Rear long Travel

[Broker]

Thats the one. This guy is local to me too. ill have to talk to him.

I missed this thread some how but I'm pulling around 12" of travel on the rear with stock length links. It works but the rear starts to swing pretty crazy because of the panhard bar. I have my axle bumped against the frame and have limit straps to stop down travel. I could pull more down travel if I had longer shocks but I wouldn't want to go much further.

My big limit is that I can only fit a 2" shock where I have them and they heat up really fast and fade. I've heated them to the point they can't be touched and the fronts are still cold.

Thats not my 4th gen but i have a 3rd gen and I'm in Camarillo as well if you want to stop by some day and check out how I've got it setup.

 

[TheeMikeB]

I didn't see any mention of interference with the drive shaft and gas tank. Up and down fine but when it twists you get drive shaft interference so plan for either relocation of gas tank or replace with something different.

 

[Broker]

I didn't see any mention of interference with the drive shaft and gas tank. Up and down fine but when it twists you get drive shaft interference so plan for either relocation of gas tank or replace with something different.

That only time I have ever hit the gas tank with the driveshaft is when the driveshaft sheared off at the 3rd member. I'm not running a gas tank skid so that probably helps a lot. I also have an adjustable panhard so I can move it side to side to keep if off as best as I can, but it has never been an issue for me.

 

[twitchee2]

i think the way its designed, the only time you might have an issue is at full stuff on the drivers side. If i do go leafs this shouldn't become an issue.

 

[MaverickTRD]

A lot of discussion on cantilever set ups...They are bad ass for sure, but the are very cost prohibitive! I think that's why many just go with leafs. But canti looks clean!

 

[JWaldz]

Resurfacing this


Interested in knowing what a good length of travel is between mid and long travel.. Is 12" realistic with the stock arms? How much is too much? I know some of you run 9" travel shocks.

 

[Broker]

Resurfacing this


Interested in knowing what a good length of travel is between mid and long travel.. Is 12" realistic with the stock arms? How much is too much? I know some of you run 9" travel shocks.

I was running 11" shocks, but 12" ones would of worked too on my setup. I just had 11" shocks already from my truck so I just used those. The biggest problem I had with it was the panhard bar made the axle swing to much for me to feel safe in the vehicle when using the full travel at decent speeds across the desert. As long as I was crawling it wasn't an issue. I probably could of just lowered the mount point on the frame, but I wanted more travel out back anyway.

 

[AssBurns]

I wouldn't say I have long travel by any means. I would say that long travel is 14"+. I'm running outboard 12" Bilstein 7100's and LC80 8.5 wraps in the rear. Using stock bump stops without any extensions I'm able to pull 12" of vertical travel without any issues with the stock links besides the bushings wearing out fast. Planning to build new links soon to fix this issue. The side to side movement kinda sucks because of the panhard but isn't a huge issue.. I'm guessing the stock links can maybe handle up to 14" of travel but that would be pushing it for sure.

 

[Sean K.]

I would like to try and avoid re engineering all of the geometry of the rear end. In my eyes it doesn't matter how you hold the weight up so that part will come in time, but the geometry of the links is very important. If it is possible i would rather leave all of that there, that is why I want to see how far it can be pushed.

If it is not realistic or feasible I will go a different route, but I just always curious how far it can go.

**EDIT*** OOops....didn't realize how old this post was. *******

It's neither realistic nor feasible to use the factory short arm set up to achieve any real long travel suspension.

As for your question: How much will the stock link arrangement "handle"? What do you mean by handle, exactly? If you discount shocks and springs (which are what's limiting droop travel now)....it will drop all the way until you break a ujoint in the rear driveline. Toyota yokes and ujoints will go to 41 degrees (non-double cardan)....but that doesn't mean the travel would be at all usable or desirable since the angles on the links would be so severe as to send your Anti-Squat numbers through the roof.

If you really want to know how far it will drop out....disconnect the rear shocks and sway bar and jack up the vehicle, put it on tall stands and then drop the rear axle with the trans in neutral until the ujoint on the rear driveshaft binds.....I'm betting the axle will have walked itself forward a fair amount and will illustrate the problem; not to mention the side to side swing from the panhard. Watch your brake lines, etc and make sure you don't pull one out when dropping the axle that far. ***EDIT2*** Also watch your slip joint on the rear driveline....it may pull apart. Typical Toyota shafts only have about 4.5" of slip travel. ***

In short, for long travel high speed desert running.....you probably want trailing arms and bypasses with coilovers....and they are going to have to go through your inner fenderwell in the rear to get them long enough to really give you appreciable, "long travel" numbers....unless you raise the vehicle CoG so high that you can stuff them under uncut fenderwells.....but then it won't perform b/c it sits too high to be stable in a high speed turn.

Kind of a catch-22.

 

[Trip_84]

what exactly does long travel mean? toytec's site has "Total Chaos 3.5" Long Travel Kit". what exactly does the "long travel" part mean?

 

[JayRolla]

what exactly does long travel mean? toytec's site has "Total Chaos 3.5" Long Travel Kit". what exactly does the "long travel" part mean?

They extend the wheel base and travel utilizing longer control arms and longer tundra CVs I believe.

 

[Trip_84]

They extend the wheel base and travel utilizing longer control arms and longer tundra CVs I believe.

oh ok cool thanks. so i dont need to worry about this i guess haha