Featured 100: Slee Off-Road - 1998 UZJ105 - Solid Axle 100 Series

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 12:35 PM

Slee Off-Road Solid Axle 100 Series 1998 UZJ105

- AKA BlueBerry
Close to 200 hours of labor, a shop full of parts and 7 days of brutal testing later and we made one of the first UZJ105's

LINK TO COMPLETE GALLERY.

Specifications:

SAS with Diamond housing using 80 Series Land Cruiser 9.5" rear diff and 80 series front knuckles.  Custom chromeoly axle shafts and Newfield Heavy duty birfields.
Marks 3:1 low range gears in transfer case.
5.29 gears with ARB lockers front and rear.
Slee Off-Road 6" lift components as needed.
32 Spline rear axle shafts were converted to 6 on 5.5" lug pattern.
Hi-steer using Slee Off-Road arms and hydraulic assist steering Including a PSC hi-pressure/volume pump and ram.
Prototype front bumper - Warn M12000 winch with 3/8" MasterPullrope.  Wired with interior winch controls.
Slee sliders and modified rear bumper.
Enlarged front and rear wheel wells to accommodate 39" tires.
Interior cage that fits behind the dash.
Custom belly pan.
African Outback touring drawer in the rear.
Heavy duty rear control arms.
Double Cardan front shaft.
Adjustable front and rear panhards.
Two new Yellow top Optima batteries connected in parallel. No management system, but there is an interior fuse box and outlets in the rear that is always hot (for a fridge).

Since we did not get the 100 Series Land Cruiser with a solid axle, we decided to do a solid axle swap on a 100 Series US Spec Land Cruiser. The search for a suitable donor took some time, but we eventually found one. A customer of ours had a 1998 that he drove into a ditch and tipped on it's side. The two side doors were damaged as was the front IFS parts. We bought the truck and had it shipped to CO.

This is what it looked like when we rolled it into the shop.

Took a good deal of time to cut all the IFS parts off. We initially thought we could save the motor mounts but after cuting all the cross members off, we decided to remove them as well.

This is the view of the bottom of the truck after all the parts were removed.

The new motor mounts were attatched to reinforcing plates welded to the inside frame-rail.

The frame rails were cleaned up and plates attached to the outside. This was done to have a cleaner area to work with as

well as strengthen the frame rails.

A fabricated Diamond Axle housing was ordered from <a href="http://www.diamondaxle.com/index.htm">Diamond Axles</a>. This housing uses the rear 9.5" 80 Series Land Cruiser diff, with stock 80 balls and knuckles. The axle is 5" wider than a stock 80 series front axle. We choose this axle for it's strength and easy of installing. We did not have to spend hours cleaning a junkyard axle. The width was set up to match the rear axle housing.

We also modified the rear axle shafts to a 6 on 5.5" bolt pattern to allow us to run matching wheels front and rear. The rear suspension was modified using adjustable upper control arms, relocated bottom shock mounts and heavy duty lower links.

The choosen springs lifted the vehicle about 7"over stock.

The suspension was to be similar to the radius arm setup found on 80 Series Land Cruisers. We are aware that this is not the best option for ultimate flex, but it does have a lot of good characteristics. This vehicle was a test to see what is involved with the swap, the drive train requirements and if the proposed front axle would be a good candidate. We did not set out to build a rock crawling articulating monster but an aggressive, driveable, expedition vehicle. We felt that the proven design, stability, and road manners of the 80 series setup would eliminate at least some of the uncertainties of the build.

It also meant we could use a lot of stock parts that we already had in stock or manufactured. We sourced stock coil and shock buckets from Toyota and fitted them to the frame.

jgray · 12-10-07, 12:37 PM

WOW... That thing is sweet!!!

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 12:37 PM

Joe Risavi, our lead technition (both Toyota and Lexus Master Tech) performed the majority of the work on the truck. Joe has lots of SAS swap experience as he was one of the first to complete a SAS swap on a Tacoma pickup. After fighting with Dana 44's etc etc, he finally used an 80 series front axle on his truck. He certainly had a lot of experience and if we wanted, we could have made it a flexing slinky. Here he is admiring his work.

Here is Joe's Tacoma in action at the Chili Challenge.

The front suspension was mocked up and tire position and clearances for the 39" Kralwers were verified. At this point ride height was determined.

After the ride height and axle location was determined, the shock and spring mounts were added to the axle tubes. We also made new brackets for the control arms to mounts.

The axle was then hung on the vehicle using the control arms and shocks to locate the axle. Next step was the steering.

We decided that we would use a 80 series steering box mounted to the frame. We used a magnetic drill press to drill the holes in the side of the frame. The holes were sleeved for additional strength. The sleeves were tig welded in place.

After the steering box was mounted, it was connected to the steering wheel using a combination of 80 Series and 100 Series steering shaft parts. The drag link and tie rod were added and connected to the axle using Slee Hi-Steer Arms for the 80 series knuckles.

Many hours later we had the truck sitting on it's wheels. A 80 Series Panhard rod was installed with custom brackets. The panhard rod angle and drag link angle was set parallel to each other. The panhard rod mount was supported with a cross brace to the PS frame rail.

Once everything was in place, it was time to for some more clearance testing.

The truck was flexed up using a forklift. Using the forklift is not the same as trail time, but it allows for controlled suspension cycling to prevent a bracket punching the oil pan or some other disaster. Bump stop heights were determined and installed as well.

Once we were happy with the suspension install and completed some test drives, it was off to the paint shop.

After getting it back from paint, the custom front and rear bumpers were installed. The front bumper is a prototype for a production piece we are working on. It houses a Warn M12k winch with Masterpull Synthetic Line.

Once we were happy with the truck, Joe and TJ Briscoe (www.homegrowninc.us) set about building a full roll cage. We decided to gut the truck and install a cage that mouted behind the dash. The complete dash was removed. The focus of the cage was to prevent the A pillars from collapsing in a slow roll over. Every Land Cruiser we have seen rolled showed the A Pillars collapsing. The cage was tied into the main cross brace located behind the dash. It was not feasible to run the front legs to the floor as all the electronics are located in the kick panel areas.

This cage was not meant for a Baja 1000 race, but to protect in low spread roll-overs. TJ and Joe did an awesome job in getting this shoe-horned in. Ben would be my co-driver on the Ultimate Adventure and he is 6 foot something, so we had to make sure we had plenty of head clearance. The cage was also extended to cover the back row seats.

The trucks maiden voyage was Moab and then the Ultimate Adventure 2007. It did pretty well, but if the boss did not drive like a jack-ass, we would not have broken so many parts. However it was all done in the name of research.

This was day 5 of the UA 2007. Somewhere in Texas. Nothing like tearing down your complete truck in a day to fix broken ring gears and axles. Thanks again To Brutal Off-Road for the use of their shop.

LINK TO COMPLETE GALLERY.

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 12:38 PM

Placeholder for comments.

e9999 · 12-10-07, 12:42 PM

Very nice!
Super job!
and up in the forefront of modding, as usual...!

spressomon · 12-10-07, 12:49 PM

Nice write up and photos Christo! Cool you, Joe et al are capable to pull something like this off and still have the rig handle acceptably on-road. Joe deserves a raise

.

So...how IS that hundy front bumper project coming along?

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 12:54 PM

RE: Front bummper
The prototype of the redesigned center piece is here for us to test ft on a truck. Will happen this week.

uzj100 · 12-10-07, 12:56 PM

Very NIce!

Trunk Monkey · 12-10-07, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleeoffroad

RE: Front bummper
The prototype of the redesigned center piece is here for us to test ft on a truck. Will happen this week.

Need a test truck?

Awesome work Christo, nice to see that the 100's will get some of your love too.

hks3sgte · 12-10-07, 01:07 PM

Thanks for the write-up!

cc93cruiser · 12-10-07, 01:14 PM

WOW

, nothing less would be expected of you guys...!

Travis351 · 12-10-07, 01:24 PM

Now we're talking! I'd love to see the look on the service manager's face if you pulled that into a regular dealership

. I have yet to find the magazine with your feature, but I'll keep looking. Keep up the good work guys!

spressomon · 12-10-07, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleeoffroad

RE: Front bummper
The prototype of the redesigned center piece is here for us to test ft on a truck. Will happen this week.

X2 TrunkMonkey...ready, willing & able. And if I really like it you wouldn't have to take it back

.

TXLX470 · 12-10-07, 04:18 PM

Nice job!!!!....Any idea about the pricing of the new front bumper ???
By the way if you were to sell this today what price tag would you put on it...just curious

)))

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 04:33 PM

No idea on pricing for the bumper. The truck is $25500 with new Procomp Xtreme All-Terrains on stock 80 series wheels, or $26k with new BFG MT KM2's on 17" rock crawler black steel wheels.

bull · 12-10-07, 04:37 PM

what kind of wheels?

TXLX470 · 12-10-07, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleeoffroad

No idea on pricing for the bumper. The truck is $25500 with new Procomp Xtreme All-Terrains on stock 80 series wheels, or $26k with new BFG MT KM2's on 17" rock crawler black steel wheels.

Seriously?? Will it justify all that labour, parts and trouble??

r3run33 · 12-10-07, 04:56 PM

great truck slle dont forget you have several customers interested in that front bumper when you get it done. Also would you pair it up with the winch when selling it; gives you a mark up if you have friends at warn

hey as for the roll bar i have only seen a few rolled 100's obviously you have seen more; the ones i have seen only a small portion of the a pillar collapsed; much more on the back end (the new 200 has thicker back section i think for this reason). As you stated in slow roll overs do you think its a weight issue of the collapse and not the actual force from the impact?????

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bull

what kind of wheels?

What is on the pictures? Those are DOT approved Rock Monster Double beadlocks by Hutchinson.

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXLX470

Seriously?? Will it justify all that labour, parts and trouble??

No, but we want to build another one. Right now I have way to many trucks and need to get rid of some.

pint · 12-10-07, 06:29 PM

That thing is SWEEEEEEEET! Somebody buy a few of Christo's trucks so he can build another one!

LandCruiserPhil · 12-10-07, 06:30 PM

Nice job for a 1st time SAS 100 build.

What will you change on the new build?

How would you rate the trucks on road drivability?

How much caster did you end up with?

sleeoffroad · 12-10-07, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LandCruiserPhil

Nice job for a 1st time SAS 100 build.
What will you change on the new build?

This truck was done to run the UA and be a hardcore wheeling truck. The body work was done so the truck looks good from 20ft. I would like to build a similar truck, but on 37's with a turbo. I think it would be a really nice expedition / hard wheeling truck. This one is pretty big.

We did this one to see what is involved. Now I want to build a show truck for the shop.

Quote:

How would you rate the trucks on road drivability?

It drives better than any lifted truck we have done with 6" plus lift. The steering linkages came out very flat so there is no bump steer. We drove it for 1000 miles on the road on UA with no issues. Also have been to Moab and back. The power is much bettern than a 1FZFE and it will cruise at 75/80 mph.

Quote:

How much caster did you end up with?

We never measured it when it was done. During the build, we set it up to about 4 degrees. That is one of the advantages of working with the fabricated housing. We set the pinion angle to be perfect for a double cardan shaft, then we rotated the balls until we got the caster we wanted. We did take it to have the caster measured during the build and it was close to 4 degrees.

Real · 12-10-07, 09:10 PM

Nice truck, Christo! Thanks for the build pics.

What did you modify on the rear bumper? Shorten the wings to clear the larger wheel wells?

Looking forward to the production version of that front bumper.

1loudLX · 12-11-07, 06:02 AM

YEAHHHHH BAYBEEE!!!! Nice to see these pictures!! Thanks Slee

1loudLX · 12-11-07, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pint

That thing is SWEEEEEEEET! Somebody buy a few of Christo's trucks so he can build another one!

Just read this now...uhm, ive been thinking i could solve my power problems with christos turbo truck.....just cant convince the woman into letting me sell the LX and get the LC.