Sniv's Custom Long Travel Build
- Thread starter snivilous
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snivilous
Senior Member
They're all just ebay lights. The front is a 50" dual row, one of the generic 300W ones as I recall. The sides are 180W 30" single row, these are the best bars I've had so far, no condensation in them and they penetrate really well and are low profile--they by far beat out the Amazon LEDs I've run. And then the rear are just some little single row 6" ones that were like $25 for a pair, again ebay.
The 50" bar blows, the 6" ones blow, the 30" ones are boss and I would suggest those if you're gonna get some (assuming you get the same ones I have haha).
4Running Daily
New member
PM inbound.
snivilous
Senior Member
This was too good to not post. My sister usually drives my moms 4th gen around, so my folks had been looking for something to get her since she decided she didn't like the 40 series (that I'm now driving). Well today they bought her a 96 FZJ80 as a surprise :bigok:
$3800, 2" OME lift, and 33s
So my family now has five Toyotas. 2001 4Runner, 2005 4Runner, 2005 Tundra, 1977 FJ40, and a 1996 FZJ80!
My dad doesn't seem to have a project now that I'm driving the FJ40, so he seems to have taken to slowly fixing things on my 4Runner. So that's nice that when I come home this summer it'll at least be rolling around and a little sexier. And here's a picture of the FJ40 from yesterday when I was helping the guys work on the trucks.
Peace!
$3800, 2" OME lift, and 33s
So my family now has five Toyotas. 2001 4Runner, 2005 4Runner, 2005 Tundra, 1977 FJ40, and a 1996 FZJ80!My dad doesn't seem to have a project now that I'm driving the FJ40, so he seems to have taken to slowly fixing things on my 4Runner. So that's nice that when I come home this summer it'll at least be rolling around and a little sexier. And here's a picture of the FJ40 from yesterday when I was helping the guys work on the trucks.
Peace!
Asaspades93
New member
I may have to pay your dad a visit so we can go wheeling when you're back
snivilous
Senior Member
So I'm back in CO this week for spring break. I was debating working on the runner, but ultimately was too lazy to start anything since so much work is needed. One of my coilover shock shafts is bent, my LCA mounts are bent, my spindle needs to be remounted (and probably drill out and retap the steering knuckle bolts to a larger size), and a multitude of other issues (and of course I think my torque converter is going out, so at a minimum I need to drop the tranny again). Anyways, since it was nice out today I took my dad's DSLR and took some photos. I've been playing with some of the settings (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) versus the normal automatic settings and grabbed a few I liked.
Then some photos of the 80 series:
And finally some photos of the Fat Squad, snivilous and fatty
Another 6 weeks and I'll start tearing into the truck for the summer. At a minimum I need to do the necessary reinforcements on the suspension and "finish" it, eg bump stops and limit straps, etc. And then fix the torque converter. After that the plan is to tear out the rear suspension and get creative. Thanks for reading
Then some photos of the 80 series:
And finally some photos of the Fat Squad, snivilous and fatty
Another 6 weeks and I'll start tearing into the truck for the summer. At a minimum I need to do the necessary reinforcements on the suspension and "finish" it, eg bump stops and limit straps, etc. And then fix the torque converter. After that the plan is to tear out the rear suspension and get creative. Thanks for reading
snivilous
Senior Member
Anxious to work on the Runner. Been rolling a few ideas around in my head with what to do in the rear. I want to pull 20" of travel at least (full droop, not flex). No reason in specific except I know that's attainable and I want to get into the 20s with rear travel, especially if I can modify the front to pull over 14". I also don't want to go into the body, and I want it to be fairly simple.
Because I want "so much" travel in the rear, I obviously need to run some kind of suspension to give me a multiplier since the largest shocks you can get are 18" coilovers--which I'm also gonna stay with a linked rear, I hate the idea of leaf springs and their lack of adjustability. I also don't want to run the stock geometry for various reasons, the main being that it binds up way too easily (as proven by breaking both my upper links with an essentially stock setup).
I could run trailing arms (eg. run my shocks to my trailing arm and essentially create a cantilever to multiply my travel at the axle), but stuffing a shock I would certainly have to go into the body. I also thought about running a cantilevered trailing arm setup, but thinking about it I think that's not necessary and the only reason to do it would be to have two travel multipliers (the cantilever, then the trailing arm). So that has led me to think a basic cantilever is the best idea, that coupled PROBABLY with a normal triangulated 4-link.
I'm not too worried about fitting the 4-link, if the gas tank has to move then whatever but I don't really think it'll have to. I was thinking about running the upper links to the lowers, no idea what that's "technically" called but then I could just run my link brackets off the frame. Downside with that is I don't have redundancy (where as a full 4-link is completely redundant) and I don't like that, also I don't think it would flex very good but I'm not sure... I need to draw it up in CAD to figure that out. I was also thinking I could run the upper mounts to a structure around the gas tank, essentially have some massive skid plates on the underside that double as my link mounts but that wouldn't be fun to do maintenance with. Anyways, I'm not overly concerned with the link setup--one thing I just thought of (which is why I'm writing all of this down ) is I could run a normal 4-link super far out on the axle, run both links on each side to the frame and then run two secondary links that go from the middle of the axle to like halfway up the lower links. That way the lowers take the lateral load of the axle, while nothing gets in the way of the gas tank or anything and everything remains redundant...
Moving on, after reading a bit and looking at pictures: canitlever shock mounting, theory and design - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum It seems a cantilever will probably be pretty easy to fit where the spare tire goes. I'm thinking of doing two shocks side by side, a bypass and a coilover, and then have like heims or bushings or some kind of bearing attaching to the pivot point of the cantilever stucture since there won't just be a straight load path since obviously two shocks are valved differently and then one is spring loaded, so a wide base with some beefy sexy mounts instead of just a bolt running through the pivot. And I want a sway bar, after riding around in Cartzo's 4Runner the body roll is insane but it's so smooth and obviously I won't be able to run the stock setup. It would be cool if I could run something connecting the two cantilever structures and use that as a sway bar, I mean there's not really any point having two sets of links per side going to the axle... I don't know how I would disconnect it though, that might take some thinking (or maybe just have a sleeve that connects two steel rods coming out from the cantilever pivot and have the sleeve pinned to transfer torque). Then I'll probably just run the bump stops on the outside of the frame.
Anyways, nothing exciting but I wanted to write everything down and compile my thoughts. I'm not too worried about fabricating all of this, the links are super straight forward and I'll use 4-link calculator and then model it in solidworks and do long hand analysis to double check everything and the cantilever setup I'm not worried about either which is the most complicated part. All in all I think it'll be a lot easier than the double A-arms I designed, not to mention I'll have my dads shop. Now I just need to get home and get cracking...
EDIT: The 4-link with two extra links is kinda retarded, I could just run the lowers angled. So it'd be like an inverted triangulated 4-link. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work!
Because I want "so much" travel in the rear, I obviously need to run some kind of suspension to give me a multiplier since the largest shocks you can get are 18" coilovers--which I'm also gonna stay with a linked rear, I hate the idea of leaf springs and their lack of adjustability. I also don't want to run the stock geometry for various reasons, the main being that it binds up way too easily (as proven by breaking both my upper links with an essentially stock setup).
I could run trailing arms (eg. run my shocks to my trailing arm and essentially create a cantilever to multiply my travel at the axle), but stuffing a shock I would certainly have to go into the body. I also thought about running a cantilevered trailing arm setup, but thinking about it I think that's not necessary and the only reason to do it would be to have two travel multipliers (the cantilever, then the trailing arm). So that has led me to think a basic cantilever is the best idea, that coupled PROBABLY with a normal triangulated 4-link.
I'm not too worried about fitting the 4-link, if the gas tank has to move then whatever but I don't really think it'll have to. I was thinking about running the upper links to the lowers, no idea what that's "technically" called but then I could just run my link brackets off the frame. Downside with that is I don't have redundancy (where as a full 4-link is completely redundant) and I don't like that, also I don't think it would flex very good but I'm not sure... I need to draw it up in CAD to figure that out. I was also thinking I could run the upper mounts to a structure around the gas tank, essentially have some massive skid plates on the underside that double as my link mounts but that wouldn't be fun to do maintenance with. Anyways, I'm not overly concerned with the link setup--one thing I just thought of (which is why I'm writing all of this down
) is I could run a normal 4-link super far out on the axle, run both links on each side to the frame and then run two secondary links that go from the middle of the axle to like halfway up the lower links. That way the lowers take the lateral load of the axle, while nothing gets in the way of the gas tank or anything and everything remains redundant...Moving on, after reading a bit and looking at pictures: canitlever shock mounting, theory and design - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum It seems a cantilever will probably be pretty easy to fit where the spare tire goes. I'm thinking of doing two shocks side by side, a bypass and a coilover, and then have like heims or bushings or some kind of bearing attaching to the pivot point of the cantilever stucture since there won't just be a straight load path since obviously two shocks are valved differently and then one is spring loaded, so a wide base with some beefy sexy mounts instead of just a bolt running through the pivot. And I want a sway bar, after riding around in Cartzo's 4Runner the body roll is insane but it's so smooth and obviously I won't be able to run the stock setup. It would be cool if I could run something connecting the two cantilever structures and use that as a sway bar, I mean there's not really any point having two sets of links per side going to the axle... I don't know how I would disconnect it though, that might take some thinking (or maybe just have a sleeve that connects two steel rods coming out from the cantilever pivot and have the sleeve pinned to transfer torque). Then I'll probably just run the bump stops on the outside of the frame.
Anyways, nothing exciting but I wanted to write everything down and compile my thoughts. I'm not too worried about fabricating all of this, the links are super straight forward and I'll use 4-link calculator and then model it in solidworks and do long hand analysis to double check everything and the cantilever setup I'm not worried about either which is the most complicated part. All in all I think it'll be a lot easier than the double A-arms I designed, not to mention I'll have my dads shop. Now I just need to get home and get cracking...
EDIT: The 4-link with two extra links is kinda retarded, I could just run the lowers angled. So it'd be like an inverted triangulated 4-link. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work!
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TheArkMaster
New member
So much for a daily driver
I haven't been around much as of late but I know how you feel about beating the runner up. I was pushing mine well passed it's limits trying to keep up with my SFA buddies. I vote get a full time trail rig and daily the runner, or switch it around. Just have a full time daily. It's a relief to have. However, don't get to the point of not using the runner. Unfortunately, mine may be going up for sale soon in search of a better overland vehicle.
I haven't been around much as of late but I know how you feel about beating the runner up. I was pushing mine well passed it's limits trying to keep up with my SFA buddies. I vote get a full time trail rig and daily the runner, or switch it around. Just have a full time daily. It's a relief to have. However, don't get to the point of not using the runner. Unfortunately, mine may be going up for sale soon in search of a better overland vehicle.
snivilous
Senior Member
So much for a daily driver
I haven't been around much as of late but I know how you feel about beating the runner up. I was pushing mine well passed it's limits trying to keep up with my SFA buddies. I vote get a full time trail rig and daily the runner, or switch it around. Just have a full time daily. It's a relief to have. However, don't get to the point of not using the runner. Unfortunately, mine may be going up for sale soon in search of a better overland vehicle.
That's what I was thinking for awhile, and that may happen but not for another year or two. It's too much of an inconvenience as long as I'm going to school in Utah and going home every summer to have two vehicles. I just want the suspension in a nice state so I can step back for awhile and not worry that I'm pushing it past its limits. We'll see though... Are you thinking you would bump up to an 80 series or something instead of the Runner?
TheArkMaster
New member
Well I have my 85 pickup for offroad. That can go anywhere and beyond my runner can. If I sold the runner, I would either get a tacoma moderately built with a RTT to reduce drag and keep it on full time, or I would ditch the expedition scene and get either a wrx or a forester and join the slammed scene. We'll see though.
4-Ripcord
New member
Sniv,
Very impressive build, you are a very brave dude to do all of that do your DD. I am assuming you lived near campus and could afford to have your rig down for a while at a time.
I may have it missed it the first time around, but what is the lever ratio of the shock mount on the FR LCA? Did you design to keep stock lever ratio or perhaps some other dimension?
On a different topic, do what I should have done and get a cheap second vehicle. I recently picked up a '96 saturn for $1500 in amazing condition and insurance is a whopping $8 a month. Keep working on this truck, it has potential. Unless you have plans for a clean slate version 2.0 of course..
Also, in for videos. I want to see this tank in action. Time to get to work on the rear end suspension, I bet it gets unstable real quick on stuff the front can soak up.
Very impressive build, you are a very brave dude to do all of that do your DD. I am assuming you lived near campus and could afford to have your rig down for a while at a time.
I may have it missed it the first time around, but what is the lever ratio of the shock mount on the FR LCA? Did you design to keep stock lever ratio or perhaps some other dimension?
On a different topic, do what I should have done and get a cheap second vehicle. I recently picked up a '96 saturn for $1500 in amazing condition and insurance is a whopping $8 a month. Keep working on this truck, it has potential. Unless you have plans for a clean slate version 2.0 of course..
Also, in for videos. I want to see this tank in action. Time to get to work on the rear end suspension, I bet it gets unstable real quick on stuff the front can soak up.
snivilous
Senior Member
Thanks man! Yea, I long boarded everywhere and the bus was 2 blocks from my house so worked out really well. The shock/wheel ratio is somewhere around 0.6, stock I think is 0.5-0.6 but I didn't design it to maintain stock ratio. I wanted to run a dual rate spring setup on my shock, and also since I wanted to pull more than the 14" of travel that bolt on kits run it made sense to run a 10" coilover versus the typical 8" ones. The shock location is set to give me 16" of travel at the wheel but because my upper uniball maxes out sooner than I expected I'm only getting 14" right now.
I completely agree with you on getting a second vehicle, and I've played with that idea a lot but I think that would be more of a hassle than it's worth while being in school and living on campus again now. If I find a good deal over the summer I'll probably grab it though.
shootmymime
New member
Toby I'll sell u my bike for a grand
snivilous
Senior Member
Finally a bit of an update. Drove home last Thursday in the 40 series with my dad who happened to have a meeting in SLC during my finals so came up to help drive home. Love the 40 but not a big fan of the 60mph speed, or the lack of a radio, or the fact it leaked a lot when we hit this storm in Wyoming, or the fact it's wicked loud.... but otherwise it went fine and did it pretty fast all things considering!
Additionally, since my birthday is coming up my parents bought me a Nikon D3300 from Costco a few weeks ago that I now have. Super similar to my dad's D40 that I would use when I could when home, so hopefully I can start taking some sweet photos and overall upgrade the quality of this thread.
The 4Runner hasn't left its spot since the beginning of January. I haven't touched it yet since over the weekend I then drove 300 miles down to Alamosa with my girlfriend. On the plus side, there doesn't seem to be much rust, which is good considering I spent so many hours sand blasting and priming and painting the suspension. Oddly the drivers side seems to have a bit of rust on the UCA though that's the "better" of the two sides.
To refresh, the four "LBJ bolts" broke on my passenger side--probable cause I've determined is I hit a pot hole, my suspension drooped too far due to a lack of limit straps and the uniball maxed out which induced a moment (torque) on the spindle and caused the bolts to fail. No idea if that's true, they were the original bolts but it seems plausible especially because the bolts that were left jammed in the steering knuckle (what used to be the stock LBJ) were bent way over. Additionally, my drivers side shock shaft was bent from an unknown event--and had been that way for an unknown length of time.
So with that in mind, and being essentially the biggest issue, I bought a new shock shaft a few weeks ago that had arrived before I showed up. $40 for a 7/8" steel shaft for a 10" travel shock, not too bad. I also brought shims I had bought since the suspension was way too stiff before, it should be 15s on compression so I had bought 10s... in hindsight of riding in [MENTION=89531]Cartzo[/MENTION] 1st gen valved with 8s and using a ton of travel when not going very hard, and the fact mine weighs a lot more I think I should go with 12s. My rebound stack is 12s right now, so I think I might put the 12s on the compression side and put the 10s on the rebound to begin with. So I plan to tear both shocks down, fix the shaft, revalve both, and at some point I obviously need new springs but depending on when I get paid that might have to wait a bit. I will probably end up running a super low spring rate since I've been researching suspension frequency and it sounds like a good starting place is 1.35hz in the front which is like a 200lb rate, we'll see, I'll probably post the calcs I do and what the truck weighs in at to do the calcs before buying springs.
Anyways, plan is to start working on it this coming weekend or maybe a little this week. I'm planning on buying bump stops and limit straps with my first paycheck since I desperately need those, then have a ton to fix--LBJ bolts, new LCA uniball bolt, new stainless brake line, fix the rust, replace the CV, etc. And now, here are some pictures I took tonight of some of our Toyotas
Time to get cranking on the truck :boxing:
Additionally, since my birthday is coming up my parents bought me a Nikon D3300 from Costco a few weeks ago that I now have. Super similar to my dad's D40 that I would use when I could when home, so hopefully I can start taking some sweet photos and overall upgrade the quality of this thread.
The 4Runner hasn't left its spot since the beginning of January. I haven't touched it yet since over the weekend I then drove 300 miles down to Alamosa with my girlfriend. On the plus side, there doesn't seem to be much rust, which is good considering I spent so many hours sand blasting and priming and painting the suspension. Oddly the drivers side seems to have a bit of rust on the UCA though that's the "better" of the two sides.
To refresh, the four "LBJ bolts" broke on my passenger side--probable cause I've determined is I hit a pot hole, my suspension drooped too far due to a lack of limit straps and the uniball maxed out which induced a moment (torque) on the spindle and caused the bolts to fail. No idea if that's true, they were the original bolts but it seems plausible especially because the bolts that were left jammed in the steering knuckle (what used to be the stock LBJ) were bent way over. Additionally, my drivers side shock shaft was bent from an unknown event--and had been that way for an unknown length of time.
So with that in mind, and being essentially the biggest issue, I bought a new shock shaft a few weeks ago that had arrived before I showed up. $40 for a 7/8" steel shaft for a 10" travel shock, not too bad. I also brought shims I had bought since the suspension was way too stiff before, it should be 15s on compression so I had bought 10s... in hindsight of riding in [MENTION=89531]Cartzo[/MENTION] 1st gen valved with 8s and using a ton of travel when not going very hard, and the fact mine weighs a lot more I think I should go with 12s. My rebound stack is 12s right now, so I think I might put the 12s on the compression side and put the 10s on the rebound to begin with. So I plan to tear both shocks down, fix the shaft, revalve both, and at some point I obviously need new springs but depending on when I get paid that might have to wait a bit. I will probably end up running a super low spring rate since I've been researching suspension frequency and it sounds like a good starting place is 1.35hz in the front which is like a 200lb rate, we'll see, I'll probably post the calcs I do and what the truck weighs in at to do the calcs before buying springs.
Anyways, plan is to start working on it this coming weekend or maybe a little this week. I'm planning on buying bump stops and limit straps with my first paycheck since I desperately need those, then have a ton to fix--LBJ bolts, new LCA uniball bolt, new stainless brake line, fix the rust, replace the CV, etc. And now, here are some pictures I took tonight of some of our Toyotas
Time to get cranking on the truck :boxing:
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ColeTrain76 3OH3
New member
Out of everything you posted...the biggest question I have is about your trip. Why did you go to Alamosa? haha Spent freshman year down there and there isn't anything good about it. Did you go to the Dunes?
snivilous
Senior Member
Girlfriend's friend had a recital and play she was doing at Adams State. We drove down and just stayed Saturday night and on the way back went to whatever that waterfall is that's near there since neither of us had been to it, but we've been to the dunes before. I wasn't super impressed with Alamosa, this was the first time I had been down that I can remember. Small city that seemed to lack much of anything and isn't near anything as far as scenery really goes either, though we also just drove to the university and then drove back and didn't look around at all.
ColeTrain76 3OH3
New member
Okay so at least you had a valid reason! My friends are down there currently playing sports, and outside that I dont think they do much haha. Other than the bar I think Wally-world was the only thing open after 7. I think that your talking about Zapata falls, not a 100% positive though.
Are you back in Colorado for the summer? Also since you mentioned your birthday coming up, I have to ask when since mine is about a month out.
Are you back in Colorado for the summer? Also since you mentioned your birthday coming up, I have to ask when since mine is about a month out.
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