Motorheadno13

For those of you who want a balanced suspension setup like myself, here is a new option.

I wanted suspension that would work with whatever mood I'm in whether it be comfortable for daily driving, going fast in the desert, or crawling. I felt this criteria eliminated the need to go extreme on either end. A SAS was out of the question since I spend more time on the road than the rocks. Plus, I enjoy the feel of an IFS front end. I almost went with long travel IFS until the cost became unrealistic. Not to mention the extra 3-4inch track width would put me at risk on a narrow trail. It came down to working with what was already on the truck and modifying it for more travel. For the most part...

I got a hold of Rough Road Fabrication owner Austin and was extremely happy to connect. He is down to earth, personable, easy to talk to and an all round great guy. He hit the drawing board and came up the idea to modify our stock upper A-arms to fit a uniball. After thrashing the prototype in the desert, it turned out to be huge success!

End result = awesomeness. All you have to do is remove the stock upper ball joints, widen the fitting hole with a grinder just enough to clear the uniball bolt from hitting the arm at full drop, drill the hub to fit the larger bolt and install. The uniball housing mounts to the same holes as the ball joint. No more need to build custom arms just to get rid of those weak ball joints!

The kit on its own is very affordable, but I don't want to throw a price out there since I'm not sure what his final say is. With some fab'd shock hoops 10inch shocks, low profile bump stops and the uniball kit; I'm getting slightly under 10inchs of travel on an otherwise stock front end. This is with the tie rod ends almost maxed out. I was told heim'd steering could give me a full 10inchs but I'm not sure its worth the extra cash. After testing my truck out I couldn't be happier, its the perfect balanced setup in my opinion. I'll post a video and pics next time I take it out.

My setup is as follows,

Front end:
All new oem steering components (everything had 230k and was tired)
New Axles
Rough Road Fabrication Idler Arm
Rough Road Fabrication Upper Arm Uniball Kit
Rough Road Fabrication Shock Hoops
Rough Road Fabrication Frame Cross Brace
OME Steering Stabilizer
Fox 2.0x10 Resi's (cant remember valving)
OME Torsion Bars
Energy Suspension Low Profile Bump Stops
Extended Braided Brake Lines

Rear:
Custom mounted Fox 2.0x8 Resi's (again cant remember valving)
OME Meduim Weight Coils
Extended Braided Brake Lines
Welded Pan Hard Drop Bracket

Soon to come:
Rough Road Fabrication Shock Hoops Brace
Rough Road Fabrication Extended Quick Disconnect Sway Bar Links (front and Rear)




Mounted Uniball and cut shock mounts




Removed lower shock tabs, new ones were welded in for the 2.0x10's. You can see the low profile bump stops as well.









Hub is mounted with the needed spacers for the Uniball.




Full Drop.




Compression.




Shock Hoops.




Shock Hoops welded in.




Cross Brace.




Front End Finished!




Ome coils installed and welded Pan hard drop bracket.




All hubs are beneath the frame on full drop.




Rear Shocks.

sc87yota

Nice work! Great ideas! let us know how it turns out

sc87yota

LSPV bracket? http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...l#LSPV_Bracket you obviously have the tools to make you own

hunter4runner

I've been wanting something like this for a long long time, THANKS!
Get him to make new steering arms!

rattlewagon

Thats pretty neat. Hats off for trying something new! Cant wait to see some pics of it in action.

Do the CVs bind under full droop or compression? What about the lower ball joints? Got pics of his idler arm?

Would love to do something like this on my 87.

Greg_Canada

VERY interested, when will pricing be available?

Zelephant

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a uniball is not great for everyday driving. You're gonna be replacing them a lot. Same goes for Heim joints.

exist

Do you think you have enough clearance for a coil over in there? I'd be super interested in this setup if I could run c/o's..

hunter4runner

to run a coilover you will need a set of the old tc or downey arms

hunter4runner

nah guys run uni's on tacomas that are dd's all the time

Motorheadno13

Hey everyone... here's some quick answers to your questions. I'll try to take the truck out this weekend. I plan on mounting a go pro to the rear outside wheel well and taking some still shots too. The truck has been driving very well so far.



The pics are all from Austin's shop... However, there are plans in place for a rear disc swap. Not sure how far down the road yet, but I firgured it will be ok until then.


He offers a heimed steering kit actually. I believe its about $800 installed. Don't quote me on that though.


As far as I know, there is no binding in the CV joints... Lower ball joints are fine. I forgot to mention that I put news ones in as well. I'll get you pics of the idler arm. It's a beast! Nearly unbreakable from the looks of it and what I've heard.

I'll call Austin first thing tomorrow, or this morning I should say... This night shift is getting old...

Motorheadno13

Hey Exist, Austin also offers upper tubular arms. He will customize them for torsion or coil over setups. We were headed in that direction before this new setup. One of the problems with going to coil overs is the upper arms were designed by toyota to take all the weight of the truck (via the torsion bars). By going with a coil over your changing the weight transfer to the lower arms. So they might have to be strengthened or swapped completely.

However, his upper arms run about $650 a pair w/uniballs. Again, don't quote me on that. I'd hate to throw him under the bus...

Even if a coilover fit through our stock arms. I personally don't see a reason for it. Long travel is different story though...

I understand that uniballs should last anywhere from 5-8 years on normal driving. The great thing is they don't break. They only get loose and worn out. Uniballs are also known to squeek but mine havent made a sound yet. Either way, its nothing some trickflow can't handle.

exist

I would LOVE to run a mid travel setup and keep my front end the same width as my rear, but getting more travel and better ride quality .. my truck is my DD so I don't want to jump it (much...) so a mid travel setup would suit me perfectly..

I have Downey torsions sitting in my garage, so I'll run them if I have to - but I just want coils cus of the adjustability ..

Philly4runner

I want one!!!!

bone collector

subscribed

meisentones

Subscribed! Thanks for being the Guinea Pig,I'll bee looking forward to updates.

Very impressed/intersted in this setup, thanks for sharing! Couple questions:

Where are you and Rough Road Fabrications located? I went to their website, and could not find it.

Did the setup on the front provide any lift?

Where did the 10 inches of travel come from? As in do you have an idea of how much travel you gained in the up-travel versus the down-travel? It seems there would have to be lift introduced, or tires would rub at compression.

Your ride is a 4runner correct?

Besides the Idler arm being "beefier", are the deminsions OEM? I already have Moog, so wouldn't want to replace them if I don't have to.

Thanks again!

exist

I thought 760 area code was San Diego?

I'm going to have to contact Mr. Austin and enquire further about this .. I'd love to get into this as the idea itself seems pretty cool. I'm looking more for a smoother, better ride mixed with the ability to take things a little faster - the extra travel would certainly be welcome as well.

I wish RRF would jump in here as well and talk about their product - I'd love to see what my options are from mild to wild. I can't afford wild at the moment but I'd really like to see what they have to offer, JD Fab and Total Chaos are a little too intense for the sort of wheeling I do, but this seems perfect.

Motorheadno13

Rough Road Fabrication is in Vista, California

Yes the setup provided lift. However, I'm not sure how much. Maybe 1.5"? You just reminded me that I still have to crank of the torsion bars to level the front with the rear.

Keep in mind it's not a full 10inchs of travel. I'm not sure on up travel vs down travel measurements though. Either way, I think it would be different on every truck depending on your torsion bar adjustment and whether you go with low pro bump stops, hydro bumps and or modify the axles. A the moment, I believe my bottle neck is the tie rod ends on droop. It would be awesome to get to a near long travel setup without widening the track width. I think it's possible...

As far as tires go, my 31's get close to the fenders at full compression so 33's will definitely rub.

I'm not sure which dimensions your talking about but the Rough Road idler arm's mounting dimensions are different. The arm itself is threaded for length adjustments with a heimed end. I'm sure your idler arm will be fine since it's irrelevant to this type of suspension setup. I only changed mine because the whole steering system needed a refresh...

Motorheadno13

I talked to Austin yesterday and sent him the link to this thread. I'm sure he will make it on here to give more insight on the setup. He's open to phone calls too of course

Fernley1

Pic and price of the Idler arm.
Very interested.