anthony1

iTrader: (1)

Here's pics of Downey 3" kit flexing...with RS9017 shocks.

http://home.earthlink.net/~audiorat1...ex/Oct2701.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~audiorat1...ex/Oct2702.jpg

I'd recommend it to anyone that wants 3" lift in the rear.

Install is easy...
Put your truck frame on the stands
Keep jack under the pumkin.
remove the lower shocks from the mounting point...two bolts
remove upper shocks mount (hard to get too without body lift)....two bolts
remove the upper link at the axle...two bolts.
remove the upper pan hard rod....one bolt.
lower the jack slowly, the spings should loosen up and take out by hand..No spring compressor needed.
Install the bumpstops extension.
lower it some more to put in the new spirngs with spacer on top.
install the pan hard rod extension.
jack up the axle...line up the upper link to the holes and install the links.
install the pan hard rod to the extension.
Install new shocks.

Done.

that's just from memory.....

4cedRunner

Downey kits are a good chioce if you want a kit that can mildly wheel and go faster than stock in the desert. If you really want desert performance, Downey is less than ideal, and same goes for in the rocks. Their products are less than the highest quality and their ego is a bit inflated. They have been around forever but that is pretty much what keeps them around. For every product they make, there is abetter alternative available for a similar cost. Their rear coils have been known to sag and even break, OME coils don't do either of those things. I personally agree that Downey is over rated and their rep as an innovator of Toyota aftermarket is undeserved. Look around forums like http://www.desertrides.com and http://www.dezertrangers.com and ask about Downey quality. I really don't want to knock any particular company but I feel your money will be best spent elsewhere. A lot of products work well for crawling but at speed they will not last. Why not have the ability to do both? Especially because we spend more time on road (at speed) than off. Total Chaos' caddy kit for 1st gen. IFS systems is unreal and will soon be offered with coil over mounts so you can finally ditch those traction bars. http://www.chaosfab.com If you don't want to run fiberglass, bushwacker cut-out flares or just plain cutting your fenders will work fine also.

4cedRunner

as I said, downey will flex ok but can it do this?

http://www.chaosfab.com/bottompics/toyuni5_03.jpg

I am not saying you need to this but why not be able to, it might change the way you think about what is possible in a 4WD vehicle. Total Chaos does both very very well. I guarantee if you tried this with Downey you would break just about every component of their kit.

fooddude

Im not exactly planning on jumping my runner, and i dont have the cash to fork over for a TC kit. I think i could do a SAS for the same price.

4cedRunner

Even if you could properly do an SAS for the same price, (unless you are a skilled fabricator and have a second vehicle) which you can't, why would you want to when IFS can do it all? SAS' can be awesome, i'm even researching something for my truck as we speak. Even if you don't want to spring for TC, You are better of with some of the other IFS kits out there.

fooddude

i know i was just making a reference. If anything i will probably keep my ifs for a pretty long time. I just dont really look up to ifs kits. I would rather go with ball joint spacers and cranking the torsion bars for one tenth the price. Plus im kinda low on money right now.

anthony1

iTrader: (1)

The trend here is to get ball joint spacer for the front and Downey springs for the rear.
Some people will say that Downey sucks but I think their 3" coil spring kit are excellent.

4cedRunner

I hear ya about the money, but have you ridden in a truck with cranked t-bars? ugh you need a kidney belt, if you do go that route at least crank your stock t-bars, they will be smoother than aftermarket t-bars and less expensive of course. either way man, good luck. It is always a ton of dough to build a nice truck and it takes a long time. just do what's best for your budget! it is all a matter of opinion anyway, right.

fooddude

ya i probably will keep the stock t-bars. ANd about the ride i dont mind it being to rough im kinda young and dont care much about ride quality. If i had a lot of money i might consider a TC kit from the looks of some of these pics they can flex just as well as someone with a SA. But ohwell.

Napoleon047

we have been over this on the board many times, IFS cant do everything that a SA can, nor the other way around, they both have their pros and cons. SAS can be easily cheaper than a TC kit.

i dont know what you are smoking, but those TC kits dont flex nearly as well as a solid axle will.

4cedRunner

If you tune a long travel IFS kit only for flex with really soft springs etc, it will flex as well as a basic leaf sprung live axle. Now if you 4-link and coil spring a live axle and use the right shocks/valving it will flex better of course but it will never be as versatile or near as comfortable on road as IFS. There is a lot to be learned about the benefits of IFS, regardless of if you personally care to listen. and also regardless of opinions on this or any other board. I have been a member on this board since it's inception and I think it is a great forum, but it important to visit other forums so you don't get locked into a certain way of thinking, I surf the desert forums, pirate, 4x4wire, and many others almost daily to stay up to date. With a properly tuned IFS kit you can wheel 90%+ of trails most live axle vehicles are capable of going on and you still have a vehicle that is buttery smooth on the highway and a lot safer due to less body roll. Trust me I know from experience, I am not a desert rat kid with 2wd who thinks he can wheel, I have a lot of experience with live axle vehicles, we have a CJ-7 that is very capable and has been wheeled all over in the 6+ years we've had it, and we have an IFS Tacoma that is also very capable, ask the TTORA NorCal guys how our red Long Travel Tacoma did at hollister hills with open diffs and stock gears. This is a moot point really, We are all allowed to spend our money on the mods we think will benefit our trucks best. I Just want to help people choose the parts that they will be happiest with in the long run by lending advice from my experiences.

Napoleon047

show me a long travel IFS kit with 24" of travel. every properly done leaf sprung SAS i have ever seen has at least 24" of travel.
what are you quantifying as versatile? there are lots of people who say that their leaf sprung SAS is way more comfortable than the IFS they replaced it with, simply because of the softer springs.
dont assume that i havent looked into IFS and researched what it is good for and what its downfalls are.
once again you are assuming that this is the only forum that i browse. i browse many others as well.
'proper tuning' of IFS does not necessarily remove its weak points. body roll is easily controlled with swaybars and disconnects.
im also trying to help people choose the parts that they will be happiest with in the long run. for most wheeling, an SAS has more bang for the buck performance than any IFS kit.

ive posted this before, here is a post by scott at rockstomper.com that made me abandon IFS in the long run.

4cedRunner

Napoleon, I think you totally misunderstood my post, let me try to clarify.

You are talking about articulated travel, I am talking about vertical wheel travel. I have never seen a street-able SAS'd toyota truck with 24" of vertical wheel travel? That would virtually require the use of 24" shocks. They would stick about a foot over the hood. There are kits becoming available for 2nd gen IFS that can pull 16-18" of vertical wheel travel and retain 4WD. These kits use modified Tundra CV's which are a lot stronger than tacoma CV's.

I am considering versatile as a truck that performs very well in all disciplines, is there any other way? Toyota abanoned live axles in the front of late model landcruisers because IFS is better at conforming to uneven terrain. I wish they hadn't but they did, and that is why, it provides a better ride from a comfort perspective. Jeep is doing the same one by one on their 4x4 line as well.

any assumptions made or perceived are due to this brief prior post you made about this topic. You said Once again, in your prior post, you stated that this has been discussed many times on THIS BOARD and that's where you got your conclusions. I didn't assume it, you clearly stated it. If you had said from the info you have gathered on this and other boards, I wouldn't have assumed that.

There is no need for sway bars and annoying disconnects with properly tuned IFS. Sway bars limit travel dramatically I like to be able to use my suspension at all times, The ride is much better on and off road.

That is awesome, it is also the main reason for boards like this. I however disagree, most people could slightly modify their IFS and be very happy for relatively little money and best of all, your resale value stays good. Nobody wants to buy a backyard SAS'd truck. I like live axles, but 90% of trucks with SAS's are done fairly poorly, and are ultimatley degrading to the vehicle.

No doubt this info is very helpful for people who plan to put the kind of use/abuse that Scott has to their trucks, but to be honest most people will never experience most of this. And these findings are for a 1st gen IFS system, 2ng gen systems like Steve Schaeffer's truck have been having less problems by far. All of this is not even the point, this isn't about personal differences, it is about facts, I wish you had posted more descriptively the first time it could have helped avoid some confusion. This is not a personal matter, I am sorry if you perceive it as such.

sschaefer3

Ahhhhhhh Martinez..................

SteveO

I really like that picture, and that was, in the words of Schaefer a "Kick-ass trail"!

Of course, this great flex shot, was done using Downey coils.

sschaefer3

Actually that is a quote from Adrian the "Big Cheese".

anthony1

iTrader: (1)

cool pics there.

For what it's worth, I didn't like the tippy feeling with the IFS.