Wanted: New TOYota 4Runner

[Haku]

I'll agree with most that its worth buying a built rig and just go wheeling. I've spent a ton of time and money building my crawler.

Not sure I would qualfy the FJ80 axles as "1 ton". Yes, the rear is full float, but its uses a 9.5" ring and pinion but is much small then a Dana 60/Sterling/14 Bolt. That said, its plenty strong and can be found with an elocker. The front is definitely not a 1 ton, as it uses the same 8" ring and pinion size as the 4runner's and Pickup's, just in high pinion instead of low/mid.

There are options beyond finding a donor axle, and its a good way to go these days. If you are going to SAS something and want it to be easy, as much as I'm not a fan of everything they do Trail Gear has some good SAS kits for various years of 4runner. Some of them come with absolutely everything you need including a fully built axle and suspension and the stuff to retrofit.

IMHO though, unless you are set on big tires and want to get full offroad performance, adding some upper a-arms and getting good shocks to match goes a long ways towards making it a very capable vehicle without having to sacrifice on road handling. If you go 1st gen 4runner too, there are some cheap ways to do a Long travel independent suspension too. That is the route I'm probably going to go with my "spare parts" rig.

Lots of tradeoffs in this world....just gotta figure out which ones are important to you.

[dieseldoc]

Hell shannon camboll has won K.O.H. a few time with a IFS buggy.....

The front FJ80 axle may use the 8"ring an pinion but the mini truck bells could dam near fit in the FJ bells!
Slee offroad in golden does tons with the FJ series

[Haku]

hahaa....several have won and been in the top ten of the KOH with that setup....but we are talking 18-20" of travel and $25k just for the front suspension. You can do an "everyman" version of it and get 12" pretty easily though. The ring and pinion and axle shafts are pretty weak in anything over 33" tires with the Toyota IFS though.

I'm rocking an upgraded FJ80 axle in my crawler. Longfield axles, Hellfire Knuckles, Full Hydro steering, etc. Its a great setup and its working great so far, but its not a 1 ton axle. The bigger stronger shafts just move the stress to a different place, which in this case is the ring and pinion. I decided to go this route and sometimes wish I built a Dana 60 instead, but the trade off is a smaller lighter axle that has awesome steering angle but you just can't hammer down on it. I agree that its a great donor axle for a swap into one of the newer Toyota's, and they aren't impossible to find now either. Yota Jim's usually has at least one in the yard and there is a crazy russian guy that has a pile of FJ80's too, which is where I got mine from. Surprisingly, its actually lighter weight then the Mini-truck one but is better designed not warp and twist IMHO.

In an ideal world I would get a Diamond Axle with FJ80 bells and a Toyota 9.5" ring and pinion for the "Ultimate Toyota Axle". You could go even crazier and try to find a 10" Ring and Pinion out of a 2nd Gen Tundra too, since they are starting to get aftermarket support now too.

[dieseldoc]

The amount of options are huge for sure.