SAS 100 gonna happen sooner or later

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M

Mauiyotanokaoi

10 Year
Joined
Nov 20, 2014
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9
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114
Face it hundy devotees... Torsion bar IFS sucks. I've had cruisers with every type of suspension available and I must say that the 80 series's set up correctly blows away these s*** pile independent set ups. Some guys say 'o but it's so nice on the road'.... Great and so are ships in port but that's not what ships are for. Or my favorite 'on washboard dirt roads...' Gimme a break. So if I had the perfect 1" bumps on a long flat non obstacle dirt road that I could haul ass on then just maybe I could enjoy the ride long enough before I demolish my IFS.

Bottom line My 80 series suspension setup I had blew away this hundy in every category of OFF roading. He'll even just coil over ifs would be a big plus.

Anyway, no offense to slee, he is a business man, but there is no way a hundy is any harder to SAS than say a tundra. Pull the motor, cut off all the s***, he'll maybe even cut off the whole front frame and start from scratch with new stronger steel, or just plate the existing frame. Source an axle, go with modified custom housing like any smart rock crawler would do... Maybe hellfire hi steer 80 knuckles on a ruffstuff housing with 9.5 diff ARB...

My point is that from what I read everyone seems all bewitched about how 'difficult' it is cuz some guy said so. It's not difficult, it's a project. Building a crawler or anything for that matter is just a matter of tearing into it and finding solutions. Hell I've seen a lot of tacoma guys just cut off there whole front frame and rebuilt it all from scratch... Doesn't get any more involved than that!! And guess what... They just regular guys like you and me. Grow a set! I'll be doing mine once I beat the snot out of the IFS. And I can't wait to scare away all the Nancy's intimidated by doing 'work' to achieve goals. Happy off roading!
 
Its not about it being to difficult to do. Its more about the price to do it right. You will need at least 7-10k to do it right and that is if you do everything your self. Most people are not using these rigs as extreme rock crawlers so a SAS would not be worth the $ unless you have 10k burning a hole in your pocket. And frankly ,there are a lot better platforms to build a rock crawler out of. I would much rather spend the money on outfitting the rig for overland like most use these rigs for. I have had several crawlers and several ifs rigs and I prefer the ifs on everything but the hard trails. So I think it comes down to what you are doing with the vehicle more than it being to difficult. For me the ifs works well for what I use the vehicle for, although I have been thinking of upgrading to coil overs instead of the torsion bars. That is my biggest compliant, the harsh unloading of the torsion bars!
 
I agree with Benc in that I would much rather pick up like an old jeep to build rather than SASing a once $60k truck...These aren't for rock crawling, they're made for long trails, expeditions, and going to the mall! But the limiting factors to completing a project like this are time and budget, not difficulty.
 
^^This^^
 
And FWIW, I have been on roads where all there is, is washboards for 100s of miles. Just saying:)
 
I have a feeling that this going to be an interesting thread. My popcorn is poppin.
 
If SAS was cheap and easy, I might do it. But it ain't. And as it is, I like my Hundy. No one with a cutting torch is getting within 50 feet of that truck!

Having said that, I'd love for the OP to start his SAS project and post pics!

:popcorn:
 
Well first off... I never said it was cheap or easy. I said it is not any harder than building any other rig. Of course it would cost 10-12k. !!! For example, a correctly built rig for hard off road use is most likely not going to have stock axles or suspension so that's already out the window. Second, you would want to plate the frame accordingly so if you have to do that to ANY rig why would it be SO much harder on a 100? Plain and simple, it wouldn't. Might as well run through the engine while it's on a stand, like I did my tacoma motor, plastiguage everything and replace whatever is out of spec.

Personally,I got rid of my 1st and 2nd gen toyota crawlers so I could have the luxury of my taco (space, a/c, daily driver). First on my checklist is to order a ruffstuff housing D60 outers with 9.5 lc diff so I can run 40's on my taco. (Currently has chromo'd d44 that has held up amazingly with 35" and dual ultimate cases).

Here on maui crawling all day and doing 70 home with a/c is awesome vs doing 45 on a tired 22r. So once my taco front axle is done, and I beat up the 100's IFS, I will swap the hundy AND do a thread. I just finished bobbing my taco bed and shipping the hundy to Cali for the summer for work and to trip with the family.i will be gearing it 4.88 w ARB's and 4x4labs armor, and install the marlin reduction tcase gears. After that I will wheel the s*** out of it to see what else it wants.

I love the niceties of my tacoma, and would love to wheel and do some crawling with my family in a hundy. Once it's pushing 200k on its stock running gear I would rather invest 15k into making it exactly what I want than just buying some stock rig.

My previous fj80 was converted manual H41 granny first with low geared fj60 tcase, fully locked and armored. Winch, ome kit, on board York air, inverter etc etc and although it may not have been as good of a crawler as my tacoma is, it was miles ahead of my 100 off road.

I would ideally like to run a linked ruffstuff housing d60/9.5 lc diff in the 100. I am buying that setup soon for the taco so then I will have first hand experience with it. I just honestly don't think 80series birds will handle the v8. Also I will be on the lookout for a wreck with a 2uzfe while in Cali this summer to swap into my taco for when the 3rz is tired... Currently it does better than my old 22r that's for sure. I freshened it up a bit (new head, balance shaft delete, headers, etc) but a 2uzfe would just be AWESOME!!

Anyway sorry to get anyone excited to see the build thread, your gonna need a lot of popcorn till I start it. I have worked on my own and others projects and am coming from an understanding of what it takes to CORRECTLY do this project. Mainly the focus of this thread is to state the simple fact that:

A) it's not any different than correctly building ANY truck for hard offroad use, and

B) from my first hand experience, what the 100 torsion bar IFS is lacking could/would be fixed with an SAS.

OTHERWISE: It would be equally exciting and worth it to fabricate a custom long arm coil over IFS system to boost the travel AND overall capability.

Btw cheap and easy never go with building anything... But easy and expensive works. If you look at a project like its a but load of problems your screwed, but if you do a project and excite yourself with creating solutions it makes the build almost worth it just for that experience alone... And then you get to drive it!!!
 
Btw 100's of miles of washboard dirt roads does sound like a great time, I haven't ever experienced that.
 
Aren't there already SaS threads on here?

Not knocking anything here, but what's the point of this thread? There is already a few SaS 100s out there, there is already a few threads about this guy or that guy doing it next, the ifs horse is begging for the beating to stop.

This thread will be at the top of the page for a few weeks while everyone chimes in about how to do it, how awesome it is (or isn't) and then it will make its way into the SaS archives with the other dead horses.

Can it be done? Of course. Is it expensive to do correctly using new Toyota parts? Very. Have you priced a new steering box for an 80 Series? Scary expensive. Can it be done for less using cheaper parts? Sure. But, the price of a high milage 100 is still high enough that ripping everything apart and starting over is still a high priced operation.

Talk to the folks who have done the SaS on a 100. It's not the highway or offroad machine you'd expect it to be.
 
"Fat ass station wagon":moon:Now you have gone too far.:D Will that fit on a license plate?
 
Mauiyotanokaoi said:
Btw 100's of miles of washboard dirt roads does sound like a great time, I haven't ever experienced that.
Click to expand...
It's not the roads that are the great time, it what's at the end of them, You must be the guy my buddy chads been talking about He told me he had a friend that would be shipping his 100 out to Cali from Maui for the summer. I'm assuming that must be you?
 
If an 100 SAS didnt ride like an 80 series:(I would be more interested.

Where are you going with SAS that IFS is not able to make it or is it how I f'up the nice ride of an 100 series and spent lots of money just so I can say I have SAS?:rolleyes:
 
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