I know most of you are off-roaders and rock climbers, but what about the others who prefer baja races?

What mods would you guys recommend doing to these trucks to make them worthy of desert races? What shocks and suspension would you guys recommend? What add-ons would you install?

 

for the front.. search 'total chaos' shocks would be sway-a-ways, KING, fox.
bilstien (sp). there are a bunch of kickass companies for shocks.

youll need some tube frame action, firewall, fuel cell, stronger driveshafts .ladder bars or track bars or links or whatever you call it.

THIS BE DA WRONG SITE MON.

 

what are you starting with......you need a lot of mods and fab work to make it a true desert racer....I just bought myself a 85 toyota stock going to make it into a class 7 someday....hopefully

 

personally, I think it takes a great deal more work to make a good pre-runner than it takes to make a good crawler

plus, you have to consider safety and durability. you can only do so much damage and induce so much physical pain and injury crawling over rocks; an end over end back flip or front flip, rolling over on the side, or even coming off a rather steep drop off, is about the extent a crawler will endure. don't get me wrong, it'll tear some $#!@ up and do it good, and you can get VERY hurt. BUT, pre-running is another story, cause you're now pushing the truck and every part on it to it's limits flying as fast as you can over some crazy terrain, all at the same time trying to keep control, and if that control's lost, well the wrecks can be horrific...

but don't let me change you mind by saying that, I'd friggin LOVE to have a built pre-runner style Yoter!

another thing to consider too, the 22re's not a real fast and powerful motor... now a 3.4 swap (or a V8 swap of your choise ) would REALLY make for a sick pre-runner

 

How much do you want to spend? On the cheap, I'd say your first mod should be to brace between the rear of the lower control arms on the IFS.



Do you need the 4wd for your truck? Could you remove it to save weight? What are you exactly trying to accomplish.

 

Long travel front, horsepower.

what type of truck are you starting with?

 

haha, stock IFS and 22re, not a good place to start then

 

Not necessarily. There are a few companies that make parts for the Toyota IFS. The 22re is not an overly powerful engine, but if you have a little money to throw at it you can use parts from these guys. Or there is always the always awesome 3.4L v6 swap, maybe a 4.3 Chevy swap. There are lots of options, it just depends on how much money you want to spend.

 

Right now I'm not trying to accomplish anything, just getting a feel for what it takes to make a desert racer versus making a rock crawler. I know they're totally different requirements, but that's why I'm curious.

As for the engine, I know "Racing" and "22re" should rarely go in the same sentences, unless it's "the 22re isn't good for racing." I was actually thinking of doing a chevy 350 swap someday.

Someday I'd like to slowly build it into a desert racer, but that will be a slow build process. I figured as parts broke on my truck and I replaced them/fixed them, I'd upgrade them to the necessary parts for a desert racer. Something worthy of the Australian outback.

 

go to http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/ and http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/ and start doing research. if i would have known how expensive the desert scene was, i wouldnt have even tried to get into it.

 

heres the basics i would start with!
2wd tube frame
adjustable long travel all the way around
beadlocks
9" rearend
huge brakes
fiberglass bed/panels
plexi all glass!
efi twin turbo'd sbc
big nutz and a bigger right foot!

and most importantly full roll cage, 5 point harness. and a helmet




twin turbo'd sbc.

 

Where are there desserts in Northern Colorado??????

 

http://www.nps.gov/grsa/

But yeah, I wanted to do a pre-runner too, before I figured out that just the suspension alone would cost about 4 grand.

I think you can go relatively fast with a crawler, but nothing like the real trophy trucks.

Also, for an engine, Lexus V8. Oh yeah.

 

ok ok lexus v8. but it has to be twin turbo'd or supercharged lol.

 

Out West, I think. I don't plan on being here forever, I plan on moving to nevada in the next few years. I'm a desert/beach person, not a mountain and snow guy.

 

You aren't a mountain and snow guy? There must be a few screws loose in your head. God graced Colorado.

 

Yeah, he graced Colorado with the leftovers he had from making nice beaches and deserts

Im kidding. Mountains are nice, but I still can't stand the cold and snow.

 

1UZ-FE's handle forced induction really well actually.

 

first thing is safety- roll cage and proper seats with 5 point harnesses

next: start thinking about the terrain. basically going to be high-speed encounters with small bumps but those bumps turn into 'whoops' which require a lot from your suspension which well mean either very carefully tuned shocks with stock suspension or more lenient shocks with long-travel suspension and good springs.

...and don't think that rock crawlers are the only ones that benefit from multi-link supension setups....

and a 22re is more than capable of pushing a truck at far more than dangerous speeds.

 

Haha, that's a nice quote. I'm sure we'll be seeing that show up in people's signatures.

Roll cage first for sure. I'm learning to weld, and might make that a first project. After that, suspension. I think from there, other than reinforcing the parts that need it I'll take the "race it 'till it breaks" method. Race it, if soemthing breaks, pull it to the side and fix it. That way I can have fun while getting the stock parts out of the way. And this is where I convince the fiance to let me get a motorcycle for when the truck has some downtime.