Received the vehicle on Tuesday night. Front ~20.5" Rear ~23.0" and aligned just fine. It looked kinda silly with that much rake and it was driving a little funny.
Pulled AHC fuses to make the "blinky lights" go away.
Played around with tuning the rear shock settings, ended up at "5" (I think).
Cranked torsion bars to 21.5" and realigned. It looks and feels a good bit better now.
Dug under the dash, and disconnected the AHC ECU, replaced some of the pulled fuses.
Checked everything with Techstream.
Without the OEM steps, and no sliders yet, a simple 2" lift on 33" tires feels huge (or maybe it's due to the Camry rental car I drove while it was in the shop). For someone that really wasn't looking for a "lift", it's a bit of a change.
It feels a good bit different than AHC in its prime, but it feels much better than AHC with bad accumulators. Less harsh than the OME kit on my kid's LC was on a mostly stock vehicle, but firmer than a fully working AHC system. I don't notice much of a change in body lean, if anything it may have a bit more lean now.
The passenger side Nitro UCA still seems to have an annoying bushing squeak at the moment, that I will try to address over the long weekend.
Posting my experience, just in case it might make life easier on someone else "lifting" a mostly stock 100 series.
(TL;DR: There's limited lift available in the front. Too little droop causes lots of issues. Good luck matching 2.5" of rear lift in the front.)
AHC Removal with a Tough Dog install on a mostly “stock” LX470:
My original goal was to replace a broken AHC system, any lift was a side benefit and not the original goal, and not to cause the same harsh ride of the OME kit on a stock vehicle that we had experienced on my son’s vehicle. I was also curious about trying one of the “fixed” aftermarket UCAs instead of the “adjustable” SPC UCAs that we used on my son’s vehicle.
AHC Starting point:
Front ~19.5” Rear ~20.5”
~22.75” at full droop, for 3.25” of droop.
Replacement "kit":
Just Differentials Nitro UCA
Trail Tailor Extended Sway Bar Links
Trail Tailor Diff Drop
Tough Dog Torsion Bars
Tough Dog 41mm Front Shocks
Tough Dog Dual Rate 0-600# 2” Rear Springs (1.5" springs were out of stock at the time of my order)
Tough Dog 45mm Adjustable Rear Shocks
Front ~20.5” Rear ~23+”
~23” at full droop for 2.5” of droop.
My initial impressions after install were:
A stiffer ride than a fully functional AHC system.
A smoother ride than a “broken” AHC system (bad globes).
Small low speed bumps, noticeable.
Can still feel expansion joints, but not as harsh as broken AHC (Think 3 or 4 on AHC shock settings)
Neighborhood speed humps (at speed), are handled much better than AHC.
A couple of “high speed” humps/bumps on my work route felt much better than AHC
A really rough patch of road that overwhelmed AHC, is much better with tough dog (not pleasant, but not overwhelmed)
Not as harsh as my son’s OME kit, on a mostly stock vehicle.
Not quite as smooth as my son’s OME kit, on a middleweight “armored” vehicle.
The rear shock adjustments actually do seem to make a noticeable difference.
At “6” on the rear shocks feels pretty good with a full tank, starts getting a little harsh in the last 1/4 tank
Had to lube the Nitro UCAs a few times to get rid of a nasty squeak.
Zip tying the lines to the UCA on the Nitro, seems kinda cheesy compared to the SPC or Total Chaos mount
A few instances of unexpected understeer at times with 2.5” of rake
To be honest, I thought a number of people around mud, whine a bit too much about trying to “level” a 100 series, but going from 1” of factory rake (R=20.5 F=19.5) to ~2.5-3” of rake (R=23 F=20.5) looked and felt ridiculous.
Drivable, but really doesn’t feel 100% “right”.
Between fuses, connectors and Techstream, I got to figure out that disconnecting the the bottom 2 plugs to the AHC ECU make the dash “happy” without irritating the VSC ECU.
Cranked torsion bars to 21.5”, rake ~1.5”
Front ~21.5” Rear ~23+”
~23” at full droop for 1.5” of droop.
Drivable, and looks "cool", but really really doesn’t feel 100% “right”.
Of course the ride went to s*** without enough droop, created some odd ATRAC behavior in daily driving, and all of the other usual “not enough droop” problems.
Talking with Reevsci, who, if I understand correctly, was seeing a substantial amount more “max travel” at 24.5” on his vehicle, with the 53mm “Ralph” version of the shocks. It seems that the 41mm shocks, while valved correctly for my lightweight vehicle might be a little short to go with the 2” springs in the rear.
It seemed that I had the option of either dropping the rear with some shorter springs, or trying to get a little more droop by running the longer (but stiffer) shocks in the front. Logically, having a pair of OME 865 springs in the garage, dropping the rear made the most sense, but using my “Tim the toolman” logic, I placed an order for the 53mm shocks, which are not recommended for a lightweight vehicle like mine.
After spending a few weeks tweaking and tuning, my current configuration is:
Just Differentials Nitro UCA
Trail Tailor Extended Sway Bar Links
Trail Tailor Diff Drop
Tough Dog Torsion Bars
OME Nitro front shocks
OME 2865 rear springs
Tough Dog 45mm Adjustable Rear Shocks
~21.5” in front and just under ~22.5” in the rear
~23 5/8” at full droop in front for ~2 1/8” of droop
Rake is currently slightly less than an inch
The ride is nearly as smooth as AHC in the 3rd setting.
The Tough Dog rear shock adjustment really does work.
The (front) OME Nitro Shocks really don’t seem overly stiff in the current configuration.
The front and rear seem to be working together instead of fighting each other.
Drivable, and does feel “right”
My current thoughts:
If you're adding the Tough Dog or similar kit to a mostly stock vehicle, I'd go with the shorter (1.5") rear springs, and shoot for around 20.75" front w/ stock UCA or around 21-21.5" with aftermarket UCA depending on shock length. My life would've been much simpler and the process much shorter with the 1.5" Tough Dog springs, 41mm front shocks and keeping the front at ~20.75-21", but I was "hard headed" and had to have that last 0.5-0.75" in front.
If/when I add more weight, I may need to reinstall the Tough Dog rear springs and/or 53mm front shocks, but until then, this configuration will do just fine.
