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Tire & Suspension Talk The most important handling aspect of every vehicle...

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  #1  
Unread 11-21-2006, 10:03 AM
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Yep we measured the actual travel and that's what I have now that I'm pretty much done. This system took a whole bunch of math (even some calculus) as it is progressively sprung as well as dampened! I can change the rate at which the shocks absorb the compression by moving the rear shock mounting location up or down in the 3 positions. It's designed to accept a 9in. rear end that I have when the time is right.

I've since cut and popped my fenders out for the time being till I get time to put fiberglass around it. We boxed the frame in and that alone stiffened up the frame to a whole new level of control. You can really tell when you flick the wheel and put it into a nice controlled power-slide.

Now I'm working on a turbo, drafting up the front arms and putting a full-floating 9in. rear to match. Then it's time to tie it all together with a rollcage. As long as I don't get married I think I have a chance of finishing it sometime in the next year =|





There we go =] Just milled out some high density plastic spacers and I was in business.

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Unread 11-21-2006, 10:05 AM
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It was way more work than you might think. I had the help from my good friend Ian who did more of the metal work as he is a perfectionist and has MUCH more experience welding. He's an expert and can lay sick beads forever. Check him out boxing the frame in. Those are some LONNNG welds my friends. That welder was sucking the juice! I estimate a few HUNDRED dollars worth of electricity to do all this welding. A couple HUNDRED for the Argon. I made sure I had a lot more money than I estimated this whole build would cost and STILL ended up turning my pockets inside out!! haha I choked when I bought a 4x4 plate of steel. And I remember getting like $600 in fasteners, bung washers and heims in a tiny little box one day. I felt noxious !



Total chaos spring hangers were definitely worth the money and saved a lot of time not having to make em. The guys at Kartek hooked me up with odds and ends and shipped em to me quick. Deaver race pack is used and everything else is blood, sweat and tears.

Wheel hop doesn't exist anymore which was a concearn. All you feel offroad is the front Donaho's doing what they can to take the hits and the rear just follows you around. You don't feel ANY bumps from the rear and it doesn't sway side to side like I have felt in a couple long travel trucks. I will revalve once I build the front. That is, once I decide on the finishing the turbo system or putting in a different engine. Mwuahahaha!

To tell you the truth I would like to but the bulk of the system is welding work that is applied directly to the chassis. Now you have to realize that every chassis will have different measurements between the two frame rails leading to the back. Every time you weld supports of any kind to the frame the measurements change and it is extremely important to get your measurements perfect. We actually had to straighten the rear frame before we even started welding to it because we had assumed it was straight and we cut all the steel for those dimensions. Unforeseen things like this really add to the time involved and it was a lot of hustling every time something new would come up.

The cantilever arms could be reproduced but the subframe that secures them has to be DEAD ON! If not your in big trouble because everything that determines this is welded solid. This whole project was a big exercise in different welding techniques as well as the shrinkage involved which is very surprising when things are pulling together and cooling down when the beads are laid.



Anyone wanna let me cut, bend and weld your nice clean frame and sign a contract saying I'm not responsible or to be held liable for the results?

And making any money off of a kit like this? This stuff cost me a ton of $$. I couldn't imagine marking it up for a profit. People would be thinking I was making a ton of money off of them when I was actually just trying for 10 percent. It's fun to throw the topic around though.
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Unread 11-21-2006, 10:09 AM
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Hows it handle over the woops?

You just keep your speed up and skip right over the top of em. I did this a few times at very high speed before this work and it bucked my rear end up about 5ft higher than the front and my guy friend let out a scream like a little girl which was extremely funny. I still make fun of him.

I have seriously skipped over some dunes at speed and it goes over em very well. If I slow down things get worse so trying to stop in the middle of a bunch of big ones isn't a good idea. I have re-inforced the cab from the bottom or else the middle of the transmission hump floor area will crease and/or RIP right in half. I did this on a 1992 Toy ext cab before.

Here is a little in-cab footage of my truck going around some traffic at Pismo. It's funny to see the reactions of people that get passed by my truck in the woops.
Video = 10mb avi file / media player

Skippin over some woops

Right click and save link as.
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Unread 01-18-2007, 11:58 PM
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Here is a shot in the driveway getting a bath.

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Unread 01-26-2009, 10:21 PM
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One thing that I like the most is that the back end is a little higher than the front. I'll be able to kit out the front and bring it up higher without the back end looking like it's sagging so much.

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Unread 01-26-2009, 11:01 PM
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I just found some current pictures that I took a little while ago. Man I just need the front end to catch up with the rear and I'll be looking good! I'm getting amped up on putting my Lexus V8 into the Tacoma and looking at these pictures makes me realize I need to give my ol truck some more love this spring. Once the engine is in then it's time to do a little work on the front end.

I can't imagine how nice it would be to have the rear match the front in ride height even though I won't quite be able to get the travel to match. Independent suspension will never give the travel that you can get out of I-beam configuration. But it rides so damn nice and the cornering is awesome.


Last edited by Smithers; 11-12-2013 at 06:42 AM.
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Unread 01-23-2010, 08:23 AM
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And you want to see the travel we're pullin? I'm sorry to post such crappy res pictures but it's f'n hard to get someone to take pictures of you! When my V8 is operational there will surely be much better pictures of some action coming this way.

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