FredTJ

Any know anything about the Downey "Long Travel" suspension system for the front of Gen II 4 Runners ? Mainly does it provide any lift due to the 2" longer control arms, or is it just the "standard" height, but allowing more articulation, possibly more down travel ? Thanks, Fred

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rollem

Yeah, I'm saving some dough for the same on my 93 4x4 pickup. They said it will give me 3 inches of lift and 13 inches of travel. Those numbers sound good to me. Though the kit is a bit pricey.

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93 4x4 extra cab 3vze 5 speed. 31's bfg a/t. Stock and clean. recently: warn premium locking hubs, low/ultra low bump stops. Purchased but haven't installed: 1.5" bj spacers

82 Porsche 911 SC Targa
99 Volvo XC AWD Turbo
91 VW GTI GO A's!! -g-

norcalsvx

how much is that kit going for?

__________________
1994 toy 22re-
http://www.yotatech.com/f86/nocalsvx-s-94-toy-104593/

2006 Subaru Forester XT -some mods/awd 5spd
1994 Subaru SVX- hwy runner
84 RX7- drag car build

da_bigg_wigg

Click Me!

That is a link to the downey website. One thing is for sure, it ain't cheap...

__________________
-1992 4Runner (Medallist Edition) Still given 'er 16 years later
-Santa Cruz Bullit
-Giant STP1
-Empty Wallet

Adam

Bear80

Atleast they took a hint and put better axles in the system, I hate my old downy slip yokes. I wonder if there are still major pains with alignment and hight like with the old rancho arms. The price for the arms, shock tabs, and ball joints isn't so bad but the axle cost put it over the top.

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1986 Truck - Monster IFS

1997 FZJ80 - Locked, Lifted, Ready
Range Rover Recovery Vehicle

rollem

The arms alone are like 1300.. I figure it's going to be @ 3k for the front and back. @ 2k for the front.

__________________
93 4x4 extra cab 3vze 5 speed. 31's bfg a/t. Stock and clean. recently: warn premium locking hubs, low/ultra low bump stops. Purchased but haven't installed: 1.5" bj spacers

82 Porsche 911 SC Targa
99 Volvo XC AWD Turbo
91 VW GTI GO A's!! -g-

Keggo

sheesh...
I like jd fab stuff personally.

__________________
- Kevin E. G.

SOLD!!!
'91 4Runner SR5 V6 5spd: CLICK!! FOR SALE NOW!

Proud dad of Kai E. G.!

Strap22

A lot of money for an IFS setup. Old Man Emu works weel for your application. Check out our complete Gen2 steup in the vendor advertising section.

__________________
Phil
Toyota & TRD Parts Wholesale
www.FJCruiserOffroad.com
www.trdparts4u.com
www.toyotapartsales.com
Authorized ARB/OldManEmu Dealer
Authorized OASIS Air Deflators Dealer

F0RSAKEN

I bet you could do a SAS for cheaper if you had any fabrication skills....but that kit looks awsome if you are set on keeping the IFS.

__________________
'94 4Runner v6 - AllPro sag-correction springs in back, otherwise stock.

'93 Mazda RX-7 - Apex Power FC, 3" turbo back Magnaflow, Greddy polished intake pipes, ported intake, ported exhaust manifold, stock turbos modded for non-sequential, efini y-pipe, Defi BF Gauges in custom pod.

mastacox

Sounds to me like you could get a Total Chaos suspension for about the same price... and the TC (or JD Fab) kits are 3" wider each side, not just 1.5"

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Brian

1998 4Runner SR5

FredTJ

The option 1 that yields 3" ~ 4" of suspension lift, I assume that's gaining the additional lift in the front (over the 1 1/2" or so that the BJ spacers provide) to bring it up to 3" ~ 4" is by cranking up the torsion bars ?




Thanks,
Fred

FredTJ

Because ???

Do you have a website link ?




Fred

FredTJ

Having been poking around some, on the web, on some of the other sites, etc., it appears that the TC arms, since they are so long, produce a LOT of stress on the torsion bars and mounts.
The TC kit(s) appear to be more for pre-running rather than rock crawling, which is what I do out here.

Some of the "hard core" boards speaking highly of the 930 Porsche CV joints.



Fred

Keggo

Actually Deathrunner has the jd fab LT IFS. I prefer it over the TC or Downey for that matter for a couple of reasons... 1. The lower control arm is constructed with plate instead of tube (seems sturdier) 2. I think their kit can use your torsion bars until you get enough cash saved up for coil-overs I'm pretty sure their kit can use the torsions... Someone correct me...

JD Fab

__________________
- Kevin E. G.

SOLD!!!
'91 4Runner SR5 V6 5spd: CLICK!! FOR SALE NOW!

Proud dad of Kai E. G.!

mastacox

Hmmm, I think it's the other way arond (the TC Caddy kit can use torsions, JD Fab's T1 can't), I don't see anything on JD Fab's site about using Torsions... EDIT: upon closer inspection, it looks like the JD Fab kit might have a place to bolt the stock torsion bar mount... not sure.

Nevertheless, I was referring to the Total Chaos Gen II Caddy kit, which is coil over. One hell of a kit... (DROOL)

__________________
Brian

1998 4Runner SR5

mastacox

Dude, if you do all rock crawling, you should just do a SAS... A long travel IFS is for Baja-style prerunning, going fast, and jumping. Not rocks.

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Brian

1998 4Runner SR5

pinnacle

The JD Fab kit you can run either torsions or coilovers. Deathrunner ran torsions on his kit first then switched to coilovers.

I run the Gen II caddy kit. You have to use coilovers on this kit. You can get the Gen I kit if you want to run torsion bars.

I was looking at getting the JD Fab kit, its $$$, but I found a real good deal on my Gen II caddy kit.

__________________
2006 Nissan 350Z - 3.5 V6 300hp, 6-Speed, Invidia Catback, 19" Volk LE37T wheels

1987 4Runner - 22re, 5-speed, 16" Tacoma wheels, 255/85/16 BFG MT's, LC Header, Magnaflow Cat, Flowmaster Muffler, All Pro Rear Bumper, Glassworks Fiberglass Fenders, Total Chaos Gen II Caddy Kit, 2.5"x8" King C/O's, Heimed steering, Upper and Lower uniballs, 62" Deavers, 2.5x18" Fox Bypass Shocks, 4.88 Gears, Detroit Trutrac/Detroit Locker

1987 4Runner

deathrunner

I would personally get a chaos or JD kit for the money you'll be putting into the Downey setup.

In my eyes they have always proven themselves to be behind the curve with suspension kits and allowing something as troublesome as the slip yoke driveshaft is proof.

I think the Downey upper arm looks kinda weak. Granted 13" of travel is nice, but imagine what those Porsche cv axles would allow for on a JD or Chaos kit. I bet we could pull 15" with those joints.

__________________

Decroded Piece of Crap

rollem

I want to see my truck 4 ft. in the air..... No maybe not. looks expensive. To build and to fix when it breaks....

__________________
93 4x4 extra cab 3vze 5 speed. 31's bfg a/t. Stock and clean. recently: warn premium locking hubs, low/ultra low bump stops. Purchased but haven't installed: 1.5" bj spacers

82 Porsche 911 SC Targa
99 Volvo XC AWD Turbo
91 VW GTI GO A's!! -g-

Strap22

Fred, you are correct. I personally don't recommend doing this setup if you are actually going to wheel it but we do have some customers that want the lift and don't care about the CV angles because they use it for show and not for real wheeling.

__________________
Phil
Toyota & TRD Parts Wholesale
www.FJCruiserOffroad.com
www.trdparts4u.com
www.toyotapartsales.com
Authorized ARB/OldManEmu Dealer
Authorized OASIS Air Deflators Dealer

Yota82

From my long travel experence, Total Chaos, JD, ESB Fabrications (no longer in business) has/had the best products. Like someone said eariler, Downey has proven themselves to be behind the curve with IFS suspension innovations. If you read about the actual product there are a couple things that just aren't true. The first thing that was stated on their website that I disagree with is the use of balljoints over uniballs. Downey refered to uniballs as "perishable" and while that is true, they are not as perishable as a balljoint and are downright stronger than a balljoint. The second thing that was stated was that Downey uses stock steering because heims are also "perishable". It is just simply not true. When it all comes down to it, coilovers are way more reliable than torsion bars, heims are stronger and don't bind as much as tie rods, uniballs are a lot stronger than BJs and will not bind/pull apart like a BJ in the increased travel. The Downey kit uses all 3 of the weak points of a well built IFS system for about the same price as a kit that is proven to be reliable like TC. I wouldn't recommend buying the Downey kit.

FredTJ

Thrust me, I'm WELL versed with solid axles, front and rear, rockcrawling, fab., etc.

Check out some of the photos that I posted of my Jeep on this thread:

http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=92557

A SAS is most likely in the future, however it'll be a year or more, most likely.
In the mean time I'm going to get the 4Runner setup up on 33's with some resonable flex in the front (the rear will take care of itself) and run all but the most extreme trails that I've run in the Jeep.



Fred

FredTJ

For the time, I'm not really considering doing any of the kits that involve replacement a-arms, etc..
A SAS is in the future but probably a year off, and it'll be coilovers with 4 or 5 links.
For now, I'm going to armor up everything thing, push the center up as high as reasonable (probably using a 2" bl) and then doing something like the bj spacers in the front with either the extended travel bj's or the uniballs, then doing 2" springs in the rear (shocks all around of course).
That'll provide a 2" suspension lift, and, coupled with the 2" bl, and a 2" or so increase under the belly because of the pushed up xfer case/tranny, should give enough room for reasonable flex with 33's.
I'l look at something for the CV's in the front axle to help with binding, either clearancing them or look at what the Porsche CV's could do for me.

That'll allow me to run all of the trails that I use to with the Jeep except for the most extreme ones.

One thing regarding the use of heims vs TRE's.
In our experience out here and from some others in CA that run mostly JV, and, speaking from strictly a rockcrawling background, proper TRE's last much longer than any heims that we've used in steering applications.
Several have tried pretty much all of the top end heims and then simply don't hold up as well as a correctly size TRE's.

Check out my Webshot folders to see some of the fab work that I've done to the Jeep, such as the rear shock outboard mod, rear J-arms, front J-arms, HPD30 axle swap with WJ knuckles and J-Arms, rear trilink (allows removal of the rear track bar). Note that for the custom built tie rod, drag link, and track bar, I used TRE's, in this case from a WJ.

Anyway, those are pretty much my thoughts at the moment:
- a 2" body lift, coupled with a raised xfer case/tranny skid, probably a Budbuilt. This should also allow me to raise the gas tank up.
- BJ spacers for the front.
- Something with the lower balljoints to loosen up the upward travel, like the mega travel balljoints or uniballs.
- Stock torsion bars for the flex that they afford as opposed to thicker, aftermarket bars.
- 2" + springs in the rear.
- Raised trackbar bracket, axle end, for the rear.
- Shocks all around, longer for the extra travel
- Front and rear bumpers, rear wrap around.
- Rock sliders for the sides.
- Front and rear diff guards.
- Front engine skid, probably a BudBuilt.
- Taking some of the bind out of the rear sway bar links by using heims on the ends.
- Front disconnects.
- Lock front and rear
- Maybe looking at out boarding the rear shocks.
- Of course 33's (33 x 12.50 MT/R's).


Anyway, if anyone has suggestions or see's any flaws in the above, chime in.....



Fred

deathrunner

[quote=FredTJ;985593]For the time, I'm not really considering doing any of the kits that involve replacement a-arms, etc..
/QUOTE]

No offense, but why did you start this thread then? hahaha

__________________

Decroded Piece of Crap

FredTJ

[quote=deathrunner;986764]No offsense taken.
Valid question.

At that moment, 35's seemed something that I may have wanted to consider with the 4Runner "as it is"..
Now I'm thinking 33's for a while (maybe a year) and set everything else up correctly, which includes armor all around.
Later a SAS, not leaf sprung, but coils with a 4 or 5 link.
The 33's, 2" suspension lift, 2" bl, armored, center pushed up with a raised crossmember skid, and the suspension loose enough to provide some fair flex for the 33's (the rear is no problem) will get me on all except the most extreme trails of what I use to run with the Jeep.




Fred