lift, skid plate, monroe shocks, 35's (1 Viewer)

Dusty · Dec 19, 2006

over thanksgiving I was able to give the cruiser a good beating in St George utah. For those looking for good slickrock type wheeling this is an excellent stop. There are also ome great dunes if you like that.

Me and my father, brothers, and unkle converged in St george to go wheeling over the weekend. I had my 96 cruiser with its new 4"slee/J lift, custom lower arms, skid, 12+" monroe shocks and 35 MTs, body armour, turbo, bumpers, sliders.

brothers brought:

1. jeep tj 4.oL w/ clayton long arms, crawler gears, d44/d30 with 30spline cromoly shafts, ox lox selectable lockers front and rear, full cage, bumpers, winch, 35's

2. suzuki sidekick w/ crawler gears, rear lunchbox locked, 33's, lots of bodywork

Dad brings
3. jeep tj short arm , 33's, lots of body armour, open diffs, winch

Gutsy unckle brings
4. modified yamaha rhino (this thing absolutely amazed everyone)

I was more than satisfied with the 80. The realy cool thing is that i drove my 80 from lemoore (fresno) cali to st george with the wife and 3 kids. I then beat her hard in utah and drove her home without incident. Both the tj's were trailered.

The long arm tj broke a front inner shaft at the splines (30 spline chromoly dana 30 warn shaft with lifetime warantee). to mybrothers credit he broke his axle on a scary crack the 80 wouldn't fit in.

my other brother's suzuki broke his rear axle (destroying his lunchbox) attempting a steep face I climbed only minutes before with the 80. He has successfully climbed the face with drama in the past but today was not his day.

I got high speed today so I will post pics of my lift build which is unique as I used cheap monroe shocks and and put together a real cool skid that others may wish to copy. here goes

Skim · Dec 19, 2006

Pics !!!!!!!

Dusty · Dec 19, 2006

the shocks

I used monroe shocks part # 32386 for both front and rear. they are the light duty f250 shocks and are 10" travel. the bottom bushing on this shock is too small for the rear lower landcruiser mount but I made the bushing bigger by heating a 5/8" bolt with a torch and passing it through the bushing. expect lots of flame and smoke. do this at your own risk. wear gloves, goggles, and coat. dont inhale. bath before going to church.

I used cheap post adapters at the upper rear of the monroe shock. They were only 3$ each and I think Nay or FJ ben orriginally posted them. anyway the shocks now have 12-14" of travel (I was in too much hurry to get a good measure-see pic). with a 2" bump stop extension in the rear the shocks have only about 1/2 inch left of compression when fully compressed on the ramp. when fully extended the spring unseats about a 1/2 inch. they did great on the trail and drive nice on the road. thay didn't dampen enough on the dunes. monroe makes the same 32368 shock in a "heavy duty" and I may try them (only 22$ each at pep boys)

note that I removed all the oe post bushings front and rear and placed them atop the post adapters. I did this to allow more flex but you could leave these oe post bushings off. if you are going to use the oe post bushings be sure you tack weld the post adapter to the 5/16 inch bolt that will go through the shock mounts front and rear. if you use the post bushings on the adapters and forget to weld the bolt to the adapter the shock will be too loose under flex.

note that I used no bump stop extension on the front.

also extended front sway bar 2"
extended rear sway 4"
purchased cheap front brake line extensions from napa. extended rear brake line/ebrake bracket 4"

Dusty · Dec 19, 2006

skid plate

baught a 1/2 sheet of 1/4. skid connects at both sides of frame to the 4 net certed holes toyota already has on frame. bolted some 2" strap to these holes to start build. the skid also bolts to the oe tranny crossmember via the 3 oe skid holes. I also drilled a hole through the DS of the skid and oe crossmember after the skid was all done. I put a 1/2 grade 8 bolt through this.

I used several bends in the skid for strength. For a template I just took a long piece of cardboard and bent it as It traveled front to back. Take the cardboard directly to the steel and grab your plasma cutter (or your dads). you cant easily fold 1/4 steel so along the bends cut through all but a few places so you can adjust the bend just right once you get the steel bolted to the 3 oe trany crossmember nutserts. with plate bolted to the crossmember you can fine tune the bends. Then the bended skid steel piece must then be tied into the strap that is already bolteed to the frame. this is easy. just make cardboard triangle templates to connect the skid to the strap on the frame. cut the triangle out and weld them in place. The skid is much easier to make than bumpers or sliders.

note that the skid tapers up at oil pan in front and up at gastank in back. it tapers down to acomidate the transfer case. I also made a ski for the oe exhaust that sits below the frame. the ski is made from a leafspring and this ski got used extensively on the trip.

note also that I made gussets along the front most extension of the skid. these go on both sides of oil pan (not into pan as this piece will likely fold under full weight of truck and you dont want to make whole in pan) note that front most of skid attaches to frame via 3/8 strap at the DS

note also that I did a cat turn and replaced the oe mufler with a low profile glasspack ($20 at pep boys)

Dusty · Dec 19, 2006

pics

skid

Dusty · Dec 20, 2006

pics

skid2

Dusty · Dec 20, 2006

skid

skid3

Dusty · Dec 20, 2006

skid

skids

Dusty · Dec 20, 2006

skidsss

Dusty · Dec 20, 2006

rear control arms

I thought for sure I would bend the rear lower arms so I quickly made some new ones. cut arms 4 inches from the bushes at bothe sides and slid these pieces into some 2" by 1/4" dom tube and slowly welded it up. do only max of 1/2 inch at a time and let it cool completely or you will burn the bushes. no roset welds or anything and I beat these arms hard and they are both well scraped up.

note the taper of the frame side of the arm. I wanted to be sure the arm would fit inside tha bracket. the axle side of the arm has the 2" dom going right up to the bushing

for a moment I fantasized about a "long arm" fzj