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Chuckles, you noticed, the only thing that isn't nice and clean. lol I am surprised at how well it's been holding up. But it's a pretty complicated fab job, so when I have some spare time one day. I hate that the tank hangs so low, but it's too much work to move it for now.
WHAT HAVE I DONE?! Several issues. With the longer control arms and change of angle of the axle (double cardon driveshaft joint) THe tock angle of the lower shock mount was not working. It was stressing the shock. Had to reset to center at ride height. Initially was gong to rip off axle and redo everything, but saw this as a strong alternative. ALbeit not super clean. I strengthened it with that added backplate. Previously the shock was hitting the spring, so this issue was resolved as well. Not too bad. Headed to MOAB in a couple weeks, so had to be done asap.
OKAY. So. Went to Moab, had a blast offroading one out of the three days. 10 miles from my destination in moab, 12 hrs of driving, the idler pulley thingy infront of the water pump literally blew up. Long story short, identified necessary parts the next day (towed to Oreilly's rear yard). Also removed a bit of parts. THe bearing had shot back into the timing chain cover, several issues there. Next day my friend and I spent 10 hrs putting her back together. Lot's of surprises, frustrations and eventually success. There is a reason why I carry all the tools I need! I didnt have any way to hold the harmonic balancer for the high torque bolt removal, bought some steel and made the tool. OK! the third of the 3 offroading days we got to offroad. It was epic, wonderful and beautiful. TThe adventure and epic trails behind us, next day we hit the road back. 7 hours driving later, stopped for a meal. After that the transmission was slipping. I was not feeling it. I was upset. Some internet and forum searches later, I found that this is the high range drum in the transfer case. Once up to speed it was fine, so used 4low to start off and then changed to 2wd, it made it home!
And now, a rapid fire story with pictures: Removed this trans that I purchased from some shady JDM import shop, 60k miles my ass. Installed the previous one which I mistakenly thought had a cracked housing, but otherwise worked fine. Had an absolute hell of a time putting the torque converter in this time. Had to resort to this!!! Here is where I decided I will tow my 4runner to trails more than 2 hrs away. After several days of soul searching in a haze of which trailer to get, I don't want two trailers.. etc... I decided I will use the one I have. I have this heavy duty beast, nice and narrow to fit down driveways and deckover for easy loading and dumping. I use this for my construction side job. Said goodbye to these old ass custom shortened axles (had brand new tires when I bought it) Cleaned up and prepped for new mounting. New 3500lb axles. Sold this Toy, after basically making it really nice to look at and drive! Good money though. Bought this jem. Wifey loves it. The kids love it. I definitely love it. Scored some sweet aluminum ramps. Made some ramp landings on the trailer Installed the axles. Loaded up and it all JUST works. Went for a 45 min test run and decided the tires on the trailer are ˟˟˟˟. Closer look, some unknown brand to this universe, soft as hell no radial wires junk. No Sir, not my style. Sold these with rims and all. Got 14 inch rims to lower everything (vs 15 inch) and some nice goodyear tires. Build a ramp carrier Ran all new wiring and both axles have breaks. Works wonderfully. Cleaned her up, new lights all around with reflective tape. Spare tire. DONE. Then I removed my gas tank skid plate to start the long path to making a nice one out of aluminum. But realize, the skid as it is will NOT survive the next offroad trail. My tank is already got some minor damage trough the skid. Oct 3rd I will be hitting the rubicon trail. So, the gas tank skid is not a risk I can take. Decided to throw something together. That's as far as I got last night.
Interested in how the gas tank skid turns out mine got abused running lockhart out in moab last year and has been on my list to "upgrade" ever since, had something very similar in mind to what you have done so far. Any specific reason you went aluminum vs steel? I was thinking 3/16 steel or something similar since I can weld that, haven't gotten to welding aluminum yet.
Hi COMTB,,,, so I am not in love with the gas tank skid I am building. It will definitely function good enough. When I have more time I will change this whole thing out with an aluminum skid. I hope to lift the gas tank up by 1.5 inches, equal to my body lift. Looks like it is an unfriendly job though. lol.
Here is my progress in pictures. I decide the gap between the gas tank skid and the belly skid I have built is gona be a problematic anchor point, so I went through the excercise of filling that gap to. lol. If I can get the tank to go high enough, I have make a nice flat tank and belly plate.
The welding THe complicated shape to fill that gap the gap!
So you're attaching it to the existing skid that's there already? I would guess that's temporary until, like you said, you have the time to build something nice out of aluminum?
I might need to pickup a spool gun or a cheap TIG to start building aluminum skids instead of steel plate. I finished my front bumper (coastal off-road kit) and that SoB is HEAVY with all 3/16 plate. I don't know how much weight I really want to add to the truck since a winch is going to be another 70lbs over the front.
Also really like your adjustable rear lowers, I did the same with my uppers because I broke both (same Moab trip took 1 out then the other followed a few months later after limping on just 1 rear UCA for a bit). I can dig through your thread if this is answered already but did you go with adjustable rear LCA's to compensate for lift to recenter the axle or for better flex out of the JJ.
So you're attaching it to the existing skid that's there already? I would guess that's temporary until, like you said, you have the time to build something nice out of aluminum?
I might need to pickup a spool gun or a cheap TIG to start building aluminum skids instead of steel plate. I finished my front bumper (coastal off-road kit) and that SoB is HEAVY with all 3/16 plate. I don't know how much weight I really want to add to the truck since a winch is going to be another 70lbs over the front.
Also really like your adjustable rear lowers, I did the same with my uppers because I broke both (same Moab trip took 1 out then the other followed a few months later after limping on just 1 rear UCA for a bit). I can dig through your thread if this is answered already but did you go with adjustable rear LCA's to compensate for lift to recenter the axle or for better flex out of the JJ.
Because the geometry of the mounting points for the gas tank skid are a bit complicated, I need to take my time to build a nice alu one. and, less room for error cause alum is 3 times more than steel. lol. Steel plates are way to heavy for the 3.0 auto And overall offer more resistance to get up and over obstacles.
My rear end has 2 new custom control arms. If you dig through the posts you will find how I used offset heims to get a lot more travel from my upper control arm hitting the gas tank on full droop. The major driver was strength and flex, but I used the opportunity to drive my rear axle backwards about 1.5 inches, and rotate the diff upwards for more clearance. That made it necessary to get a double cardon driveshaft though. lol. rabbit hole .. I found that one of the biggest hinderance to travel/flex in the rear was the joints themselves. Heims and such provide much more movement for the joints than stock did.
I used a lot of inspiration and ideas from this forum, and others, it's a great place for it. I found a good deal on an alu spool gun and my MIG welder works pretty good for it. Just need to be very precise, not as forgiving as steel.
Because the geometry of the mounting points for the gas tank skid are a bit complicated, I need to take my time to build a nice alu one. and, less room for error cause alum is 3 times more than steel. lol. Steel plates are way to heavy for the 3.0 auto And overall offer more resistance to get up and over obstacles.
My rear end has 2 new custom control arms. If you dig through the posts you will find how I used offset heims to get a lot more travel from my upper control arm hitting the gas tank on full droop. The major driver was strength and flex, but I used the opportunity to drive my rear axle backwards about 1.5 inches, and rotate the diff upwards for more clearance. That made it necessary to get a double cardon driveshaft though. lol. rabbit hole .. I found that one of the biggest hinderance to travel/flex in the rear was the joints themselves. Heims and such provide much more movement for the joints than stock did.
I used a lot of inspiration and ideas from this forum, and others, it's a great place for it. I found a good deal on an alu spool gun and my MIG welder works pretty good for it. Just need to be very precise, not as forgiving as steel.
Started reading back, now I remember reading up to the point you put the new coils in last time haha. The offset JJ is a fabulous idea I didn't think when I built my uppers, I just use straight JJ. It's already significantly better (and stronger) than factory but I always wondered about hitting the gas tank. Right now my rear shocks (bill 4600s) are both a bit worn out and severely limiting down travel with my OME coils. Do you have any idea the p/n of the 80 series coils you picked up? Ive gone down that rabbit hole for hours and always end up coming out more confused than when I started because of counting coils, different left/right coils, etc. My plan was to pickup a set of OME coils for an 80 series but all the ones I find give the 80 series 2in of lift and I am slightly concerned that would really lift my rear too much having tbars in the front still.
I'm leaning towards eventually going to a long travel setup but that's significantly down the road a bit but if I could get more travel out of the rear that wouldn't hurt things. I am going to have to copy how you mounted your shocks I was trying to figure out how to pickup a longer travel shock within the confines of the factory mounting but I really like how you set it up.
My 3vz started having some major issues a little over a year ago probably to do with me driving over mountain passes out here in CO on 4cyl on my way back from Moab, not to mention the reason it was on 4/6 cylinders in the first place. None-the-less I bit the bullet and swapped in a 5vz. 0 regrets completely new truck after.
Will stop asking questions now, appreciate you responding haha
SO these are the shocks I got. they have the best length ratio which gets me the most travel. The shock mounts absolutely needed to be redone. I didn't want to go into the rear cargo area, that was my limit. After struggling for a while, I thought of this. I was too lazy to take my axle off and do the cuts properly, so the edges are pretty ugly. lol. SUper hard area to do this work in. I did a TON of research before I settled on the springs and shocks. I get very good articulation, see pic below. I never mind answering questions. I lurk on all the build threads for inspiration and ideas all the time and ask questions too
SO these are the shocks I got. they have the best length ratio which gets me the most travel. The shock mounts absolutely needed to be redone. I didn't want to go into the rear cargo area, that was my limit. After struggling for a while, I thought of this. I was too lazy to take my axle off and do the cuts properly, so the edges are pretty ugly. lol. SUper hard area to do this work in. I did a TON of research before I settled on the springs and shocks. I get very good articulation, see pic below. I never mind answering questions. I lurk on all the build threads for inspiration and ideas all the time and ask questions too https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Nice, those shocks have a good amount of travel and the collapsed length is only 4in longer than my current "OEM Plus" Bill 4600's. I definitely have flex envy, that photo is awesome! The 4600's have been great but they're in need of replacement and I was installing my 4crawler panhard drop and I realized I was losing significant travel in the rear with the shocks extended length being so close to factory. The coils weren't even unseating when my rear brake line became the limiting factor (shocks disconnected). So I'm going to pick up a stainless rear extended brake line and then articulate the rear to see when my UCA on the pass side starts getting into the tank (and maybe go with he offset JJ like you did to compensate). I'll wait until the winter to do the shocks and probably let the axle drop to get in there to work although I hate having to get it back in and lined up to be honest. I don't have any bumps back there but I threw some air bags in there which have been great when it's loaded down for long camping trips so technically I guess I have air bumps now? haha
Sorry I didn't see you mention what coils you ended up going with, were they 80 series or just the OME coils for our trucks?
Thanks and I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!
04-13-2022, 10:19 PM
And overall offer more resistance to get up and over obstacles. 
