Sedole's 2011 LX

[sedole]

Been a busy summer, not much happenings truck wise. Got a 3rd pup and mostly been working with him and shuttling them around in the LX. Still loving the Bilsteins. I've done a few casual trail runs and they are fantastic.

One mod I've done though is to delete the intake resonator for a little more V8 noises. Started off swapping in a tundra intake tube which is a very subtle increase compared to the ultra quiet stock LX tube. From there I lopped off the resonators and plastic welded the hose nipples back in. Still not a crazy loud modification but adds a nice amount of growl and throatiness under medium to hard acceleration in the middle of the RPM range. Wife has not complained at all or even mentioned anything (she was verrrry quick to do so about the exhausts), so I'd even call it wife approved!

Lastly, a little sneak peak of what I'm working on next. Time for some slidey bois!

 

[sedole]

Did a bit more work on the sliders this weekend. Good stopping point for now, calling this V1. V2 will likely include filler plates and potentially another mounting arm or two plus some courtesy/rock lights. Realistically I don't really ever go on super challenging trails where I'm rock bashing so these should be plenty strong for the occasional hit I may encounter. But then the other half of me thinks well what if.. and wants to add more strength and overbuild. There is a good mounting point to the frame forward of my current leading arm, but not so much the rear unless I get more creative.

Sliders are 1.75" .120 DOM and brackets/gussets are 3/16". Finished in krylon textured black.

 

[sedole]

Worked on the passenger side this weekend and added the additional supports. Still need to go back in and add some fill plates, but I am much more happy with the amount of support this has and the additional bolts to clamp to the frame. Will do the same to the driver hopefully next weekend. Plenty of boogers, but also some half decent welds too if I don't say so myself. Annoyingly I did end up with some slight warpage so two of the bolts slightly don't line up anymore. Off by like 1/8" on each... Will need to enlarge the holes to account for that then I can get a jack under this thing and see how it holds this heavy piggy of a rig.

 

[sedole]

Fill plates on the rear door area (worried about my dogs) and preliminary jack test. I'll be the first to say it...the fill plates look like garbage lol. I'm planning on cutting them off and trying to come up with a better looking solution. Stood up great to the jack test though! Straddling the curb my jack could barely get the tires off the ground, but did slightly. I'd say at the point with the most deflection, still about 1/4" to 3/8" clearance. I built these to have 3/4" clearance from the pinch weld of the body, so should work out pretty good!

 

[Boston Mangler]

Fill plates on the rear door area (worried about my dogs) and preliminary jack test. I'll be the first to say it...the fill plates look like garbage lol. I'm planning on cutting them off and trying to come up with a better looking solution. Stood up great to the jack test though! Straddling the curb my jack could barely get the tires off the ground, but did slightly. I'd say at the point with the most deflection, still about 1/4" to 3/8" clearance. I built these to have 3/4" clearance from the pinch weld of the body, so should work out pretty good!

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I dig it

Have a good fab shop near ya?

Maybe see if they can dimple die the fill plates a little to break up the aesthetic?

 

[sedole]

Little tweak for the fill plates. I think this will do the trick. Dimple die would be great but didn't want to spend the money haha..

 

[sedole]

The BOTCK from Dr. KDSS is a work of art! Don't know why I waited so long to get one of these. Much better. Pretty close to the factory angle again.

 

[Boston Mangler]

The BOTCK from Dr. KDSS is a work of art!

Agreed

 

[sedole]

Couple drives with the botck in now. Visually the rear wheels are damn near centered in terms of how much they poke. Before the driver was sticking out much further and the passenger was tucked slightly inside the fender. Truck feels significantly more settled around corners. Stays a lot more composed over dips and bumps. I wasn't really expecting much difference but I am pleasantly surprised at how much better it drives. Only downside I'm seeing is the bracket causes the panhard bar to sit ~4mm closer (the thickness of the stock bracket) to the spare tire. My unused 295/70/18 wildpeak at3w just barely fits. It looks like I have less than 1mm of clearance to the bar and I wouldn't be surprised if it rubs a little when articulated.

 

[sedole]

Little changes. Got tired of the bilstein HD rear springs and swapped back to the standard ones. They were fine until I removed the 175 odd lbs from the residual AHC components and I started a new job which takes me on a daily commute of a substantially crappier road. I also came to realize that there was really only one trip in the last 12 months that I truly needed the extra spring rate, so for those rare occasions I plan to just use some sumo spring helpers.

Got a cargo light in a 3d printed housing that one of the facebook group members makes and sells. Forget his name, but it's super slim and a great plug and play product. No idea why I waited so long to buy or make one of these. Game changer.

And lastly, decided to part ways with the TRD pro BBS wheels. They are super neat, but after a recent snow wheeling trip where I gouged one of them on a rock, decided I'd rather sell them while they're still worth something. Which would also give me an opportunity to get new tires to replace the falkens which ride stiff. Ended up getting like 6x of what I bought them for, so got some tundra wheels and sprayed them black and some very lightly used 35" KO2s. And pocketed several hundred.

Love being back on a KO2. It was always my favorite tire back in SoCal. And since I run a full snow tire here in the winter time, not as concerned about icy/hardpack snow winter road performance. Off road I always felt the KO2 did great in snow. Eventually I'd like to get on some KO3s, but the size I'd like isn't released yet. For now, these still have like 12-13/32nds left (15 new) and were manufactured in 2024 so should last me a good while. They also ride sooooo much smoother than the falkens.

Committing to 35s this time around. So far everything clears great with all the previous mods I've done. But these do rub more on the front sway bar at full lock than the 295/70/18s did. Thank the extra width of the 35x12.5x18 for that. May take a page out of TeCKis300's book and clearance the bar a little. About 2" shy of the bumps in the photos--the best I could do to test for now. But should clear when even more stuffed. Just need to sort out the sway bar. Or only use 90% steering.

Also lower ball joint boots have started to leak...No clunks yet but will need to replace those soon.

 

[tbisaacs]

Was thinking about this thread. The piggy back reservoirs on my Dobinson MRAs are in fact rubbing between the sway bar and link mount. It’s really minor and only at full droop but it’s to the point I’m having a local fabricator make a frame mount so I can move reservoirs outboard.

Would love to hear how you feel with some miles on your HD rear sway bar too.

 

[dudemancool1904]

Little changes. Got tired of the bilstein HD rear springs and swapped back to the standard ones. They were fine until I removed the 175 odd lbs from the residual AHC components and I started a new job which takes me on a daily commute of a substantially crappier road. I also came to realize that there was really only one trip in the last 12 months that I truly needed the extra spring rate, so for those rare occasions I plan to just use some sumo spring helpers.

Got a cargo light in a 3d printed housing that one of the facebook group members makes and sells. Forget his name, but it's super slim and a great plug and play product. No idea why I waited so long to buy or make one of these. Game changer.

And lastly, decided to part ways with the TRD pro BBS wheels. They are super neat, but after a recent snow wheeling trip where I gouged one of them on a rock, decided I'd rather sell them while they're still worth something. Which would also give me an opportunity to get new tires to replace the falkens which ride stiff. Ended up getting like 6x of what I bought them for, so got some tundra wheels and sprayed them black and some very lightly used 35" KO2s. And pocketed several hundred.

Love being back on a KO2. It was always my favorite tire back in SoCal. And since I run a full snow tire here in the winter time, not as concerned about icy/hardpack snow winter road performance. Off road I always felt the KO2 did great in snow. Eventually I'd like to get on some KO3s, but the size I'd like isn't released yet. For now, these still have like 12-13/32nds left (15 new) and were manufactured in 2024 so should last me a good while. They also ride sooooo much smoother than the falkens.

Committing to 35s this time around. So far everything clears great with all the previous mods I've done. But these do rub more on the front sway bar at full lock than the 295/70/18s did. Thank the extra width of the 35x12.5x18 for that. May take a page out of TeCKis300's book and clearance the bar a little. About 2" shy of the bumps in the photos--the best I could do to test for now. But should clear when even more stuffed. Just need to sort out the sway bar. Or only use 90% steering.

Also lower ball joint boots have started to leak...No clunks yet but will need to replace those soon.

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Understand your reluctance on the wheels. First scratch I found myself sharpie filling it in. Now after several hundred off road miles and a few more gouges I just said **** it, badge of honor. Anything’s better than curbing them in front of the yoga studio.

 

[sedole]

Was thinking about this thread. The piggy back reservoirs on my Dobinson MRAs are in fact rubbing between the sway bar and link mount. It’s really minor and only at full droop but it’s to the point I’m having a local fabricator make a frame mount so I can move reservoirs outboard.

Would love to hear how you feel with some miles on your HD rear sway bar too.

Definitely makes for more rub on the reservoir because of the larger diameter, but otherwise been really happy with it. Still feel that it has helped a lot for cornering stability. Also still kicking around some ideas about how to modify to completely get rid of the rub, but it's been working good enough I haven't been pushed to actually doing something.

 

[sedole]

Had my original alternator take a dump on me last week. Just replaced it yesterday. 70 miles shy of 170k. Replaced with a new Denso unit and also replaced tensioner & pulley, idler pulley, and serpentine belt while I was in there. Also took the opportunity to drain fill the coolant twice and replaced the front swaybar end links. Glad I replaced those pulleys. They were definitely on their last legs..spinning way too freely and the tension on the belt was low feeling as well. Idler had a little up/down play too. Stock end links were clapped out and clunking over bumps. Oh and a new 27F battery.

Overall an annoying, but not overly difficult process. Big shoutout to toyota for putting these alternators in the most inconvenient place possible. Took me about 6 hours. Doing it again I probably could shave off 2 hours. Not something I'd want to have to repair on a trail.

Since I didn't find a ton of writing about this on the interwebs I'll post a rough outline here:

Disconnect battery ground.
Jack up passenger front and remove wheel.
Remove splash guard.
Remove skid plate underneath.
Unbolt and remove front swaybar or remove brackets and let it hang.
Drain radiator (don't have to remove).
Remove upper and lower radiator hose.
Unbolt clutch fan and remove. These nuts were a B to undo. And the soft metal rounds easy. I had to chisel one off. I got new flange nuts. M8-1.25
Remove fan shroud.
Unbolt all hard/soft line/wire loom brackets in the area.
Unbolt power steering pump and secure it up higher with a bungee (don't have to remove).
--Tip: after removing the 12 oclock position bolt, thread it back in 3-4 turns and take a mallet to tap it in a bit. Toyota uses these retaining spacer type things that make lining up holes nice and easy, but makes the pump hard to remove if you don't back them out a little.
From here you can reach all bolts that hold the alternator in. Unplug the wires and remove the bolts and you can take the alternator out from the bottom. Be careful to not damage the radiator, but there is plenty of room to snake it past the lines since you made some slack by removing the brackets.
Installation is the reverse.

Also, most expensive mod to date on any vehicle ever a few months ago. Was going to do a winch bumper but that's on hold for...a while lol.

 

[sedole]

Minor changes. With addition of baby and associated gear + family regularly coming out to visit (and adding the 3rd row back in), we are regularly carrying more weight in the LX. There's always been a bit more sway when taking turns, especially at speed, because I had to lengthen the rear endlinks to clear the 5160 reservoirs. Further exacerbated with the extra weight. And with the precious cargo on board I'd prefer if it was a bit more stable feeling. It still handled alright, but it almost felt like there was a bit of delay before the swaybar kicked in during a turn.

To fix this I decided to gamble on some 5100 shocks from a 1st gen sequoia. They've got very similar extended and compressed lengths and the sequoia is somewhat close to my LX in curb weight. About 500 lbs difference. My other option was go go with a 5160 from a 100 series. Also very similar shock measurements and an even smaller weight difference. But I'd much rather gamble $200 for the 5100s than $600 for the 5160s if it didn't work out.

Turns out they're a bolt on affair. I suspect the 100 series would be as well. The only thing I kept from the existing shocks was one of the washers because it seemed to fit into the frame just a tiny bit better than the new one. They both have slight play in the alignment hole on the body before tightening, but the old moved less. Factory length end links to replace my custom ones. While I was in there I decided to give the rear end a little butt lift for a little more rake by adding in a 30mm coil spacer to the driver rear (in place of the line 15mm I had) and moved the 15mm to the passenger.

So far so good! Handling is notably more tight and responsive. Significantly less body roll. Shocks ride similarly. Maybe just a tiny touch softer/smoother.

Also added a 3d printed rear cupholder from yotaforge3D. Wife is a big fan since she's riding in the back 99% of the time now. It makes the rear cupholders infinitely more useful.

 

[afgman786]

Minor changes. With addition of baby and associated gear + family regularly coming out to visit (and adding the 3rd row back in), we are regularly carrying more weight in the LX. There's always been a bit more sway when taking turns, especially at speed, because I had to lengthen the rear endlinks to clear the 5160 reservoirs. Further exacerbated with the extra weight. And with the precious cargo on board I'd prefer if it was a bit more stable feeling. It still handled alright, but it almost felt like there was a bit of delay before the swaybar kicked in during a turn.

To fix this I decided to gamble on some 5100 shocks from a 1st gen sequoia. They've got very similar extended and compressed lengths and the sequoia is somewhat close to my LX in curb weight. About 500 lbs difference. My other option was go go with a 5160 from a 100 series. Also very similar shock measurements and an even smaller weight difference. But I'd much rather gamble $200 for the 5100s than $600 for the 5160s if it didn't work out.

Turns out they're a bolt on affair. I suspect the 100 series would be as well. The only thing I kept from the existing shocks was one of the washers because it seemed to fit into the frame just a tiny bit better than the new one. They both have slight play in the alignment hole on the body before tightening, but the old moved less. Factory length end links to replace my custom ones. While I was in there I decided to give the rear end a little butt lift for a little more rake by adding in a 30mm coil spacer to the driver rear (in place of the line 15mm I had) and moved the 15mm to the passenger.

So far so good! Handling is notably more tight and responsive. Significantly less body roll. Shocks ride similarly. Maybe just a tiny touch softer/smoother.

Also added a 3d printed rear cupholder from yotaforge3D. Wife is a big fan since she's riding in the back 99% of the time now. It makes the rear cupholders infinitely more useful.

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received the rear cupholder for the exact reason you made the change. Guessing with his steps it's pretty straight forward for install? received it yesterday so haven't started the process.

 

[sedole]

received the rear cupholder for the exact reason you made the change. Guessing with his steps it's pretty straight forward for install? received it yesterday so haven't started the process.

Yeah easy install with the guide he has. Dremel made super quick work of it too.

 

[sedole]

Well the 1g sequoia shocks were pretty short lived. They felt too soft with the lower rate springs with any weight at all in the rear. Then I swapped the heavy rate bilstein springs in and while much better, still a bit too soft with normal weekend load. (4 adults + baby + ski gear)

Decided to take a gamble on some 3g sequoia bilstein 6100 shocks. I was aware of them before I bought the 1g shocks, but didn’t because of cost and extended/compressed lengths.

Well, during a slow work day last week I was doing some online shopping as one does and happened to see a lone website advertising them for $200 less than anyone else. Kinda seemed sketchy but I was able to pay with PayPal so figured why the heck not. Then I was digging more into shock measurements and found one source from a reputable member on mud who measured stock AHC shocks as 16.75” compressed and 25.5” extended. I was originally comparing things to the 5160s I had previously had which were 14.61” compressed and 24.17” extended. Interesting… I never realized there was so much difference. Well guess what 3g sequoia 6100s are? 16.59” compressed and 25.18” extended. And curb weights of the sequoia and LX are basically identical. An SR5 4WD is 6,030 lbs and my 2011 LX is 5,995 lbs. It’s like it was meant to be.

Well, they bolted up like they were made for it. No surprises there.

I need to get these off-road, but so far I’m extremely impressed and happy. They work like they were meant to be. On road is better than the 5160s ever were. These also pair way better with the heavy rate bilstein springs than the 5160s did too. Drove up and down i70 today for a ski day and it handled all the bumps/dips/unevenness (the road is going to s*** here and there’s like a dozen construction zones) with aplomb and I kept catching myself thinking “there is no way a 6000lb suv should be handling this good” as I would look down and notice myself taking some of the curvy sections at like 75-80mph — exactly how I felt when I had AHC. I have no doubt they will be amazing off road as well since the 6112s have always been great. The 5160s were good but you could always tell the front outperformed the rear. Overall I’m stoked. It’s hard to get out off pavement now cause winter and busy with baby, but I’m looking forward to doing so. I have purposely jumped a few curbs and so far they’re great.

 

[dudemancool1904]

not surprised. One of the main complaints with 5100 series shocks is limited heat capacity when you’re going desert fast. I would gladly give up that “resi” in the rear to gain a 2.6” shock body.

 

[sedole]

Got a short stint in the dirt yesterday. Found a lightly rutted out powerline access road/trail on my way home from work. I'm impressed. So smooth. Especially if you keep some speed up. I'm anticipating they'll pair even better with the 35s I run in the the summertime.

One thing I have noticed is when I "jump" off (really I'm hitting like 25-30 mph and just gliding right off) the 8" raised school bus unloading platform at the school nearby (after hours of course, no children in sight), the rear lands a little harsher than I'd expect. Front is buttery smooth. I do wonder if I'm bottoming out the shocks cause this sensation didn't happen with the 5160s. I thinking the extended length perry parts rear bumps might solve this.