Hmm, I havent seen anyone with 37" wheels with only 2"s of lift. Could you mabey post a pic of that cause I cant find it. That sounds like a lot of trimming to do. Love the huge truck too keep it up!

This 1996 Toyota 4Runner Proves IFS Doesn?t Have to Be Weak

That's good information, I'm not an axle expert I was just writing what I encountered. When I bought the Chief Dana44 off craigslist the seller didn't know anything about it other than it was Dana44 with an ARB. It didn't have calipers so when I was going to buy them my buddy told me to verify what the ends were because the Waggy calipers are different than the Chevy calipers. That's when I found out it had Chevy ends. The 80s Waggy Dana44 I tore down for the center housing, not sure of the exact year, had full time 4wd and rounded top knuckles (no flat tops) so we swapped mine onto it. Separating those rusted ball joints wasn't fun, took a sledge to get one of them out, an air hammer got the others out.

I didn't call the company. It wasn't worth it and the diff didn't fail so they probably wouldn't care anyway. I was just really disappointed that they use a damaged carrier in their product. I just let people know what I experienced and let them make up their own mind if they still want to buy from East Coast Gear.

Dirtco has a bad ass 99 4Runner with I think 3.5" lift on 37s too. I read his build word for word when I getting ready to start building mine. Of the IFS 4Runner builds, Dirtco's and the Toytec 4Runner are my favorites.

I've never seen that before. That actually looks pretty ok. Thanks for the link!

I have plans to build a swing out tire carrier for my rear bumper but for the meantime I wanted a cheap way to carry my spare. I didn't really want to put in on the roof, the truck is already top heavy enough due to the lift so I decided to get a carrier that goes in the built in hitch in my rear bumper. I found the Curt carrier on Amazon for like $70 but it was solid meaning I would be able to open my rear hatch and that wouldn't work.



I decided to cut it and weld side plates on it. I then drilled a pivot bold and another hold that took a .5" receiver lock so I could lock it. It does require and anti rattle clamp or the carrier will bounce all over the place. It works pretty well but it's a pain in the ass to lift and lower the tire. I'm planning on building my swing out this winter.





I also moved my license plate onto an installed a backup camera so I can still see behind me.

This was the first time I tested the 4WD since I had done the SAS. I was really nervous but the truck did really well. I kept it pretty mild because I was still testing everything. I have since taken it some much more challenging trails and the truck continues to impress me.

Actually the calipers are the same within any year. 78 and older are different than 79 and newer, however, with the newer ones having metric banjo bolts.

Where did you take it for the shakedown run? Didn't really need 4WD I take it?

I just took it up to Rainbow Falls in Divide, CO. Nope, didn't really need 4WD, ha ha. It was just to make sure driveshaft angles were OK (I was concerned about the angle on the front, pretty steep), and just to make sure everything else was okay too. Hadn't tested the front axle since swapping everything over like the gears, axle joints, hubs. I wanted to make sure that if something broke a tow truck could get up in there to get me out.

I wish I had pics and video of the last run I took it on. Truck did amazing but that's when it bent my sway bar links.

Good to see your getting that monster out in the dirt ! I'm making good use of your old front diff . Thanks for a great deal .

looks awesome

Thanks buddy. Glad the front diff is working out for you.

Well it was time to add a winch to the front. I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews and decided to go with the $300 (with coupon) Badlands 12,000 pound winch from Harbor Freight. I know a lot of people with say everything from Harbor Freight is crap but I've been very happy with it. It has tons of power and installed very easily. I don't plan on using it much with lockers front and rear but it's nice to have it as reassurance. Since my truck is pretty tall I see myself using more on off camber trails to give my truck a little more stability. Since my truck sits outside a lot I didn't want to use synthetic line.

Lockers front and rear have the capability to get you in tighter jams than having open diffs front and rear. Thinking those are going to save you from needing a winch either shows inexperience or a lack of pushing the rig to the potential it has (or a bit of both).