ATN OFF ROADERS! Perfect Rocky Point Off Road Vehicle - 256k Beware!

I wanted to write this post for a while now after the Boo Bar Poker Run 2020. There was a gentlemen that I did not get a chance to meet before the 2nd stop that wanted to talk to me about my Toyota Tacoma. The gentlemen had just purchased a first generation Toyota Tacoma and at the first stop he came over to talk about our trucks and what I've done to mine to make it an excellent Rocky Point off road fun run vehicle. Unfortunately, I was talking to a friend when he came over so my girlfriend told him that I would find him at the next stop to chat. Well, before the second stop the truck broke (my fault not the truck) so I never got a chance to field any of his questions or educate him on anything he was interested in. I suspect the itch caught him when I passed him in some really rough stuff and he saw what our trucks are capable of with a few changes. I feel there's many people who want something fun without having to get fully invested in a SXS (side by side) Can AM or Polaris for $25k plus the need for a trailer and such. Although those vehicles are extremely reliable and very capable there are still a few downsides in my humble opinion. For some the SXS's are just what they need. For others, they enjoy creature comforts, like AC and Heat and of not having sand/dirt hit you in the face and all down the cracks of every part of your body. Breathing fresh air will cost more in a SXS too because of the necessity for an air filter/pumper system which can only be used with a helmet.

I also want to start this post for others to post about their vehicles and set ups. Even SXS's are welcome! The one thing this forum has never had is a dedicated page to off roading in and around RP. Post up trip pics, vehicle pics, vehicle specs, suspension set ups, power adders ANYTHING off road related. I suspect there are a fair amount of users that can participate in this forum thread. Rocky Point has always been a fishing/off roaders get a way!

Ok! Let's get this started.

As they used to say on the forums in the early/mid 2000's ------------------ 256k BEWARE!!!!!! --------------------------------------

First Generation Toyota Tacoma 1996-2004

My vehicle: 99 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner SR5 3.4l V6 with a 3 speed tranny w/ electronic OD. Electronic locking rear diff.
Engine: 5vzfe, K&N cold air intake and throttle body spacer. Throttle body has been ported. Doug Thorley Headers, Flow Master 40 exhaust
Suspension: Front - Solo Motorsports 3.5 Long Travel Kit, 8" King Race Series Coilover Shocks with resis, limit straps.
Back - Custom Long Travel by Mexico Joe. Custom bed cage/upper shock mount, custom boxed lower shock mount, Ruff Stuff axle perch, Ruff Stuff Spring Under Plate, Ruff Stuff U Bolts, Ruff Stuff Spring Hanger, Ruff Stuff Shackle Hanger, Deaver F55 Leaf Springs, 14" Bilstein 7100 shocks with 255/70 valving, custom Mexico Joe 9" shackles.
Body: Front - Glassworks 3" Fiberglass fender, front pre-runner tube bumper with 1/4 aluminum skid plate. Back - Fiberwerx Fiberglass Bedside 3''.
Shoes: 35x17x12.5" Toyo Open Country AT Tires on 17" Mayhem wheels
Lights: 55w HID Headlight, 2 Rigid Industries LED Pod spot lights near hood/A pillar, 4 LED front grill lights (1,200 Lumen per light). Strobe box for grill lights.

I have personally done all of the work myself. This is my poor mans off road ripper/fun run vehicle for RP!

Front: Completely bolt in. No fabrication work required.







Back:

I had just completed the work on the back of the truck the night before we left for the Boo Bar Poker Run 2020. Here is a detailed guideline to how I made the rear set up.

First: I had to cut all of the stock Toyota suspension geometry off of the truck.
Second: Start measuring and marking for Long Travel suspension geometry. There are plenty of write ups on how to go about calculating and measuring the new geometry. I can link my Tacoma World page below for detailed information. I knew the new geometry had to be 53.5 inches from the new leaf hanger eye to the new shackle mount eye location.

First we had to fully weld the RUFF STUFF parts that come pre-bent.

Next, I tacked my new hangers and shackle mount to my new 53.5" distance.

After all the new geometry is tacked in to the frame rails we need to set the pinion angle of the 3rd member and driveline. Toyota uses a double cardon joint in the driveshaft between the front and rear shafts. Because of this you want the u joint and line angle to be straight. Set the pinion angle accordingly at ride/drive height. Tack the spring perches in and next we have to cycle the suspension.




Stock Toyota spring perch on top for the stock spring OVER set up.

New Ruff Stuff below with the Ruff Stuff spring UNDER plate too...

Ruff Stuff Spring Under plates

I had to make my own shackles too. You can obviously buy everything but I like to save money and I enjoy working with metal so I opted to make my own. I essentially semi-copied a known companies design and theirs run for $350. I made my own for $20 and my time.

These are my first gen MexicoJoe 9" shackles. I re-made them to fix some error after the Boo Bar Poker Run... more on that later.

Unfortunately this entire process involves a lot of putting parts on, taking them right back off for days at a time to get everything built correctly and to ensure accuracy.

In saying that, I did all of this from a wheelchair for 21 straight days to make the BOO BAR POKER RUN. It's hard work but PIMPIN AINT EASY!

In order to get the pinion angle correct and the spring under perches tacked in the correct spot we had to put the new DEAVER F55 LT springs on the truck assembled. Spring under plate, everything in place with shackles hanging. If we're confident in our placement, tack the new spring under perches onto the axle which is shown in the picture above.

Now we need to disassemble everything we just assembled and take it off the truck. We then need to break down the leaf pack to just the main leaf. Now, with the main leaf put it back on the truck and using a piece of wood to simulate the other leaves put the whole assembly back on the truck using the spring under plate.

Now we can cycle the suspension to see how much wheel travel we're going to get, where our axle is at full bump (full compression), full droop (full extension) and our pinion angle at three stages of the suspension cycle, bump, ride height and droop.

Pinion angle at ride height

Pinion angle at full bump

Now you can see that as the suspension cycles upward the pinion angle also rotates upwards. The u joint needs to stay within 4 degrees of alignment between the line coming into it and the line going upwards that the 3rd member is on. Although the difference was only 3 degrees in this first assessment I decided that I wanted less error ratio an opted to cut the tacks off of the spring under perch and adjust accordingly rotating the pinion angle down a few degrees at ride height to ensure the pinion angle at full bump isn't as severe.

New pinion angle at full bump

Now that we have that squared away we can burn (fully weld) the spring perches in to the axle. I opted to leave everything tacked until the very end then I finish welded everything at once.

Now more measuring and shock placement.

Now that we've cycled the leaf spring we know how much wheel travel we're going to get and can start looking at shock placement.

Old shocks fully extended are nearly the same length as the new LT shocks fully compressed!

ORALLLEEEEEEEEEEEE

Comparison shot of DEAVER F42 stock replacement (mid travel) springs vs DEAVER F55 LT Spring Under Axle springs

Working on lower shock mount location and logistics

Initial placement idea...

Hand made MexicoJoe lower shock mounts

Decided to scrap the original idea and go all the way official with a little bed cage upper shock mount. The bed cage ties into the Toyota frame at two different spots on each side respectively. The cage is made from DOM .095 wall tubing. This is two fold system that strengthens the back of the truck by tying in both frame rails together while providing the upper shock mount for the shocks.

Holes had to be cut into the bed to allow the shocks to protrude through.

Now all we needed to do is box the upper shock mount and cut tacks off of the frame rails so we can pull the cage out and fully weld and paint it.

Also up next is installing the bump stops pictured above at the bottom of the picture.

4" poly bump stops added.

At this point the old stock Toyota spring over perches have been cut off of the axle. The leaf packs have been put back together and everything has been fully welded.

The bumps hit the axle in the exact spot they used to which is where the stock Toyota leaf perch was that I cut off. The bumps now contact the axle tube directly above the spring under perch that I welded on.

This is before I cut the stock Toyota brackets off to make room for the new poly bump.

4" between axle tube and frame rail at full bump. About a half inch of shock shaft still showing to compensate for the poly bump "give".

Had to install an extended length brake line to the rear. No pictures taken unfortunately and limit straps.

In review, the cycle of the suspension at full droop, the axle tube is 21" from the frame rail. At full bump the axle is 4" from the frame rail. That gives us 17" of unstrapped wheel travel in the rear of this truck. Excellent numbers for a decent desert truck. I installed the limit strap to compensate for give. The limit straps will stretch 3/4 to 1" to my understanding so I strapped the suspension down travel (extension) to a total of 16.25 to start compensating for the stretch. In theory once my limit straps have stretched I should be getting close to 17" of usable wheel travel.

Boo Bar Poker Run 2020

Nice write up! Looks like a lot of great work was put behind your rebuild. I always thought about doing the poker run in my Jeep TJ but was never to sure about doing organized off road events. I usually get off road to get away from people. Sounds like a lot of fun though.

Kelney said:

Nice write up! Looks like a lot of great work was put behind your rebuild. I always thought about doing the poker run in my Jeep TJ but was never to sure about doing organized off road events. I usually get off road to get away from people. Sounds like a lot of fun though.

I would rather go without the other cars so we can go at a faster pace but when or if you break it's nice to have the others for help and support. One of the reasons why we don't go out exploring more. I think a couple of cars is the middle ground. Peace of mind but still somewhat isolated.

Thanks for the breath of fresh air on this brain dead site with your new post Joe!

As an over the hill boomer who happens to be a hard core racist white man who just loves other white people (females only), I do 100% approve of your work, intentions and photography. I will be holding my breath for the day when you try to pass me in my Ford Raptor out there in the El Desierto Altar at 100 mph. slinging fist sized bits of gravel into my already horribly self inflicted rock pitted/ cracked windshield.

As I mentioned in my last post we have temporarily relocated our off-road weekend ops to the area between Yuma and Gila Bend both south and north of the I-8 hwy. This weekend we will be raptor-izing north of the hwy from the old WW2 Geo. Patton training camp at Horn then up to the Palomas Mountain range to seek out members of the newly planted and recovering Sonoran Pronghorns just south of the King of Arizona mining area. From what I have read in the old-timey western stories they are the most excellent ready to bar-be-cue meat of all north American game.

Since all FUSA.Gov military operations on the US Army Proving Ground, US AF Goldwater and USMC range operations are on a total standstill, now is the perfect time to get out and appreciate OUR OWN LANDS, if you have the vehicle to do it! In the past six weeks we have never been approached by those asshole guardians of our own property.

When we do make contact with the Border Patrol we just TELL THEM where we are planning on going. Most of them are only concerned with well armed Mexicans leading groups of fifteen or more Chinese Fucking Wetback Soldiers that are now infiltrating our country from the southern border by the hundreds every day now. Any of you out there within reading distance of this really need to know these Chink Bastards are not screwing around. We are at war with them! They mean business and you are only a minor hic-up in their plans.

I'll get you an update upon returning to my compound later this weekend.

JJ

Great write up! I did the poker run in 2018. i saw your truck out there I believe but I did not realize it was you. I was clunking around in a blue jeep XJ
hope to make the next one!

Very well planned and executed. Photographer even did a good job

fasteddy said:

Great write up! I did the poker run in 2018. i saw your truck out there I believe but I did not realize it was you. I was clunking around in a blue jeep XJ
hope to make the next one!

We've done it 3 years in a row now. It's a great way to see some of the desert and beach north of town without taking the risk of getting stuck or stranded if you went out exploring alone. We only have 2wd so driving in some of the deep sand and other parts of the run I wish were a little faster paced but it's fun nevertheless!

Jungle Jim said:

Thanks for the breath of fresh air on this brain dead site with your new post Joe!

As an over the hill boomer who happens to be a hard core racist white man who just loves other white people (females only), I do 100% approve of your work, intentions and photography. I will be holding my breath for the day when you try to pass me in my Ford Raptor out there in the El Desierto Altar at 100 mph. slinging fist sized bits of gravel into my already horribly self inflicted rock pitted/ cracked windshield.

As I mentioned in my last post we have temporarily relocated our off-road weekend ops to the area between Yuma and Gila Bend both south and north of the I-8 hwy. This weekend we will be raptor-izing north of the hwy from the old WW2 Geo. Patton training camp at Horn then up to the Palomas Mountain range to seek out members of the newly planted and recovering Sonoran Pronghorns just south of the King of Arizona mining area. From what I have read in the old-timey western stories they are the most excellent ready to bar-be-cue meat of all north American game.

Since all FUSA.Gov military operations on the US Army Proving Ground, US AF Goldwater and USMC range operations are on a total standstill, now is the perfect time to get out and appreciate OUR OWN LANDS, if you have the vehicle to do it! In the past six weeks we have never been approached by those asshole guardians of our own property.

When we do make contact with the Border Patrol we just TELL THEM where we are planning on going. Most of them are only concerned with well armed Mexicans leading groups of fifteen or more Chinese Fucking Wetback Soldiers that are now infiltrating our country from the southern border by the hundreds every day now. Any of you out there within reading distance of this really need to know these Chink Bastards are not screwing around. We are at war with them! They mean business and you are only a minor hic-up in their plans.

I'll get you an update upon returning to my compound later this weekend.

JJ

Chinese solders huh? Damn, I must have missed that story on OAN.

We went out this weekend on Easter Sunday to go camping at Sheep Bridge. Never had been there before. It was awesome until the truck wouldn't start 20 miles into the wilderness in the Verde River valley. Had to get towed out by a Ford F250 indestructible 7.3 turbo diesel. Before we were all the way out of Horseshoe damn while we were being towed and because I had no brakes we slid into a 4 foot ditch and stuffed the front of the truck so hard into a wash wall that I was certain I had destroyed the lower arm, coilover, front bumper/skid and radiator... Got out and saw that the front bumper took it like a champion and nothing had one dent. The lower arm hit with so much force that it pushed in the back CAM ALIGNMENT TAB like 2 or 3 inches inward toward the center of the vehicle so now the geometry is so fucked you can't drive. Had to get tow home. What a horrible day and half.