About to be New Tundra Owner

Welcome!
2014 is a new interior, and body design.
SC's have been discontinued, so if you want one and can get one- get it. You can still SC flex fuels with the piggyback system.

 

Welcome! What year is your Tacoma? Really want a Toy crawler again. Someday i will.

Go for the 2014+ if you can afford it. Newer interior is nice. Body style is nice as well.
Everything else is the same though so if you step it down to the 2nd Gen no worries.
Newest and lowest miles is best bet.
Definitely 5.7L

Go for non-flex fuel. Will be cheaper to supercharge. Act quick to get a SC on as they are running out.

 

I think @jberry813 is pretty familiar on LT setups and other areas...maybe he can chime in.

 

That I am.

OP...are you a fabricator by trade or hobby? Do you have a welder and a tube bender and are you proficient in usage? If you answered no to either one of these...how deep are you pockets? Unless you've got 30+ grand laying around, 2nd-3rd gen tundras are frankly a terrible idea to LT, especially if you've never owned a LT vehicle before. Some first thoughts

• There are a few companies that make off the shelf bolt on LT kits for the tundra. My personal favorite is the TC kit which is a +2.5" per side kit that will pull about 16" of travel while maintaining 4x4. As everybody knows...tundra is not a light truck. Running a 2.5" shock body coilover alone means heavy valving. And by heavy...I mean heavy. 10 minutes into any session and the shocks will be too hot to touch. Meaning plan on at least a 2.5" bypass, preferably a 3". Hell I can cook an egg on my first gen tacoma front shocks and those are 2.5" coils and bypasses. They get so hot that I have to rebuild them annually. Not to mention...toyotas are not known for component strength. Plan on spindle gussets, cam tab gussets, frame plates, secondary shock hoops, at the very minimum a coil bucket crossover tube engine cage to prevent the frame from cavitating. Oh and unless you want to continue the tundra twerk...fully plated rear frame with new tube crossmembers.
  
• Leaf springs suck. Take it from a guy that owns a supercharged 5.7, you will never get leafs to keep up with a bone stock 5.7, let alone a supercharged 5.7. Not to mention, if you've gone ahead and went with a TC front kit, you need the rear to outperform the front by roughly 20-25% in terms of travel otherwise hold onto your cowboy hat...be ready for buck buck buck. Having a front that outperforms the front just means you will never run the truck to it's potential. And unless you've got wicked discipline, overdriving the truck is very common which leads to very broken shit. Ask me how I know. There's no 62 or 64 inch leaf SUA pack that can pull those types of numbers. Which means your only options are links. Links...are not bolt in. It's not something you can just pick up off a shelf and slap onto your truck. Link length, link placement, anti squat, anti dive, sway bar design, rear steer, all need to be taken into account...or you may as well have not started the project in the first place.
  
• 5.7 v8 means...speed. Links and anything over 80 mph...you just might have a deathwish unless you run a cab cage. That much horsepower, that much speed, and that much weight...say goodnight the first time a dirt bike jumps out in front of you out in Barstow. No less...given the weight of a tundra, to be SCORE tagged (if you decide you want to start racing), you'd have to run 2" main tubes for the cage...minimum. Not to mention adding in a supercharger puts you in open class which means you're going to be up against the baddest fucking trucks on the planet. Even if you don't want to race, that much travel and horsepower in a LT dirt truck is asking for trouble without a cage.

Not trying to detract you from your decision, but the 2nd/3rd gen tundra is a huge fucking truck to LT. Huge trucks come with huge price tags when it comes to building a prerunner. It's not just some simple bolt on hack job. And expect a very large annual maintenance bill as well. Race car parts cost race car money. And factor in break/fix bullshit (you will break things...not "if" you break things).

 

As an alternative...OP, don't be scared to look into a MT setup on the new Tundra. It's by no means equivalent to what you were used to with a Tacoma. In fact, a MT tundra is closer to a LT taco. Shock ratio is FAR better compared to a taco. Bolt in coilovers are almost a 7" stroke shock and utilize a 16" coil. Again, basically what a LT tacoma uses.

I'm cycling over 13" with my Kings up front paired with TC stock length UCAs and retaining factory everything else including 4wd. The bolt in rear stuff leaves a little bit to be desired. I had to play with the valving to get it to live up to my expectations, but by no means does it suck. The MT definitely helps keep you driving within your means with a big truck with lots of balls at a significantly smaller dent on the wallet. And...it still handles business. Just ask @Relentless.

 

That's one helluva an explanation.

 

That's only what I felt like typing. I could talk for hours about it over beers.

 

I'll be honest with you Ryan. I've spent more time than I care to admit on links. And its way more than I'm going to type out and give away. My suggestion to you is to stick to google, dezertrangers, rdz, and pirate. None of the mainstream forums are worth shit beyond bolt on...despite the fact there's a whole world beyond bolt on!
I'm not sure what body you are planning on getting, but the crewmax is going to be real difficult on shock placement because the rear of the cab is so fucking huge. You'll be able to run longer links and a better shock ratio if you went with the double cab. Not to mention, you need to plan on a fuel cell (assuming you will be doing a 4 link or triangulated 3 link), which is going to take away that much more of the bed space.

Bolt in OE Kings and TC 3/4" shackles:

 

Nooooooo. It's never "Jason's a nice guy," or "Jason's awesome for sharing experience." No. Instead it's a "he's got a slow shit so why not." :luvya: :brianr:


Damnit!!!
@Bob...where are my favorite smileys?!?!

 

I have lots of thoughts about 61.5" Deavers. I went through 2 different sets of 61.5" Deavers on my piece of shit first gen Tacoma. 2 sets in 2 years. And then an AP 50T pack. Literally 3 leaf packs in less than 4 years. On a 4880 pound access cab Tacoma.

It's not about launching the truck in the air. It's a common TW misconception. Yes I can make my truck fly, but that was never the reason I broke my truck. I said it before, I'll say it again. You will never get a leaf pack to keep up with the power that a 5.7 Toyota can put down. You can reword it however you want. And there's now amount of wordsmithing you can do that will change my mind. If I can't get a 1st gen taco to keep up with leaf springs...how would you expect a 3rd gen tundra to keep up.

 

Well on my way to the grocery store they are sick as fuck! They handle the speed bumps like a boss....
They get the job done. It's not some massive eye opening experience, but it works. Let's just say...if my tundra's main intention wasn't to tow my other shit...I would have a new leaf pack.