Project DD moonlighting as trail rig

[Senor_Taylor]

Lowering the carrier bearing wouldn't be an issue as it is still tucked above the rocker panels and crossmembers...

[Senor_Taylor]

Installed my BAMF Brake Proportioning valve bracket today. It's nice to have rear brakes again. Also got my front end aligned. The price was $65.30 cents or something, but I only have $65 in my wallet, so the guy at the counter dropped the price to $60. How awesome is that?

Before



After



Now, all I have left is to install the greasable shackles whenever they get here.

[*insertusernamehere*]

yeah yeah i know you want a miata but juuuss saayyinn

[Jake]

Mmm, sport package. Mainly because seats.

[Senor_Taylor]

Not driving to Alexandria for that. I don't want to almost-enjoy my almost-M3.

That price isn't too hot either.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Thats actually alot of good to drive to Alexandria for, anyways, I know you want a Miata you just came to mind when I saw the ad

[Senor_Taylor]

Now find me a Miata

[Senor_Taylor]

Dropped the Carrier Bearing with some washers. Lessened the vibrations a bit. I guess I'll need axle shims eventually.

New Eibach lift springs have been ordered, but won't be shipped until my shackles ship... which is mid June. Ugh. WheelersOffroad really letting me down.

Also, Toytec shipped me ANOTHER set of Leaf Springs. I decided to do the right thing and contact them. They offered to ship them back, or sell them to me for $50 off. I figured I could save a local Toyota guy $200 ($50 plus $160 shipping) and just sell them the leaf packs, so I'll see who will take them.

[Senor_Taylor]

Flexed my truck as much as I could today and it seems that my shocks are either BARELY long enough, or 1/4" too short compared to my bumpstops. Not sure what type of 5125 I should change to. Maybe I should just extend my bumpstops somehow...




See in the pictures here how the shock is almost all the way in and there's a little space left between the bumpstops.



I think the other side is okay. I measured that as far as I could get it to drop, there was only like 9 1/2 inches of the piston out. I believe they're 10 inch shocks.



Is it even possible to get a shock with more downtravel? Wouldn't it make the shock body longer, thus reducing the up travel?

[V1GiLaNtE]

How are the shocks mounted to the body? Via bar pins like these?



I would look to see if they have bar pin eliminators for tacos. Generally, on jeeps they will give you and additionally inch of down travel on your current shock.

[Senor_Taylor]

They're mounted like the pins. I'm just dumb-founded because I've never heard of anyone running into issues like this with the amount of lift I have.

[V1GiLaNtE]

You also can't have the best of both worlds. You need to decide right now if you're building to go big or LCOG it. Generally, the idea is you lift higher so that you have more up travel which gets flex. Not reliable, stable flex IMO due to the high center of gravity. Your other option is to LCOG. I know you follow iB's thread. That's LCOG. He's minimized the up travel via bumpstops but has built a rig that has equal, if not greater(and stable) down travel to a rig 2x his height. He has pretty much maximized his suspension geometry within the bounds of a steerable rig (and not going full retard on 4link rear, etc). As a rule of thumb you can't really have it all. Pick one or the other.

[V1GiLaNtE]

They're mounted like the pins. I'm just dumb-founded because I've never heard of anyone running into issues like this with the amount of lift I have.

I would also wager your springs haven't settled into their true height either being they are brand new.

Edit; how do your springs look at full flex? Are they flat, inverted, or still have an arch?

[V1GiLaNtE]

They look EEEVVVVEERRR so slightly inverted here. Time to add an inch of bump stopping.

[Senor_Taylor]

Yeah, I'm thinking bumpstops would solve my problem here. I just wish I knew exactly what I was dealing with on down travel and if I need a longer shock. Maybe some of those travel-limiting straps?


If you look in the picture, I have so much travel that my upper and lower bumpstop are completely misaligned. They would barely catch it other.

Edit: So aftermarket bumpstops are EXPENSIVE.

So maybe I can just weld a plate onto the upper bumpstop to extend it down?

[V1GiLaNtE]

Depending on how it's mounted, maybe cut some square tubing to size, drill some holes, grab longer bolts and mount the OEM bump stop on top of the extension. Hard to believe a hunk of rubber is expensive for tacos.

Edit: or they're misaligned due to axle wrap..?

Edit2: A longer shock is still not going to fix your bumpstop issue. This needs to be addressed before you damage/prematurely wear springs and other items.

Edit3: the reason you're not getting that last 1/2 out if your shock is due to a misunderstanding of how leaf spring geometry works. You need to prevent the compressed side (with bump stops) from traveling any further up, before the other side is forced to further extend down and utilize the remaining shock length as a counter action.

[Senor_Taylor]

Misaligned because the roll of the body is far greater than it would be stock.

I really don't want to go through the trouble of spacing my ubolts away from the axle.

[Senor_Taylor]

I'm a crossroads right now. I have a good bit of money, but I want to save for the Miata or save for the school year, but I need/want

1)New skids all the way past the transfer case. I need protection and want to install my diff drop. Genuine concern with how I've been wheeling.

2) A high clearance front bumper. Want somewhere to mount trail lights and give me more clearance in the front.

3) To save for some nice tires. I think I'll keep my stock wheels because I like them and I'll save money. Thinking about getting some 285/76/16 duratracs and trimming to make them fit.

4) Trail lights. If I could find a spot to mount them, I'd go buy some HarborFreight ones right now. They have some 100W lights that aren't half bad. Just wire in a relay and go on. I just have no clue where to mount them. I don't want to drill in my bumper, and there's really not much space for them behind the grill. They'd also be halfway blocked since I have the stock 01-03 grill.

5) Longer rear shocks and bump stops. Like has been pointed out, the OME leaves don't need new bump stops, so I should be okay, but I'd like to be sure.

[WRXtranceformed]

Why don't you just save your money for the Miata and drive it until something breaks? You've got one of the most durable, resilient trucks out there. If Clarkson can drop its older brother off of a skyscraper I'm pretty sure you will survive without messing around with the bump stops or suspension for a while.

I have owned 3 Toyota trucks in my life and all were driven HARD and with ZERO modifications:

92 pickup - 4WD romped in bumpy fields at 45-50 mph before every high school soccer game, driven through recessed creeks, taken over a dirtbike course (woops and all), finally broke something in the drive line about 4 years later
94 pickup - 4WD all over hilly job sites, carried way more construction weight in it than was recommended, finally blew the headgasket which was totally my fault when forcing it to get to a job site to meet an inspector
2000something V6 Tundra - tons of weight, jobsite / mud off roading, about 60k miles and sold it to a guy who is probably still using it in Fairfax

[Kaan]

They look EEEVVVVEERRR so slightly inverted here. Time to add an inch of bump stopping.

drill a hole in the upper frame side part of the "bump stop", drill a centering hole on a hockey puck... bolt it together? would that solve the issue? do you have to extend the axle side bump stop?