200 Series Lift using Tundra front IFS and Icon shocks

[TexAZ]

I sold my 07' Tundra when I moved up to my new to me 08' Salsa Red Landcruiser.
Pouring through the 200 series forums on mud, I came across the thread by Brian Jowett about building his truck with Tundra components. So, I stripped the lift off the Tundra before selling it and started squirrelling away parts for my Cruiser build.

To save money, I bought parts off Ebay and Craigslist. Worked out well for the most part. Definately caused some issues that will be highlighted during the build description.

What did it cost?
Icon coilovers craigslist @ 675
SPC UCA off Tundra CL'ed @ 375
07' Tundra LCA off ebay 165 for the pair
13' Tundra Axles off ebay 218 for the pair
15' Tundra Tie rod ends, ebay, 70
10 mm strut spacers 80$
OME 2722 springs from SLEE 220ish
ICON rear shocks from local shop 711
Diff drop kit 95 from AMIR (waiting on delivery)
Alignment 75$ at local shop
Still need Stainless braided brake lines. noticed mine are cracking....180~ 200 for all lines.
Duiser offroad sells an extended lenght kit, but I can't get hold of them. may try to piece one together and have a local shop make the extended lines for the front.

approximately 2700$

Result: +3" wider and +4" lift up front, +2" in rear
Ride quality after day 1
PRICELESS

 

[Tripledave]

That looks killer man. Nice to see another Salsa Red. Post some shots from the front and/or angled from the front so we can see the track width.




Sent from my extremely unreliable mobile device using IH8MUD Forum

 

[MScruiser]

With the Increase in width, are you getting any rubbing at full compression?

 

[TexAZ]

On the original thread, many questioned the durability/strenght of the Tundra hardware vs. Cruiser.
Here is a picture of each component side by side.

I have a picture of each individual component, if you want to see anything specific please ask, but to keep this short, I won't post all of them now.

The Tundra stuff is just as beefy as the Cruiser hardware, just a little bigger.

I started by soaking all the bolts, bushings, fittings with pentrating oil the night before. (Thanks to MsCruiser for that reminder in his thread)
I did the lift on the Tundra, so I kinda had an idea of what I was getting into with this....Kinda...
I loosened the LCA bolts at the frame and disconnected the sway bar link allowing them to drop out of the way and pulled the stock shocks/springs out.
Then I replaced the stock UCAs with the SPC arms. The bolts were surprisingly easy to get to compared to the Tundra. Thank you Toyota!!!

With the UCAs in place, I could hang the steering knuckles from them and disconnect the lower arms. This allowed for the knuckles to swing out of the way when pulling the axles out of the hub.
Getting the axles out of the driver side hub was a royal PITA...passenger side, eh' no problem.

once the axles were in, i put on the lower arms....thats when the fun started....

 

[TexAZ]

The pocket on the LCA where the swaybar linkage goes in, gets compressed when you torque on the mounting bolt. opening that back up enough was a bear. NOTE to anyone thinking about this swap...invest in a "porta-power" tool. It will be invaluable during this process.

to get the linkage to line up took a 4' prybar with cheater, small pry bar C-clamp and 3/8 drive extension all working in unison...

Once the sway bar linkages were in, I swapped the Tie rod ends and it began to come together.

 

[TexAZ]

After fighting the sway bar ends and getting the coilovers inplace, the rear was relatively easy.

The Icon instructions were helpfull, but comical after many hours of wrenching, "the upper shock bolt may be difficult to get to"

Ya' think.
I cheated and used a 2' pipe wrench on the old shock body and turned it against the wrench on the upper nut...much easier way to remove the old shocks....since they were getting tossed, didn't care about damaging the body.

Finally got it done and drove to the alignment shop 3 miles away.

Poor tires were howling like a 70's car chase the whole way. didn't go over 20 mph. Tie rods were a weeee bit off.
I think aligment tech said over 5 degrees of toe in.....
They did the aligment in accordance with nubmers i gave them from Tundra forums recommendations for lifted tundras.
It came out great.

I'll get more pics tonight as i dial in the height of the front. it started with a 1/4" lean to the right. Loving the ability to adjust the coilovers.

The ride is firmer than the stock springs/shocks with 142K on them, but just as smooth. body roll is a little more pronounced, but still controlled.

 

[TexAZ]

I still need to get the extended brake lines. they have enough play for day to day travels, but it gets close on full droop with the wheels straight ahead.
No baja for me just yet....
I'll get more pics tonight, we got hit with an insane monsoon storm last night. Just about every Palo Verde tree in the neighborhood is missing limbs this morning.

Oh, yea...the problem with using used parts. after a few miles of driving, noticed grease all over LCA on drivers side. the axle boot at the diff is leaking......

new boot and diff drop should help it out.

 

[TexAZ]

MsCruiser, haven't seen any yet. will try to stuff the wheel and go full lock to lock. shouldnt be any issues now as i'm only running 285/70 tires.

I'm hoping to be able to clear 285/75s without major plastic surgery....

 

[TexAZ]

Did I mention I'm really diggin' the Icons.

 

[Willy beamin]

wow dude - you are balls deep in custom land. - Congrats on getting your way through all of that and being able to enjoy it.
KUDOS to you sir!

 

[adrenalinefjz80]

Interested in alignment specs and of course more pics

 

[TexAZ]

adrenaline: When I had my tundra I looked into keeping the tires from getting torn up due to caster/camber issues. Saw way too many lifted IFS trucks looking / '''' \ and having burned through tires @ 20k miles. From Tundratalk.net, user socal57chevy offered a good thread on alignment specs and local shops experienced in lifted trucks. this is lifted from that thread.

"Remember...The numbers I'm posting are recommendations only, based on my alignment experience in general. I am not the "be all, end all" of alignments. Every vehicle does not react the same and sometimes the alignment specifications need to be altered for specific vehicles in order to get them to drive decent and/or not wear tires. Alignments numbers for stock, lifted, or lowered vehicles aren't really that different. The difference is what it takes to get those numbers given factory adjustment limitations. For stock and lifted applications, these numbers are within Toyota tolerances. (I just narrow down their window of what is "acceptable") So.......here's what I recommend.

STOCK TRUCKS:Camber: +.1 degree camber on both sides.
Caster: As much as possible without sacrificing +.1 degree camber or causing a cross caster pull.
Toe: +.12 degrees per side for a total toe of +.24 degrees. (some guys have had to drop toe to +.04 to +.5 per side/+.08 to +.10 total toe)

LIFTED TRUCKS:Same As Above ... BUT if you have wheels that have more negative offset than factory wheels, increase the camber to +.2 degrees. (or even +.3 degrees if they just can't get there with the amount of adjustment allowed by the eccentrics)
Adjustable upper control arms are available for cases where there just isn't enough adjustment left in the eccentrics to get a decent alignment."


I'm running the SPC adjustable upper control arms. The local shop I went to set the factory cams to neutral and used the upper arms to align everything. When I step up in tire size, if I need to shift everything forward or back, I can use the cams to get more clearance then re-align with upper arms.

 

[bjowett]

Nice to see another one of these come together, good job. Who is next?

 

[brussum]

TexAZ- did you loosen the bolts on the front stabilizer (torsion) bar as recommended in the service manual? I'm just wondering if doing so would make it easier to reinstall the passenger side linkage.

 

[TexAZ]

I only removed the linkage from the lower control arm and from the stabilizer arm. I used a floor jack to raise the lower arm up and align the linkage with the mounting bucket in the arm using a 3/8" extension. I didn't have a service manual, so I just did it on the fly, duplicating what had worked on the Tundra. It might be worth a try to give yourself any extra wiggle room when trying to put the sway bar linkages back in.

 

[adrenalinefjz80]

What is the front caster with 4" lift on your setup?

 

[TexAZ]

The shop ran the caster high. 4.5 degrees on the left and 3.9 on the right. Camber is .2 and -.1

Seems to drive pretty well.

 

[adrenalinefjz80]

Wow, great caster!!

 

[TexAZ]

Finally got some Pics with the new tires. 285/75/17 Toyo ATII. Had to trim the mudflaps, so far that is the only rubbing I have found. Still need to flex it out and make sure there are no other possible spots to worry about. My stainless brake lines finally arrived yesterday, they are +2 inches in length. Once I get them installed I'll flex it and report on any other trimming/mods to make for clearance.

 

[T4Runner]

Looks good TexAZ! Waiting to hear your impressions post flex test.