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Good point.

It should be a matter of cost. You can buy a cheap leaf spring SAS kit for many Toyotas, and it takes only a few days to install it, front and rear, but you definitely get what you pay for. A quality solid axle swap with a custom axle housing, RCV's, ARB's, regeared diffs, properly...

220 is not the end of the world for a late model (after 1995) Toyota. I like the 3RZ (2.7L 4 cyl) over the 5VZ (3.4L V6) for a few key reasons. They make about the same horsepower, they are smaller and lighter, they have a timing chain vs timing belt and there are a good amount of aftermarket...

It's cheap too. Unless it's a total rat, $4000 for that truck is a bargain.

That's a great story with a good moral to it. I'm going to use that one sometime if you don't mind. It's true that the best judge is one's self and when you start questioning the original plan, all bets are off. Oh, and I'll call you when it's done!

Thanks! I'll have to remind my customers that only I am allowed to question my judgement. I used to work at Robert Mondavi Winery as a sous chef and we used to joke that the job would be the best if we didn't have customers. Meaning, if we were left to our own devices and allowed to exercise...

In theory, yes. In reality, I have not seen many drop bracket lifts that I would use on my own truck, but honestly, I have never owned a truck with a drop bracket so I can't speak from experience. My engineering mind at work tells me that there's got to be a better way.

I'm not saying lifts are a bad thing, just that it's a slippery slope. Bigger tires = lift and gears. When you're re-gearing a diff, why not throw in a locker? Now that you've got a locker (or two) why not dual cases? Wow, look at this cool truck with gears, lockers and dual cases...with stock...

That's the thing about the Rubicon, there are no single tracks for bikes. It's like a ballet trying to stay on top of all the rocks. I've never done it on my trials bike because it doesn't have a seat, but one of these days, I'll get a seat for it. I think that bike, with BMX like handling...

Updates soon. Been working on the bed and it's coming out just the way I wanted it. I hope the customer agrees.

Form follows function period. Not just here on ExPo. I build off-road vehicles for a living and I would never lift anything that didn't need it, ie- my Dodge 2500 tow rig. I would also never lift a trail rig any more than is required to get the job done. Beauty comes in the form of a well...

Have you ever ridden the Rubicon on a dirt bike? It's much easier in a 4x4. Sure, you can do the whole trail start to finish and back again in under 4 hours on a bike, but you're still sore a week later.

Yeah, good point. If you're not married to the '92, sell it and buy a '96 or so Tacoma. You can get a nice one for $5000 these days. Then, if you want to use the gear driven case, buy an adapter and put in the RF1A transfer case. A solid axle swap on a Tacoma costs about the same as on a '92...

I've done two 4.3 TBI swaps and I am not impressed. For the effort involved, a Toyota 3RZ or 1UZ or 5VZ would be better choices. Yes, I think a 3RZ would be a better swap than a 4.3 TBI. Now a 4.3 Vortec is a different story. Still the same weight (heavy) as the TBI 4.3, but tons more...

Thanks guys. Have the tail lights and the pump coming, going to pick up steel tomorrow for the deck (they don't deliver way out here...). We decided on 1/8" diamond plate steel. I know, this thing aint gonna be light, but strength trumps weight in this instance.

Don't forget the oil and nitrogen. And if you don't have a nitrogen bottle or regulator, that's another hit. It's not free to be able to tune your own shocks.

Started on the bed. The customer gave me some criteria: Had to be flat Needs to hold a 100 gallon tank Headache rack Steps in sides of bed Since it needed to be flat (as in, without fender cutouts), I had to figure out the height. I worked backwards from the ride height and then subtracted...

Exactly that, except the razor is a razor sharp disc spinning on the spindle of a motor. It works much like a lathe but you can adjust the pass to make a crown on the tire tread instead of going flat across. It is a race car thing but adapted for race car use from big rig tire technology.

U-joints are OEM only in my book. Most things you can replace with aftermarket, but nothing is better for a Toyota driveline than a factory OEM Toyota joint

I used to run a tire cutting machine at a race tire shop back when I was a kid. Shaving a tire is not only common, sometimes it's the only way to get a tire totally round. I agree with you about the center diff though. Splitting hairs.