thegreydog

Sorry if I am jacking the thread, but.. I just bought an 87 22re 5 speed and I want to run 33's. Not a big fan of big bodylifts. I want the suspension done right and clear the tires with room... any safe suggestions?

bob200587

If you will be wise, and run 33x10.50's and not 12.50s you can fit them without a lift. Some hammering or trimming might be necessary, but nothing major.

BJ spacers will give you a little bit if it's too tight for you. Outside of that, you have to use a body lift, do major cutting, get an expensive bracket lift, or SAS. But you shouldn't have any problems with fitting them

The rear you have alot of options, best bet to make sure you can match up the front might be 63" chevy springs. or just get extended shackles, or an AAL. Lots of cheap options for the rear. Even a new leaf pack is an option. If you're rear end isn't sagging (it's likley someone already did something to the rear suspension) you probably dont' need to do anything to the rear IF you run 10.50s.

to elaborate on what I was talking about earlier in the thread:
My opinion on this whole matter is...why bother trying to fit 33x12.50s (or larger for that matter) on a torsion bar IFS toyota? The extra two inches in width isn't going to help enough to justify the cost it usually takes to fit them, not to mention the associated problems and just the general poor design of the bracket type lifts. Face it, there just isn't a GOOD way to lift a truck with torsion bars. Going to so much trouble for that extra width is foolish in my opinion, and trying for 35's or larger on IFS is pushing it, I would never do it, mostly for the same reasons, and that I think that 35's are too big for the IFS to handle reliably...You truly would have been better off with an SAS(saved alot of money too), then you could just go ahead and fit 35's and see a much greater increase in size, and have more articulation and a stronger axle. There are exceptions, and you can fit them, but WHY? Just as a matter of opinon...I don't even think they look better. The ends do not justify the means....

I'm done now.

Oh yea....
Don't forget to regear!!!!!!!!!!!

bob200587

I think there is a perfect truck idea, a number of things on this perfect truck could be different, but the same elements would make it up.

However, there are different categories of "perfect truck" Such as....

Show Truck
Expedition/Camping Truck
Rock Crawler
Mud Bogger
DD/Trail Truck
Street Racing Truck
Sand Truck

and so on and so on. Some of these can be combined into one, while others can not. you could have a show truck that was set up to drag race. Or a DD that doubles as a camping rig. you could even make a truck capable of both rocks and mud, possibly even sand worthy, but probably not.

I also think "doing well off road" is subjective and doesn't really mean anything.

deathrunner

WHAT??? The cv's can handle that?
If that's the case, the why don't the LT kits allow for 14" of travel?

Why wouldn't you use that crawling?

Guys like Blizzard and MarcP have shown that torsion bar equipped trucks can flex. If not canked, the stock torsion bars will flex pretty well.

I will never in my life take a bracket kit through the whoops. 14" of travel or not, that is the recipe for bad alignment. It's as graceful as a rhino on stilts....

14" of travel....really? Now, that I gotta see.

pcardenas

Thank to all for your commets!

Actually Im fit BJ Spacers 1,5" on Front, rear new Coils ("like Downey") plus Coil Spacer 2", Panhard Drop Bracket rear, SwayAway extender mount on rear, front 4Crawler diff Drop Kit 1" plus front swayawar bar drop kit (4crawler).
Im very happy with this setup. Last week I installed Rear Detroit Locker (very good, almost like ARB...).
Im using 32x11,5 BFGoodrich MT tyres on 8" wheels.
My "problem" is, in max articulation some front and rear rubbing with my tyres into the fenders... So I want to have more clearence. I dont like Body Lift because I have bad experiencies (lossely body due lack of strengh of bolts..)

And in the near future I want to mount 33x12,5 Goodyear MT tyres (Here in Chile we dont have 33x10,5 available, seems very good tyre size to me, but...)

Thats my history, in general Im very happy with offroad performance of my 4runner, and in the road or city is very confortable. I use 4runner as weekend vehicle due the gas milleage. And I like very much as recreational vehicle.

I want to thank all, Ive learned a lot in this forum, all my mods are based on ideas readed in this forum.

Lets keep posting good ideas an experiences!

usmarinerecon

I bought a 4" suspention lift from skyjacker, and a 5" full spring for the rear from wabfab.com. I have an 86' 4runner. When I get more money (like 3800 dollars) I will sell off the front ifs lift and do a sas. I've ran both. there is nothng wrong with ifs. solid front really comes in handy for real rock crawling and where you need extream flex for front and rear. But for what most beople do ifs lifts are great. Ifs actually rides better on the way home! Don't worry about snooty people who have sas and talk ˟˟˟˟˟ on ifs. Do what's in you budget and have a blast with your truck.... thats what you bought it for in the first place! Good luck
Chandler

elripster

I'll see if I can dig up some pics of my old truck. It's kinda hard to take detailed picture of front suspension on impact unless the photographer is a bit more talented than say, my girlfriend at the time if you know what I mean.

The thing to remember is that as far as the CV's are concerned they can travel upwards the same angle they can tolerate downwards. Now if you take a look at a truck at full droop and imagine that same angle upwards, you'll see what I mean.

I'm not sure why the long travel kits spec what they do but I think I have an idea. They are limited by the stock bumptops as to how far up they can pivot. With the 4" kit you can make the compression bompstop bracket as short as you dare and allow the suspension to move much farther upwards.

That is was I did, make my own bumpstop blocks out of aluminum and had a boat load of up travel.

If I get more time I'll dig hard on 4X4wire for a post where guy had NO compression bumpstops on his 4" lift and get this, the limiting factor as to how far up the wheel could travel turned out to be the UCA hitting the frame on the inner facing side of the UCA.

As for crawling, even with crosslinked air shocks up front, I *might* get 10" out of it under just the right circumstances and that was augmenting the 4" kit with spacers. The stock torsion bars are pretty stiff. 8-9" of flex is about all you'll typically get out of them. It did help with crawling, but one wouldn't be able to use it's full potential without say, a really heavy front bumper.

I remember my limiting factor to hauling butt of road was my front shocks getting too hot and fading. I could hit some nasty stuff at speed and not bottom out the suspension in my '89.

Frank

Yota82

Like Deathrunner, I'll have to see that to believe it. CV's are definantly the limiting factor on angle so in other words wnen an LT truck with about 12" of travel is sitting at ride height, the CV will be in a tolerable range but the more the angle on droop, that is bad! On an LT set up using stock bumpstops the CV's will just about be flat at full bump, which is not bad for them. Droop is what makes them bind and fail. That's why 4x4 LT is limited to 12" of wheel travel. You can get more travel out of a 2WD for that reason, no CV limitation, your only limiting factors then are tie rods and stock BJ's (which will bind and pull apart as well). I understand that you can not put the bumpstop spacers on a bracket lift and increase the travel by quite a bit, but there is a reason for the bumpstop spacers and no matter what anyone says A stock Toyota CV is not made move that much. Stock wheel travel is in the 5"ish range and CV's were designed for that, but 14" is roughly 3 times that. There is a reason LT kits are wide and it's to accomidate wheel travel while not overleveraging components like CV's. Stock width arms with 14" would be way out of the realm of safe CV angle.

kylextrisler

lemme rob the thread...so what im hearing, if I were to use my LC coils, and BJ spacers, panhard drop, differential drop etc etc regear and put 33x10.5's that would probably be my best idea, im heading down that road but a friend might be selling me his 33x12.5's for cheap (if he goes according to plan and moves his K5 up to 37's) should i just take his tires or wait around for 10.5s? the regearing is the only thing im worried about pricewise, but then again this will only happen come summer when im not living the college life and i go back to the 40 hr work week and pull in some decent cash, just trying to get a good plan set up for when that day comes, about 3 months down the road...

deathrunner

Frank,

I see what you're getting at now. I doubt the ball joints like full compression without the bumpstops....talk about spreading the cup's lip. Ouch!

The other downside to that setup is ground clearance. Although you afford much travel by taht modification, as the suspension compresses, the already low crossmember woudl get lower.

When my suspension is at full droop, my lower arms are pretty much parallel to the crossmember, this yields maybe 6" of clearance. Now if the arms were allowed to compress more that number would get smaller....say 3-4"?
I wouldn't want to be getting that close to the ground at high speed in the whoops, especially not with bracketry.

But, I get what you did now. And I can see how it would work, and also why it wouldn't work with LT arms and the stock bumpstops. I'd have to cut off the stock bumps and part of the arm mounts to allow my arms to travel any farther up.

elripster

What I have said as far as a truck with a 4" kit has been empirically proven on a vehicle (mine) and ran that way for years and years. Please, if you wish to contradict me, provide empirical evidence. Loosen up your torsion bars, throw on a 4" bracket kit, put a jack under the a-arm, and see for yourself. You will find what I, and others found that CV's are not a limiting factor with this type of mod. In fact, when Rockstomper was around, this was THE mod to do. I'm rather surprised that people think it won't yield the results I have described. BTW, I had a Truetrac in the front of my 89 and never broke a single CV joint and I wheeled that truck hard. It even got stolen and whatever happened came back sagging on the right side badly with signs of serious abuse. I cranked the t-bar back up and wheeled it more again with no CV issues.

In the case where the individual found that the inner side of the a-arm hit the frame when compressing with no bumpstops, 4" kit, I remember he had aftermarket half shafts. I do not think stock CV's could handle that much compression.

Think about this for a second. You are making an assumption of what a Japanese engineer intended a CV joint to do in like 1985 when that suspension was probably designed. Much has changed as far as vehicle expectations and OEM's always use components conservatively so do not assume the part can't doing something until it is proven either way.

Frank

SwampThing

Well, thats true, unless you don't mind "redneck-ising" it. For me it was like: Angle Grinder + BFH + Rippin out shrouding + Cranked TBs + 1" BL = 35x12.50x15 with no rubbage. Then I snapped a couple CVs and decided to go with 33x12.5x15. But my method of madness isn't everyone's cup of brandy...

Bill

elripster: I believe that CV's could do 14" of travel, just based on me sitting there playing with them while they're out(yes, like a 5yr old...you do it too, admit it). But how much of that 14" is actually usable?

The idea of taking advantage of the full range of the CV(up not just down) is good, but how far before you start to get binding?

Can you post up some flex pics?