'94 truck build, the Toy

[Acorn]

so I recently bought myself a 1994 Toyota pickup, the predecessor to a tacoma. I've been driving the truck for a few weeks now to get a good feel for what its already got, and trying to figure out what I need to do to it.

My biggest concern in regards to overlanding is my suspension, which is insanely stiff. After a good 6 feet of snow here the roads got pretty bad, and rough. There was more than once that I had to drop below 30 KM/h just to maintain control of the back end, if I ran speed limit, my head was smashing off the cab of the truck, mostly due to the back end.

the previous owner has put airbags in the back suspension, and has replaced the shocks with some unknown blue coloured chunk of something that I don't feel works very well. Now, My truck has very little suspension travel as is, is there anyone out there that's experienced with this kind of vehicle? the front suspension feels okay, but the back end just bounces on the slightest of rough terrain, which scares me when thinking about going over light rocky terrain or rutted logging roads.

 

[woodeye]

First it is a pickup so the rear is lite. Second put some weight in the back
especially for the winter, which will help with bouncing and traction.

and third we need pictures because most of us are visual learners

Woody

 

[Toyotero]

First it is a pickup so the rear is lite. Second put some weight in the back
especially for the winter, which will help with bouncing and traction.

and third we need pictures because most of us are visual learners

Woody

When I lived in Colorado I saw that in winter a lot of people put 2 or 4 bags of sand at the back end of their bed to add some weight to improve traction.

Take some photos of your springs... perhaps the PO has put some cheap add-a-leafs under there or something. It doesn't sound like it's equivalent to a stock setup.

 

[Acorn]

oh shoot, totally forgot pictures, I'll get on that.

also, as for the sand bags, its super common where I come from (Northern British Columbia) so I've already got 4 bags in there, each one weighs maybe 70 to 90 lbs, so I have a lot of weight in the back. Even with a full load, it just feels like its either got incredibly stiff shocks, or its bottoming out of everything.

judging by how it the ride feels way softer if I fill my airbags, I would say something is worn out, but when the sun is up tomorrow, and I'm not risking frostbite by going outside, I'll take some pics xD (-27 C with windchill, and that's warming up.... yaaaaay)

 

[tanglefoot]

Hey, get that "Tacoma" off your posts--that's a "Truck" and it's proud of it! :sombrero:

That's strange that it's softer will the airbags full, that's for sure. If the temperature rises a little, one thing you can try is unhooking one end of each shock and have someone bounce the back end while you watch the suspension. Some shocks are extremely unforgiving. It could also be something strange--I had a friend with an '81 truck with a siezed drive shaft slip-yoke. I really like the ride and control of the OME shocks on a leaf-sprung Toyota. You could try a pair of those. You could also make sure the spring shackle bolts aren't over-tightened or you have any overly-tight spring-pack clamps. I like to pry open my spring-clamps some.

Eric

 

[Acorn]

Hey, get that "Tacoma" off your posts--that's a "Truck" and it's proud of it! :sombrero:

That's strange that it's softer will the airbags full, that's for sure. If the temperature rises a little, one thing you can try is unhooking one end of each shock and have someone bounce the back end while you watch the suspension. Some shocks are extremely unforgiving. It could also be something strange--I had a friend with an '81 truck with a siezed drive shaft slip-yoke. I really like the ride and control of the OME shocks on a leaf-sprung Toyota. You could try a pair of those. You could also make sure the spring shackle bolts aren't over-tightened or you have any overly-tight spring-pack clamps. I like to pry open my spring-clamps some.

Eric

there, I changed it. It is a little bit of an odd truck, I'm trying to get a little more history from the previous owner, but it was nipping cold outside today so I didn't get around to taking pictures.

I've heard a ton about the EMU shocks, kits, and other things, and I'm really tempted to get into that. I don't want to see any higher lift on my truck, but some kind of side step would be sweet.

Also on my list is tires, I might be able to snag BFG mud-terrain T/A KM tires for $500, but they're 32's on 16' rims, a touch oversize for my truck, but acceptable. Also on my list aft BFG ko all terrain tires, and the Goodyear wrangler Duratrac tires. THis is primarily a DD and weekend explorer, not a mudder or dedicated offroad rig, hence the hesitation for a more aggressive tire.

 

[Martinjmpr]

That's funny, I call the 89-95 trucks "Pre-Tacoma's" too.

Is it the 3.0 or the 22r engine?

 

[red87]

I have an 87 pickup (identical front suspension and slightly shorter leafs than your truck) and the best I've found for suspension is ball joint spacers up front and OME shocks all around with the OME leafs in the rear. I have the heavy shocks and the regular weight leaf springs. My truck is PLANTED on washboard roads even at higher speeds, 50 mph+. I'm not super impressed with the ride quality but I think that's more a result of me comparing it to CYi5's 4Runner. Its got UCAs, DR coilovers, OME springs and ICON rear shocks, AKA VERY nicely built. Compared to stock though, my truck is much, much better than it used to be.

 

[corax]

. . . the ride feels way softer if I fill my airbags, I would say something is worn out, but when the sun is up tomorrow, and I'm not risking frostbite by going outside, I'll take some pics xD (-27 C with windchill, and that's warming up.... yaaaaay)

sounds like the rear bump stops are getting a work out. If they're the original springs and the PO had airbags put in, I'd say it sounds like alot was being hauled and the springs are just worn.

I'll also recommend the OME springs. If you're worried about rear ride height, you can always take one of the really short springs out (like I did), but 1"-2" or lift isn't terrible anyway. If it bothers you, just raise the front a little bit with the torsion bar adjusters to make it a bit more level

 

[Acorn]

once the weather warms up a little I'll go outside and take a bunch of pictures, but I think this summer I'll be putting in an order for the OME suspension parts.

Does anyone have experience with the Flippac from adventure trailers and know if it would fit my truck's box? its what I'd really like to get for camping, that or a camper made by a company called 4x4campers located down south in Vancouver, but probably the flippac to retain the box's usefulness.

and its not that I'm afraid of lifts, I just don't want to jack it up 16" and stick 38
" mudder tires on it! 1 or 2" is acceptable, but my front end has already been tightened to get a little more life I think.

Oh, and someone asked if its the 3.0L or 22RE and its the 3.0L. 334000 km's and it doesn't burn oil, I'm very impressed. Then again, my last car had 620000 km's on it and it ran like a clock

 

[BIGGUY]

I had a '90 Excab pickup. I had a little bit of a problem with the rear end being bouncy with the stock suspension when empty and eventually changed out the stock shocks for some Rancho 5000s which helped some. Later I wore out the rear leaf springs and needed to do something different. I added heavy duty torsion bars up front and some heavy duty springs from North West Off Road out back. I can't remember what shocks I had. This gave me about 1 1/2" lift. I had the stock sized 31" tires in BFG ATs. I had a lot of problems with the back end wanting to pass me on rough roads when it was empty. I ended up running the air pressure in the tires a little lower, around 32psi, and that seemed to help a bunch. I also had a 90 4Runner that would do the same thing. There were a few times when I had the trucks serviced and they bumped the air pressure up to 38-40psi and on the way home I would pull off onto a dirt forest service road and it wouldn't take long as soon as I hit the rough wash board surface that the truck became a handful.

I used both of my trucks for daily drivers, camping, hauling stuff, and I did the Easter Safari in Moab 9 years on some of the harder trails, 7 in the pickup and 2 in the 4Runner. I ran BFG ATs on them and had good luck with them. The lowest mileage I got out of a set was 56,000 miles and the highest was 66,000 miles. I normally replaced them around 64-65,000 miles.

 

[4Rescue]

Step 1: Put sand bags both OVER the wheelwells and at the back of the bed (best mechanical advantage to get the suspension cycling)

Step 2: Figure out what springs are in back and IF THEY"RE NOT Old Man Emu, Alcan or maybe Dever's REPLACE them adn the shocks with OME units or Bilstiens (ome's are cheeper and work wonderfully IMO)

Step 3: Enjoy a whole NEW truck from a driving standpoint...

The air bags are mostly going to limit suspension travel unless you're hauling heavy loads. I can sort-of understand them being stiffer or bouncier when deflated because the air-bags (when full or part-full) will act as a second shock absorber and spring that may cancell out the bad quality of the main suspension. As stated above. Old Man Emu proved they're worth to me time and time again on VERY hevily abused Landcruisers I drove in Australia and the springs/Shocks have been BRILLIANT on my 4Runner. In terms of cost-value they can't be beat IMO. My rig had the original Toyota Leafs on the back and I don't think it's even a mild exageration to say that ALL they're old springs were not made to last very long or with any load applied. Could be the PO used his up then tried to band-aid them by adding Air-Bags and cheap-o shocks. THat will only get you so far, remember in a leaf-sprung truck, the leaves are your whole connection to the body of the truck. Like a bent or bad control arm will screw up a linked/coil suspension a bad set or even single leaf (esp. a main leaf that's not Millitary wrapped) can really throw your suspension out of whack.

Hope you get it sorted mate, sounds like you've got a great truck in need of some minor TLC to get her back into health eh.

Cheers

DAve

 

[Acorn]

I do really like my truck, the manual transmission shifts great with a little stiffness, interior lights are shot, tail light needs to be replaced, some body rust, it needs a little love, but I can't wait for the summer.

I just tracked down some goodyear Duratrac tires too

as for the shocks, I've got blue ones on there from the previous owner that were apparently replaces last january, so just over a year ago. The springs are pretty much guaranteed stock due to the sheer amount of rust and wear on them, I've been looking at some of the EMU springs actually.

my only problem right now is figuring out how to get EMU parts all the way up here...

 

[red87]

once the weather warms up a little I'll go outside and take a bunch of pictures, but I think this summer I'll be putting in an order for the OME suspension parts.

Does anyone have experience with the Flippac from adventure trailers and know if it would fit my truck's box? its what I'd really like to get for camping, that or a camper made by a company called 4x4campers located down south in Vancouver, but probably the flippac to retain the box's usefulness.

and its not that I'm afraid of lifts, I just don't want to jack it up 16" and stick 38
" mudder tires on it! 1 or 2" is acceptable, but my front end has already been tightened to get a little more life I think.

Oh, and someone asked if its the 3.0L or 22RE and its the 3.0L. 334000 km's and it doesn't burn oil, I'm very impressed. Then again, my last car had 620000 km's on it and it ran like a clock

I actually have experience with that too. It'll fit your truck just fine and I'll include a pic or two so you can see. These were taken with 265/65-16s and OME medium springs.

 

[4Rescue]

LOVe that truck of yours Red87...

ACorn: I'm SURE that you can find an OME distributor up there. The American base of opps. is in Seattle so they're not too far away. Know in advance that you'll want the greasable bushing kit ut YOU DON'T NEED the front hangers. I found that out the hard way once I already had them. You will notice a major diff. once or IF you go with the OME. I know I sure did. SOOOOO Let's see some Pictures of this sweet new truck you've gotten yourself. I know I and others can't wait to see it. Always good to have another Toyota to gawk @ eh I never get tired of looking at them eh...

Cheers

Dave