Another 100 series suspension question

[jgallo1]

Hello,
I finally made the leap and I am going to purchase my first 100 series this weekend (hopefully).
I am immediately going to remove the step sides and add 285 x 75 x16 tires either (nitro, toyo, or grabber) still deciding. As far as the suspension goes, I am struggling on deciding whether to go with the OME 1.5" lift package or keep it stock and just add better OME shocks? It will be used 60-70% on paved roads in CA. The other times it will be used in places like Baja mex, Montanna, Utah, Northern CA, sand, mud, snow, loose gravel etc...
Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks again..

 

[OregonLC]

Hello,
I finally made the leap and I am going to purchase my first 100 series this weekend (hopefully).
I am immediately going to remove the step sides and add 285 x 75 x16 tires either (nitro, toyo, or grabber) still deciding. As far as the suspension goes, I am struggling on deciding whether to go with the OME 1.5" lift package or keep it stock and just add better OME shocks? It will be used 60-70% on paved roads in CA. The other times it will be used in places like Baja mex, Montanna, Utah, Northern CA, sand, mud, snow, loose gravel etc...
Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks again..

What is your goal? What type of street ride do you want? When off road, how rugged? How much articulation and clearance do you want? Are you willing to trade some highway manners and mileage for capability off road?

 

[jgallo1]

OregonLC,
my goal is to have a well rounded truck. I have an 03 tacoma now. I bought it used, it came with around 1-1"1.5" lift on it, & Firestone Destination M/T's which were fine. A little loud on the HWY but they are M/T. I switched the tires for A/T's and all good. I fine not being able to drive 100 mph everywhere, if that is what I was after I would buy a sports car.
I would say the terrain I drive when off road is medium. Its occasionally deep soft sand , snow and mud. I would be doing it for alittle more clearance, and feeling more equipped off road. I still drive the HWY around LA 60-70% of the time and want to be comfy at 80 mph.. Hope that helps.

 

[pcut]

Gallo- I went with an OME 2.5" lift installed by Slee, with bumpers and a winch. It drives better than my buddies stock hundie and the only problem with 80 mph is the gas mileage. My reasoning for taking it that far started with some drives in the boonies in central/southern Utah in BMW X5. We had one situation where we almost got stranded about 50 miles from the nearest pavement(north of Cathedral Valley). After that, I decided that I would prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Ideally I will never have to use the winch and my sliders will never touch a rock, but, I'd rather spend the $ and not need the stuff than get stuck out in the boonies or have to repair body damage. My 2 cents!

 

[OregonLC]

Off the showroom floor the 100 is very capable. Add AT/MT and you'll fix the traction side. If you go to a 33 you'll pick up about 1" of clearance just with that. From what you describe, I think you'd be best off with a 1/2" body lift for a little more clearance plus some 30mm rear spacers and adjusting the torsion bars up front.

That said, I'd have a hard time being 'comfortable' in any 100 at 80mph in LA traffic! Primarily because stopping takes a LOT longer as you increase tire diameter. And, of course, any lift is going to raise your CG which in turn will dampen your handling.

 

[TeCKis300]

That said, I'd have a hard time being 'comfortable' in any 100 at 80mph in LA traffic! Primarily because stopping takes a LOT longer as you increase tire diameter. And, of course, any lift is going to raise your CG which in turn will dampen your handling.

I rarely see this acknowledged on these boards and I think it's a very important point to consider. Granted, this is an off-road focused board, but when I pile my family in for any vacation, I want to know that I didn't trade off too much on road safety when traveling all those freeway miles to our destination.

 

[OregonLC]

I rarely see this acknowledged on these boards and I think it's a very important point to consider. Granted, this is an off-road focused board, but when I pile my family in for any vacation, I want to know that I didn't trade off too much on road safety when traveling all those freeway miles to our destination.

You're still more agile than piling the fam into an RV, just to keep perspective.

We all develop driving habits, most of which are poor. If you, like me, commute in something else that has greater road capabilities, those habits need to be adjusted accordingly when driving the 100. The 3 second rule is something I live by out of necessity when driving the truck. I know this isn't an option when commuting in LA. And at the end of the day, it's not my safety I'm worried about, rather it's my liability.

At some point, I'd really like to get a BBK like Spressomon did. Very useful safety feature. As they say with guns and parachutes, "if you need it and don't have it you probably won't need it ever again."

 

[jgallo1]

Thanks for the input. It's tricky at this point in life only being able to own 1 vehicle ha ha. I would like to own about 3-4 for all different purposes. With that being said, that is exactly why I love the toyota LC and Tacoma. There are great dual purpose vehicles with minimal mods. My tacoma has never let me down. I have def. been in over my head off road and still some how always just made it out. I am hoping the LC will do the same.
Thanks for all the help again.. I will post pics when I get them

 

[pcut]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I am very curious about the BBK application for the 100 series. Back in the day with my BMWs that were set up for track, the prevailing wisdom was that a BBK allowed you to do more high speed stops without brake fade and that the limiting factor on a panic stop was the tires and not the brakes. The idea was that the brakes could easily lock up making the tires the limiting factor. What says the brain trust? Care to chime in Spressomon?

You're still more agile than piling the fam into an RV, just to keep perspective.

We all develop driving habits, most of which are poor. If you, like me, commute in something else that has greater road capabilities, those habits need to be adjusted accordingly when driving the 100. The 3 second rule is something I live by out of necessity when driving the truck. I know this isn't an option when commuting in LA. And at the end of the day, it's not my safety I'm worried about, rather it's my liability.

At some point, I'd really like to get a BBK like Spressomon did. Very useful safety feature. As they say with guns and parachutes, "if you need it and don't have it you probably won't need it ever again."

 

[TeCKis300]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I am very curious about the BBK application for the 100 series. Back in the day with my BMWs that were set up for track, the prevailing wisdom was that a BBK allowed you to do more high speed stops without brake fade and that the limiting factor on a panic stop was the tires and not the brakes. The idea was that the brakes could easily lock up making the tires the limiting factor. What says the brain trust? Care to chime in Spressomon?

You're still correct and it applies here. BBK's don't necessarily provide more braking power or brake torque. They have more braking bandwidth in terms of thermal capacity for extreme braking events and/or quick repeated braking events in succession. They especially excel at the ability to shed that heat energy quickly by having well designed vanes in the rotors.

So unless one is really overburden and/or braking from high speeds or doing a spirited downhill run on tarmac, a well maintained stock setup should suffice.

That said, the trouble comes when one starts plus sizing tires to say 33's or above. In that configuration, the brake torque or the hydraulic brake pedal advantage is mismatched to the needed brake torque produced at the tread such that one has to use a lot of physical pedal force. It may be that the stock calipers can still produce enough stopping power with enough pedal force but it's a workout.

What we really need is added mechanical advantage. Either by decreasing the master cylinder diameter, or increasing the brake caliper piston diameters. An aftermarket BBK tuned to the same piston diameters will have the same problem as a stock brake setup.

What would be really awesome would be to have some company cast a new caliper frame to extend brake calipers out from the axle center to increase brake torque leveraged. And to get us a matching disk of larger diameter. This would both fix the mechanical leverage and increase the thermal capacity. Though at the need for larger diameter wheels.