Los Gatos?

I'm sorry for the confusion, I'm talking about my '85 pickup, it has leaf springs in the back, it's 2wd, very low...I believe it does have a torsion bar, though...I will go check. The 6" lift kits realyl aren't that pricey actually....$600 for the front (although it's not a very known brand...stuff looks good though), I guess I'd need regular 4-5" rear 4wd lift springs to even it out. This would equal a 2.5-3" lift for a 4wd truck..should be enough for 33s....

keisur

This is assuming you have something to tie off the winch too, sturdy enough to pull you out. what if you got stuck at a beach or somewhere with no trees of big boulders around?

Todd E

Yes, the 2wd trucks do have torsion bars.
They are actually shorter than 4wd ones though.
Don't ask where I found this out. I don't remember the website.
Soon as I can afford it, I'd like to get that Inline 6" long travel lift.
Probably won't happen for some time to come though
My Fabtech kit (3.5" lift) comes with Sway a Way 25mm replacement bars. My stock ones got fatigued after running them for about 3 months with the fabtech fit (torqued too much)
It's a little springy with no load, but not horrible.
Todd

keisur

In my opinion, no you can't. Just this last sunday I was at our local "redneck" mudhole and there was this chevy with a V8 and some pretty exhaust tips and some great sounding headers. It was a 2WD with a locked rear diff and some bfg mud tires. He kept getting the two rear wheels stuck and would dig them in and have to be pulled out to keep going, finally a buddy of his just left him tied up to his hitch with a 25' toe strap and would pull him when he needed it through the slop, he had to follow his buddy everywhere. the rear tars would just spin together and had he had 4WD the fronts would have offered a little more gription to get him out with no help. I went in some of the same place he kept getting stuck and got through fine, I just had to make sure I could do it to for an ego trip i guess. plus the guy kept sliding everywhere and had to keep the gas pedal floored to get through alot because if he let up the rear would stick and start diggin' in. I'd be wary about being so confident you get yourself into trouble, especially if your gym teacher is around to see you get stuck.

joshik

4wd makes a huge difference. id rather have a 4wd with open diffs (i have a rear locker though) than a 2wd with locked diff. not bashing on 2wd though. 2wd prerunners are sweet too! but theres a BROAD array of "wheeling" . you have rock crawling over huge rocks, racing down desert roads, going for a nice drive down fire roads, splashing around in mud, and what i call "urban offroading" - go over median and island off roading.

wheeling, or OFF ROAD is simply... OFF the [main] ROAD!

i've been many places where a 2wd truck could not go, even with locked diffs. it was hard for me in 4wd IFS.

now that i have a busted front diff so im stuck in 2wd, i went to the desert last month, and rode a trail or two while i was there. handled the dirt trail no prob! now when it came to climbing dirt hills, OMG so hard... especially with our gutless wonder engines! i got some speed and raceds up the hill... but i kept losing traction and spinning my tires wasnt getting me anywhere, so i let off the throttle to and i started to crawl... crawl... and kappuut! died. i rolled back down the hill. so i had to reverse and get a GOOD running start. i Floored it and barely made it up the hill spinning my tires and flinging dirt everywhere.

i also got somewhat stuck in a grassy area. grass is pretty slick! esp without 4wd.

my buddy has a 2wd ranger, lifted, and his motto is "speed can accomplish anything" man, ive seen him handle some ˟˟˟˟˟ in his 2wd. props to him.

its all up to preference... and WHAT kind of wheeling you plan to do.

Todd E

I suppose the main thing when wheeling a 2wd is making sure you're not in stuff that lets your tires spin easily (mud, snow).
Once both wheels start digging, then it's time to get creative
Just my thoughts,
Todd

joshik

but with 4wd you wont need the winch AS much. and if theres nothing to attatch the other side of ur winch cable to... not very useful.

keisur

You don't want to move the u-bolt to the top of the axle. You just need a flip kit so the u-bolt ends don't point down, they point up so they don't kit anything you roll over.

HBoss

People made good points about open desert and open areas in general where there might not be anything close-by to winch off of and I didn't take that into account.

I'd like to qualify my statement "And with a winch I think you can pretty much go further than anywhere he can." I'm referring to trails with objects to actually use your winch.

If there are objects to winch off of, where can't you go, really? But then again, where's the fun in riding a winch all trip long? Just buggin' ya.

joshik

i wouldnt want to be winching all day long! my car batt would die out! j/k lol

but yeh... the rubicon trail takes like 2 days to do 12 miles...
if u winched ur way through, it'd take like 12 days! lol

BUT!!!!

if you had the segway 2x2 with lockin diffs, NO PROB BOB!!!!!!

Todd E

On a 2wd, the springs are mounted under the axle.
By welding on new spring perches on top (and moving the springs to the top), he (and I) can reuse out stock ubolt mounting plates and use stock type ubolts to mount them ontop of the axle.
Here's a picture of a 2wd spring mount (although it's a broken spring pack) to help understand what I mean:

joshik

yeh... 2wd comes with spring under
and 4wd comes stock with spring over. TLC comes with spring under though. thats an easy way to gain a few inches of lift, do a spring over.

Los Gatos?

Well, after going over all the costs, it might actually be cheaper to sell the pickup and keep the 4Runner. The 4Runner would need very little to be offroad capable. Gas, insurance, and the auto trans aren't the best, but with 2 lockers, manual hubs, cranked tbars, 2" hd coils, and a 1" body lift, I could have 33s...even if I threw in headers and 5.29s it would still be around the same price, and much more offroadable.....Well I need to think about how much gas mileage and low insurance is worth to me in the long run....


EDIT:::


I just had a brainstorm...I could sell them both, and get an '85 4Runner...that way, I would have the best of both worlds...it would already be solid axle, I could lock it up, fit 33s with not much lift, it would be 4x4, I could get a manual this time, the gas mileage would be decent w/ EFI&5spd...maybe that's the best compromise....

rabidbeaverbaby

sounds like a great plan to me!!

keisur

Cool, I learned something new. The wifes Tacoma is a 4WD so I dinnit realize this. Thanks for the schooling.

keisur

What's "TLC," isn't that some hip-hop chick musical group?

CTB

I bet he is referring to a Toyota Land Cruiser.

keisur

I'd have to slap on some 24" blades and that would have to be my ghetto cruiser.

jimbo74

pull pals work in sand, the military uses them for situations exactly like that...a also another vehicle will also serve as a winch point... and furthermore, you can put tow hooks anywehre on a 4x2....

jimbo74

here is a link to a thread with pics of my 4x2 that i jsut lifted.... http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=107669

here is one of the pics: notice the towhooks