Just wondering who all has done this, I have been talking with Gibby (UPNDAIR) a bit, but multiple views are always nice when this much grinding and welding is involved. All my parts are in the mail, or in the living room. Except for the springs which should be here in 2 weeks.

If anyone has done this do you have any close up pics of the shock mounting. Or any advise I should consider prior to grinding 101

 

Explorer pro-comp said they would buy my rear suspension back since it is the reason my axle housing is torn, and I need to do the leaf swap....whoohooo less cash out of pocket.

 

my dad andi did this about 8 months ago. Its an all day thing, i dont have any pics, but it took a while.

good luck man

 

Why are you going to leafs? You can get plenty of travel out of the coil setup. What do you have in that "18" travel" rear setup now?

 

I am going to leaves because the 4" extensions I have for the upper links control brackets are crap...They dont sit in the factory braket tight, and the axle wrap torque is enough to caue movement, that small movement followed by an abrubpt stop is starting to rip my axle housing, and gear lube is leaking. Now if I can do that with my 4cyl, I dont even want to know what is gonna happen when I swap in the S/C 3.4..SO thats why leavs are on order.

Also, truth be told, guys are getting more flex from the 56" leaf than they are from the coil setup, around 21 or so.

I have 3.25" national coils, 1.5" spacer, downey adjustable upper heim joint lings, lower links in stock location, pro-comp 4" panhard relocate bracket, and 11" travel rancho RS9000's...SO I have kinda used stuff from several lifts to get more travel, If I were to keep the coils I would ad johnny joints to my lower links, make them 1" longer and probally get several more inches, currently they bind. I have been happy with it, except for the torn axle..and after some consulting I dont feel its possible to effectivally fix the problem to handle rockcrawling.

So I will have a killer set of 3.25" national custom coils for sale, they are about 30% stiffer than stock and ride AWESOME!!!

 

Tell me more about these rear coils. How did you come upon them and how much lift did you get with the complete rear set-up you had?

I have the 3" Downey kit, stock links and 5009's. I can drop a 33 all the way out of the wheel well. I like coils, but it sounds like you got boned by Pro-Crap.

If you don't want to discuss sale specifics here, I would be happy to catch a PM or e-mail. Consider me an interested party at this point.

 

Drop me a line, and I will get back to you.

toy_4x4runner@hotmail.com

Or I will e-mail you when I get home

 

BTT

I've got a new interest in going this direction. Leafs make a whole bunch of sense when looking at the costs and vehicle down time to do 3 or 4 links and still be streetable. If I had numerous vehicles, and a fat wallet, I'd explore links, but.....

I've got a lead on a complete 3rd Gen Pickup V6 rear housing complete. If I went to leafs out back with this pickup housing, would it be bolt in following the fabrication for mounting of the leafs? This is a precursor to a SAS and would happen simultaneously.

 

You can weld, right Mike?

I say 3-link kit from Shaffer, mostly so you can tell me how you like it before I get one.

I am not excited about wheel hop and axle wrap with more power.

The start of this post reminds me again why I dislike bracketed IFS lifts.

As for total travel, I think that it becomes 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Done right, both are streetable, installable and wheelable. Anything done shody will work poorly.

Is this a Fab Shop question?

 

Yep, I've been known to melt a little metal.

I've seen the Shaffer kit, but I don't know a ton about it. It appears to really get the COG up there, but I could be wrong. My Runner ain't no buggy.

I'm thinking the other direction is for me. Low rise stance with cutting sheetmetal (tastefully of course) to clear bigger meats. I still regularly use parking garages, so I can't get too tall.

Anyone ever run Volvo portals on Toy IFS?

Should I get this pickup housing or should I start with another 4Runner housing. I hope to do the full floater/rear disc set up from FROR on this specimen. I'm researching if I can use Sequoia rotors all the way around on my old junk. They make alot of tires in 17" rim sizes now ya know...

 

I still have coils in the rear with AllPro links and OME 860 and it rides nice!
I'd also got an adapter to put in eye to eye shocks and went with 99012. It's long.
Eventually, I'll cut off the shock mount all together and put a C channel in there that's higher ( I have 2" BL) so I can use all the upper travel till it hit the 3" bumpstop that came with Downey kit.

 

Is it true that a properly setup 4-link rear would flex a lot more than a leaf setup?

Chris

 

That's a loaded question. A properly set up 4 link rear COULD do more. There are alot of factors that affect this - much of which is over my head.

You know where to find this answer...

 

Yeah no kidding! I just love it over there too! Do you guys think it's worth it to spend all the time in trial and error on a 4-link versus the rather straight forward approach to doing leafs for the added flex?

Chris

 

See posts #8-11

 

here is my personal favorite to keep the stock gas tank:


btw: those are fox airshox, i love how clean of a setup they make.

 

Hmmmmm..Very intestesting.
I just grind the folds a little to allow the lip to bend down easier. I don't get as much travel out of it.....but it's not too bad.

 

napoleon047, does this rig go on the street or is it a trail rig. the setup looks killer.

 

i am by far in favor of the leafs...I dont like links for the following reasons

1. I drive on the highway too much, and links are now where near as stable
2. To propperly engineer a 4 link you have to remove the stock gas can
3. Coilovers would end up in the rear cargo area, and I dont have enough cargo space to begin with :-)

I would guess you could just use a pickup axle housing. I used the perch kit from allpro. Love it.

It was a really easy swap to do. All in all it was 26 hours with a plasma cutter and a grinder. I just used my rear axle, so cut out about 2-3 hours if you have a pickup axle.

The under side of the runner came out very, very clean. Can't tell its not stock.

Depending on all of your uses you could end up with more than the 21" of travel I have currently. i went with fairly stiff springs due to the hours I spend loaded on the fwy going camping and what not. I used the inverted V shouck bar from offroad solutions, and stock 95 pickup shackle and spring mounts, and shackles from all-pro. Along with the longest shock rancho makes...This has to be my favortie mod to my runner.....