately, he didn't suffer any damage. I was kinda hoping he got a taste of rock lol


And heres one I took at the top during the sunrise. I slept in the trunk for the first time, and that is definitely the move. Previously I'd used a tent which I don't mind setting up and taking down when its dry, but it misted during the night and cleaning up a wet tent sucks. Inside, I moved all my crap to one side and put a 2" mattress topper on the other side. The 2" topper was a little on the thin side, but not terrible. I also opened a window, draped a bug net over the door, and close the door to hold it in.



And a little video taken by a buddy that shows my Patrick Star Skid Well!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-PLHeSR6Yws
not sure why there is this big gap under the embedded video


Sliders Ordered!
Ordered the 4xInnovations Weld-on DOM sliders with square main tube. 3-4 week lead time, so we'll see

 

Panhard Correction Kit Welded In
Finally got caught up on all the backlog of stuff for the build thread. Today I welded in my Panhard Correction Kit from Eimkeith

Before and After


The main reason to install one of these guys is to correct the rear suspension geometry after lifting. As the picture below shows, as you lift any suspension with a panhard bar, the axle will follow the arc of the panhard bar. This does 3 main things: 1) Offsets the axle to the passenger side, 2) Increases left to right scrub with articulation, 3) Alters Roll Center.


Problems in the Rear Geometry After Lifting
1) Offsets the axle to the passenger side
As seen above, as the 4runner is lifted, the axle follows the arc of the panhard bar. In the top of the two models, we can see this taking place with lift. These are kind over exaggerated, but they show it well

2) Increases left to right scrub with articulation
This is similar to problem #1, where the axle moves left to right the more it is lifted. Left to right scrubbing is minimized when the panhard bar is horizontal, and is maximized when the bar is vertical (like a pendulum). We want to reduce left to right scrubbing with suspension articulation, as it can result in driver and passenger feeling the rear moving left to right over bumps and other road inconsistencies. Not as much a concern with offroad driving, but will improve on road characteristics

3) Alters Roll Center
This one I'm not really an expert on, but I did find a good article here: BEDFORD Speedway - Welcome. Essentially, the angled panhard bar after lifting can cause turning to one side to have increased traction at the rear wheels, while turning to the other side actually decreases traction. Increasing the overall height of the bar with the panhard correction kit raises the roll center. For our purposes, this higher roll center reduces the body roll feeling. Higher, lower, and angle panhard bars do have other benefits in racing, but they really aren't applicable to our off road minivans

This video explains things better than I could with words:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/liR1--EHMg8

Install
Drove the 4runner into my backyard to weld on my panhard correction kit lol. Was super worried my landlord would show up for an unannounced grass mowing session or something hahaha


It was a tight squeeze on my little patio


Removed the panhard from its bracket on the axle and loosened the frame side so it would swing up. I ziptied it out of the way, but a bungee cord would work well too


Cleaned up the axle bracket for welding


Test Fitting, I found I needed to shave a little off to clear my brake line


I beveled the edge to help with penetration


Then set it in place, and burned it in. Not my greatest welding, but its not going anywhere. Welded around the outside and some areas on the inside


And all installed, our panhard is now nice and horizontal. Also went ahead and gave it a first coat of rusty metal primer, and black overtop

 

35x10.5 Teaser
I mentioned that I have these tires and I'm going to get them put on soon, but [MENTION=109843]montijo505[/MENTION] is yanking my chain for always saying soon. Well soon is now!

I'll do a full writeup for the build thread, but just wanted to share some of my initial progress today. Might even do a standalone writeup on fitting larger tires, since theres a lot of misconception about lift helping to clear tires and greater caster being equal to clearance, when both aren't necessarily true

Alignment is currently set with LCAs pushed fully forward (rear cams pushed out, front cams pulled in) and SPC setting F. I'd do G, but I ran out of camber adjustment and was still a few degrees positive. Wheels are stock Toyota 17x7.5 +15, no spacers

Took the shock out so I could cycle everything without needing to compress the spring and whatnot


Anyway, heres the teaser pics:


Do your tires even fit if you can't full lock stuff them?


What surprised me the most, was they were completely off my unmolested body mounts. Full lock on left. Closest between tire and body mount on right. Need a lower angle for the second, but there was about 1/2" between tire and mount. I'm sure it will rub when actually off road and no just a bench test, but I'm leaving them for now


Tires also stay of UCA pretty well, so didn't put on the spacers


Currently the main issue is the wiper fluid reservoir, and Amazon can't get one until next week. I think an Advance Auto has a generic one in the next town over. If not, tupperware reservoir it is!

 

Ta da! No more rubbing at full bump lock to lock (except for the wiper fluid reservoir. Going to work on that this afternoon)


I think the +15 offset suits these tires well, they're flush or maybe 1/2" poked. The skinnies don't look good with too much negative offset


Still getting used to the skinny look in the rear

 

Picked up these bad boys for $200 out the door. Was fully expecting (and kinda hoping) I'd have to pull myself, but they were already on the shelf. From an 07 FJ. Completely forgot about the other things I was wanting to get because these came with some unexpected goodies. Mirrors were really just for the thrill of the junkyard experience since there are cheap ones online, but one more OEM CV axle would be nice so I have a complete pair of replacement axles

For $200 out the door I got

• 2 spindles with zero rust
• 2 wheel bearings (which I'd just keep as oh shit spares, but they are in good condition)
• 2 dust shields in mint condition (not sure if 319 or 338mm shields, but 338 would be cool if I ever upgraded to the larger size)
• 2 wheel speed sensors and wiring harnesses
• All the brake line brackets with no rust
• 2 halves of a sway bar link lol

I then bought the JD fab spindle gussets to weld on



My 4xInnovation sliders also showed up, so gotta find time to buzz those on


Still have a little backlog of stuff to type up:

• Suspension Writeup - half done and I haven't touched it in weeks
• Trim rear cover and type what I did to fit the 35x10.5s
• Poor Eagle Jack mod to HF 1.5ton

 

Pretty much haven't done anything to the 4runner recently. I've got an extra day off this weekend, so maybe I'll get to the sliders or spindle gussets, but probably going to take it easy. School, work, and band all together has been kicking my butt this past week.

Also this is the 200th post on my build thread yay

Might have mentioned, I started driving the bus for the local town and this is really one of my favorite jobs ever. These are technically transit coaches, but their primary function is to be the "school bus" for the neighboring apartments to VT. Something about it is just so much fun

The bendy bus! These are really interesting, since it doesn't drive like a regular trailer. Behaves much different, but its not very difficult to drive, which I believe is due to the center joint (essentially the hitch) being so far behind the rear axle of the front section vs how towing with a truck or suv would be. I think they're almost easier to drive than the 40' straight buses


The not so bendies: a 40' and 35' pictured here.


Heres a full stuff (bus knelt) on a 305/70r22.5, essentially a 40x12" tire. Wheel wells are absolutely massive for these bad boys (note: someone else lightly curbed this tire, not me lol)

 

Got some work done on my sliders. All the legs are assembled, minus the gussets since it got dark on me the weekend I work on those. This weekend I got one pretty much all the way welded up. Plan is to weld the other whenever I can, then prepaint everything but the area to be welded to the frame, then weld it all to the frame and finish up the painting

I'll make an actual full post when its done, but wanted to drop some updates since I haven't been on here in a hot minute

 

Kenda Klever 35x10.5 Tires
Meant to get to this a while ago, but got caught up with school and work. I worked on this little writeup on 3 separate occasions months apart, and I admittedly did not reread all of it lo.

I dropped some teaser pictures a while ago, so heres the full details on getting everything to fit. I'll go over how I fit tires and try to include pictures of all the important parts


LIFT DOESN'T HELP FIT TIRES!!!
So I hear all the time from various places "What lift do I need to fit X size tire?" and this comes from the misconception that lift helps you to fit tires. In reality, the lift only helps the tires fit at ride height. When it comes time for your suspension to articulate offroad, the lift amount doesn't really matter. With a fully stuffed tire, the lift amount is really irrelevant, since the bump stop positions aren’t changed.

In reality, the key to fitting tires is alignment, trimming, and hammering


Step 1: Alignment
Setting Caster
This step is going to depend a lot on what upper control arms you have. I have adjustable SPC uppers so I can play around with the numbers, but with a static arm like JBA, you may be more limited in what you can do with alignment

I started by pushing the LCAs all the way forward with the cam bolts. This meant turning the front cam in and the rear cam out

Front Cam in (This is the driver side for reference)


Rear Cam out (This is the driver side for reference)


This is purely a reference measurement and not meant to be taken as actual measurements. This is just measured between a 265/70r17 wildpeak and the mudflap.

First: LCAs in neutral position, Second: LCA pushed forward



I then moved to the SPC uppers. Theoretically, position G will give the most body mount and firewall clearance but some may not be able to get all the posative camber out. I fall into the latter category, so mine are set to F. Yes this does lower the overall caster number, but it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make to prevent tubbing at this point in time.

Passenger side pictured


Setting Camber
I used the SPC slider and an angle finder to set the camber. I aimed as close to 0 as possible and torqued the UBJ nut to the spec, and then some. Theres not much else to this

Setting Toe
Same here, not much involved for fitting tires. I set mine a hair toe in with a tape measure

Step 2: Big Tires On, Front Suspension Out
Now we're going to cycle the suspension from droop to bump and lock to lock. This will ensure your tires fit in all range of suspension travel. Putting in a ratchet or cam strap will also help so that your shockless front suspension doesn't just fall to the ground


So with the front suspension out, put the big tires on one of the front sides and point them straight forward. Then get a jack under the LCA and jack up to full bump.


With the tire at full bump, notice where it is contacting probably a lot of plastic.


I personally am not a fan viper cuts or any angular cuts on the front bumper cover to make tires fit. Instead, I prefer to follow the curves that are already there, but with a bit bigger radius. I used some blue painters tape to outline the desired curve, and a box cutter with a new blade to make the cuts

 

Tire Fitting Continued
Once the tires fit in the straight-forward position, you can turn them and see where things begin to contact


This is where you may notice contact with the Fender Liners, Body Mount, Pinch Weld, Windshield Washer Tank, or UCA


Fender Liners
I did an aggressive cut on these, but I left decent coverage around the air intake to prevent junk from getting launched off the tires up in there. Any sagging areas can be further supported by zip ties. I cut two slots in the liner, and flossed a ziptie in there ton string it up


Body Mount
Cut this bad boy if you have contact. With the skinny tires and no spacers, I actually didn't have to cut mine. The above picture is when I tried them with spacers, but turns out I didn't need them

Pinch Welds
I hammered these flat up front (first) and in rear (second). Then follow this up by repainting any beat up paint work, and covering the split seals with seam sealer. Still have to seam seal, ran out of time


Wiper Tank
I have yet to relocate this, since I didn't have much contact on the street, but I finally cracked the tank lol


Here are some good instructions on how to relocate the tank:

• (Based on Silver Rhino Media below)
• WINDSHIELD WASHER TANK RELOCATION by Silver Rhino Media
• by [MENTION=101810]zonarunner[/MENTION]

UCA
If you're having UCA contact, you'll need spacers or difference offset/backspacing wheels to counteract this. I did not have this issue with these skinny tires, but Spidertrax and Bora are reputable spacer manufacturers. Test for contact with the tire at full bump and full lock turns in either direction

 

Tire Fitting Continued
Step 3: Rear Fit Check
With the super long dobinsons rear springs, I found installation kinda difficult. So instead of removing the rear springs like we did with the front assemblies, I found a good dirt pile and flexed it out the best I can. While this would also work for the front, I found it pretty easy to pull the front strut assemblies and do everything in the driveway


Alternatively, some spare wheels/tires also work


Mud Flaps
Toss em

Bumper cover
This bad boy snags on the tires and gets caught. I did the same procedure with the tape and box cutter as with the front


Pinch Welds
Behind the mud flap and this plasticy bit (which should be removed now), there are some pinch welds:


The 35s contact this at full bump, and one of mine already started to bend from tire contact


To solve the contact and prevent them from cutting my tires, I hammered them flat. Then paint and cover in seam sealer


They look kinda ugly, but as you can see, plenty of clearance now


Final Reveal
I like em

 

Dobinson Snorkel Install
Since cutting out my fender liners, I wanted to relocate the intake so it wasn't directly slurping up crap from my front right tire. The main fixes for this are A) External Snorkel or B) Internal Snorkel/Cowl Induction.

I chose to pick up the Dobinson Snorkel out of personal preference. This seemed like a great idea, until I had to cut a hole in my fender. It ended up being alright in the end, but it worried me for a bit

I started by covering the fender in blue painters tape and laid the template out on the fender. Because the template is a flexible carboard, its hard to get it to sit right. This is especially nerve-racking because I'm about to use this floppy thing to make an irreversible change to my fender. In my experience, the template made the holes a bit low and backwards of where they needed to be, which I'll expand on with the next set of pictures


The hole is cut! For the 86mm hole, a 3-3/8" hole is the right US equivalent, but I couldn't find one, so I used a 3-1/2" hole saw and it worked fine. For the larger 114mm hole, I used a 4-1/2" hole saw. Because the sheet metal for the fender is so thin, I found the hole saw to catch a lot as it broke through. Instead of spinning the drill forward in the direction of the teeth, once it started catching, I used the drill in reverse and it no longer caught. Although it did introduce more heat into the cut because it obviously wasn't cutting ideally, it solved all the catching problems.


Before removing the template, I also predrilled each of the mounting holes with a 1/8" bit. The template called for a 16mm diameter hole for these, which is around 5/8". To me that was huge, so I tried to keep them as small as possible. Although the larger holes do give you more room to move it around as you find the best position for it

Because of the wonky template, my holes weren't in quite the right spot. For this, I recommend putting in one stud at a time, starting with one of the extremities. I then used the step bit in my undersized holes to expand them into almost a slot. Because my holes started out smaller than 5/8", the expansion didn't make them unnecessarily massive.


Once all the mounting holes were properly adjusted, it was time to secure the upper A-Pillar bracket. I'm too much of a weenie to drill the pillar and rivet as recommended, so I used 3M exterior double stick tape to secure it.


Once everything was ready for final installation, I shot some spray paint on the now exposed metal to prevent rust


Lastly, I removed the stock intake tubing and cut the elbow deflector off, so the air would have an unobstructed path into the intake. Not pretty, but it will be covered up.


For final install, I don't have too many pictures because it was kind of a pain. I suggest first snaking the rubber elbow in between the fender and engine bay. Getting the piece into the engine bay was a tight fit, so not having to battle the snorkel at the same time is good. Then the snorkel can be fit to the fender and the rubber elbow connected to the snorkel with the hose clamp. You'll need to snake your arms up in-between the fender from the wheel well to access this. The engine bay side will be easily accessible. Once all the tubing is connected, then the mounting hardware can be secured by, again, snaking your arms up through the wheel well.

Heres some pics just after install


And I got out this weekend with a few buddies from TW, so heres it out and about. I need some pictures from the snorkel side!