Friggin Idiot
Senior Member
Jan 2026 146,500 mi
It's been a while. But sadly my life has been a lot more boring the past few years. But since there's a major repair/upgrade in the works, here's a story.
Icon suspension felt like it was getting soft and the Toyo OC3s were cupped and wearing badly on the inside of the tires. I liked the ride so had Off-Road Addiction of OKC throw on a duplicate Icon set and swap out the leaking steering rack. I then added some Nitto Terra Grappler 3's in LT285 C Load. While this was definitely an improvement, there's still something not right with the suspension. I'm getting way too much sway and wandering into the ruts along with feeling like the back of the truck is trying to outrun the front when accelerating through corners. The 500-mile evaluation happened this week. Looks like the KDSS sway bar bushings are bad along with the rear LCA bushings. As the LCA were replaced with the original Icon install, I expected them to last longer.
I spent some time researching options from OEM to Total Chaos for LCA and there aren't a lot of options for KDSS 4Runners. I settled on the new dual adjustable (Camber/Caster) LCA set from SuperPro. I'm not keen on adding polyurethane bushings that may squeak later, but hopefully they'll hold up better as I'm moving back towards the rust belt in a few months. Special thanks to George in the Cali office at SuperPro for helping me with getting the dual adjustable version that's slated to arrive late March. I look forward to caster going closer to 4.0 deg, as the best now is only 2.6 deg. I was really interested in the Total Chaos LCA, but an extra $1500 to get them just doesn't seem worth it over the SuperPro.
At the shop's suggestion it's time for a trac/pan-hard bar upgrade as well since they can't do better than the 0.4 deg thrust angle from the rear axle. I'd long eyed the Sonoran High Articulation bar for KDSS, and Steve is working on putting one together for me over there.
But that's not all! I ordered a mess of OEM rubber bushings for the KDSS bars front & rear. I made sure to grab the larger 2018+ size and brackets to match, thanks to DrKDSS for that suggestion. From the DrKDSS site come the adjustable end links to help alleviate some of the bad angle that comes from 2+" lift on those sway bars. I debated greatly about the bigger angle adjustment with his front end sway bar angle adapters. But the reality is that $200 is a lot for a couple blocks of metal and some bolts. I expect the adjustable brackets will get me close enough. I also didn't like the idea of moving the sway bar forward the 1/2" those blocks do, giving up some leverage and adding forward/rear travel into the mix.
Next step is waiting for parts to arrive and trying not to beat on the 4Runner too much in the mean time least I develop irregular wear in the new treads too!
It's been a while. But sadly my life has been a lot more boring the past few years. But since there's a major repair/upgrade in the works, here's a story.
Icon suspension felt like it was getting soft and the Toyo OC3s were cupped and wearing badly on the inside of the tires. I liked the ride so had Off-Road Addiction of OKC throw on a duplicate Icon set and swap out the leaking steering rack. I then added some Nitto Terra Grappler 3's in LT285 C Load. While this was definitely an improvement, there's still something not right with the suspension. I'm getting way too much sway and wandering into the ruts along with feeling like the back of the truck is trying to outrun the front when accelerating through corners. The 500-mile evaluation happened this week. Looks like the KDSS sway bar bushings are bad along with the rear LCA bushings. As the LCA were replaced with the original Icon install, I expected them to last longer.
I spent some time researching options from OEM to Total Chaos for LCA and there aren't a lot of options for KDSS 4Runners. I settled on the new dual adjustable (Camber/Caster) LCA set from SuperPro. I'm not keen on adding polyurethane bushings that may squeak later, but hopefully they'll hold up better as I'm moving back towards the rust belt in a few months. Special thanks to George in the Cali office at SuperPro for helping me with getting the dual adjustable version that's slated to arrive late March. I look forward to caster going closer to 4.0 deg, as the best now is only 2.6 deg. I was really interested in the Total Chaos LCA, but an extra $1500 to get them just doesn't seem worth it over the SuperPro.
At the shop's suggestion it's time for a trac/pan-hard bar upgrade as well since they can't do better than the 0.4 deg thrust angle from the rear axle. I'd long eyed the Sonoran High Articulation bar for KDSS, and Steve is working on putting one together for me over there.
But that's not all! I ordered a mess of OEM rubber bushings for the KDSS bars front & rear. I made sure to grab the larger 2018+ size and brackets to match, thanks to DrKDSS for that suggestion. From the DrKDSS site come the adjustable end links to help alleviate some of the bad angle that comes from 2+" lift on those sway bars. I debated greatly about the bigger angle adjustment with his front end sway bar angle adapters. But the reality is that $200 is a lot for a couple blocks of metal and some bolts. I expect the adjustable brackets will get me close enough. I also didn't like the idea of moving the sway bar forward the 1/2" those blocks do, giving up some leverage and adding forward/rear travel into the mix.
Next step is waiting for parts to arrive and trying not to beat on the 4Runner too much in the mean time least I develop irregular wear in the new treads too!
Attachments
Last edited:
