mcgaskins
SILVER Star
I might get some flack for this, and I haven't mentioned this because as most you know, I don't want to be the guy who is always talking things down, even though it seem to happen most of the time.
Long travel. My FJ had a true long traveled from end, 7" wider in the front, 13" of travel long travel.
My rear was my own concoction of cuting and welding to make 29" of rear end travel.
Not a sway bar to be found and damn could I fly over the desert.
Now hear is the kicker, a 200 series in completely stock form goes higher up an RTI ramp than my FJ. Wow right! I was blown away when I first sway it.
Now back to long travel, I know some of us have it, and yes it can be the right way to go for tire clearance reason. But some that I learned from not just having long travel, but running weeks on end in a cross country/overland type wheeling is that having your tire stick out past your body gets old, real damn quick. Also take into account that the wheel can't be still flush with the body, on the slightest turn, you will still through mud/clay all on the side of the truck.
Just imagine when you are living out in the trail for weeks, and having everything from the door handles to sliders and windows covered, or windows are down and you get hit with a big hunk of crap.
So I take the cost, the unnecessary mud Moab clay/east cost mud flinging, and look at the fact that a normal track width 200 already has a better articulation setup than a 15k suspension in a FJ/Tacoma/4Runner. And say why are people wasting their money?
I'm sorry, but having the front of a 200 the width of a tundra with a high quality shock isn't going to give any real differences over a stock track width with high quality shock 200. I can hit bumps off road just as fast as the tundra arm guy and stay just as smooth and controlled.
If you need to fit a bigger tire, okay, it's a better idea than wheel spacers.
But when did anyone look at a Tundra and say, "man their front end flexes so good."
Now if you want to remove KDSS (don't cause it's awesome) and put in a tundra 3" long travel, making a total of 9" wider front, and cutting the fenders to nothing to make it fit, then yea, now we are talking.
Sorry, old desert and rock buggy guy rant complete.
This is exactly why I'm happy with my OME suspension and Rock Warriors without spacers.