Papasmurf's 07 4x4 LT Build Thread and now with more other stuff too!

nope you are correct, even with my setup ill have to have a hole for the bumps in the bed, and i will have to fab new bump mounts much higher than where they sit now to get full travel

 

Just curious if there's another route that doesn't require a hole in the bed for the bumps?

 

nope even running 2.0 x 2 inch stroke you are going to have to cut a hole in the bed.. just not enough space from top of the bump pad on the axle to the bottom of the bed its only about 6" when at full stuff and you need about 9"+ from top of bump to the bottom of the bump

 

Sent you the picture of mine already. We just tacked them in at first, it took a couple times to make sure the were contacting the impact plate on the axle square which is what DMZ told me is extremely important. Because the axle moves a little when the spring is compressed we tested it both wheels straight up, one wheel up one wheel down etc. just to get an idea of where the bump was going to hit under all circumstance's. When we were happy we finished welding it in then added the gussets. We actually fabbed my impact plates a little larger than probably necessary just to make sure. I'm sure other guys know a hell of a lot more than I do but this is what we did on my truck.

 

that is exaclty my plan, i have oversized bump plates that should work perfect, ill post up those later today or tomorrow. And yeah i know being square is key, i will do exactly how you described and of course thanks for the pics and help on this one. BTW im waiting to hear back from joey on that bumper thing we talked about too.

 

nope sent the correct part, apparently, they dont make one for LT only MT which is what i got

 

this is why i bought the icon bumps. with the drawers in the back, i didn't think there would be room for the tops of the king bumps.

 

Glad you’re getting things figured out Bruce. The bump mounts your using now won’t stick out towards the wheel as much as the Camburg mounts. If I remember correctly it was looking like the bump plates were going to be really close to the outer u-bolts. This might be helpful went mounting the bump plate?

 

All good points John should help w a few issues for sure oh well back to fabricating

 

Agreed, mine actually go over the outside u-bolt. Nothing fancy we just cut 3" or 4" (can't remember) square tubing it was actually shop scrap in half and at the right height to go over the u-bolt shaped it welded it and called it a day. I just looked through all my pics and can't find one of my plates but if I get a chance I will swing by and get a pic. My truck is back in the shop getting a custom LT one-price double cardan driveshaft. Damn Alex @osidepunker when I mentioned I cut the OEM one he mentioned something about a custom one and it's been in my head ever since. After I did my gears staring at the angle my shortened two piece was just eating at me and decided not to do a carrier bearing drop instead I convinced myself I just HAD to get a custom driveshaft $$$$ new pinion angle etc.. Thanks Alex. Actually for my set up with the shortened frame it's probably a good thing. Sorry to ramble point is my truck isn't around to snap a pic.

 

How much is that drive shaft running ya? My bud had one done to his Tacoma, at the end of the day it ended up being $1300, luckily the shop was in our town.

 

Surprisingly not as expensive as I thought or as expensive as what the local guys quoted me, at the end of the day I think I'm going to come in around $700. I decided not to go local just because of the uniqueness of the situation with the LT. Not that they couldn't do it but I felt more comfortable having someone do it that is familiar with our trucks and long travel suspension. Having Tom Woods in Utah do it just because they really know their shit use spicer components etc..Sent him my TC and Axle Flanges, they are going to drill a new bolt pattern to fit the components

 

Some pics of the bump plates would be great.
Damn Greg your build just keeps getting better the more I see and hear. Looking forward to you getting that thing out here and wheeling it!

 

I think it would be badass to upgrade all my driveshafts when I do gears and lockers. RCV axles up front, Tom Woods in the rear

 

Badass no doubt Alex but... $$$$$ how much you think?

 

pshtt another $10k LOL Well, gears/lockers = 5k, RCV = 2.5k, Tom Woods, 1k

fml thats a pipe dream at this point. I need to work on my house

 

Hahaha, yeah even at your build level it never seems to end.

 

Lately it seems like RCV has been having cv boot issues, my buddy with them in his LT 4runner has had nothing but issues with them tearing and leaking. He’s had to warranty them several times to the point that he finally took a shot at some different boots and redid them himself. For the price they should have some killer boots, other than that they’re great.

 

Yeah I have heard the same thing. I'm not 100% sold on them. I just completed a pretty tough desert trip on the sdhq boots and they are holding up. So for now stock CV and sdhq boots are the answer

 

I have a local customer with the same issue on her Tacoma CVs, I have rebooted them 4 times, and this last time they actually sent her a completely different outer joint that was physically smaller and had a much better boot set up. For the price of their axles they should really have purpose built CV boots for their products. Her first set of boots were just generic 930 boots that they expected you to put a cut on the small side to get the boot to fit over the axle.

The Tacomas need a CV upgrade as the inner tripod joint sucks on the OEM axles, the stock tundra axles are a pretty stout set up with a true inner CV joint. I would personally spend the 2500$ on many other things before that on a tundra.

 

pssht, sell that ugly ass ghetto house and do like @KevinK get you a tiny trailer, park it in the walmart parking lot. then you can spend even more $$$ on your truck.

 

glad to hear the boots are working... may get a set and keep them in the truck for trail repair

 

I wouldn't worry about doing a boot repair on the trail. You can get home with a torn boot

 

But I am carrying an outer joint housing and inner joint in case a I have a CV failure

 

yup i need to get them as well

 

Just get a napa axle for $70. You just need the inner to plug the diff and the outer housing to hold your axle together.

I would do an entire spare axle but I'm tired of spending money on The Truck LOL

 

ummm ive been nickle and dimed though this rear build but its my own fault LOL

 

ugh so close, yet still so far!!!

 

we keep a temporary boot from sdhq in the tool bag. basically it would just wrap around a torn boot to prevent dust ingress on a trip. It's leather and Velcro, so it just wraps around the joint without having to take anything apart. Only good for a tear, not an actual CV failure.

 

LOL
Ok so here is where we are at for now. I talked to @Bo-Hunter and @osidepunker about the process for cycling rear leaf long travel setups, and here is what is basically the process.

your spring and shackle along with their movement are what determines your travel.

So when setting your bump height, it should be done without your shocks and with the nitrogen let out of the bump so it can get to full compression. T Your limiting strap is set when you are at full droop, and your rear shackle is just shy of 90 degrees from a line drawn from the center of your front spring mounting bolt to the center of the rear mounting bolt that attaches the shackle to the frame.
For setting droop.
I used a piece of 1” heavy duty painters tape to do this. Because the Camburg shackle has a dogleg shape to it, I also ran a piece of tape between the bolt going to the frame and the bolt on the spring side ( see attached drawing).

Keep in mind the strap is going to stretch a little, some manufacturers more than others.

I mounted the lower tab for the limit strap to the axle


And the upper mount thankfully had a great spot on my 1.25" DOM crossbar that holds my battery box to the frame. So that was a good spot for it
you can see it in the upper left of this pic.

The compressed bump height is set when your mainspring is almost flat.

Once I got that part figured out, I started on the bump mount. I have a piece of flat stock that the can is welded to. Then reinforced with dimple die pressed plate i have for another project.

once those were tacked up, I checked fitment and fully welded them in and tacked them onto the frame



For the lower shock mounts

The primary starting point is to set the truck at ride height have the lower shock tabs parallel to the deck, this allows for the movement of the axle equally, like your pinion angle. Every truck is different, so again this is a starting point not exact science. However for me this is where i started to run into some issues...
Keep in mind that cage is designed for stock I96 packs and that’s not what I have, my pack is a custom SUA spring pack.

But mainly in this pic where I set the suspension to full droop then left 1/2 inch of shock rod remaining in the shock body, I tack welded the mounts and then fully compressed the suspension. Yeilding over 3-4"'s of shock shaft remaining at full stuff. The issue is I'm not fully engaging the bump zone on the shock. Now I can leave 1" of the shaft in the body at droop to account for limit strap stretch which is safe and a good idea (talked to a buddy who builds 6100 trucks), but on the bump, I need to have more shaft inside.


SOOOO what are my options, well I can and will rotate the lower shock mount up towards the bed more which will net about an inch more shaft in the shock at bump which is good, but I still have to make up some more distance. I could lower the shock, but this would force me to modify the bed cage, and I'm trying to avoid that so the simple answer revealed itself to me on some pondering over a whiskey and chatting with @Bo-Hunter ... Longer rod ends.


So I ordered a pair of 2" and 3" longer rod ends from DSM. Hoping that will help me resolve this. Once I get the lower shock mount in place and cycling correctly, I will tear everything down. Finish weld all the mounts and brackets like brake line brackets etc. Then paint and reassemble.

Making good progress just got held up a bit. Keep tuned in for more later this week