94toyota4x4

I dont know if this has been done before but I searched and no matches where found, so here goes nothin, How much has youre SAS cost you on 86-95 runners and pickups, state youre parts, axels, etc, what you have done, just curious what people are blown there money on, pics would be awesome too, even a little biography on the truck or runner would be nice. Hope to see some cool rigs.

94toyota4x4

how do you run a poll?

4x4Lamm

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Lamm

Elvota

That is a loaded question....

The problem with a SAS is that one always starts out thinking the SAS is most of the cost. Turns out once you start, it can be difficult to stop just there.

SAS usually adds lift which allows for larger tires which require a better gear ratio and might as well throw in a rear locker while your at it and a crawler sure would be nice but I am not going anywhere unless the engine runs good and I suppose it would be silly not to get some sliders and I guess a stronger bumper makes sense and now that I have this nice bumper I'd can add a winch in case I get stuck but then maybe I should install a front locker to make sure I don't get stuck but if I air down more then maybe I'll be less likely to get stuck, but then how will I air back up so I should get a CO2 system and if that fails maybe a compressor and probably a CB to keep in touch and maybe a GPS to not get lost......

Mine cost a lot... but I am not complaining. Still less than a new rig and not so bad if I get a dent or two. I am very happy with with where I can go confidently and building a rig like this with my own two hands (with a little help) has always been a dream of mine.

Just an SAS, I'd say $400 for the axle, $1,200 or so for a full kit plus labor to start.

KyleT

if i ever sac'd mine, i would plan on 3k-3500 and hope to come out cheaper. but that would include lockers f-r and a few other extras.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

On an 86-95, I'd budget $4k to do it right. It is all the little stuff adding up that kills you. If you decide to do it, I got the parts and kits.

Sonofmayhem

Ok you can get an 85 front for 150 if you shop around, then the trailgear kit. 1100, but wait youd need to lift the rear too. you could go chevy, springs in my neck of the woods are 10 dollars a pack so lets say 50 to compensate for differences, you could get procomp shocks for 60 for the rear. and then your welding supplies, spring hangers for the rear, around 60 more. driveshaft depends but lets say around 1500-2000 done well, if you want cheap, you can get a stock axle 100, get some stock front springs, get the frame jig and hanger and just get procomp shocks and a new drive shaft. say 500 bux?

Elvota and wabfab are both very right, you always find stuff that your gonna need when doing these kinds of projects.

My way of acheiving sfa was an 1100 dollar 80 toyota truck, that came locked in the rear on 33s, with the sway bar removed, the flex isnt so bad. and it goes places some of my buddies nice rigs go. Personally i plan to throw in about 2000 more into the 80 to make it that much better i mean tons of money but its so much fun not breaking anything while out having fun.

jmach1

I sold all of my Total Chaos Fab set up as well as my ARB bumper. With that money I have spent $200.00 for the axle, $1100.00 for the TG IFS Eliminator kit, $400.00 for the All Pro front bumper, which should be arriving shortly. $1700.00 total at this time. Now I need springs for the back, big tires, gears, dual tansfer case and my wife to get off of my back!!
Heres a couple pics of the front end being almost done, need the shock hoops and the shocks to be mounted.



JMach1

EWAYota

Quick List:

Axle: Around here, 250-350.00
SAS Kit: Marlin-1449.00 Trail Gear-1099.00
Rear Lift: Marlin-599 Trail Gear-599.00
High Steer: Marlins is included in the SAS Kit Trail Gear-369.00
Gears/Locker: 1500 installed roughly
Tires: 5 tires at 225.00 each

Then your probably gonna want to rebuild the axle
Do you want to upgrade the birfields and inner axle shafts....
Front drive shaft needs to be done
Then theres the little things like tools, grinding wheels, welder, beer and pizza for people helping you, etc.

Granted, some of the above things can be done cheaper, chevy springs in the back, and if you really wanted to junkyard dive, you can piece your front kit together and just buy a high steer kit, but thats a very broad jist. I believe MarcP has a list of what he spent on his SAS.

Intrepid

I spent under $1k on my "SAS" because I have an '85, so I already had the axle. I bought Trail Gear's hanger, u-bolt flip, hi-steer, steering box reinforcement, steering stabilizer, and knuckle rebuild kit, then I bought Sky Manufacturing's boomerang shackles and axle truss. I built front packs from two rear packs (free), then I made a square tube front d-shaft from a peice of trailer hitch stock, a peice of square stock, and the stock d-shaft ($80 total). Then I used Ford F-250 shock towers and some cheap Rancho shocks. Obviously miscellaneous bolts and nuts added up, along with primer, paint, and other consumables such as cutting wheels, I never added those up though.
Of course, as other people mentioned, it is never just the SAS. You need the rear to match, you need tires to fill the fenders, etc, etc, etc. Then when you think you are done, you are wheeling harder and you start to break stuff, which=more money.

Although I don't have it now I had added it up, I saved about $400 on my front setup over going with a kit and about $275 for my rear kit. Now, admittedly, that is not a ton, but, when you don't fab your own brackets (I don't have a place to work on that stuff in my apartment so I had to buy the brackets and mounts) and you are trying to save as much money as possible, that is a fair mount. Grand total I saved around $675, which is enough to buy me 4.7's (which are in the t-case, just need to put the t-case in the truck) and my tires and rims (got a great deal buying used). So in theory, if I had gone with a kit, I would not have my nice low crawl ratio or my tires and rims...so I can't complain. It works well:

Bill

I've talked to a few guys in Calgary that have done them when I was looking into it. The consensus seemed to be about $2K (canuck bucks). This just gets your front end lifted with a solid axle under it. No gears, bumpers, or anything fancy. It also assumes you can weld, or know someone that can weld.

spaceycayce

Wow great question. Well let's see I broke my rear axle housing from my crappy ass IFS lift kit on Labor Day Weekend. My truck still has 3-5 more days of work left on it to finish the SAS, so I hope to post some pics on the thread here real soon. I have spent waaaay too much money. For parts so far I got to about 4000 for the front and rear kit with lockers gears and air compressor. I got both axles for like 500 off of an '84. Now for labor the dude is charging me like 1200 to rebuild each axle with the knuckle kit, trusses, lockers, gears etc. that is a labor and parts with that quote so about 500ish for the labor). Trail-gear is of course supplying most of the parts. I still don't know about the driveshaft but the guy said he would hook it up for me so we will see.
The kit install is like 20ish hours for the front and 8ish for the rear so a few thousand for labor, which also includes ripping off the old kit. (I don't have time or the tools to do this myself). So I'm looking at around 7ish (with taxes etc.) for a shop to do it, there aren't too many around me to compete either most people refer to this guy.
Now that I have the itch of course I need to decide my future options in priority.
Such mods are going to include bumpers, winch, exo/int cage, rock sliders, headers, snorkel, maybe other cool stuff.
I will post some pics of it once the SAS is done.

94toyota4x4

Well I did some searching found a few hookups here and there and came to the total of about 3500, and thats with 33' tires, gears, lockers, chevy conversion, little nick naks, everything for the sas(trail gear ifs eliminator), the whole shabang, exculding a dual transefer case I really dont know why I would need this, but ran onto a few question, the rear driveshaft should be good with the chevy conversion, but with the front, what can I do about that, can I just extend it by making one, o by the way im doing all my own work including making bumpers, rockslides, flatbed, regearing, rebuikding, lockers, etc, you think I over priced? Let me know any things that are important about the sas swap, like movin crap, stuff like that, just to sum all my questions for the swap thanks.

Elvota

Make a square DS for the front. Cheap, strong.... just not so good once you start speeding up. Search here and there and you will find some how-to threads.

"Let me know any things that are important about the SAS swap" ... make sure your welding and fab skills are up to the critical parts such as spring hangers, axle perches (if needed).

Make sure you stay really low with your lift for the 33's to make sense. Make sure you are going to stick with 33's before you regear. That said, with all the work you have listed, I'd commit to 35's and lift/ gear accordingly.

... but still try to stay as low as possible.

94toyota4x4

Yea I was going to go with the 3" lift from trail gear thats their lowest, just 33s for right now cause Im kinda on a budget, and for the front driveshaft, Ive seen it dont before I just cut and weld it in right, wont be using the FDS for high speedy anyways so Im good there trying to keep it cheap but reliable.

94toyota4x4

Well I looked up on the driveshaft, and I guess you just weld the square tubing onto your yokes and make another slightly smaller than the other and slip it into each other, is this correct, if so Im doin it.

Flygtenstein

On the board here, Napoleon047 is the cheapest I have seen. He is in the business, did the work himself and didn't do anything exotic.

Using an off the shelf front kit from Marlin or similar, you are getting into 1200 pretty easy.

Add 200 for a front axle that needs to be stripped, resealed and have new bearings.

Now you have to get those parts on the truck, either you weld or you pay.

Add a 750 for a low pinion, geared Detroited diff. Double that for HP ARB.

Run stockfields for free, or add 650 for 30 spline Longfields.

Add a couple hundred for ARP studs and stuff, maybe another 150 for chromo hub gears.

This is just the front and doesn't count consumables, beer/pizza for friends, etc.

This is what 4k got me. I am in the business and have friends in low places.

94toyota4x4

Thanks for all youre replies guys if you still have comments and pics whatever you feel like saying please post cause i need as much info as I can get on sas's.

punkotheclown

So I know Im and idiot (numerous confirmations), but how dumb is this question. Could you just get an entire front end or whole solid axle truck and then swap the axle and the driveshaft? Would it all fit into a later (86-95) easily and more cheaply? I realize you wouldnt get any lift and you would still want to rebuild the axle probably, but would the things just switch over easily? (particularly driveshaft?) Would there be as much welding involved? Thx you guys.

rockota

Way more work and if not done correctly, way more dangerous.