ARB suspension and lockers

[dsams]

lance,

thank you for the info on the tires. when my truck goes back in for the bumper, i'll be doing the tires as well.

my03runner,

as for not letting 4 wheel parts do a valve cover...if you lived in orlando, you would not have had a choice. these are the only guys in town who do this work. there is NO ONE else.

as for the price..

when i picked up my truck today after having the lockers and suspension installed, found out the intial quote was wrong! the gentleman who gave me the quote had entered in the wrong code for the locker install.

i just got back from running the truck and it feels and performs great off road.

dan

 

[Good Times]

Jared, Thanks for catching that. Somehow I was thinking he has the sr5 grade

Dan, I would say 285/70/17's are the way to go.

 

[dsams]

lance,

could i do those tires without any modifications and still avoid rubbing?

also, pleaase ignore my e-mail on your personnal site. i found the information concerning your rear bumper. now my question to you is your bumper available for purcahse from the gentleman who made yours?

thanks

dan

 

[Expat]

lance,

could i do those tires without any modifications and still avoid rubbing?

You will need new wheels for 285's. I really don't believe 285's are possible without either new wheels, or some trimming in the fender liner if you continue to use stock wheels. You will need to trim the plastic triangles on the leading edge of the fender wells as an example. I am not sure whether you might have to remove your mud flaps if you go to 285's. I know my 275's touch the mud flaps ever so slightly in the rear under full compression.

Mark

 

[Expat]

What I'll be interested to see is what affect the bullbar and winch setup has on ride height.

Given that you have a few weeks before the bullbar goes on, this is a great test opportunity. Just before your truck goes in for the bullbar and winch, could you measure the height from level ground to the lower edge of the fender well (above the wheel). Then once the equipment is installed, re measure?

It would be a great way to establish the affect on ride height for others considering this addition.

Which coils did you instal in the front and rear? I know they are OME but which ones?

Cheers
Mark

 

[Good Times]

As Mark says, you'll need aftermarket 17x8 wheels to accomodate for the 285's. The stock wheel just doesn't cut out because of their wheel configuration.

As for mudflaps... those will have to go regardless at 285's. No need to keep em as they get in the way. Once those are out you'll be free and clear on the rubbing issue. Front is not an issue w/ the ARB Bumper.

As for the rear bumper. It was a joint effort and the likelihood is slim on reproduction. The biggest drawback like I said in the email is the requirement to cut your frame. This is a permanent modifcation that will make your vehicle unfit for resale. The other con is the fact that it took us a long long time. Since this was something we did on the side on the weekends it was a slow moving progress. Neither of us are shop workers so you can imagine the man hours it took for us to do anything

lance,

could i do those tires without any modifications and still avoid rubbing?

also, pleaase ignore my e-mail on your personnal site. i found the information concerning your rear bumper. now my question to you is your bumper available for purcahse from the gentleman who made yours?

thanks

dan

 

[Expat]

Front is not an issue w/ the ARB Bumper.

Heehee...after so long talking about it, its hard getting use to talking about fitment of larger tires without worrying about the dang plastic bits as we say goodbye to them with the bullbars coming out now. Hooray!

 

[Good Times]

Mark, once you get your SW bumper, you'll be styling too! And I know the first thing you'll do is say good bye to those 275's and upgrade to 285's I know it.... I know you'll do it even if $ is an issue... It'll happen no doubt about it! :bigok:

 

[Expat]

Mark, once you get your SW bumper, you'll be styling too! And I know the first thing you'll do is say good bye to those 275's and upgrade to 285's I know it.... I know you'll do it even if $ is an issue... It'll happen no doubt about it! :bigok:

LOL Lance. Scary, you know me too well! Unfortunately you don't know my finances. I doubt I can even afford the winch when the bullbar comes out. I've got this massive Green Card bill to pay over the next few months that's going to wipe me clean

We'll see...

 

[Good Times]

LOL Lance. Scary, you know me too well! Unfortunately you don't know my finances. I doubt I can even afford the winch when the bullbar comes out. I've got this massive Green Card bill to pay over the next few months that's going to wipe me clean

We'll see...

Like I said, nothing will stop ya!! muhahahahahaha :driving:

I'm thinking 285's before the end of the year!!

 

[Expat]

Shhhh...Total Chaos and 34" by July 07! Wink wink, nod nod.

 

[dsams]

mark and lance,

ya'll are having to much fun.

mark, the front coils i put on the 4runner were what buddy king from ARB reccomended knowing i was putting on the ARB bumper. ther were 2 set ups to chose from. i got the beefier front suspension b/c of the bumper. right now my truck is a wee bit nose high.

as for tires, i wqant the biggest size with no rubbing. i'll see about the 285's.

as for the bumper...does anyone make a bolt on product for the rear?

thanks ya'll.

dan

 

[Expat]

Yeah, good choice. I have the softer ones so I'm going to have to be a little more careful once the bullbar is on.

There's really nothing for the serious offroader 4th gen for the rear.

I have been playing around with foam tubing to see if I can get something half way nice looking, much like a slider. I can't see myself cutting into the frame like Lance because I haven't got the courage or skills for that.

Even some sort of metal slider under the rear that is welded to the towbar might work. Problem is you lose clearance height of at least an inch by anything i can think of.

Yeah this stuff is fun but its a sickness. I have a list so long of extra mods...

New suspension
New wheels and tires
Lockers
Gears
Skids
Expedition roof rack
Winch
Lights
Ham radio
Off-road camper trailer

yada yada yada :bash:

 

[Good Times]

as for the bumper...does anyone make a bolt on product for the rear?

Nope! but you can make one faster than having one made in production. I highly doubt we'll ever see anyone make a full production rear bumper. One off or small order of customs may be possible but the likelihood is slim to nill.

Some things to consider for the rear that I've encountered:
Since you're thinking bolt on, you're definitely limiting yourself greatly as the custom rear bumper will not increase your departure angle. One of the biggest reason why people get aftermarket bumpers are to increase the rear departure angle so that's out of the picture.

Second, that is a lot of sheet metal to replace the plastic. The current plastic bumper weighs in at a hefty several lbs. This means that replacing the plastic w/ any metal is going to be super heavy. Negative effects are the rear suspension. You're talking about adding a significant dry load instantly w/o any gear in the inside cabin so that's some other stuff to consider.

I could probably go into details on other stuff I learned after the first rear bumper but you get the gist of the picture.

Good luck!

 

[dsams]

thanks again. oh well, i guess i'll just beat the heck out of my current stock plastic bumper.

i've got a pair of sliders coming from richard stubbs. i wonder if he could do anything?

dan

 

[Expat]

I've taken some of this cotent to another thread because I was feeling like we were stealing your thread Dan. Sorry.

Rear skids linky

Cheers
Mark

 

[dsams]

mark,

nonsense. keep it all here. this is the natural progression of this sort of thing. no reason to apologize, mark. everythings cool.

 

[my034runner]

lance,

thank you for the info on the tires. when my truck goes back in for the bumper, I'll be doing the tires as well.

my03runner,

as for not letting 4 wheel parts do a valve cover...if you lived in Orlando, you would not have had a choice. these are the only guys in town who do this work. there is NO ONE else.

as for the price..

when i picked up my truck today after having the lockers and suspension installed, found out the initial quote was wrong! the gentleman who gave me the quote had entered in the wrong code for the locker install.

i just got back from running the truck and it feels and performs great off road.

Dan

So, what was your total damage $$



And, as far as 4 Wheel Parts, maybe you found the only one in the country that's semi professional.

 

[Expat]

Just more info in relation to lockers and diffs for the T4R...which I pulled from Toyota120forum. as written by Andries (Bulldog).

"Here is some more interesting info and something to keep in mind. As some of you know there has been a number of Tacos and FJC with rear lockers that have grenaded their rear diffs. Upon further investigation some guys in Europe and a number in Oz (without lockers) have also grenaded their rear diffs. What happens is that the actual ring and pinion strip the teeth off.

James was able to find a nice write up by Darren McCae in Oz, he runs ats4x4 and is well respected in modding Toyotas. Pretty much the "go-to guru" in Oz for Toyota 4x4 mods.

He describes the problem as follows:
"If you want to make the rear diff stronger, and stop the crownwheel flexing
away from the pinion, leaving the teeth unsupported, you need to fit an ARB
locker, which has a much stronger hemisphere, and no hole in the side of the
carrier to get the side gears in, and the diff needs to be set up with a
solid
pinion spacer, rather than the crushable type it comes with.

These mods won't prevent abuse breaking it, but they make the diff as strong
as
it can be.

And if you get the new crownwheel and pinion from Toyota under warranty, rather than a whole new diff, which can do the same thing, it will allow you to have the mods done to strengthen it."

So far it he has not seen any failures after doing this mod on the Prados in Oz, which means it is probably the way to do it to make the rear end last. This is actually funny as previous gens used to grenade the front, Toyota beefs it up and now the rear goes. Still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the failures though, so we shouldn't get into a panic mode (at least the solution is clear).

Also remember we have not seen any failures on the STOCK setup in the 4Rs in the US. Prados are heavier than the 4R and also the Oz guys tend to load them up more ( long expeditions), so the rear carries a lot more weight. However the 4R has a V8 with a 5spd auto, so the combination of the V8 and torq. converter and low 1st gear will put more torque on the rear than either the PRado, Taco or FJC. So I would recommend when you open the rear to make it as strong as possible.

Looking at Darren's recommendations, it seems the best way to go when regearing is to put the ARB in. Also to get the solid pinion spacer. I got some advice from the Nrocal 80 LC guys for an installer that seems to do this. The guy is based in Sacramento (Sean Eskilsen (owner) at River City Differentials 916-852-7109). He carries a good rep with the Cruiser guys, which is a good thing."


Dan,

If you are installing the ARB lockers - you may really want to consider this sage advice in relation to the pinion spacer vs crushable washer.
Has 4WP done this? If not you might want to discuss it with them. It seems like a very necessary part of the installation process.

Certainly in the past we have heard of a recent increase (heresay) of diff's breaking and this (info above) seems to reinforce it - the heresay that is.

Cheers
Mark

 

[Expat]

Here's some more, plus original information in relation to exploding diffs. "Houston..we have a problem..."

link....http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=104663