For the literate among us, he is trying to avoid that.

The point is bolt on solution for more flex. There is none that is worth what is trying to be gained.

To quote the first post...
"...anyway, I'm looking for ~2-3" of lift in the rear of my first gen 4Runner. and as much flex as possible, without fabricating...."

 

Napoleon047 posted in that thread.

Thanks for taking a personal bent.

I was reading and answering the question, I invite you to do the same.

 

And for posterity...

 

my answer to his question is a $40 solution..... as stated above ($50 actually)


http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

i was having the same problem the other day, the rear tire keeps coming off the ground, from what i hear there is' nt a cheap way to get around this


the rear is all stock

 

I can't believe I didn't think of this before ... the cheapest, most effective way to get more flex on EITHER end is to disconnect the sway bar. Price? Free! Can you beat free?!?!?

 

well, the personal stuff is hilarious, and mostly false. Lets keep this civil, and take our bad spelling and beef to the PM's. Everyone here thinks that their way is best, including me.

Do what you want with your trucks. I have experience with a flexy rear end that doesn't work all that great. more flex isn't really the answer in the rear. Its more flex in the front i need. I won't be getting either.

There are options for more flex, but for tons more, you will need to fabricate, as in the chevies. I ran add a leafs for quite some time. I'm sure some peoples work great. Mine rode like crap, were harsh at best on the smoothest of roads, and limited my flex. They did give lift. I'm sure there are many out there who have the same thing, and they ride like a peach, flex like crazy, and were only 40 bucks. Just stating my personal experience

 

id say just get a rear locker.

yea 63" chevys would be nice. i hear they ride a hell of a lot better. but im fine with a bumpy ride myself.. with a locker, you only need 1 of those rears on the ground anyway. ditch flex, get locker and be amazed at how much further you can go. its a little more expensive, but way more beneficial than flex if you ask me. my truck is ridiculously stiff. it doesnt flex for crap whatsoever. yet i've made it up some of the craziest trails there are here with open diffs and like 2" of travel. anything can be done mind you i pissed everyone off behind me by having to plan my lines for 10 minutes before going. of course with a locker i wouldnt have suffered as much trail damage either. flex wouldnt have helped me avoid the carnage, since without a locker a lot of spots required getting a head start and throttling the whole way up. with lockers in my 4runner i make it up the same places at a slow crawl -- in 2wd.

so in my opinion, lockers first. then some day way down the line, SAS.

hell its not even a DD, just spool it

edit: like AxleIke, my truck runs AALs. with no overload. if i gained any flex out of it, its so small that I can't see it. but now my truck rides so stiff youd think the axle housing is bolted onto the frame.

 

ok, since this is getting a little out of hand. I'm just going to say this:

I'm no n00b to wheeling. no expert, but certainly no n00b. I know what I want, and have a pretty good idea of how I want to get it. I'm simply looking for some personal experience on rear spring/shock combos. I hate to make ultimatums like this, but seriously guys. I'm not going to justify why I'm doing what I'm doing. if you have something to offer in getting the rear to flex a bit more, great, if not....keep it to yourself. no more


AxleIke, thank you for the background. I appreciate that. that does help, but is pretty much what I expected.

Flygtenstein, no. don't make any assumptions about what I want. I know I'm not going to be able to follow the $20k buggies with d60s, 8 billion:1 CR, coilovers, and lockers. I don't, for even a second, think that this is going to be the best setup ever.

I simply want an improvement that can be done with the equipment I have (i.e. NOT taking my truck to someone and paying them to weld.). if I had unlimited budget and experience, this isn't how I'd be doing it. but I'm a college student, with a gravel slab, and no welding experience.

a locker has not been ruled out. but that's not the issue in question.

oh yea, and the truck doesn't even run yet, and the sway bar is already off. That's a no-brainer


Thank you

 

what about combination of AALs, double shackles (or just longer shackles), and that budbuilt shock relocation kit (and probably new shocks)? I don't know how well it would do, but it looks like it would be worth a shot and easy to bolt up. and cheap enough that if it doesn't work too well you can bolt it all back off and sell it for close to what you paid for it -- hopefully anyway..

 

Did you pull the rear swaybar?

Glad tc mentioned that.

I will work on my mind reading.

 

Fully understanding you can not fab at this point... I had a suggestion.

On my rig, I had the front and rear brackets welded to the frame before removing any of the stock suspension. I swapped my rear coil setup to leafs and did a SAS in the front. I drove the vehicle around like that for a few weeks before getting to the susp work.

Once the brackets were on, the rest was just cutting and bolting... all done without a lot of equipment. A slab with 120v for the grinder would be just fine. I didn't have any air tools either, but still made it through. I did a lot of modification though, so your job would be easier with just the rears.

If you go the 63" route, just get the brackets, leaves and shackles and have what needs to be welded, welded. Then drive back and do the work on your slab.

Since you mentioned doing an SAS in the future, you might as well find a welder now as you will need one then. I was in a similar place as you were and just kept running up against a wall try to figure out how to build a capable rig without welding.

There is a pretty low mod ceiling if you won't allow welding as an option.

All that said, I also think a stock truck with a rear locker will go farther than a truck with just rear flex. A locker opens many, many more new doors than flex does.

 

Here's the deal - you post up on the Internet, you get whatever people give ya. It's up to YOU to decide what you want to listen to and what to ignore. You've been given some great advice on BETTER ways to spend your probably-limited-since-you're-in-college funds.

Knowing that specifically, I would say ditch all your suspension lift plans and focus on the body lift and armor. The money is MUCH better spent on preventing damage to the truck that increasing it's performance, and ESPECIALLY doing mods that WILL increase wear and tear on the factory components.

There's my $0.02, I'm out.

 

okay then.

no fab is going to be either AAL's (pretty cheap) or a new spring pack. I know Alcan, and pretty sure deaver can help you there. Other companies, such as downey and NWOR sell spring packs that will provide more flex.

The risk you run with AAL's is that some people have gotten extra flex, and others have gotten no flex, or decreased flex. They definetly will provide a little lift.

the spring packs are a little more money, but should give you a good ride, and add the flex

You can also add longer shackles, though the length will be determened by how much lift your springs will give you.

good luck

 

elvota, good idea there! I do know a couple guys who can weld, and can do it very well, but I just don't want my truck sitting in someone elses garage for a very long period of time this year. I realize once I go SAS it'll probably be out of commission for awhile, but I'd like to avoid that now. but that is encouraging to hear.

I haven't gotten to the rear...is there a rear sway bar? I didn't see one....but yes, if there is one, it'll be pulled. the biggest reason I got the front one pulled is I've already got the front end apart to drop the oil pan, so I just won't put that back on.

the truck already has an AAL. and from my experience, most of the time that just improves your ride height. kind of like chopping your springs to lower a car....so I'm trying to avoid that.

I emailed Alcan about their springs, and they say they can make a set for me, for stock locations for $200 a spring (400 for the pair...). so I'm pretty much ruling that out.

I've got the 63" chevy thread on pirate4x4 bookmarked, so I'm still considering that option.

I posted a link to the All-pro setup in my first post, it looks like they've got a 3" option for the rear without relocating the brackets. as the longer ones are listed separately, but I'll contact them before I order...for $269 right now.


the biggest thing I'm keeping in mind right now, is avoiding duplicating anything I do in the future. I don't want to regear until I do a SAS, so I only have to buy the front end stuff once. and, if I'm not messing with the rear gears, I don't really want to do a locker, but I may add that anyway sometime this summer. but, I'm shooting for the same rear ride height now as it will be after SAS, so I want to do this once.

I'm considering armor, but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on an IFS skidplate, just to ditch the whole setup in a year. I ran my subaru with no skidplate, and the lowest point on the car in front of the front wheels was my oil pressure sending unit. some careful and conservative driving, and a good spotter, can keep the underside of the truck pretty safe.

I guess the short version of what I want, is if anyone has/had the all-pro, or similar stock-location rear spring pack. and what they think of them.

 

my current springs are a 3 inch stock location pack. I guess i've already said what i think.

 

i bought new allpro springs for the front 5" cause mine went out after 3 years.... they had a sale so i ordered them instead of ranch 44044 from summit racing which had free shipping and were about the same cost as allpros on sale.... but when i ordered they charged me over $100 to ship the leafs so becareful cause shipping can add up quick

as for armor...... i think most people consider armor as bumpers and sliders. sliders are a must on a trail rig but.... if you plan a body lift do that 1st as you will be cutting them off and raising them up if you do. as you said..... dont waste the $$ on ifs skidplates, but the bumpers and sliders will work with the SAS also

 

downey springs in the rear give about 3" of lift thats what i have and they work fairly well, pics of it are in my sig

 

i forgot to mention......

all 4 1st gen 4runner i have had didnt come with a rear swaybar
85, 86, 87, & 88 were the years

 

Here is another option for springs in the rear... Same spring length eye to eye, but spring under springs on a spring over axle will give you lift.

As for flex you can find softer (thinner) second/third leafs and replace them in your pack... If they are longer than the ones they replace, you can shorten them...

Cant find the article right now, but it was something like xj budget boost.... It'll give you an idea to play with....