Intro and Sanity Check (1 Viewer)

[Ohthetrees]

I have a question....

I was under my truck today scoping out the cv boot condition (good) and torsion bar adjuster making sure that the adjustment bolt wasn't hanging down too low. While there I noticed that a section of exhaust pipe sticks down pretty low. Is this normal, or is mine deformed? It seems unnecessary low to me. It seems to be one of the lowest hanging parts, below the frame rails, but slightly above the shield protecting the (transfer case? Center diff?). Not sure what that nearby shielded drivetrain component is. Haven't spent much time under the truck yet! Soon!

 

[Abigail]

I have a question....

I was under my truck today scoping out the cv boot condition (good) and torsion bar adjuster making sure that the adjustment bolt wasn't hanging down too low. While there I noticed that a section of exhaust pipe sticks down pretty low. Is this normal, or is mine deformed? It seems unnecessary low to me. It seems to be one of the lowest hanging parts, below the frame rails, but slightly above the shield protecting the (transfer case? Center diff?). Not sure what that nearby shielded drivetrain component is. Haven't spent much time under the truck yet! Soon!
View attachment 1378398 View attachment 1378399

Mine looks exactly the same, I'd say yours is normal.

 

[oftpiste]

Just to clarify, my LC doesn't have the 270k. That was my beloved (RIP) "best $3000 I ever spent" '94 Suburban. She is sadly no longer with us.

pass your truck all the time when I go to work. I've admired it many times, and it always makes me happy when it shows up dirty. Can't believe it has 270K miles, it looks great! Would love to take you up on the ride offer, will PM.

 

[Ohthetrees]

Mine looks exactly the same, I'd say yours is normal.

Thanks for the confirmation. Seems a little bit odd to have something so soft and delicate hanging down. The rest of the under carriage seems fairly well protected.

 

[chuckscap]

You say you want the best on road ride. You'll LOVE the OME suspension then. The suspension handles like a sports truck. Don't listen to the haters, OME is legendary and knows their stuff. It WILL ride different than the stock squishy soft suspension but it tightens everything up, makes it more sporty and eats up rough roads without pavement. If I were you, with the tires you bought, I'd drop a 2.5" OME lift on it and never look back. You will want more lift as you go deeper into the woods, and as your family grows up wanting to haul more gear to play with.

Yes, the OME suspension is great but their Nitro Sport shocks suck if you don't have bumpers, really harsh. I had Slee install their OME medium 1.5" lift kit with diff drop and SPC UCAs. They did a great job. I got rid of the OME shocks and replaced them with OEM shocks. I would start out as someone recommended with spacers, cranked torsion bars and keep your stock shocks and see how it rides. Super cheap and might be exactly what you want.

 

[Patineto]

Teach them from young..

To pack light and smart..

 

[Ohthetrees]

Teach them from young..

To pack light and smart..

Oh man. Hope you had a winch!

 

[Patineto]

Oh man. Hope you had a winch!

Actually a-frames work much better (lift UP, not drag on the mud) the problems finding the tress, specificall if your leg is under all that bike..

 

[Abigail]

Thanks for the confirmation. Seems a little bit odd to have something so soft and delicate hanging down. The rest of the under carriage seems fairly well protected.

Agreed. If it really bothers you it may be possible to re-route... But I'm not sure what options for an alternate location there are, I haven't looked or done any reading on the subject. I'm thinking about re-routing part of my exhaust system as now my muffler is the lowest part of my back end after adding a rear bumper. Only a matter of time before I rip it off...

 

[Ohthetrees]

Agreed. If it really bothers you it may be possible to re-route... But I'm not sure what options for an alternate location there are, I haven't looked or done any reading on the subject. I'm thinking about re-routing part of my exhaust system as now my muffler is the lowest part of my back end after adding a rear bumper. Only a matter of time before I rip it off...

The weird thing is the section of exhaust pipe that hangs down appears to have some room above it and if only shaped differently wouldn't hang down. I'm sure the engineers had their reasons, but I can't figure it out.



What do the cool kids do about the muffler problem? Lots of people run rear bumpers, it must be a common issue.

 

[Abigail]

The weird thing is the section of exhaust pipe that hangs down appears to have some room above it and if only shaped differently wouldn't hang down. I'm sure the engineers had their reasons, but I can't figure it out.

What do the cool kids do about the muffler problem? Lots of people run rear bumpers, it must be a common issue.

Just found this Rear Muffler Removal

Guess it's not even a muffler just a resonator and can be removed without much issue. Hmm

 

[RKTINC]

TLDR: Hello, I'm Cedar, just bought a LC, I want a mild lift, and I’m having trouble figuring out which springs to choose.

Hello all, my name is Cedar, and I’ve been lurking for a few months, just bought my first LC, a 2001 with 177,000 miles in very nice condition. It passed a thorough 90 minute inspection at a good garage, and had an encouraging carfax, so I think it is starting from a good place. Of course I’m changing all the fluids ASAP. So far we’ve taken it skiing a couple of times, and taken a couple of side-trips on some snowy FS roads. It was very slick and proved too much for the various cross-overs and lesser SUVs we saw stuck and spinning their wheels!

I’d like to lay out my plan for my new LC, and get a sanity check. I don’t want to make any silly mistakes selecting components. I intend to do all the work myself except the locker.


View attachment 1376578

The trip that inspired us to buy a LC. My friend's bike taking a dirt nap.​

Motivation:
Last summer I twice went on multi-day adventure motorcycle trips into the National forests near Seattle. We rented a 4Runner, and my wife and two boys came along. My wife drove the truck, and my buddy and I were on our motorcycles. Much to my delight, my wife and boys had a blast, and we decided to buy a truck instead of rent. We don’t currently have a large vehicle, so we wanted a truck that could play also play the part of the “minivan” when relatives are in town, but would let us indulge in our dirt fun too. First we were looking at 4runners, but we wanted something with three rows, and we couldn’t afford a new 3 row 4runner. We started looking at Land Cruisers, which I’d always liked, and were surprised at their reasonable cost for older ones, and impressed at their capability. We had worked that rental 4runner pretty hard, lightly scraped the bottom, and both front and rear bumpers a few times while we explored a section of the Naches Jeep trail, so we decided to get the LC and lightly upgrade it.

View attachment 1376581

Stock except for removed running boards​

Goal:
Maintain good on-road manners while increasing dirt capability, with bang for the buck being an important consideration. My improvements budget is about $5K, but I'm doing most of my own wrenching. I want to be able to go to some pretty tricky spots, even if I have to pick my way sometimes. On-road it will mostly be driven with a load of kids and relatives, but not much luggage. Kids are light, so lightly loaded on road. Off-pavement, maybe 250lb of gear, and 450lb of people. For the really tricky parts, passengers will be kicked out of the truck. Here is what I want to do:

1. Raise 1” with tires.
2. Raise 1” with suspension
3. Sliders
4. Front bumper (no winch for now)
5. Rear air locker
6. Rear Bumper???

View attachment 1376582

The Fam​

The Plan:

Tires (ordered): BFG KO2 285/75R16. Got 5 tires, with installation, for $955 from costco, which seemed like a good deal.


Suspension: This is where I have the most uncertainty. From what I’ve read, it seem like you lift the rear with new springs, then crank and/or replace torsion bars to match the height, all the while selecting appropriate spring rates and shocks.

For shocks, I’m leaning toward the Fox 2.0 Performance Series IFP which gets good reviews and is $500 for all four corners. I’m also interested in the Ironman Foam Cell for about $100 more. People seem to love or hate OME shocks, so I guess I’m leaning against taking the risk that I’ll be a hater. Haven’t seen many negative reports about the Ironman or Fox, but maybe I didn’t look hard enough.

Springs are tricky. I want a medium or stock load spring that raises me 1”, and is tad more stiff than stock, but I see conflicting information. For example, Slee and the OME website disagree about how much lift each spring provides. I went to the OME website and used their suspension parts picker, specifying no/light bumper.


Spring 2860 Slee says it is a medium load for 2.5” lift, OME website says 0.4”
Spring 2866 Slee says it is a heavy load for 1.5” lift, OME says negative(!) 0.4”

Could the fact that the Slee kits are “leveling” be the key to my confusion? I’d like to maintain the best on-road manners, and I assume that means leaving rake as Toyota intended it. Am I wrong? Please, god, someone just tell me what spring to buy!

Questions:
Is it reasonable to raise suspension 1” without a diff drop?
Is it reasonable to use stock torsion bars with an 80lb bumper, truck not driven very aggressively in the rough stuff?
What rear spring should I select for a 1” lift and medium load?
What are the downsides of “leveling” the truck, as opposed to maintaining the rake?
Do I need an alignment after raising the truck 1”? I know the current alignment is in-spec.


Bumper: Leaning toward the Dissent with no bars because of its light weight, good approach angle, and low profile looks.

Rear Locker: Leaning toward the TJM. I know ARB has a great reputation, but $$$. TJM rear is only $600 TJM Equipped PRO LOCKER 100 SER IFS 8” IFS W/ 50mm BEARING 30-Spline and I mostly see people saying good things about it. Would probably pair with this ARB air compressor: ARB LOCKER ON-BOARD HIGH PERFORMANCE 12 VOLT AIR COMPRESSOR CKMA12 OFFROAD 4X4 | eBay unless someone suggested something as good, but thriftier.

Question: Do places like Just Differentials or Torfab frown on customers supplying their own parts?


Rear Bumper: Not yet. But if anyone has suggestions for something with good clearance, light and strong, but without all the swingouts and accessories, I’m all ears. For now, our trips are short enough that we don’t need to carry a bunch of crap on the back of the truck, and I don’t like how swing outs block access to the back and are heavy.

Sliders: Probably the Metaltech. I like the rear fender bump out and the integrated step. But honestly, without seeing them, it is pretty hard to shop for sliders. If anyone has strong recommendations, I’m all ears.

Question: What is the difference between the Metaltech and the OPOR? Both are sold by Metaltech and they look very similar.


Thanks in Advance for all your advice! I'm excited to join the LC community!

View attachment 1376583

Great looking rig. Exactly like my 2002. I researched on Mud for some time with lots of help from the members as well. I went with 285/75/16 for a nice tire lift, and had my Torsion Bars cranked at that time. They went a little too much IMHO but I can live with it. You can always do a 10mm spacer for a quick rear lift. I am a highway and town cruiser so I don't plan to do significant Off Roading. I have several hundred acres and use heave duty trucks to work that not SUV's I did go with a nice new 18" Flow Master for the best V8 sound I have ever heard. Enjoy your LC.

 

[Ohthetrees]

So I been doing some baselining work. Changed oil, Transfer case, Diff front and rear, cooling hose Ts, and a few other minor things.

But I have a question about the trans trans pan plug bolt. I noticed it was a bit stiff coming out, and had obvious thread damage around the neck of the bolt. I replaced it with a fresh OEM bolt. Going in, it was a little stiff, but not nearly as bad as the old. I was using a torque wrench set to 29lb, which I understand is spec. Around 20lb (by feel) I started to feel an uh-oh sensation, that the bolt might be stripping. I stopped. It doesn't seem to be leaking now, but I'm pretty worried that when I need it most (do pressures spike when the trans is used hard?) the trans will spit out that bolt and I'll lose my fluid.

I'd estimate that the crush washer is partly crushed, but not completely. I'm familiar with the sensation of crush washers (getting a little easier, then firming up) but this seemed too easy, and the washer seemed to be spinning along with the bolt head. No leaks for now, but what would YOU do if you were me?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[Ohthetrees]

Actually, just looked again at my notes. I had torque wrench set to 25lb, and stopped torquing well below that. Guessing 15lb. So maybe over-torque, but considering the plug I pulled out was stiff with trashed threads, the damage was probably done before it got to me.

 

[mmaakk]

I have the OME 2.5 lift with tortion bars, ARB front and rear bumpers and Slee diff drop. Heavy constant springs. What I like about the rear bar is that it's set more for expedition and has the option of a plain rear with no tire or jerry can holder which you can always add later. I did this set up at least 8yrs ago and haven't had to do much since. The set up has been able to keep up with all my upgrades and unexpected heavy gear loads at times. The sacrifice is that it does ride stiff when empty, especially with the OME sport shocks. I would recommend you go medium, 2.5" lift with diff drop and if you want a smoother ride go with either fox or ironmans, start with the 285 tires and this way your always ready for the 315/35 tires! Nice rig!