I'm a little behind here but I wanted to finish my front and get it all dialed in. Now just to get the chevy's on the rear....give me another month.

 

Eh, two more for comparison. Talk about a lot of work/time to get this IFS flexing.

 

where do i buy the kit? i would really like one And take those damn blocks out.

 

Is that a Rancho lift you have in there?

James

 

Funny you mention the blocks. I pulled them out tonight and they'll probably stay out till I get the chevy's in. I had the blocks under my saggy Downey springs to get it up as a temp thing. It didn't flex bad since they could backward bend the Downey's (haha yeah I know that's bad), so I only lost about 2" of upward travel but got 3" more drop. A few weeks ago, I took out the bottom leaf of the Downey pack and had a custom one put in that was thicker and it put some arch back in. Anyway the new bottom leaf would only bend flat so I lost more upward travel and with that and the fact of the unsafe handeling etc. they came out. Without the blocks it set about level, a little lower in the back but got 4" of upward travel back minus the 3" of drop the blocks gave.

 

Now about the "lift" I don't really consider it much of a lift since it only got me up about 2". But as you can see it flexs pretty damn good. It's pretty much the OLD Downey+Rancho kit. It's not bad but it took me a lot of trial and error to get dialed in for flex. 1st, the stock t-bars will get you NO lift and the only way you'll get any hight out of the arms is with stiffer t-bars but it KILLS flex. The travel that the upper arms add lets you get away with running the stock axles. But I wanted more hight and drop so in comes the ball joint spacers, this however really really stresses the stock axles. To keep cost down I went ahead and put in the not so great Downey slip yoke axles. They work fine but anything faster than 1st gear and you'll have to take it out of 4wd. Other than that I added the Rancho center steering link, new tie rod sleeves and the idler arm gusset but that's been on for years. Also the rediculous price of the new shock tabs from Downey made me fab up some shock extenders. With some work, I got the stock Rancho shocks plus custom cut extender tabs and bushings to work with the travel. The worst part is adjusting the hight and having to align the front every time. I've wheeled it hard and had no issues with the alignment but I also installed the stiffer Downey graphite poly bushings in the upper and lower arms.

So if you can find a Rancho kit you can get flexing, but if you put in bj spacers you'll need new axles.

 

So here it is in just about the same situation as the 3rd pic in my first post but with 25mm t-bars.....talk about SUCK

And here is with just the upper arms, stock axles, 25mm t-bars but without bj spacers. As you can tell it's flexing but not traveling up as much as the stock bars.

Overall what I have found is the bigger t-bars can flex ok in some situations but will suck it up in others.

 

[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Tim\Desktop\Tims pictures\New Folder[/IMG] there we go 31s what now

 

Correct me if I'am wrong Bear but didn't Rancho build those arms more for jumping than trails? Oh and I have a Rancho lift kit new in the box but was hesitant to use it until you worked all the bugs out. I wasn't sure earlier that you were the same person who had issues with alignments but not I do remember that it was you.

James

 

James, I really don't think Rancho had any intention for "jumping." The idea I think Rancho was after was the gains of angled arms. Most importantly the much improved handeling. If they desinged it for "jumping" they would have made the arms much longer for added travel. The arms do give added travel but it's mostly due to the purpose of lift. They lost out by only making it a 3" "lift", it would have been better if the arms had 4 or more inches of lift desinged into them, which is why I put in the bj spacers.

Anyway, yeah that was me you're talking about earlier. Seems Akarocket and I are the only ones to have tried this "hybrid" setup. I'd say I have all the bugs identified and most worked out but I still want to get another inch of hight out of it. When I get time (might be a few weeks) I'll do a full write up. OR PM me if you have any question till them.

 

Mine.. Not as great as some.

 

DeathRunner
How many iterations of Mods are you showing there? I see a white truck and a black truck!
I want those great looking fender/flares. Where can I get some!

Here's my stock T100, taken in beautiful North Carolina

 

ok, I'll bring back an old fun thread, here's my submission:

 

 

For some reason the links to my old post were not working so i deleted it and now have pics from after we did the lift, but none with the 33s.

 

Yay! My thread is still alive! But, I don't have any really good flex shot of the new 4Runner yet (mainly because it don't flex all that well).

Here goes anyhoo:






EDIT: Crap! I'm out of memory with my webpage, time to start searchin' for a new one... 25Mb just isn't that much.

 

Not the best photos but hey, not the best suspension either




from the rear, notice how "steep" that hill is.

 

 

I will Play





Not the best, but you get the idea?

 

Hey bear, are were any of those here in san antonio? First couple kinda looked like the den. Always lookin for more places to go wheelin since I got chased by tx park & wildlife through taco flats... And getting chased through the bus barn. And getting chased through stone oak park, dominion park, mcallister park, olmos park, brackenridge park, eisenhower park, and a few other parks... But you get the idea. I swear, once san antonio starts gettin better offroading vehicles (and I mean MUCH better. thier 4x4 f150s and explorers aint no match at all), I might actually have to lock it in 4wd to get away!