This is for my 89 toyota v6 pickup 4wd.

I want to get started on my front suspension but have a few questions first.

First off i need to deal with this:

I live in colorado, so the 4wd comes in handy in the snow, but i really would like to get rid of the 4wd for a better setup. How limited are the 4wd kits and are they more problematic?

JD Fabrications and Total Chaos both make 2wd and 4wd kits for my truck. JD seems to be way more pricy. Is it really worth the extra bucks?? these are what im looking at.
http://www.jdfabrication.com/kits/toyota_truck2x4.asp
http://www.chaosfab.com/gen3caddy.html


Then after i choose a kit:

What should i know about fabbing a shock hoop. Type of tubing, size, how to determine where to place the upper shock mount?

This will be my first build so i need all the help/input pros cons or any advice at all. anything will be appreciated.

Thanks, Bryan

 

if you are going to that extent why not just do a SAS. What are you looking for out of a 4WD? Search around and see what you can find. The Chaos Fab kit will not allow you to have 4WD.

 

well those total chaos kits are for prerunning..not for rock crawling..even though they can be used for eaither.

a solid axle isnt going to perform as well as IFS for prerunning.

What are you trying to do with your truck brythefly?

Also, what do you mean by getting rid of the 4WD for a better setup? do you mean AWD? That is going to be better most of the time in snow but not if you REALLY get stuck. that truck with some good tires will do GREAT in the snow. We get a good amount of snow here in pittsburgh and I havent had any issues with decent tires and stock suspension and 4WD.

 

Both JD and Chaos have good reputations. Pick the kit that best fits your needs, and your wallet. JD is probably overkill for colorado.

Shock hoops can be made out of most pipe or tube. I recomend DOM, but schedule 40 or 80 should be okay. For a coilover set up, i personally would make sure the tube i used was 3/16, to 1/4" wall thickness, but that is likely overkill. Just a regular shock, you could go thinner. Either way, you will have to bend it, which requires a bender.

Side to side placement should be determined by the shock angle specified by your particular kit. Height will either be in your kit, or just bolt the shock to the lower a-arm, with the truck on a jack stand and tire removed. Jack the arm up 1/2" or so, and mark the height of the shock. This should keep you from bottoming the shock out and damaging it.

Keep in mind the LT set ups are great for jumping and highspeed running. You will not find a lot of that here in Colorado. Converting your 4wd to 2wd would be a waste of time IMO, simply becasue you will not be able to find roads that are fast enough to where the travel of a 4wd kit will limit you. Obviously, crawling isn't condusive to 2wd, so i'd recomend getting the 4wd kit.

As for sas, it is a lot of cutting, welding, and troubleshooting. I strongly recomend against it at this stage. You can end up with a heap of problems if it isn't done perfectly, and it doesn't sound like you are looking for a lot of headache.

 

No, he means getting rid of his 4wd and converting the truck to 2wd. This is advantageous in go-fast trucks becasue you get more travel from not having CV's up front.

 

Great info, I may be moving back to california so the high speed running may be in the future. I gues i should have added that i will be turning my truck into a prerunner, and wont be doing any crawling and therefore not interested in SAS. But I guess what i really want to know is how much will a 2wd suspension kit outperform a 4wd kit. TC says there Gen II caddy (keeping 4wd) allows 10" of travel and JD's 2wd kit allows 17".

So is that extra 7 or so inches overkill for anyone not into SERIOUS racing/running?

 

Asking what is overkill is somewhat hard to answer. Only you know what type of driving you'll be doing, and it's really up to you on how big you want to go.

If you are going to CA, I revise my comments, and think you should strongly consider going prerunner with it. 4wd running gear weighs a lot, and less weight= more airtime/faster speeds.

As for the 7 extra inches of travel? it is a lot. However, how fast are you going to be going. There are guys i've heard of with 4wd kits going 60-70 out in the desert, and being fine with the 4wd TC kit.

Also, keep in mind while purchasing kits: if you stay with 4wd, the TC kit DOES NOT come with the stuff to retain 4wd. You must purchase new axles and the like, which could bring the kit closer to the JD kit in price.

If it were me, and i were doing prerunning, i'd buy the JD kit, put my 4wd tranny and tcase for sale on the net, and get a 2wd tranny. Bolt up and zoom!

 

thats how i have been leaning, it sounds like the way to go, but its just a hard decision. The truck will definately get its use, i just will be in colorado for about another year, so a more expencive setup will be nice for sure, but then again i may have to deal with snow, mountains for a couple more years....

what else is needed for the T.C. gen II, i know i can get T100 shafts for fairly cheap at my local junk yard, but other than the obvious shocks and hoops, is there any other costly pieces T.C. doesnt include?

 

News flash. The JD kit you are looking at is only for a 2wd truck. It will not fit your 4wd frame.

However, the T-1 kit will work for a 4wd frame. If you take off the axles, you coudl probably squeeze 14 or 15" out of the front. You coudl definitely get 13" out of the front without the axles.

I run the T-1 kit and it is great for what I do. A bit of prerunning, some daily driving, and a touch of poser rock walking.

Ultimately, the extra few inches of travel you can get without axles will help in teh high speed stuff. Having said that, those extra inches aren't everything. You NEED a good balance between front and rear suspension. In my opinion, the rear suspension might just be more important than the front.

The JD arms are super beefy. Overkill? Probably, but it doesn't hurt.

The chaos arms should be sturdy enough. But you gotta figure out what you want in the end?

Lots of travel and no 4x4....Chaos Gen3

Torsions now, coilovers later, JD T-1

Cheapest coilover with or without 4x4...Chaos Gen 2

Torsions and balljoints.... Chaos caddy.

 

You still need to get axles with teh JD kit.

 

Lots and lots of scenic dirt washboard roads in Colorado that would be ideally suited to a prerunner rig ...

 

ok so im going to keep the 4wd, just need to decided between TC and JD

Now does the JD t-1 kit allow for a bypass and coilover, or just the coilover, and will the JD t-1 kit work with a TC shock hoop?

Should i go with the Bypass?

thanks again

 

The JD kit only allows for one shock. I had a friend who ran teh JD kit with torsions and a triple bypass. Did great. I run the JD with just a coilover. I have no complaints. Again, I'm not looking to tear through whoops at 60-70. I chose super soft coils, so it limits my speed.

The TC kit is the only off the shelf kit that allows dual shocking. If all you are doing is fast stuff, then, I guess double shocks owuld be best for you.

There are so many options.

single shock and torsions

coilover only

coilover and 2nd shock

And then you can add in air bumps. There is a lot of configuration options.

 

alright well thanks for all the info its been a huge help.

I definately want to get rid of the torsion bars, i hate the noise they make and i dont know i just dont like them, personal opinion i guess.

But i will choose between a kit soon i am going to let winter pass by then snag a kit, so maybe something new will even be out by then. I will be running but deffinately not at 70 mph, its hard enough to even get my truck going that fast haha. so i dont know if ill run the bypass or not.

thanks again

 

Its not just you.

I hate torsions too.

Stuck with em though.

 

Torsions are actually really good for speed. In my opinion. The harder they hit, the harder they twist/resist. I am speaking of the 25mm bars with LT arms.

Torsions also resist body roll really well. No swaybars needed. Now, my soft coils are a whole different story.

With the JD kit you could run torsions and coilovers together if you wanted a real stiff setup, hahaha.

As far as the noise torsions make....it migyht be your control arm bushings. I never heard anything from my torsions. In fact, I'm unclear on how they could make a noise.

 

well i guess im not for sure, but all my friends with yotas, mine included, will creack under hard turning, i guess it could be something else, just one of my buddies said thats what it was... i dont know much about torsion bars

 

Thats the steering stops, not the torsions....