New Sonoran Steel Product: KDSS High Articulation/Long Travel Trac/PanHard bar

[sschaefer3]

High Articulation KDSS Trac/PanHard Bar 2010+ 4Runner with KDSS - $395.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

In 2012 we bought a brand New Trail 4Runner with KDSS. While the bulk of or work at that time was with 3rd gen 4Runners (1996-2002), I knew this was one heck of a truck and spent years dreaming up parts to make it better. After installing our current offering and other manufactures suspension offering for these trucks, there was one thing that I felt everyone dropped the ball on.

The Trac/PanHard bar for the KDSS trucks. We all know that the Jeep Wrangler and the American full size pickups with straight front axles had Trac/PanHard bends in them to dodge around things for many years. These bars are all sand cast and difficult to manufacture on small scale, which the KDSS market it.

After working on this for literally years we found a solution. The original prototype was fabricated out of cut tube and zigzagged all over the place. It was incredibly time consuming to make and frankly looked ugly. But at that point we had a pattern that cleared everything. Full stuff with coils and shocks removed and full drop with shock removed. We now knew exactly how far the KDSS bar would let the suspension move, uninhibited bay the trac bar.

So finally how do we actually make this thing? Waterjet is how. Starting with a 3 foot by 3.5" of Cold Rolled Solid Steel Bar, the Waterjet carves this bar out of solid 1" thick cold rolled steel! The entire bar is a consistent 1" x 1" solid cold rolled steel. It is heavy. On the 4th gen 4Runner, Toyota used 1" round solid hot rolled round stock. So this is not a new idea with the size and material used in this application. The ends are custom polyurethane bushings made for us by Daystar in Phoenix. They have grease grooves and we have made several improvements to the mold over the last 8 years (2010-2018) as we have always made a straight tube Trac/PanHard bar for the 4th/5th Gen 4Runners and the FJC. The adjustable end is a huge 7/8"-16 grade 8 threaded rod into a tube adapter made by Ballistic Fab in Tucson, hollow end of the bar is 1.5" x 1.5" x .120 wall Cold Rolled Square Tube, finally the same bushing setup as the other end.

The bar will run rear shocks 1.5" longer extended than anything currently offered off the shelf for a 5th gen 4Runner. We are going to work on that with Radflo.

 

[borfoo3]

Interesting.. So how will this affect down travel on an extended shock setup? An extra 1.5"?

Also, would this in any way allow more load on the KDSS piston on hard articulation or down travel?

 

[SteveNJ]

Looks really close to the diff. Is it too close to still allow for rear diff armor?

 

[nils.walk]

So confuse I thought that it was the KDSS system itself that limited droop on the rears, i.e. not because something hits something else but because the pistons themselves reach maximum extension?

 

[sschaefer3]

Looks really close to the diff. Is it too close to still allow for rear diff armor?

Too close for diff armor.

 

[sschaefer3]

So confuse I thought that it was the KDSS system itself that limited droop on the rears, i.e. not because something hits something else but because the pistons themselves reach maximum extension?

Well now you can see a photo of KDSS at actual full droop.

 

[sschaefer3]

Interesting.. So how will this affect down travel on an extended shock setup? An extra 1.5"?

Yes an extra 1.5" over all the off the shelf aftermarket shocks, but most of those were being limited by hitting the bar. So they were not getting all of the extended travel to begin with.

Also, would this in any way allow more load on the KDSS piston on hard articulation or down travel?

No, because the static, non-moving link is the limiting factor. Thought about making a longer non-moving link, but then the KDSS would not work correctly as plunger would no longer apply the correct pressure. So this is as good as it gets.

 

[DesertCanyons]

New Track Bar design

...cleared everything. Full stuff with coils and shocks removed and full drop with shock removed. We now knew exactly how far the KDSS bar would let the suspension move, uninhibited bay the trac bar.

So finally how do we actually make this thing? Waterjet is how. Starting with a 3 foot by 3.5" of Cold Rolled Solid Steel Bar, the Waterjet carves this bar out of solid 1" thick cold rolled steel! The entire bar is a consistent 1" x 1" solid cold rolled steel. It is heavy. ... The adjustable end is a huge 7/8"-16 grade 8 threaded rod into a tube adapter made by Ballistic Fab in Tucson, hollow end of the bar is 1.5" x 1.5" x .120 wall Cold Rolled Square Tube, finally the same bushing setup as the other end.

The bar will run rear shocks 1.5" longer extended than anything currently offered off the shelf for a 5th gen 4Runner. We are going to work on that with Radflo.

This sounds good. I'd be interested in having one of these on my 2015 T4R with KDSS and a tubular ICON Stage 7 lift. This bar looks like the answer to what I wanted in a track bar.

When I installed the ICON track bar with the bend it was hard to tell from the instructions what they meant by "... install with the bend up...". I still don't know if I got it right. And it's a bear to get the length right. ICON says to match the OEM track bar in length as a starting point. The adjustment nut is next to the KDSS piston. It's very hard to access, adjust and retighten with the bar in place.

And when I got done I felt it was going to hit on full extension with the ICON extended travel 2.5" shocks. I asked ICON about this and they said they'd put it through cycles with their track bar and felt confident it would clear. They did it on a lift which I could not test working on my garage floor with jack stands and a floor jack and cylinder jacks. It was just to hard for me to test it.

So are you offering this bar for sale? What's the cost? Do you need a Beta tester? I'm game for either option. And I'm just curious, what do you do with all the 1" thick scrap steel you cut away?

 

[sschaefer3]

So are you offering this bar for sale? What's the cost? Do you need a Beta tester? I'm game for either option. And I'm just curious, what do you do with all the 1" thick scrap steel you cut away?

Since I have been working on this for 2 years we have already thoroughly tested it. It is for sale. The price is $395.00 Unfortunately all the extra steel goes to the scrap yard. It does have a huge amount of waste.

High Articulation KDSS Trac/PanHard Bar 2010+ 4Runner with KDSS - $395.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

Icon's bar with the bend is designed to make a KDSS truck work with the off the shelf shocks they offer for the non-kdss trucks. That is actually not all that hard to do. But the difference with this bar is it clears up to max droop. Not just to an existing shocks extended length. A lot of things start going on in the last 1.5 inches. 2 very different products. One is not better than the other, they are different. Different end goals. One to make a production shock clear, the other take it to the absolute end, no shocks installed.

 

[The Waco Kid]

opcorn:

I'll be watching this closely.

I have some lift updates planned in the near future.

 

[baldrik78]

It's probably not feasible, but it would be neat to see a side-by-side comparison of the original setup compared to the pics above.

 

[sschaefer3]

It's probably not feasible, but it would be neat to see a side-by-side comparison of the original setup compared to the pics above.

Well anyone can put the rear of their KDSS truck up on 2 jack stands and get a shot of full hang. It's going to be 1.5" higher if not more. Because most bars hit well before the shocks fully extend. First hit is from the static non-moving link.

Also full disclosure, I have our long travel links on this truck as well, with the rear mounts off set downward, so stock links may also limit the drop due to the tube hitting the rear axle tube. But probably not. With stock links.

 

[sactown]

Also full disclosure, I have our long travel links on this truck as well, with the rear mounts off set downward...

Could you post a link to that product as well? Thanks.

 

[sschaefer3]

Could you post a link to that product as well? Thanks.

Sure:

2003-2018 Toyota 4Runner Extreme Duty Rear Lower Links - Rubber - $375.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

These have factory bushings and they also come with very soft poly bushings. The tube ends were actually machined at Mesa Custom Machine to the exact specs of the factory end tube from Japan. So you can replace the bushings with anything that fits a stock link. The poly bushings are from Europe, Made by Strongflex.

2003-2018 Toyota 4Runner Extreme Duty Rear Lower Links - Poly - $375.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

I need to get a better picture of the poly. I know.

 

[sschaefer3]

Radflo is building me a set of increased extended travel rear shocks, the compressed length is staying the same so no loss in up travel and down travel gained.

I will follow up with results after testing. The key to this KDSS is to use every bit that is available, up and down.

Steve

 

[sschaefer3]

I have the Radflo custom length shocks. They are 1 1/4" longer extended than the Bilstein 5100 and the Old Man Emu 5th gen rear shock. The plunger can pull out 1.5" more than the off the shelf shocks allow so there is still 1/4" not extended from the plunger. The static side bottom out at 3/4" longer than the off the shelf shocks. These custom Radflo shocks also retain the exact same compressed length as the off the shelf shocks so you do not loose any up travel what so ever.

Installing tomorrow.

 

[honda250xtitan]

tempe huh........bueno

 

[sschaefer3]

Shocks came out perfect. Exact same up travel as stock, so no loss there. 1 1/8" longer extended than a Bilstein 5100 (33-187174) which is also the perfect amount of extra extension. Non-moving passenger side mount is maxed out, and the drive side plunger still has 3/8" before it pulls all the way out. So there is no way that will even get close to max extension. I would say we nailed it with all this stuff. I have been testing the new shocks for 3 weeks now and even though they are 2.5's they ride extremely well on a truck without any extra weight on the back. So I would say without a doubt we have max KDSS articulation. Doing a run to the boarder with the AZFJ people in early August for additional trail time.

 

[Asugm13]

Sweet!

Shocks came out perfect. Exact same up travel as stock, so no loss there. 1 1/8" longer extended than a Bilstein 5100 (33-187174) which is also the perfect amount of extra extension. Non-moving passenger side mount is maxed out, and the drive side plunger still has 3/8" before it pulls all the way out. So there is no way that will even get close to max extension. I would say we nailed it with all this stuff. I have been testing the new shocks for 3 weeks now and even though they are 2.5's they ride extremely well on a truck without any extra weight on the back. So I would say without a doubt we have max KDSS articulation. Doing a run to the boarder with the AZFJ people in early August for additional trail time.

Looks awesome, need to get some action shots!

 

[sschaefer3]

Looks awesome, need to get some action shots!

Working on that. Got a from from Tucson to the Mexican Boarder 1st weekend of Aug.