Batousaii

Greetings,

- New guy here

- I recently got a 1982 22r, Webber 4x4. Looks like it was lifted in the back with blocks and shackles, fronts seems stock so it has the slight dragster look. Going to redo the springs and get rid of the blocks. Just got a rough country lift kit and dropped drag link (at least until i do a cross link someday). It has lift shackles in the back, and going to run a little longer shackle in the front, as I hear it smoothes out the ride by providing the springs extra leverage to flex via the shackle. So, i am a bit new to the whole 4x4 philosophy, but not new to mechanics. My other car being a home build turbo-integra, hacked ecu etc. etc, did all my own work, I also have two Harleys anda 5150 Kikker for my wife (she’s super small so it fits her).

- Ok so, I recently came upon the concept of "go as wide as you go high", and that got me thinking of how to accomplish this in a simple and inexpensive manner. My first thought was some universal wheel spacer, but then it got me thinking about how that might put stress on the wheel bearings due to the added leverage. Does anyone run universal spacers? If so, how has it affected your bearings or over all wear and tear of your outer running gear? Does anyone advocate or advise against them, if so why? Pros and cons please. I also welcome other affordable simple solutions to balancing the trucks high and width.

- Well, happy I found this board, it’s been a great help so far in getting this great little truck up-to speed. Some plans for my truck. Already got the R.C. Springs and shocks (not installed yet) and will be replacing all the knuckles and joints too. It has 31” wheels, I think those are fine, no more than 32" in the future. Got a full header system to replace the crusty old original, will use 2 ¼ pipe to a high-flow muffler. Going to de-smogit, get a better coil, MSD multi-fire box, remote oil relocation, electric fan,and cross-over steering at some point too. In time I'll get a locker or limited slips to help with traction and regeared back to corrected stock (so it's not over geared with the 31" tires). It’s a daily driver for the most part, so it needs to remain solid and reliable with longevity. I don’t plan to do any serious rock crawling or anything, but it may see some mild off road, mountain road or trail driving, snow etc. I want it to be 100% off road/crawlable and rough terrain capable just in case the zombies come, but again, it’s mostly just a fun daily driver that can go anywhere for any reason, at least thats the intent.

Glad I found you guys, thanks in advance for the advice.

Bat

Bingle

First of all, welcome!
Lots of guys run spacers on the front axles of these when they swap the solit axles into later gen IFS trucks because the rear axles are wider. I have similar concerns about wheel spacers but haven't heard anyone talking about problems due to using them so it's probably not a problem. That being said, I would not put spacers on your truck, no reason to. I get the concept of wider to match higher, but 31" tires and 2 ish inch lift(you didn't say how much lift you rouogh country is so I'm guessing) doesn't require anything like that. You could do it, but it would be money wasted, in my opinion. Put the money towards a beefy front bumper for the zombies.

Batousaii

Hehe, Thanks Bingle, already has a beefy front (and rear) bumper for the zombies!

- It was a 4" lift kit, I think the rear shackles were +2" (stock fronts), but i hear the lifted springs settle allot more from the leverage afforded by the longer shackles, correct me if i'm wrong plz. ~ I was going for a flexible 4+" lift, thus my thinking of wheel spacers. – Should I just pick up some stock shackles for the rear instead? Previous Owner did a rather unbalanced lift (mix match) with it, I'm trying to get it rounded out nicely.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Welcome to YT! !

Tons of info on here to help but sounds like you have a plan! Lots of online vendors for you to spend money thru: trail gear, marlin crawler, inchworm, lowrange, skys offroad, front range offroad, addicted offroad....ect

I run 1.5" spacers on all four corners btw, no issues

Toyota~Boy

iTrader: (2)

Yeah I'd second the second post. With you running factory axle housings there's no need to extend it by using spacers. If you do want a wider stance get some different wheels that have a back spacing that you desire. I'm running spacers on my wife's suzuki XL7 I beleive there 1 1/2 spacers. I've had no issues with using them. They stay tight and wheel bearings have been great. Her car had them when I purchased it so I left them. The 4wd is used regularly and as stated no issues

Batousaii

Thank You for the welcome.
- How long (time or miles) have you run those spacers? and where the bearings new when you installed them? 1.5" on each wheel, thats about what I was thinking of too. the 2" looked good since i was going to a 4ish" from stock.

Bingle

Hey, BBP, why are you running spacers on all four? I'm not knocking it, just curious as to the reason.

Batousaii

Thanks Toyota~Boy,
- So far is... spacers work, but you guys dont think it's needed with the tires i have and the ammount of lift I'm going to use? - I'm less concerned about the looks of it all, way more interested in the function and capability of the machine (and doing so in an affordable manner). I just dodnt want it to be a tip-over toy either.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Many years, lots of hard driving and offroading. Never had a spacer come loose or fail. I would not go bigger than 1.5"

The rear axle due to longer springs/shackles because tires were hitting frame when stuffed.
The front needed spacers to match the rear and clear the upper a-arms. Now that I have a SA the spacers are there to match width to the IFS wider axle...

Ultimately, I have really shallow rims which really need spacers for my application. If the rig was stock I wouldn't run spacers

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

If you are going for a flexible lift, Rough Country is not your solution. Before I broke down my truck to rebuild, I had a Rough Country lift and absolutely hated it. I originally bought it as a temporary fix until I had the time to start my resto-that was the biggest waste of money. It was stiffer than a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. That setup is getting replaced with Old Man Emu medium duty springs, Trail Gear greasable shackles and Bilstein 5125 shocks right now. Just thought I should forwarn you incase if it isn't too late.

Batousaii

kawazx636, Thanks for the reply.
- If it wasn't a balance between affordability and function, then yes the EMU set would be great, but those usually run more than twice as much as my setup. I've read a bit about the rough country, and yes i know they tend to be stiffer than some of the nicer (more expensive) bolt on units. If i really had the time/cash to do a full blown build, I'd probably do the Chevy spring setup where you have to re-weld/locate the mount points and get some serious flex, those are aweome. As it stands, and as planned, It will be a daily driver 90% of the time. I don't really ever see myself crawling rocks, never done it, dont really know how.. looks fun, I'll leave it to the pro's (Respect!). Maybe some mountain roads and trails for me, as I have friends who live in very rural/country environments. My area (Kitsap County in WA) gets a little snow, and gets muddy in the winter, some ugly off road areas here and there, but nothing crazy. We have often been stuck when driving our normal little hond civic, and picked up a Ford Ranger 4x4... but it was too vanilla, and I wanted something with soul, so we sold it and got the Toyota. We both love it and want to make it our "fun and never gets stuck winter weather vehicle". We sold our Honda Civic too, so this Toyota will be the daily driver. Worst come to Worst, it would be our family "Bug out" vehicle for anything catastrophic (Major natural disaster, zombies [haha] or whatever), likely hood being extremely minimal that would really ever happen. So, the great balance between cash on a budget and functionality takes a front seat for me. Also, I have too many hobbies, I also have a Shovelhead I'm building, and the wife likes it when I pay the mortgage/power and put food on the table too
- Maybe someday a full blown build will be in order, but for now, it's all about balancing my fun money and my life needs. Luckily the wife likes all the same things I do, so we both enjoy the fun stuffs.

- I will keep the EMU (or simular) set in mind though, never know what the future may hold If I get serious, i may call upon your knowledge set if thats OK.

Bingle

Good to see lots of WA first gens on here! Where you at in kitsap, my wife is from Port Orchard and I grew up in Lynn-hood. These trucks are perfect for the forrest service roads over there and do great in the snow with a little weight in the back and decent tires. Just gotta look out for all the other idiots on the road over there. 3" of snow over there and the people act like the world is ending.

I agree with Kawa that you'd be happier with a different suspension, but I understand the budget thing. I've had my truck since '93 and wasted a lot of money getting something now rather than saving for what I really wanted. Sounds like you know the story though. treat the truck right and she'll be with ya forever.

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

I gotcha, I just wanted to forewarn you. To be honest, the OME suspension isn't all that much more. I ended up getting my OME springs (Front and rear) from 4wheelonline.com for $388.79 shipped and Bilstein 5125 shocks on eBay for $286.44 shipped - $675.23 total. The Rough County kit costs what? Around $400? For an extra $275 you can have a bolt on setup that you can be satisfied with for a while.

I completely understand the budget thing though, but I will certainly try to prevent somebody from going through what I did if I can. I've learned to be patient when it comes to building vehicles because patience equals more money coming in which yields savings down the road in doing it once.

Batousaii

Good Score kawazx636, I couldn't find em for less than a grand (doing a search after you mentioned them). And I do appreciate the forewarning on any product characteristics.
- It has those longer shackles in the back, and I am hoping that will counter the R.C. springs natural stiffness a bit via extra leverage to flex (stretch back and forth), but we will see. I'll probably get matching shackles for the front too if the backs work good after getting installed (and aren't toooo tall).
- The $250 difference went to a new Super-E carb for my Harley, lol.

- So to topic, Do you think this amount of lift warrants spacing the wheels out to balance the height? or wheel spacing is good enough? The rims are some basic 16" with 31 tires (Not like super chubby mud tires or anything, just some basic all weather deals). Lemme know your thoughts.

TY again.

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

I follow you, but when you're ballin' on a budget you gotta search around. I'm not really on a super tight budget, but I'm the kind of person that will search for days or wait for a deal just so I don't pay full price. I've already spent over $5,000 on my build but probably saved over $2,000 by bargain hunting.

If you want an idea of how wide the stance will be compared to the height, check out some of the pictures in my album on here:

https://www.yotatech.com/members/kaw...ta+pickup.html

All of those photos were taken with 31x10.5 R15 tires,3.75" backspaced wheels (about as narrow as you can get without spacers) and a RC 3" lift (3" springs in the front, blocks in the rear). The tires stuck out about even with the fender flares. Your wheels are what is going to make the difference. If you have 3.5" of backspacing then you'll be about 1/4" wider on each side. In my opinion, everything fit nicely in that set up. I had a little bit on tire rub on the springs, but that will all change when I get my new wheels. I'm planning on getting wheels with 3.25" of back spacing to set each corner out about a 1/2 further. If I want a wider stance from there then I'll go with some 1/2" to 1" wheel spacers. I tend to do a hybrid of looks vs performance. If my truck turns out looking tall and goofy then I'll space it out - even at the slight expense of performance since my truck will be more of a daily driver than a wheeler.

On another note, unless you want your rear a little higher than the front, I would recommend doing at least the same length shackles up front. Personally, I like my truck level so depending on how it sits, you may want to get your front shackles 1" longer than the rear to level it out, but I would play that by ear.

If you are looking for a good deal on shackles, I found my Trail Gear greaseable shackles from here:

https://www.roadlessgear.com/Toyota/...e-shackle-kits

I believe if you spend over $100 the shipping is free, but I'm not sure if that deal is still going. Either way, it's the cheapest place to find those TG shackles. (They do tend to ship slow though)

They also have the boomerang shackles for the front which is great for keeping your front shackles from whacking your body mounts.

https://www.roadlessgear.com/Toyota/...erang-shackles