You could do it for about $2000 or less. Mine is gonna cost me close to $3000 to do the sas and rear suspension. That's with doing the work my self. I ran with ifs for about 2 years and with rockcrawling it just doesn't hold up.

 

I've seen a SAS done for less than $600:

$200 axle
$50 for springs, Jeep Wrangler YJ rears from junkyard
$100 for driveshaft
~$150 for steel used to fab bracketry, hangers, shock mounts, etc.
~$100 for misc BS

It can be done on a budget if you look around. The killer will always be shop labor if you can't do the work yourself. At $50+/hr., the labor is gonna add up real quick, figure 20hrs ($1000) as a minimum.

 

I have chosen to keep my IFS because I use my truck for long-range trips and have it set up as an expedition style vehicle. I would love to have the strength and stability of a solid axle for the times that I am on, or want to do a very serious trail. But there are some considerations to be made if you have an IFS truck set up the way that I do. A solid axle swap will perform the best on the most difficult 4x4 trails, period. But there are trade-offs that you have to be willing to consider and accept.

The following is a quote from an article that I wrote on my website:

A very popular modification to the Tacoma these days is what has become known as an "SAS", which is an acronym for "solid axle swap". Basically, it is removing the IFS (independent front suspension) and replacing it with a straight-axle. Here is my take on the SAS with regards to an expedition vehicle on a Tacoma platform:

1. If you can justify the cost of the swap for what you will be doing with the axle, then that is a big part of the decision. What I mean is that, in my opinion - you will not really see 100% of the potential of the SAS if you put it on an expedition vehicle. The reason is that an SAS has some incredible trail capability, but only if it is matched with a lighter truck, 35" or 38" tires, super flexy suspension, and low gearing. 3 out of those 4, you wouldn't ideally see on an expedition rig. Although the suspension issue might be worked out with additional project time and expense.

2. If you do decide to SAS after considering the above, you would probably want to keep the amount of lift considerably lower than the average swap that is seen done so often. The first reason being the center-of-gravity. You are already at a disadvantage with COG because of the weight (and possibly height) of your expedition rig/gear. If you put full width axles in front and rear, this would help, but can lead to more decisions when considering the Tacoma platform. The second issue being your rolling resistance or profile where fuel economy and power-robbing wind, and are concerned. This also gets into the issue of tire size. 35" or 38" tires are generally not considered efficient or economical for long distance touring on a light truck like the Tacoma.

3. By increasing the trail capability of the rig with the SAS and the things that come with it (larger tires, more lift, more articulation) you are inviting yourself to tackle much more technical obstacles and therefore you get into issues of strength where the frame and cross-members, shackle hangers, etc. are concerned. If you have a heavy expedition rig, these considerations are amplified.

I have definitely entertained the thought of doing an SAS for a few reasons, but so far I have decided not to do it for the reasons I mentioned above. I don't claim to know it all though, and I certainly might change my mind - only time will tell. For now, I am more than happy with the Tacoma IFS. I think it is a very strong, reliable, and comfortable setup - for being an IFS. As long as I am doing long-range trips and have 33" or smaller tires, I'm pretty happy with it.

The full article can be read
here.

A related article is here

I will just say that depending on which IFS you have, and how it is set up, you can still have a helluva lot of fun with them, and do a helluva lot of trails with them. If you enjoy doing trails that will continually snap your IFS, then you ought to go solid.

 

What about steering cost?

I mean a cheap solid axle swap can be done, but when you do it, you want to do it right. That means extras like new gears and lockers even if you don't need to lift the rear more or get a new set of tires...

 

I have IFS because that is what it came with.

I am committed, foolishly or otherwise, to wheeling the piss out of IFS and singing it's sorrows only when a double locked, regeared IFS truck lets me down.

In my book, I will be in around 2k just for steering and the third.

Driving IFS teaches you to learn lines and get to be a better driver. Going from open diff IFS to double locked solid axle with a crawler is like handing a 16 year old a Porsche the day they get their liscense.

It also depends a lot on what you count as part of the swap.

My current wish list has about 3k or so in parts, but only counts stuff directly related to the swap since I won't need to regear the rear and I will not add tires until it is time.

 

He went push-pull steering, much against my recommendations. Still has it that way as far as I know. The gearbox cost him a whopping $50 (I needed to get rid of one ), the tierod & draglink came with the axle.

Gearing and lockers can be done later if at all. FWIW, I am still running stock 4.10 gears with 38" tires. If anything, I am comsidering going up to 3.90 gears for better highway performance.

 

Yeah, but what's the point of going SAS if you're not going to lock it front and rear? A locked IFS (F&R) will go farther than any unlocked SA (F&R). I think you'd have to include the cost of lockers and gears, even if you don't do it till a year later.

 

For the type of offroad wheeling I do, IFS is just fine for me.

 

Everyone has their own parts list and how much they cost.
My part list...
83 axle
logfield
Marlin Hysteer
5.29 hi-pinion ARB
all newToyota seals and bearings
AP 4" springs
FROR hanger kit
Marlin shock hoops
Marlin wheel spacers
AP extended brakelines
54MM socket
New wheel studs
RS 90012 shocks
extended driveshaft
AP rear upper/lower links
OME FJ80 2.5" coils
rear 5.29 elocker/downey cable conv.

5 35" Good Year MT/R and one 15x8 blackcrawer rim

I'd probably left something out.....
How much...........a little more than 2000.

 

I really think that with the high cost of a SAS, I'd be much better off just buying an older truck with a SFA already there, add gears, lockers, steering, tires, and suspension and I'd be good to go. Yes, it would cost more, but I think it would be worth it.

 

I think that with the high cost of an axle swap that most people with IFS are no where near the limits of using it right now.

Anthony, are you nearing done yet? I would really like to take a look sense I remember when you hit the boards and had 33's after the 2" bodylift.

 

You forgot about the FJ80's with solid axles and electric lockers fr/rr. They are rare too though not impossible to find

 

I agree. There are only a few people on this board who are close to the limit, and I'm certainly not one of them, not even close.

 

you mean a toyota landANCHOR? seriously, although they have those nice features, they are really heavy. if you think that your 4runner is hard to unstick, try one of those 7000lb beasts. people complain about wheeling their expen$ive 4runner's think about one of those.....there are exceptions though, i.e. chris geiger now wheels a '94 LC.

as for me, ive broken my IFS axles twice, once a CV, another time the outer axle stub. right now im researching a way to maybe use a longfield instead of an outer CV here. i dont seem to be doing that much wheeling where im only on 3 wheels. also, right now i dont have the money for an SAS so ill be pushing the limits of IFS for a while.

 

I didn't forget, I was just generalizing my comments towards the majority: Trucks and 4Runners.

The FJ80's are awesome, but I don't know if I'd use one strictly as a trail rig, since the oldest model is still relatively new. I'd probably get an older FJ40 or something if I went that direction. I also like the FJ62's like Schaefer has.

 

god i love my 85

 

Getting closer! toy283 is still HIGH.

OK----you can get fancy ALLPRO HI STEER stuff and all the do-dads but the basic cost of a basic SAS is somewhere's UNDER $400. Buy the axle assembly,extra tie-rod, extra steering arm and a Yota rear leaf pack with 22" from end of spring to locator bolt. The junk yard should be able to torch the hangers off the frame so the leafpack has a functional front solid hanger and rear shackle set-up already attached to it.

We did this in the spring of 1990 to an 89 white shortbed so I know it can be done. Dan Dunaway drove his truck to his Dad's junkyard in the early morning.......he torched all the crap IFS stuff off and ground all the sharp corners off. I arrived and we wheeled the whole front end under the front end. This was easy cause he already had the junk yard springpacks bolts to the axle. The spring ends/shackle were also bolted on the packs. We lined it up and I MIG welded it on with a Century 125. So now it was a rolling assembly and the truck supported its own weight.

Driveshaft was easy but we weren't too worried about it today just had to get the steering on was the main concern. For simplicity and also because there was no such thing as HI-STEER back then , we left the tie-rod(cross-link) alone under the spring-pack.....we used a spare tie-rod and fabbed up our own draglink to the right length. We flipped a steering arm and bolted it to the passenger side along with the other stock still in place....extra long metric bolts were substituted in place of the studs. ALL done.
Dan drove it home that night. I remember him saying it even road better than the IFS.

9 years later, Dan Dunaway enters the 1999 Sept. ARCA event in Farmington with that same truck....same SAS conversion.....and takes 2nd place. Not bad.

 

You mean he didn't change a thing all that time?

some of us are doing all the mods at the same time so the cost goes up. It makes sense to me to get what you want the first time including all the maintenance parts that should be change. Unless you know the history of the donor axle, you might as well change all seals and bearings. That all add up too.

 

Dan wasn't into making it look showtruck nice so the old crappy seals were just fine for him. Later he changed ring and pinion to 529 ratio. But thru those 9 years he kept that same crappy draglink.....leafs would sag with time and he just kept adding to the pack.

 

Yeah I'm glad someone agrees that solid-swaps can be rather cheap! I got dogged out on the matter about a month ago. "he did a swap for under $900 (at least he claims -- yawn.)" that's what "KING" had to say. Anyway there's tons of SMART A's on this site. I'm just glad that some people actually have done them "cheaper" than I have. I was starting to think that I was the solid axle swap bargain shopper or something. It's very possible for $800-900 even with the hi-steer. I like what someone said about the the stock SA spring hanger. That's exactly what i did except I sawzalled it off that truck and welded it to mine -- cost me nothing!