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New 4Runner complete high performance suspension kit in the works!
10-21-2003, 12:49 PM
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New 4Runner complete high performance suspension kit in the works!
Hey gang!
I am looking for a few stock 4Runners/owners.
I have vast Toyota and Toyota off road racing/prerunning experience and have been disapointed as I am sure many of you have with the current options for your late model Toyota 4Runners. I have had a few Runners and Tacomas in recent years and have tried many of the (available at the time) bolt on suspension kits. Some are very good but very expensive. Others are good to terrible and...also expensive. (yikes)
After doing alot of research I have decided to develop my own fully height adjustable (0-3"frt) and (0-2.5" possibly 3" rear) suspension system for 3rd generation 2wd & 4wd 4Runners. Shocks used for base kit will be Bilstein 5100 HD shocks with either HD 4Runner valving (firm) or HD Tundra valving (very firm) front and rear will be adjustable coil over while still retaining stock (post Toyota recall) rear springs and bump stops etc. Once I have the kit fine tuned I will make it available to a select few for testing and feedback. These kits will be sold at my cost of materials for R&D purpose. My rough guestimate at this stage is around the $700-900 range. If you are interested in helping with the R&D of this system please let me know. I need people whom will test their Runners in a wide variety of terrains and whom can give me detailed feedback of any problems experienced or suggestions for improvement etc. In return for their feedback (besides getting the kits at a reduced price) I will also update (if needed) their kits as needed at no additional cost to them. In the event that major updates or revalving is necessary I will require that the old parts be shipped back to me.
Let me know!!!
~protec03
PS Future plans are to develop a even higher performance kit using Bilstein 6100 and or 7100 series race shocks and Eibach springs as well as new upper control arms for the front. It will cater to the people whom want substancially better high speed offroad handling with minimal lift, yet do not want to go as extreme as some of the recently released long travel kits. These kits are awesome and a great choice for the extreme 4Runner/Tacoma but...are far more expensive, require fiberglass fenders (must be painted) and axle replacement on 4wd models and do nothing for the rear suspension.
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>
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Corrections and revisions to previous post:
Volunteers Needed!
Note: If after a month of testing my kit you are not satisfied and the updates have not rectified to your liking, I will refund your money paid for the kit. That is...If the kit is returned to me in good shape (dirty is ok) and you pay the shipping I will refund the purchase price of the kit.
Note: This kit is being developed to improve on/off road handling and ability to drive over rougher terrain at higher speeds. With the addition of sway bar disconnects (additional fee required) it will also do well (better than stock) in slower speed crawling type wheeling. This kit is not recommended for the person whom merely want's to "posse" with bigger tires on there hooptie yet I have no way to enforce this.
Correction: Your 4runner does not have to be stock to try my kit. Whether stock or modified...just keep your old parts and if you do not like my kit return your 4Runner back to it's former state.
e-mail me at sacresqdiver2002@yahoo.com
I am looking for a few stock 4Runners/owners.I have vast Toyota and Toyota off road racing/prerunning experience and have been disapointed as I am sure many of you have with the current options for your late model Toyota 4Runners. I have had a few Runners and Tacomas in recent years and have tried many of the (available at the time) bolt on suspension kits. Some are very good but very expensive. Others are good to terrible and...also expensive. (yikes)
After doing alot of research I have decided to develop my own fully height adjustable (0-3"frt) and (0-2.5" possibly 3" rear) suspension system for 3rd generation 2wd & 4wd 4Runners. Shocks used for base kit will be Bilstein 5100 HD shocks with either HD 4Runner valving (firm) or HD Tundra valving (very firm) front and rear will be adjustable coil over while still retaining stock (post Toyota recall) rear springs and bump stops etc. Once I have the kit fine tuned I will make it available to a select few for testing and feedback. These kits will be sold at my cost of materials for R&D purpose. My rough guestimate at this stage is around the $700-900 range. If you are interested in helping with the R&D of this system please let me know. I need people whom will test their Runners in a wide variety of terrains and whom can give me detailed feedback of any problems experienced or suggestions for improvement etc. In return for their feedback (besides getting the kits at a reduced price) I will also update (if needed) their kits as needed at no additional cost to them. In the event that major updates or revalving is necessary I will require that the old parts be shipped back to me.
Let me know!!!
~protec03
PS Future plans are to develop a even higher performance kit using Bilstein 6100 and or 7100 series race shocks and Eibach springs as well as new upper control arms for the front. It will cater to the people whom want substancially better high speed offroad handling with minimal lift, yet do not want to go as extreme as some of the recently released long travel kits. These kits are awesome and a great choice for the extreme 4Runner/Tacoma but...are far more expensive, require fiberglass fenders (must be painted) and axle replacement on 4wd models and do nothing for the rear suspension.
>
>
>
Corrections and revisions to previous post:
Volunteers Needed!
Note: If after a month of testing my kit you are not satisfied and the updates have not rectified to your liking, I will refund your money paid for the kit. That is...If the kit is returned to me in good shape (dirty is ok) and you pay the shipping I will refund the purchase price of the kit.
Note: This kit is being developed to improve on/off road handling and ability to drive over rougher terrain at higher speeds. With the addition of sway bar disconnects (additional fee required) it will also do well (better than stock) in slower speed crawling type wheeling. This kit is not recommended for the person whom merely want's to "posse" with bigger tires on there hooptie yet I have no way to enforce this.
Correction: Your 4runner does not have to be stock to try my kit. Whether stock or modified...just keep your old parts and if you do not like my kit return your 4Runner back to it's former state.
e-mail me at sacresqdiver2002@yahoo.com
10-21-2003, 01:26 PM
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Just a couple of comments....
First, I think its great anyone wants to take the time to develop new products for us Tacoma and 4runner people, choice of products is something we seem to be lacking.
Secondly, and this is just my opinion, most of the people on this board are doing mild offroading/rock crawling, and not as much highspeed pre-runner type stuff. So, at least for me, I'd rather see your effort go towards rock crawling improvements. If they were available, I'd purchase:
-adjustable rear shocks to compliment the SAWS I already have up front.
-Longer A-arms, since ATS is no longer making them, and Total Chaos arms are ultra-expensive.
Thirdly, you might not want to limit yourself to only selling the kit. IE. people like me who might only want to work on the rear suspension are not going to throw away the 700 bucks they already spent on SAWS to buy your kit, but might want to try out bits and pieces of what you've worked on.
Just my 0.02's
First, I think its great anyone wants to take the time to develop new products for us Tacoma and 4runner people, choice of products is something we seem to be lacking.
Secondly, and this is just my opinion, most of the people on this board are doing mild offroading/rock crawling, and not as much highspeed pre-runner type stuff. So, at least for me, I'd rather see your effort go towards rock crawling improvements. If they were available, I'd purchase:
-adjustable rear shocks to compliment the SAWS I already have up front.
-Longer A-arms, since ATS is no longer making them, and Total Chaos arms are ultra-expensive.
Thirdly, you might not want to limit yourself to only selling the kit. IE. people like me who might only want to work on the rear suspension are not going to throw away the 700 bucks they already spent on SAWS to buy your kit, but might want to try out bits and pieces of what you've worked on.
Just my 0.02's
10-21-2003, 01:47 PM
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Originally posted by Mad Chemist
Just a couple of comments....
First, I think its great anyone wants to take the time to develop new products for us Tacoma and 4runner people, choice of products is something we seem to be lacking.
Secondly, and this is just my opinion, most of the people on this board are doing mild offroading/rock crawling, and not as much highspeed pre-runner type stuff. So, at least for me, I'd rather see your effort go towards rock crawling improvements. If they were available, I'd purchase:
-adjustable rear shocks to compliment the SAWS I already have up front.
-Longer A-arms, since ATS is no longer making them, and Total Chaos arms are ultra-expensive.
Thirdly, you might not want to limit yourself to only selling the kit. IE. people like me who might only want to work on the rear suspension are not going to throw away the 700 bucks they already spent on SAWS to buy your kit, but might want to try out bits and pieces of what you've worked on.
Just my 0.02's
Just a couple of comments....
First, I think its great anyone wants to take the time to develop new products for us Tacoma and 4runner people, choice of products is something we seem to be lacking.
Secondly, and this is just my opinion, most of the people on this board are doing mild offroading/rock crawling, and not as much highspeed pre-runner type stuff. So, at least for me, I'd rather see your effort go towards rock crawling improvements. If they were available, I'd purchase:
-adjustable rear shocks to compliment the SAWS I already have up front.
-Longer A-arms, since ATS is no longer making them, and Total Chaos arms are ultra-expensive.
Thirdly, you might not want to limit yourself to only selling the kit. IE. people like me who might only want to work on the rear suspension are not going to throw away the 700 bucks they already spent on SAWS to buy your kit, but might want to try out bits and pieces of what you've worked on.
Just my 0.02's
First off...Thank you for your oppinion. That is exactly the kind of comments I need to decide how best to market and sell such products. For now I am not going to release anything for profit only for purpose of R&D. You made a good point about selling individual pieces.
I will take your advice and also offer to anyone whom wants to prototype test just the front or just the rear.
Since you already have SAW on front...no point in changing that. My front suspension performance wise is about equal to the newest SAW but at a reduced price. In their defence...they have much more overhead than I do and the kit price reflects this. I have no intentions of ever selling mass numbers to the general public, just want to give a little back to the off-road community while making a few bucks to support my habit.
As a prototype test kit I could do the rear only for $450 + S&H
~protech03
10-21-2003, 01:49 PM
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You can also get a jump start ahead by working on some kits for the 4th gen as there are no companies out there that has ANYTHING out yet!
Daystar is the closest with their spacer technology but nobody has anything finished in their full suspension setups!
If I had a 3rd gen, I'd be more than willing to help ya out.
But I'm with Mad Chemist on this one. I don't think there are alot of members here specifically do high speed prerunner stuff. But I'd love to see more out there though as they look great!
Daystar is the closest with their spacer technology but nobody has anything finished in their full suspension setups!
If I had a 3rd gen, I'd be more than willing to help ya out.
But I'm with Mad Chemist on this one. I don't think there are alot of members here specifically do high speed prerunner stuff. But I'd love to see more out there though as they look great!
10-21-2003, 01:59 PM
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What are you thinking the rear shocks are going to be? If its a coilover design, do we eliminate the need for the stock springs in the back? With the stock spring and an adjustable coilover working together, I would think that the spring on the coilover can't be too stiff, otherwise the whole back end will be too stiff.
10-21-2003, 02:48 PM
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Correct!
Coil over will be low spring rate. I just typed a lenthy post about it then hit the back arrow and erased it. Dang it! 
LOL
More info later...
LOLMore info later...
10-21-2003, 08:03 PM
#7
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What I would reccomend is making some sort of rear shock mount relocation kit. This would allow for longer and bigger rear shocks, and hopefully put the lower mount out of harms way. Then mount up some Bilstein 5150's or something.
Then for adjustability, make some sort of adjustable coil spring upper mount, like this:
http://www.jksmfg.com/acos.htm
Then for adjustability, make some sort of adjustable coil spring upper mount, like this:
http://www.jksmfg.com/acos.htm
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10-21-2003, 08:31 PM
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I am interested in testing out the front system any idea what it will be priced at? , I am happy with my rear
David,
Did you see this ATS ???
Cool heh?
David,
-Longer A-arms, since ATS is no longer making them,
Cool heh?
Last edited by Albuquerque Jim; 10-21-2003 at 08:33 PM.
10-22-2003, 05:17 AM
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Originally posted by protech03
First off...Thank you for your oppinion. That is exactly the kind of c... ...As a prototype test kit I could do the rear only for $450 + S&H
~protech03
First off...Thank you for your oppinion. That is exactly the kind of c... ...As a prototype test kit I could do the rear only for $450 + S&H
~protech03
I'll test out some of the swaybar quick disconnects you talked about. how much would they run? I'm somewhat happy with my suspension setup at the moment but the Q-d's I could definately benefit from as well as test. let me know please, gracias!
10-22-2003, 07:27 AM
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A design I saw on a Cherokee was pretty unique- he used air hose quick-connects for his swaybar disconnects. I don't know how strong those connections are, but thought it was pretty neat.
10-22-2003, 08:05 AM
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I'm definitely interested in the front kit, probably the rear as well. Can you get me pricing for the entire kit, then just the front? There is a good market for high speed, prerunner type trucks. Living in So Cal, that's mostly what I see. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the guys on this board are in areas where rock crawling and trail riding are more popular. There are a few of us on here interested in desert racing type modifications. I'm glad someone out there is taking the time to design and market something new for our 4Runners.
10-22-2003, 08:36 AM
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Tom,
It was in a recent issue of 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility Vehicle magazine, not the current issue, but the one before that. They made a quick note of it, but thats all (they were home-made, not available from a manufacturer). Basically, instead of having a wing nut on top like the ones from Lars, this guy just welded on an air hose couple instead. I guess the bad part is you wouldn't have any adjustability to it, but they'd be a breeze to take off. I'm loving my Lars discos.
It was in a recent issue of 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility Vehicle magazine, not the current issue, but the one before that. They made a quick note of it, but thats all (they were home-made, not available from a manufacturer). Basically, instead of having a wing nut on top like the ones from Lars, this guy just welded on an air hose couple instead. I guess the bad part is you wouldn't have any adjustability to it, but they'd be a breeze to take off. I'm loving my Lars discos.
