'94 truck build, the Toy

[Acorn]

Oh, that happens with them sometimes. I wanted 235/85-16s for my truck but that size was backordered for like 4 weeks or something so I had to get the 265s I have now. I was in a rush because one of my tires had literally exploded on the freeway and I was driving on the spare. It wasn't a treadwright tire that blew up, just a really old tire that I should've replaced

on that note, I discovered that re-treaded tires are available locally, however they're not road legal here, I'm wondering if treadwright tires would conform to Canadian law. I believe this calls for research!

so more on research, they might be legal, might not be, can't really tell but I can't see why they wouldn't be... but the local re-treads are not road legal...


anyway, getting back to suspension, does anyone have experience dealing with rocky-road.com?

and are OME shocks really $90 each? or do they come in 2 packs?

 

[tanglefoot]

I purchased my OME springs and shocks through rocky road. They had good prices and shipped quickly--no problems. Ooh, I just looked. The prices have gone up, haven't they? I guess I got mine about 5 years ago though. Yes, I think that's the per-shock price. :Wow1:

I'm sure there are other options for shocks. I tried the Rancho RS-5000 and RS-9000 before the OME's and found the Ranchos to be overly stiff, even with the 9000's on the "1" setting.

 

[Acorn]

so I just snagged a pair of original toyota aluminum rims for my truck's year for $200, in pretty good condition. Now comes tires...

I went to another local shop and got a really good quote of the BFG KO's ($960 mounted and tax in) but for about $60 to $90 more ish I can get the BFG KM2 D:

or I could just get the goodyear duratrac... so many choices!


as for local terrain, there's a lot of clay east of town, so I could make use of the KM2's however, I'm a little worried about their daily drive meal etiquette... which makes me lean still toward the duratracs

on a side note, with even more weight in the back, the suspension still feels like a brick so its definitely time for new springs

 

[tanglefoot]

Are you sure you don't want to try unhooking the shocks to check for suspension motion before you replace springs? Mine has a pretty stiff ride with the shocks on but with them unhooked, I could bounce the rear end all over the place by hand. You can also try driving with just one rear shock and see how it feels. It's not as scary as it sounds. We had a rock take out one shock on a road trip once--the difference isn't that big.

With tires, one thing you might consider is snowpack grip. Most all-terrains have nice grip on snowpack--they have a lot of sipes and biting edges. Mud tires can have a hard time gripping snowy roads. They're better than they used to be, but they just can't match the control of A/T's. A lot of people swap out their mud tires in the winter. I think the Duratracs look like they have quite a few biting edges--they probably do better on snowpack than most mudders.

 

[Acorn]

I actually have my own dedicated snow tires for this time of year, come snowfall I just change tires so its not that big of deal, and its actually legally required now to drive snow tires in winter

such as the Cooper Discovered, which are the tires I currently have on the truck. Couldn't handle the weather without em . But biting edges are good on snowpack, but useless on ice, and sadly we get far too much ice here once it flashes between -10 and +10 in a day or two.

on a continuation of your observations, the goodyear duratrac's are actually a rated snow tire, so in all technicality, I wouldn't have to change out in the winter. The previous owner had the BFG KM mudders on which were great in deep snow, but lacked performance on the roads, hence the winter tire change.

 

[Acorn]

got some updated pictures, and a look at the suspension. I know its pretty hard to see, the ground is still cold and its a pain to crawl under my truck in this weather, but I'm still iffy about the springs being worn out. Does anyone recognize those blue shocks?







yay for dialup friendly

 

[lt1fire]

looking forward to the build as i'm trying to convince my brother in law to start modding his 91 V6 ext cab

 

[Acorn]

So I got some work done on my truck, tuned it up, put on new tires and I was going to take new pictures for the board this weekend on my way to Raven Lake British Columbia... Not the brightest move I made. About 4 KM's off the highway I ran into snow and got stuck half way up a hill, being forced to back up I started sliding sideways into the ditch and one of my back tires caught a drain pipe that happened to be the only one in the road and I rolled my truck onto it's side. My winch saved my bacon when it came to puttin the truck back on it's feet, bit of damage to one side and I got out with no serious injuries, but there's a little blood in the cab now, that and I'm missing a window on the passenger side. I'll post up what pictures I got, I'll save the Canadian rockies for a little later this summer.

BTW, I finally know why CB radios are absolutely invaluable! and why I should own one... yeah I had to hike back to camp

PS. Oh yeah, I did manage to figure out my springs are totally shot, they're completely useless and I'm going to be ordering new ones as soon as I can afford it, this rollover puts a damper on my already very tight budget sadly...