Show me your mid travel setups!

I was really happy with the OME shocks, not coilover, but good quality and the ride was really good on and off road.

 

I would call them to get clarification for your options since their website seems to indicate that it is necessary for the chassis design. Those 4WD spindles/ hubs are beautiful.

"** 2004-2006 4-Door Tundra models will REQUIRE the 1″ Lower Uniball & 7/8″ Heim Steering Upgrade to work with 2/4WD Fully-Fabricated Spindles due to factory Sequoia chassis design. If your lower ball joint that bolts to the spindle has a “square” bolt pattern, then NO 1″ Lower Uniball & 7/8 Heim Steering Upgrade is required. If you have a “rectangle” bolt pattern, then it is required. Call for any clarifications."

 

If you're considering the spindles keep in mind they eliminate your ABS. That was a deal breaker for me, if you get into an accident and insurance sees you disabled a safety feature you might be declined coverage.

You can run the coilover and upper arm combo without the spindle.

00-03 lower arms should fit fine.

 

I knew you'd come in with this.

Without the spindles, the the only thing that is unique to the Solo kit is the uppers which they also sell separate without shocks.

 

I was really hoping he wasn't going to say that too. really ruined my dreams of owning it

 

Gotta keep it in mind man. I really wish they went the extra mile and used Toyota hubs and provisions for the abs sensor. I would have bought their lift spindles and been on 35s years ago if they had.

 

Get mine on next week... WooHoo!

 

What’s going on here?!!

 

I have Kings and I’m happy. But it’s long travel, so front sway bar is removed... entire ride is different, on and off pavement.

 

Swaybar free since 2010


I would imagine the Kings are valued similar to the Fox. Fox ride great, just made stupid design choices.

 

Yeah, I’ve followed the troubles you’ve had with Fox on your 1st gen... interference with the brakes is no bueno... and I warn anyone with a 1st gen to avoid Fox. But generally, apart from our 1st gens, I know Fox and Kings are top of the heap in reputation. and similar value/cost.

Because I have long travel, with new LCA’s as well as uppers, that push the wheels and tires out, I don’t have the same issues with clearance. My issues are with body and, after cutting the bedsides, I have issues with the insides of the wheel wells.

All this stuff is really kinda vehicle-specific; there’re just not enough modded 1st gens (yet ) to have tested all the conceivable combinations, to know for certain in advance what will fit best for each application.

Edit: What we DO know is, we don’t need no steenkin’ sway bars!

 

Accordion shock! I had just finished taking a quick rest at the end of a trail and filled the tires and such before hitting pavement. So when I took off, I hit a hole and there was a boulder partially sticking out of it; I hit it at a relatively low speed, the type of hit I've experienced plenty before and fully expect the shock to take. It made an ugly noise, driver's side dropped slightly and I instantly noticed the shock oil everywhere. The oil wasn't very warm to the touch. The top cap of the shock body came off and the two pieces of the shaft were moving freely inside the spring. I personally think it was inferior/ weak shock manufacturing that fought the spring and the spring won. This failure didn't happen when I was really "driving" the truck and the shock wasn't more than a year old. Since the spring flexed in towards the frame I was able to drive it home like that.

You know, I purposely kept my sway bar connected because I had hoped it might prevent this exact scenario from happening. Starting to think I don't need no steenkin' sway bars.

 

You'll also notice that this shock has an inverted body when compared to the Kings, Icons, and Foxes also shown in this thread.

 

So, what maker shock was this? And when did this happen?

 

This was Toy tec and it happened in May 2020. I initially went with these over Kings back in 2018 because of budget concerns and good reviews on this forum.

 

Wow, that’s a lot goin’ on there!

 

These newer model spindles work with ABS sensors. It will be very cool if Camburg releases something like this for our trucks.

 

Sadly I doubt they will since the 1st gen markets probably too small to justify that.

 

This is true.

Aren't first gen Tacoma and some 4runner using the same spindle as our Tundras? I'm surprised they don't have a spindle that we could use.

 

They do. But only up to 04. The tundra got upgraded spindles in 05-06 (and control arms) the ball joint got beefed up a little bit and would be a slight upgrade to older trucks if you wanted to go through that

 

Yeah thats true, but the aftermarket support on Tacoma and 4runner has always been strong. That's why I'm curious if they have stronger aftermarket spindles that we could use.

 

What makes a suspension setup “mid travel” or “long travel”. The number of inches of travel over stock? Always wondered

 

Eh. 1st gen Tacoma support is seriously lacking compared to 2nd gen too.

 

This is why I don't like the term "mid travel". For the sake of keeping it light I'll just talk about the front end. There is no long travel or mid travel for rear ends, there is only "longer" than stock and how much longer.

Mid travel just means that your suspension ride height is being created by a heavier coil or an adjustable coil perch so that your shock is extended at static height. Imagine you are jacking up your truck to change a front tire, as you lift the truck your suspension extends, now picture you stop lifting it when the frame has gone up 2". Your shock is extended a bit and your upper/lower arms are at a different angle, offering less downward travel. Your static ride height is somewhere in the middle of the travel cycle.

Long travel is a completely different animal. Long travel means you have new longer upper and lower control arms. This gives you more wheel travel because it extends the leverage. Hold a pencil in your fingers at the half way point and wiggle it a bit, the eraser end moves up and down maybe 3". Now hold the pencil near the lead side and do the same, the eraser will move up and down more like 6".

Long travel also needs longer shocks, longer coils, longer brake lines, longer axles if 4wd, fenders that are flared to allow tire clearance. If you get fancy, you also need hydraulic bump stops, bypass shocks(in addition to the main shock) and reinforced frame and coil buckets. You can add some of these things to a mid travel setup, but if starting from scratch its so close to the cost of long travel that you may as well go all the way.

 

Great explanation. In my experience, mid-travel is a term better applied to custom vehicles i.e. sandcars and race trucks.

 

Great explanation. I wish I’d read this 2 years ago. Instead I skipped the classroom but took the lab: learned by paying for long-travel parts spec’d by someone (not me) who understood, and have learned by seeing it installed, running it on and off-trail, and tweaking (cutting off bed-sides and what-not) when I hit limits.

 

Never seen an explanation of this. lol thank you

 

Here's my setup, so far so good.

 

I am not jumping the truck or anything. Jeez. The other shock now at around 20k miles. At least this one isn't in two pieces.