2005 Tundra novice build - "The Rez"

[marathonracer]

I found a first gen tundra with 133k miles. Having a hard time deciding if I want to make that move!

I’m not a very handy guy,
do the first gens typically require a lot of work?
I’d like it to be my main overlanding vehicle / cross country part time living rig.

I would not be afraid of a 1st gen with that mileage even if you aren't "handy" set some money aside for maintenance and you will be good. These trucks don't need much usually if they are taken care of...timing belt/wp and LBJs every 100k then little things every so often. There are many threads touting the advantages and our cultish love for the 1st gen and the 2uzfe. No 1 truck is going to be perfect for every situation and person but for me it's been the perfect truck with some compromises.
...now back to our regularly scheduled build thread.

 

[murphdawg]

Love this build man! I've decided on a 1st Gen for my build. Now I just gotta get home from Afghanistan and begin the search for the truck! We have very similar taste and I enjoyed your write-ups. Hopefully sometime soon I can contribute to the 1st Gen culture. Keep up the good work brotha!!

 

[2scars]

Love this build man! I've decided on a 1st Gen for my build. Now I just gotta get home from Afghanistan and begin the search for the truck! We have very similar taste and I enjoyed your write-ups. Hopefully sometime soon I can contribute to the 1st Gen culture. Keep up the good work brotha!!

Just get home safe bro.

 

[Kpack]

I found a first gen tundra with 133k miles. Having a hard time deciding if I want to make that move!

I’m not a very handy guy,
do the first gens typically require a lot of work?
I’d like it to be my main overlanding vehicle / cross country part time living rig.

Like has been said earlier, a lot of this depends on the actual truck you get. One that has been well-maintained and documented will be less expensive and more reliable. I was totally uneducated when I bought this truck and had no idea what to look for, so I ended up having to do a lot of work to it. It eventually became another hobby of mine, so that worked out, but it did end up costing way more than it would have if I had been more diligent on the front end.

Timing belt and water pump are the main thing. Lower ball joints are the other major item. If those two are new OEM replacements, then most everything else on the truck is pretty solid. You will need normal maintenance items, and more so because it is an older truck. Just count on that. The 2UZ-FE is a pretty solid engine and parts can be found everywhere for it.

I would not be afraid of a 1st gen with that mileage even if you aren't "handy" set some money aside for maintenance and you will be good. These trucks don't need much usually if they are taken care of...timing belt/wp and LBJs every 100k then little things every so often. There are many threads touting the advantages and our cultish love for the 1st gen and the 2uzfe. No 1 truck is going to be perfect for every situation and person but for me it's been the perfect truck with some compromises.
...now back to our regularly scheduled build thread.

100% agree that no truck is going to be perfect at everything. My truck is all about compromises. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but is capable at many different things. Overall I like where it's at, though I want to tweak some stuff here and there to dial it in.

Love this build man! I've decided on a 1st Gen for my build. Now I just gotta get home from Afghanistan and begin the search for the truck! We have very similar taste and I enjoyed your write-ups. Hopefully sometime soon I can contribute to the 1st Gen culture. Keep up the good work brotha!!

Glad you've enjoyed the thread so far. I've learned a lot from many people and hope that my experiences will be helpful to others. Get home safe and then I hope to see your build thread on here.

 

[migx333]

Like has been said earlier, a lot of this depends on the actual truck you get. One that has been well-maintained and documented will be less expensive and more reliable. I was totally uneducated when I bought this truck and had no idea what to look for, so I ended up having to do a lot of work to it. It eventually became another hobby of mine, so that worked out, but it did end up costing way more than it would have if I had been more diligent on the front end.

Timing belt and water pump are the main thing. Lower ball joints are the other major item. If those two are new OEM replacements, then most everything else on the truck is pretty solid. You will need normal maintenance items, and more so because it is an older truck. Just count on that. The 2UZ-FE is a pretty solid engine and parts can be found everywhere for it.


100% agree that no truck is going to be perfect at everything. My truck is all about compromises. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but is capable at many different things. Overall I like where it's at, though I want to tweak some stuff here and there to dial it in.


Glad you've enjoyed the thread so far. I've learned a lot from many people and hope that my experiences will be helpful to others. Get home safe and then I hope to see your build thread on here.

Thank you guys for the replies!

Helped me tremendously and ease my worries about the trucks reliability/maintenance for being a 15 year old truck

I found a tundra that has all service records that only has 105k miles.
Although hes asking $17k for it :\
It has been in one accident, although apparently it was minor, carfax doesn't show any airbags deployed or anything.

My game plan is to just own both trucks for a few months and put the other up for sale when I've made a decision. I'm just hesitant to pull the trigger on this 2005 Tundra 4x4 limited as I don't want to pay too much for it. $17k is a bit too high, although it does have very low mileage what do you guys think?

 

[Kpack]

Just went out and measured a couple of things, because I was curious as to where my #700 springs are at right now.

Uncompressed length = 14"
Installed length = 12"
Length with truck weight (ride height) = 10"
Length of threads showing = 1.5"

Now I'm really wondering what #650 at 13" will look like. According to Icon, the max preload on the #650 13" is 2.375" of threads showing. Not sure if I can get my ride height on the lower spring rate.

So with the numbers I wrote above, is it possible to tell how far I'd need to compress a 13" 650 lbs spring? I found a shop that will swap the springs for me but I'm trying to figure out a rough estimate on how far to screw the upper nut down on the lower rate (and shorter length) spring. If at all possible I'd like to retain my current ride height without hitting coil bind.

 

[Kpack]

Went ahead and had a local shop swap my 14" 700 lbs King springs for the original 13" 650 lbs Icon springs to see how the lower spring rate felt.

The ride is much better, I can run over most bumps in the road without really feeling them. I'm so used to the #700's though that the truck almost feels soft now.

The front is definitely lower. At least 0.5" to 1.0" on both sides. I have them cranked down as far as Icon recommends (2.375" of threads showing). So will getting a longer spring fix this? If at all possible I'd like to keep the 650lbs rate, and get my ride height back. I've read so many things on springs that it's just all a jumble in my head now.

 

[toyotech]

This is based off what little knowledge I have about springs.

Your original set up with 700lbs
Basically what the lbs mean is that much lbs to compress 1”. It will take 700lbs to compress the spring 1”

Since you had 2” preload. Which equals 1400lbs per side. Giving you 2800lbs of preload required to maintain the lift you wanted.

Switching to 650lbs would mean you need your 13” spring to be at install length of 10.85” to get you close to 2800lbs to maintain your previous lift.

What a longer spring gives you is the ability to compress them more before they bind.

650lbs can ride smooth since now it only takes 650lbs or 1300lbs if weight you front to make it compress. Reason why I say it can is because if you have to much front end weight than the 650lbs isn’t enough than the ride becomes bouncy.

It’s a compromise between street and off road. Obviously on the street you don’t need that much spring to maintain a smooth ride but in the dirt you could bottom up and bounce a lot more.

This is where adjustable resi can bring it all together giving you a good compromise between street and dirt just buy adjust the valving


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[Kpack]

This is based off what little knowledge I have about springs.

Your original set up with 700lbs
Basically what the lbs mean is that much lbs to compress 1”. It will take 700lbs to compress the spring 1”

Since you had 2” preload. Which equals 1400lbs per side. Giving you 2800lbs of preload required to maintain the lift you wanted.

Switching to 650lbs would mean you need your 13” spring to be at install length of 10.85” to get you close to 2800lbs to maintain your previous lift.

What a longer spring gives you is the ability to compress them more before they bind.

650lbs can ride smooth since now it only takes 650lbs or 1300lbs if weight you front to make it compress. Reason why I say it can is because if you have to much front end weight than the 650lbs isn’t enough than the ride becomes bouncy.

It’s a compromise between street and off road. Obviously on the street you don’t need that much spring to maintain a smooth ride but in the dirt you could bottom up and bounce a lot more.

This is where adjustable resi can bring it all together giving you a good compromise between street and dirt just buy adjust the valving


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Thanks, that's kind of what I was thinking. I talked to Accutune this week and provided them with all the measurements they asked for. I was hoping for more of a concrete result or recommendation from them, but it seems like their lead tech was out this week. I also put in a call to Icon to try and get some numbers from them (block heights and such) and they were less than helpful.

In the end I decided to try out some 14" 650 lbs Eibach springs from Accutune to see if I can get back my ride height. If those don't work out they offer free spring swapping, which I will take advantage of and get 14" 700 lbs Eibach's instead. I expect that the Eibach's will likely be better than the King's. Plus my King's are pretty thrashed.....the coating is flaking off all over and rust is beginning to form.

 

[coastiehawk]

Holy ********, I just spent hours binge reading this thread!! Love the build man!!! I'm chasing down a lot of the same vibe issues you have had and this thread has given me a ton of ideas on what directions to go next! I'm also about to go see Billy next weekend and get my BFF bumper and sliders installed!! I'm really curious on which springs work for you. I'm currently running Toytecs with 700# springs and it rides rough, hoping the extra weight will help smooth it out, but overall I haven't been to happy with them. I also recently picked up some brand new Fox 2.5's with the Eibach 650# springs on a deal I couldn't pass up and am planning on switching to those, but I'm not sure if the 650# spring rate will handle the weight and give me the ride height I want Thanks for all the great write ups!!

 

[Kpack]

Holy ****, I just spent hours binge reading this thread!! Love the build man!!! I'm chasing down a lot of the same vibe issues you have had and this thread has given me a ton of ideas on what directions to go next! I'm also about to go see Billy next weekend and get my BFF bumper and sliders installed!! I'm really curious on which springs work for you. I'm currently running Toytecs with 700# springs and it rides rough, hoping the extra weight will help smooth it out, but overall I haven't been to happy with them. I also recently picked up some brand new Fox 2.5's with the Eibach 650# springs on a deal I couldn't pass up and am planning on switching to those, but I'm not sure if the 650# spring rate will handle the weight and give me the ride height I want Thanks for all the great write ups!!

Glad you found it all useful. That's why I took the trouble to document the build....so that it would hopefully help someone else as they go through the same stuff I did.

You'll really like the BFF stuff. I've been very pleased with all of mine. Well worth the money.

I've made the swap to 14" 650 lbs Eibach springs and have been testing them out over the past week. I still haven't tested a few things but overall I feel like they ride better than my 14" 700 lbs King's ever did. Speaking with Accutune, they mentioned that Eibach is a superior spring to King. I was able to get my old ride height back (still need to adjust just a tad), though I had to preload each side 0.25" more than what I did with the 700 lbs springs.

• 14" 700 lbs King
  • Preload = 2" Drivers (spring at 12" length when installed. 1.5" thread showing), 1.75" Passenger preload
• 14" 650 lbs Eibach
  • Preload = 2.25" Drivers (spring at 11.75" length installed, 1.75" thread showing), 2.0" Passenger preload

They are definitely more compliant than the Kings were. I've taken sections of road and freeway that were exceptionally rough before, and now they feel much smoother. This is no passenger car though. It's still a truck, and a 15 yr old truck at that. It's just never going to be as smooth as a passenger vehicle. E-rated tires don't help much either. I need to take it on some washboard and see if I run that without having to air down every time.

While going through flex tests with the new springs, I'm realizing that I'm probably way short on my factory bump stops. I'll take some pictures and post more info to get some feedback on.

 

[KTempleton]

So with the numbers I wrote above, is it possible to tell how far I'd need to compress a 13" 650 lbs spring? I found a shop that will swap the springs for me but I'm trying to figure out a rough estimate on how far to screw the upper nut down on the lower rate (and shorter length) spring. If at all possible I'd like to retain my current ride height without hitting coil bind.

I was running 650's with bumper and winch. I couldn't get the front end up. We literally almost have the exact same truck except for bumper. Even with the 700's i felt I was sitting too low. I took the winch bumper/push bar thing off and its been so freakin nice.

 

[Kpack]

I was running 650's with bumper and winch. I couldn't get the front end up. We literally almost have the exact same truck except for bumper. Even with the 700's i felt I was sitting too low. I took the winch bumper/push bar thing off and its been so freakin nice.

The 14" 650 springs so far have been able to get me my lift back. I'm going to wait a bit longer before I do a final adjustment and level. The springs sagged initially after the first day or two. The 700's kept my truck level easily, but they were just so rough.

 

[blueranger501]

Crazy our trucks are so different. Kings with 2 1/8 and 1 7/8” and it’s level and rides great with a King 14” 700 lb (to me). Trip to Mexico next week and will report back. You have a winch yes?

 

[Kpack]

Crazy our trucks are so different. Kings with 2 1/8 and 1 7/8” and it’s level and rides great with a King 14” 700 lb (to me). Trip to Mexico next week and will report back. You have a winch yes?

Are those measurements the thread showing or actual preload (free length - installed length)?

Yes I do have a winch. Total front weight of bumper and winch is probably 220 lbs, give or take a bit. Stock skid plate, no plans for full under armor anytime soon. Full-length sliders probably add another 100 lbs or so, but that's spread equally between front to back. Rear has the high clearance bumper with swing out and full size spare. Plus I keep at least 120lbs of sand in the bed to soften up the rear. Eventually I want to look into getting some of Archive's leaf packs to give a better ride, but I don't need the additional lift. I'd have to do longer rear shackles to drop the lift back to where it is now.

I really don't know why all of our trucks vary so widely in ride height/ride feel. I haven't driven another modified Tundra, so I really don't have anything to compare to besides reports from everyone else. For whatever reason my truck always seems to have a lot of jiggle and aftershock. It was far worse with the 700 lbs springs. Better with the 650 lbs springs, but not 100%. I don't know that I'll mess with it anymore than I already have. These trucks aren't new, and the suspension geometry probably wasn't designed with lifted applications in mind. Add to that there may be other things contributing to "roughness"...worn cab mounts, weak frames, etc. Who knows. But whatever the case is, I love driving and using my truck. It has never let me down and is surprisingly capable.

-Kevin