Though we are busy building out the new location, our Cloverdale store will remain open until the end of January. If you're looking for Christmas gifts, want one last visit to the original location or want to speak to someone about your dream build, please pop by for a visit. The team would love to see you!
We can't thank you enough for your continued support, that has allowed us to make this move and we look forward to serving you better in 2024!
More details to come.
-o2 crew
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-o2 crew
]]>Overland Outfitters is looking for a new team member! If you want to join a fun, energetic, and passionate group of people, helping customers build out awesome Toyota vehicles, then this might be the opportunity for you. We are looking to bring in a Shop Advisor!
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If you are interested in applying, please send your resume and cover letter to braeden@overlandoutfitters.ca. We will only be contacting those who are chosen for an interview, but we do appreciate anybody who decides to throw their hat in the ring!
Thanks for your interest, and hope to hear from you soon!
]]>I’m here to set the record straight. After installing many many sets of 35” tires on Tacoma’s over the years, as well as even larger tires up to 40” so far, I feel qualified to talk about this topic with real experience.
One thing that I’ve discovered is that most people have different opinions on what “fully clearanced” means. This even includes different companies and shops claiming that their “kit” will let you clear 35’s if it’s installed, when, in fact, it’s just one small piece in the puzzle. I’m going to start off with what I consider to be the 3 “levels” of clearancing for any size tire larger than stock, not just 35’s:
This means that you can run these tires on the street, and have no rubbing until you hit a big enough speed bump or curb, but at normal ride height, the tire clears through the entire steering angle from lock to lock.
This means you can take your truck off the pavement and start hitting regular dirt access roads with potholes, bumps, dips, and mild obstacles. Your tires will clear through around 85% of the available suspension travel with full steering input in either direction. However, if you hit a big enough G-out or bump, you will still rub somewhere.
This is the big daddy of clearing larger tires. This means that you can hit the biggest bumps or holes, as fast as you like at whatever steering angle you like, and you won’t rub your tires ever. Go ahead, jump your truck, or flex it out, no problems.
This is for the people who are serious about off-roading and pushing their vehicles as hard as they can, using the full amount of suspension travel available to them.
Before I get into the guide, I want to clarify one more thing. I am talking about fitting tires with a standard bolt in suspension kit, which means no drop bracket kits. Drop bracket kits move the suspension pivot points and change the geometry. A drop bracket lift will make fitting larger tires easier as far as body clearance goes, but they are not very good for offroad, as they are weaker, don’t improve ground clearance, and raise your center of gravity. This guide will be completely centered around bolt-in suspension kits, however, it may also apply to many long travel kits, though these kits may require some additional work to make 35’s fit because they usually allow additional up-travel.
So with all of this in mind, I’m going to walk you through all of the ins and outs of clearing your 35’s at each clearance level. This is going to be a comprehensive guide and will give you different options for each clearance level. If you want, you can skip ahead to the clearance level you’re looking for. I will also include a list of terms and definitions at the end of the article, so if you come across a word or term you aren’t familiar with, check there.
So we will start with the easiest clearance level: The street. This will allow you to drive around town without rubbing, unless you hit a particularly aggressive speed bump or curve.
The biggest challenges when clearing tires at ride height are going to be clearance at the cab mount, lower firewall, frame, and upper control arm.
There are several factors that will make a big difference about how easy or difficult it is to clear 35’s at this level:
When you are just trying to clear your tires for the street, each of those factors will make a big difference to how much needs to be done to be able to turn your wheels lock to lock.
Wheel width and offset are going to have big impacts on your scrub radius. The wider your wheel, and the more it pokes out, the more clearancing will be required to steer. As scrub radius increases, the wheel is pushed further out, which brings it closer to the firewall and front of the wheel well as you turn. However, if you choose a wheel without enough offset, the tire will be too close to the UCA and might even rub on the frame.
Tire width/size/tread is an obvious one. The wider and taller the tire it is, the harder it will be to clear. A 35x11.5” tire will be easier to clear than a 35x12.5” tire. Tread also affects the size, as more aggressive mud tires usually have a more square profile, and larger side lugs which can lead to rubbing. Most tire companies seem to use a different measuring tape, as it is very rare to find a tire that actually measures out to it’s rated size. A 35” tire is typically closer to 34.5” when fully inflated. A 315/70R17 is basically the metric equivalent of a 35x12.5” tire. It is closer to 34.6” tall and 12.4” wide, but honestly, that’s around where a 35x12.5” will measure out to as well.
Your ride height is also going to have a large impact on how easy it is to clear your tires at this level. The higher you lift your truck, the easier it will be to clear the tires. However, the con is that your ride quality will get worse the higher you lift as well, as you are decreasing down travel, as well as typically running more preload or a stiffer spring to achieve that ride height. My personal recommendation is to keep your ride height between 1.5-2.5” of lift over stock height. This will give you the best balance of suspension performance and tire clearance, as well as keep your COG lower.
Your alignment is able to affect tire clearance by moving the LCA forward or back. The hardest place to get clearance is at the cab mount and firewall, so you can use your alignment to move the tire forward by close to .75”. The problem with maxing out your caster at the LCA is you are twisting the rubber bushings in a way that they weren’t really designed for, and it can wear them out quicker. If you are mostly just driving your truck on the street though, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue.
So to get your 35” tires to clear for the street, I would suggest choosing a wheel with a moderate offset, around -12 to -18 should work well. This pushes the wheel away from the UCA and frame, without getting too extreme and causing issues elsewhere.
From there, use a suspension lift of some sort, and increase your ride height by around 2-2.5”. This will give you a bit more room at ride height to steer, as well as give a bit more up-travel before you rub.
Once the suspension has been installed and ride height set, you’ll want to make sure your alignment is pushed as far forward as possible, without compromising camber.
Next up is cutting. For a street level clearance, you will need to get creative with cutting the front plastic and wheel well liner. A viper cut is an easy way to get the front bumper out of the way. If you already have an aftermarket front bumper you won’t need to worry about it.
At the cab mount, depending on your specific wheel/tire combo, and how much you are able to push your wheel forward, you may be able to get away with a simple aggressive cab mount chop. However, in my experience, this is not very likely, or you will find yourself rubbing the cab mount even over minor bumps while turning. The best way to make sure that the tires clear is to do a cab mount relocation. This is a kit that moves the entire cab mount back on the frame, leaving you with a lot more room than even the most aggressive CMC.
Hammering your pinch weld on the firewall back is a must. My favourite way to do this, is to take a sledge and just hit it towards the outside of the vehicle. Some people like to cut slots into the pinch weld, hammer it over, and then use a seam sealer. I’ve never found the pinch weld to be so hard to bend that cutting it was necessary.
Your fenders and flares will need to be cut in the rear lower section. Here, you can get your vehicle sitting on the ground so you know where ride height is at, and turn the wheels back and forth, cutting the body back until you can turn fully, lock to lock, in both directions without rubbing.
That is basically all you need to do to clear the tires for driving around the street. I would recommend putting sizeable spacers behind the bump stops to prevent your tire from going too high in the event that you do hit a speed bump too aggressively.
Don’t expect to never rub on the street, as there are lots of different situations that will compress your suspension while turning, such as turning into driveways, or hitting speed bumps, and dips in the road. This is just the minimum clearance level to be able to drive around without being embarrassed every time you turn a corner.
This is probably the most common level of clearance that people do and spout online about how they fully clear 35’s and never rub. The fact is, if this is all you do, you are still going to rub in several places when you push your truck a bit harder. In my opinion, if you aren’t pushing 35’s to the point where they are rubbing with this amount of clearancing, you probably don’t need 35’s in the first place. Harsh, I know.
Regardless, this is what most shops and people will be pushing as “fully cleared”, despite only really being cleared for around 85% of the available wheel travel. There are a couple different routes you can go to get enough clearance to drive moderate dirt roads and obstacles, so I’ll go over those here.
At this level of clearance, the factors that affect the tires fitting properly mostly stay the same as the street level clearance; Wheel and tire specifications are going to be a big part of it. One thing that does change is lift height. When you start making extra room, the lift height doesn’t make as much difference. Your tires should only rub in the last 15% of wheel travel, which means that you can run less lift, and still clear, you’ll just have a bit less up travel before your tires hit the wheel well.
Your fenders and flares are also going to become a problem if you want to drive on dirt. They simply aren’t big enough to fit a 35” tire, and if they aren’t cut back, the flares will pop off, and the fenders will get bent. The problem with cutting the fenders and flares back is that the wheel well liner loses all of its mounting points. This will allow dirt and water to spray all over inside of your wheel wells, and you will get a lot more dirt into your door hinges and engine bay.
The main issue with this though, is that your engine’s air intake is in the wheel well. Usually it is protected by the wheel well liner, but with that removed, it is left completely exposed.
As I mentioned, there are a couple of ways to go about clearing 35’s for dirt roads. However, no matter which way you go, you will have to cut your fenders and flares back. The amount you need to cut will depend on if you are in a 2nd or 3rd generation Tacoma. A 2005-2015 Tacoma is usually best to cut around 1.5-1.75” out of the fenders and flares, a 2016-2023 Tacoma needs 1.25” cut out.
Once you have cut out your fenders, you’ll find that you can no longer reinstall your wheel well liners. If you never drive through water, you can likely get away with just replacing your filter more often. However, if you live in an area with lots of water and mud, you are going to want to do something about it. To solve this issue, you can do one of the following things: relocated your intake with something like a snorkel. Even a cold air intake setup that moves the intake into the engine bay will be better than nothing. The other option is to replace the wheel well liner with something else, such as the C4 Fabrication Over Size Tire Fitment Kit.
I would also recommend some small bump stop spacers to keep your tires from smashing the wheel wells too hard, especially during hard impacts or g-outs. This will limit your up travel instead of your tire and wheel well limiting it for you.
Beyond cutting the fenders and dealing with your air intake, here are the different ways you can clear your 35’s.
The first way to get your 35’s cleared for most driving is to do some gentle persuasion. Try asking your wheel wells nicely if they could kindly get out of the way. If that doesn’t work, you can grab a giant sledgehammer and go for a more “brute force” method. Hammer the firewall back as much as you can. Depending on your wheel/tire specs, and alignment, you might juuuuuust get enough clearance at the firewall. You can go along the top of the wheel well and hammer it back as well, especially below the battery and washer fluid reservoir. I would recommend unbolting the reservoir before hammering, as you are likely to break the tabs that hold it in place. Post hammering, it may not fit back in properly anymore either.
Of course it goes without saying that a cab mount relocation also needs to be done. Even the most aggressive cab mount chop will still end up rubbing at full turn.
Hammering the firewall and wheel well will only give so much space before you actually start tearing the sheet metal though, and it won’t be enough for many wheel/tire combos out there. It’s also possible to get a couple leaks into your cab if any of the seams open up, or any tears happen. Using an automotive seam sealer can fix that problem.
The second option is very similar to the hammer method, but instead of smashing the firewall back, you cut out the sheet metal, and weld new plates back in. This is called tubbing. To clear a 35 for normal dirt roads, you can get away with a pretty minor tub job at the bottom of the fire wall. Of course you will still need a cab mount relocation done.
The third, and in my opinion best, option is to use the JD Fabrication lower pivot relocation kit. This kit allows you to move the entire lower control arm forward up to 1.25” in .25” increments. This gets you the space required to clear the firewall without any tubbing or hammering other than the pinchweld. You don’t even need to do a cab mount relocation, and can get away with a simple cab mount chop, unless you have an extremely aggressive wheel offset in the front.
This kit does a lot more than let you fit 35’s without tubbing the firewall though. It also replaces the weak lower pivot mounts and cam tabs with beefy .25” steel, so the front of your truck is much much stronger. Not only that, but the kit has a skid plate built into it that adds 2” of additional ground clearance under the engine compared to any bolt on skid plate set. If you’re into wheeling, you know that this is huge! It’s the same ground clearance gain as bolting 4” larger tires on your truck!
Of course, this kit comes with an additional cost, not only for the kit itself, but the labour to install it if you aren’t confident doing all of the cutting, grinding and welding yourself, because it is a lot! I believe it is well worth it though, even for mild offroading, because the upgraded strength and clearance will always be welcome.
After all this work, you can expect to drive regular dirt roads without any rubbing. If you end up hitting an aggressive g-out, big bump, or a very articulated obstacle, rubbing is still extremely likely. Usually along the top of the wheel well, especially the area just behind the headlights. You may also rub the end caps of your front bumper if you have an aftermarket bumper that doesn’t compensate for larger rubber.
You won’t know how amazing it is to drive wherever you want, as hard as you want, without ever even thinking about tire rub, until you’ve experienced it. Getting into a tough obstacle with the suspension fully articulated and your big 35’s stuffed into the wheel wells, then turning the wheel full lock to find traction, and never hearing the sound of rubber on metal is awesome. Or deciding to take your truck off a sweet jump, landing hard, and driving away like a boss without a single brrraaaapppp. It makes you feel like your truck is purpose built for this sort of thing, and that’s because it is. It is definitely a lot more work than what most people are willing to do, but it’s well worth it if you’re serious about off-roading.
When you’re fully clearancing 35’s on your truck, a lot of the factors that affect the other levels of clearance don’t really come into play. It doesn’t matter what height you set your suspension lift at, because the tires aren’t going to rub at any lift height. You could even lower your truck and they will still clear.
For your wheels, you don’t have to worry about having an offset that is too aggressive. The only thing you need to think about is making sure your wheels give enough space to the frame and UCA. As long as that is okay, you can go with any wheel you like, even if you like a lot of wheel poke.
One thing you’re going to want to take into consideration at this point is frame flex. The Tacoma frame is not especially well known for it’s strength, and you would be shocked at just how much the frame actually flexes when driving offroad. When you cycle your suspension to see where the travel limit is, you can expect another 1.5” of movement just in the frame flex on hard impacts. Keep that in mind, because you don’t want to go through all of the effort and expense of getting your tires to fully clear, only for them to just rub under heavy compression.
For your bump stops, you can usually actually move your bump stops up a little bit, and gain a little bit of travel, depending on your suspension setup. You do need to watch out for your UCA contacting the inside of the wheel well, which can happen when going hard.
Again, there are a couple of options you can choose between to get 35’s to fully clear on your truck. Once again though, no matter which way you choose, you will need to cut out your fenders and flares. The same measurements as before should still work, but you can verify while doing the rest of the clearancing, and making adjustments as required. You will also still need to take care of your air intake as mentioned before.
To do this properly, the best way is to pull the coil off of your front shock, and remove your bump stops. This will allow you to jack up and turn your wheels fully in any direction and figure out exactly where the tire is going to hit. One thing I noticed having done this many times, is that you find a limiting point, cut it out, and think you’re done, only to then have the wheel move up even further and hit another area. You always end up needing to cut way more than you originally think!
The first option is similar to before with the tubbing. Once a cab mount relocation is complete, and you are able to cycle the suspension, you can start cutting out the firewall and wheel well as much as needed until the tire can be completely bottomed out at mechanical bind, and still turn the wheels completely in both directions. I usually then cut back another inch or so to compensate for frame flex. You don’t want to actually drive your truck with it able to hit mechanical bind, the idea is to setup your bump stops before mechanical bind occurs to save all of your parts. However, it can still happen, or your bump stops can fail, so it’s good to clearance as far as the wheel can physically go, plus enough to make up for frame flex.
Once you’ve cut back far enough that you are confident that the tire could never make contact, it’s time to weld in new sheet metal. You’re going to end up tubbing not only the firewall, but the wheel well too. This usually means something is going to need to be relocated, typically the washer fluid reservoir. You can kind of zap strap it in place, or you can replace it with a smaller container that fits in the area.
The second option is basically a combination of using the JD pivot kit to avoid tubbing the firewall. You are basically trading not having to tube the firewall (which really sucks to do honestly) with doing the JD kit instead. You would still need to do some tubbing in the wheel well below the batter/washer fluid reservoir, as well as a cab mount chop.
The JD lower pivot kit still has all the same benefits as mentioned previously, by increasing ground clearance around 2”, and being substantially stronger than the stock pivot points.
Yeah, it’s a lot of work to do correctly, but once it’s done, you never have to worry about tire clearance again, which is such a great feeling. You would be amazed at how much the Tacoma frame flexes under hard impacts, so clearancing well beyond the limitations of the suspension itself is necessary to have a truly rub-free experience on any terrain. It’s hard to describe how confidence inspiring it is to drive your truck hard off-road, and never hear rubbing; it really makes a big difference to the experience.
Of course installing 35” tires on your truck doesn’t just end at making them fit. There are a host of other considerations to take into account as well. Things like drivability, wear & tear, and strength are big factors, as adding larger tires increases the strain on the rest of your factory components. There are a few upgrades that I wouldn’t suggest doing 35’s without, and then a few others that may depend more on your driving style.
So a big one that most people will ask is about gearing the differentials for 35’s. Larger tires will add rolling mass and change the gear reduction that your vehicle’s engine and transmission were designed around. The effect is the truck feeling sluggish and like it lacks power. The transmission and torque converter will also be struggling more to spin the larger tires, which leads to more heat build up. This can be somewhat compensated for by changing the differential gear ratio.
I would recommend any 2016-2023 Tacoma to go to a 5.29 gear ratio. The stock gearing is already a little bit too high, so this makes up for it and will make the truck drive much better.
For the older 2005-2015 Tacoma, I would recommend a 4.88 ratio. You can go 4.56, but I personally find that 4.88’s drive much better, and the fuel economy is essentially the same between the two.
Your transmission does have an effect on what each ratio will feel like, as the gearing between the manual and auto is different, but I still feel as though these ratios are the best fit for either transmission.
When re-gearing your differentials, this is also the perfect opportunity to add front and rear lockers to your truck, which completely changes the capabilities of your truck offroad. You will be able to crawl up obstacles with ease that were impossible before. Especially when combined with a 35” tire.
With a larger tire comes more weight, and more leverage, which cause extra stress on the stock suspension components. Cam tabs, spindles, and shock buckets are all common failure points when running 35” tires. Here I will list out all of the modifications I would strongly recommend when going to 35s.
The stock spindles are especially weak on the Tacoma and 4Runner, and I would almost suggest this being a mandatory mod for 35’s, considering how easy they are to bend even with a 33” tire.
The cam tabs are another weak point of the Toyota suspension set up. If you installed the JD pivot kit, then you don’t have to worry about this, but if you decided to go a different route, then you’ll want to reinforce the cam tabs another way. I wrote a separate article on this specific issue.
UCA gussets are a very beneficial mod when running your truck harder, especially with 35’s. They double shear the ends of the massive UCA bolt, which drastically strengthens it, while also helping to reduce just how much the coil bucket flexes on impacts. It can’t completely eliminate it, but it does help a lot.
Again, if you decided to go with the JD lower pivot kit, you don’t need to worry about this, but if not, then the lower pivot mounts have been known to crack and tear under heavy abuse. The JD kit replaces these mounts entirely, but there are other kits out there that are designed to reinforce them.
Steering is such a crucial component of your truck, as well as one of the parts that takes the most abuse from running a truck hard with large tires, that it gets it’s own section. Blowing steering racks is common on Tacomas and 4Runners, but when you throw big 35’s on, it becomes inevitable. There are a few ways to deal with this when it eventually becomes an issue.
The first way is to just get really good at swapping racks, which is a big pain in the butt.
The Tundra rack swap is probably the best way to take care of the steering issues. A couple companies, such as Basikbiker, offer modified Tundra racks that can be installed instead of the OE Tacoma one. It is substantially stronger and can take a lot more abuse without blowing.
JD Fabrication also makes a slide rack setup for the stock steering rack, that reinforces the OE rack with some modifications. It is a good product that adds a lot of strength, but it doesn’t allow you to run rack boots, so if you drive in muddy or wet conditions a lot, then this is not necessarily the best option for you.
Your tie rods also become a weak link in the steering system. They can be upgraded in many ways, from tie rod sleeves made by W.A.R. Fab, to fully machined and heimed tie-rods. They can also be reinforced with double shear gussets at the spindle for added strength there.
Many people go for the big, visible upgrades that help them get up obstacles and drive faster, but many people don’t consider what all of the additional weight and speed do to your braking system. Big brake kits are definitely a valuable upgrade when your truck starts having a lot more mass and big tire leverage to keep it from stopping quickly. Upgrading your brakes to handle more heat and have more braking power is an important part of starting to drive your truck harder!
Hopefully this was a helpful article for you to make a realistic decision on whether 35’s are right for you, as well as how far you want to go when it comes to making them clear. I always suggest getting the most out of whatever modifications you do, which means fully clearancing everything every time. However, I also understand that not everybody uses their truck as hard as I do, or has the same feelings about what is really required for their driving style or terrain. That’s why I wanted to go through each “clearance level” and give a realistic expectation on what the limitations for each setup would be.
I also wanted to help clear the air, because I have seen many customers come to us asking us to clear 35’s for them, and then tell us how so-and-so shop does it easily, and wonder why it takes so much more work for us to do it. That’s because our definitions of “fully cleared” are very different based on our hands-on experience of taking the Tacoma platform to the very limit.
If you are interested in having 35’s, or really any oversized tire, installed on your Toyota, feel free to reach out to us and have a discussion about what level of clearance and supporting upgrades is right for you. We can also get you booked into our shop to get the work done, and have you out on the trails with confidence.
The five sets of shocks that we tested:
I was blown away. That’s the first thing I couldn’t believe is honestly how bad the Foxes are. They are the worst by far which never in a million years I would have bet on. They were the worst. They were in a category altogether.
Surprisingly, the Icon IFP, without the remote reservoir, is fine. I don’t sell much Icon but I think I’m going to have to start. I mean, it’s interesting but this is why we did it because we never would have sold Icons if we could avoid it but here we are eating our own words. I was completely wrong about them. I owe them an apology. It was killer for an IFP coilover. I don’t know what more you want out of it. There’s more to be had but if you go with one of the better of the two options we found, the difference starts to get really small at the top end.
I think some of the differences we did find were putting all these shocks on the exact same truck. Every single one’s a different length and body. The Icon is the longest of the bunch and the Bilstein is the shortest. The Bilsteins were the best performing ones. They’re all OEM fit 2.5 replacements. They’re supposed to be direct bolt-in replacements for stock shocks with stock travel so it’s weird. You figure you’d go to bump and that’s the length of the shock you can fit but apparently these guys have different ideas.
The shaft travel and body size on the Bilsteins are different from the Icons—an inch and a half difference in body. That’s substantial. Is it going to bottom out then, at least an inch and a half sooner?
Out of all the shocks, the Kings did leak a little bit of oil on one of the rear shocks which is not exactly what you’re hoping for with a brand new set of shocks—especially when you’ve driven for only two hours.
We also found that if we took the Elkas apart, there’s some seal hydraulic noise happening inside one side. I would quantify it as seal squelch.
In order of ride quality on the road—I would recommend the Kings for number one. I don’t understand why the Bilsteins are so soft. I’ve never had that with any other 8100 series platform, even other Tacoma ones I’ve done. I haven’t installed the new Gray ZoneControl Shocks and I wonder if they revalved it for the new part numbers because it is very soft on-road. A little too soft, in my opinion, which is the opposite of what Bilstein does for everything else. When we were driving these ones on the road, they had the most body roll of any of them. To the point that it’s too much—and we can handle a lot of body roll.
The Elkas, the Icons, and the Kings all have very similar on-road characteristics and I think they’re all pretty good. The Kings might have edged them out a little bit and then the Fox was like driving on rails. The thing didn’t move at all through the corners but then it also didn’t move at all when you hit a bump so your back was getting wrecked.
The craziest thing is that we thought that they’re all tuned for the same truck so it’s going to be pretty hard to tell them apart and in reality, they were all so different from each other.
For off-road, we figured out that the 8100s are the best but it isn’t really a fair comparison because 8100s are a five zone internal bypass-style coilover. They’re not actually bypassing the main piston—they’re working with the main pistons so you get that full-size main piston. It’s like having an air bump inside of the coilover but you can feel it engaged. They were very clunky off-road, where you could hear and feel everytime they engaged but the off-road performance was better than everybody else. They didn’t clang on top out. They just did their job.
The Elkas topped out the hardest. The Kings did as well, but they were similar to the Icons and the Foxes in that regard. We thought that the Foxes would have been one of the top brands but in reality they were really bad. Maybe there was something wrong with the ones we used because I know that everybody with this shock setup in their Tacomas will say that their Foxes are great.
As far as long term durability is concerned, this test was pretty short term and we were testing them out in the desert. Up where we’re from in Canada, we have a ton of salt on the roads and lots of rain so shocks definitely rust more than other places. We find the Elkas and the Icons, with their aluminum body, won’t rust at all. Actually, the Foxes have a new aluminum body series which is cool. It’s definitely something to consider if you’re in a salty environment but you might be making some trade-offs in longer term durability with an aluminum body. Maybe they wear out from the inside quicker so it’s hard to say at this point.
The other difference we found is that some of the hardware is weird on the top hats. This is just a Grade 8 yellow zinc bolt and then it looks like black phosphorus, which is an oxide and supposed to be fairly good. The stem mounts are a little odd. You’ve got a Nylock, the double nut system on the Icons, and then you have a Stover nut on the Bilstein. Then a Nylock on the King. It’s interesting that every single company uses a different system. The weirdest is the Icons with the lock nut. I haven’t seen that on a shock before.
Overall, this set of Icons were good and it’s very odd that the Icons are much longer than the rest. I think with this one, without extending your bump stops, you’re going to be smashing into that shock body. I wonder if that will affect longevity.
Elka is the only one that’s using a generic top hat so the top hat in this has a bunch of different holes and I’m assuming that that’s for different vehicles. They also have some holes going through the side that go through the other threads and it doesn’t seem really great to me. It seems like they’re trying to cut some costs which is fair from a business perspective but every other brand here has a top hat that’s designed specifically for the Tacoma. I think that’s a point for all the other companies.
It’s interesting that the reservoir size for all of these are completely different. None of them are the same length. You would think that with a shock like this that all the companies would arrive at the same thing. You would expect them to be the same length which they aren’t. Then the reservoirs and the shaft sizes are different sizes as well.
This was a crazy experiment. I’m so glad that we were able to do this and hopefully you get some value out of it. It blew my mind. See all the shocks that we’ve tested out and get a feel for where your money is going in a performance suspension setup.
Catch you guys on the trail!
]]>-o2 crew
]]>Where is the best place to start your overland build? It’s a great question! We get asked this all the time, and we have five mods that you should seriously consider upgrading your truck with.
Deciding What You Need
There are a million different ways you can build your truck, depending on:
So, every person you ask is going to have a different answer.
I’ve been there before myself, building my own truck, and have installed pretty much every mod you can do at this point, for better or worse. I’ve wasted so much time and money on mods that I shouldn’t have bothered with, as well as doing things multiple times just because I didn’t get the products that I should have the first time—so hopefully with that experience I can give you some mods that won’t let you down.
Starting Your Journey
I hear pretty frequently from many of you guys that you want to start taking your truck offroad—nothing too crazy, just want to stick to some dirt roads, some moderate obstacles or maybe a cross ditch or boulder. You don’t want to spend a ton of money, but you want a truck that’s capable, comfortable, and won’t break down all the time.
I say this a lot, but the first thing you should do before you start modifying your truck is just get out on the back roads and do the things you want to do! Your truck—totally stock—will go a surprising amount of places. I see so many people think that they need to do all these mods and upgrades before they can even go out onto a basic dirt road, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
A lot of people feel like they can’t actually go wheeling or exploring without a bunch of mods, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I even made a video about the top 5 mods you SHOULDN’T do—that’s how much I believe this!
Before I get into the list, if you find these videos helpful at all, a subscription goes a long way! But if you have commitment issues, I’m not offended, just a like or comment is amazing. I love reading what you guys have to say!
Anyway, on to the list!
The very first mod I would recommend is tires.
You want to decide right up front what size and what kind of tire you’re going for. An all-terrain, a mud-terrain, a small tire, a big tire—you want to make that decision right up front.
Despite common beliefs, you don’t need a lift to fit larger tires, you just have to be willing to do a little bit of cutting. And realistically, you need to cut whether you put a lift on or not. So you might as well just put the tires you want on it first—that’s what I think, anyway!
So up front, you want to decide whether you’re going for an all-terrain or a mud-terrain. I would recommend an all-terrain because they’re way quieter, more fuel efficient, and actually better on the road, which is where 90% of our driving realistically is.
If you’re building a straight off-road truck that you don’t drive daily, a mud tire is awesome, but not really necessary. I would also decide what size you want to go with right from the beginning, and then build around that. The bigger the tire you get, the more capable your truck is going to be off-road, but you’re sacrificing fuel efficiency, power, the strength of the components that are attached—so if you go too big, you start needing to do a lot of other work that maybe isn’t necessary for how you’re using your truck.
I would say a 33” is a really good compromise tire—it’s just big enough that you can go a lot of places and have good clearance and comfort, but without needing to get into re-gearing and crazy clearance and all that. Re-gearing will help with a 33”, but it’s not necessary. It’s totally manageable without a re-gear.
I know that this is really two mods, but I always lump them together because they go hand-in-hand.
As you start to go off road, you’re going to find yourself in places that aren’t exactly flat. There’s going to be rocks, trees, and all sorts of obstacles. If you’re the type of person who likes to push yourself and push your truck, trust me, you don’t want to be the guy who smashed in your door before you got sliders. It’s pretty embarrassing, and it’s really sad.
Skids protect your drivetrain, so they go under your truck. They’ll protect your engine, transmission, transfer case, and that will be great if you’re driving and you don’t see a big boulder, and you smash it—or a log or stick pops up that wants to gouge out your coolant lines or something. They just protect everything so you don’t even have to think about it anymore.
Sliders go along the side of your truck and they’re meant to slide on. So as you pivot around boulders or around trees, you don’t have to worry about smashing your doors or anything like that as you’re wheeling through obstacles.
I recently bought my first ever brand new vehicle, and I took it off-road—and I hadn’t remembered how bad stock suspension is off-road. Don’t get me wrong, you can go everywhere with stock suspension, but speed and comfort are not words I would use to describe the experience.
I’m not saying you should go out and buy insanely expensive suspension, but what I am saying is that you should be realistic about what your goals are and how you want to use your truck. Use that expectation to buy the right suspension the first time around.
There are really solid budget suspension set-ups that are really great for most people. The Bilstein 6112/5160 combo is one of our most popular setups just because it’s so good for the price range. I don’t think there’s anything better in that price range actually.
But if you want to start setting harder, going faster, doing more crazy stuff, then it’s not really going to stand up to what you want to do. It’s not going to have the right valving, they’re not rebuildable, all that kind of stuff. So you’re going to want to go with something a little bit better.
In my opinion, you should just save up that extra and go to the better setup if that’s what you see yourself doing. If you’re just driving some dirt roads, then the 6112s are totally fine and you’re going to be more than happy.
The key is to just be real with what you’re doing, and not do it more than once like I did. I think I’ve installed about six different suspension setups on my truck at this point, and it’s really expensive to do that!
One mod I really wish I had done earlier on in my truck modifying journey is the switch panel.
When I first started, I thought, “oh, I’m just going to do it the cheap way—these switch panels are expensive.” So I just put switches in. It was a lot of work to feed all the wires in, do all the dash lights, modify the dash to fit all the switches—everything like that. And then, as soon as I wanted to add something else down the road, I had to redo everything. Put the wires back through the firewall, do everything again, find another spot for a switch, and it was really a pain in the butt.
I wish that I had just bought a switch panel. You just put one panel through the firewall, you have your switches there, you have eight options, everything just gets wired straight into the fuse panel that you mount somewhere accessible like the engine bay by the battery. It makes everything so much easier, and especially if you’re paying shop labour, you will save money in the long run as you add more things down the road.
There are some really nice switch panel options out there. You’ve got the S-Pod or Switch Pro, and those are super high end and they have tons of fancy features like strobes and on/off and momentaries and all this crazy stuff that’s really cool if you want those features. But there’s also more budget options like the rebranded ones that you see everywhere that everyone sells, and they work just as good too. They just don’t have all the fancy features.
So depending on what you want to do, if you just need a switch that turns on and off, then those cheaper ones are great. If you want something that has a bit more functionality, then the higher end ones that are like three times the price are really nice.
A compressor is one of those things that’s just so handy that everyone should have one.
Especially because airing down your tires is a huge part of your suspension. You can air down and have more traction and a more comfortable ride, and when you’re back on the road and you have to air up, you don’t have to rely on your friends or on finding a gas station or anything like that. You can just air up right there on the side of the road by yourself. Self reliance—it’s amazing!
Another great thing about having a compressor is that you can fix a lot of small punctures that you get on a trail. You can just plug it with a tire repair kit and fill it up without even pulling the tire off the truck or pulling out the spare tire.
You can also use it to fill up your inflatable floaties for the lake or run lockers. Lockers should definitely be on this list too, but if you bought your truck with overlanding in mind, you probably bought the one with the e-locker option anyway, so you’re already all set!
I used to run a tank with my compressor, and honestly, I wouldn’t bother with that again. The tank just filled with water, and you have to be sure you’re draining it all the time (which I never did) and I don’t think it really speeds up the air-up time much, if at all. So I probably wouldn’t bother with the tank again if I were doing it all over again.
Like I said in the beginning, the most important thing is just to get out and have fun. None of these mods are essential to doing that—you can go exploring and get to a ton of crazy places without anything. They’re just going to enhance the experience.
As you get out, you’ll start to figure out where you’re being held back, where your truck’s limitations are, and you can upgrade from there. However, when you do start to modify your truck, try to think further ahead to where you really want your truck to be and then just go straight to that point.
Trust me, you can do it in steps, but it costs way more, it’s way more frustrating, and you’re never really totally happy with the performance until you get the thing that you were hoping for in the first place. Just spend the extra three months or whatever saving up to get to the point where you can get what you really want and it will be way better in the long run.
Don’t fall into the same trap I have. Just “buy once cry once”—it’s a saying for a reason. I have spent way too much time buying and crying and I still do it. I say that I’ve learned this lesson, but I literally do this all the time trying to go for the cheaper option. And it never works out. I really just need to pound this into my own head.
If you want to check out five things you SHOULDN’T buy, then check out this video, or if you want to see what I’m talking about when I say that I’ve literally redone things over and over a million times, I just started rebuilding my truck from the frame up. Like literally, just a frame, and I’m going from there, so check it out here. Hopefully I do everything right this time! Eighth time’s the charm, right?
]]>If you are selling, please bring a table or setup your tailgate, so it is clear what you have to buy. And we kindly ask that if you don't have anything to sell, please leave that space for people who do, by parking on the side streets (not in the lot).
This event will be held at our garage, but be sure to swing by the store for a one day in-store sale, that will be taking place (details will be release week of the event).
Look forward to seeing you there!
-o2 & the bc overlanders
]]>So you want to build your truck for off-roading! Cool! So what does that mean? There are a bunch of different kinds of off-roading, and none of them are really built anything like any of the other ones.
When you’re building your truck, what is the difference between an overland build, vs a prerunner build vs a rock crawling build? What makes each one so much better at doing what it’s designed to do? There are a lot of “overlanders” who think they are rock crawling, and there are even more rock crawling or go-fast guys out there thinking “isn’t overlanding just car camping”? There can definitely be a bunch of overlap between each style of build depending on how you want to use your truck, what the terrain around you is like, and what type of trails you enjoy hitting the most.
It’s funny to me because “overlanding” is often seen as offroading for nerds. And I totally get it. Overland builds are often pretty mild, some bolt on suspension upgrades, bumpers and a winch, then a roof top tent with a bunch of recovery gear bolted to the outside. (if you want to see my recommended build order for overlanding, check out the video up here ^ after this one is over).
Hard core wheeling guys make fun of the overland builds because of that, they seem to not really be built for “actual” off-roading, plus they look overly prepared. And that’s kind of the point.
An overland truck build is not made to hit whoops in the desert at 100km/h, or get up a 4’ ledge. They are designed to do multi-week long trips, driving hundreds of kilometers on pavement to hit a dirt road into the mountains, drive comfortably on those for another few hundred KM’s, camp in an amazing place, then head on to the next spot.
I don’t know of any serious wheeling truck, either rock crawling or prerunning, that you would want to do that with.
Overland builds will have larger, but not huge tires to keep fuel economy in check, while still being able to get over some trail obstacles, and drive a decent pace on dirt roads. There is a HUGE range in vehicles that people use for overlanding, from porches to unimogs, and everything in between. The type of vehicle you build, and the way you build it is going to entirely depend on where you are trying to go.
I hear all the time “Isn’t overlanding just car camping?” and it sort of is, but it’s a more fun word to say. “Car camping” doesn’t quite inspire the same thought of awesome views far away from the nearest paved road, at least in my mind. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
The prerunner guys will typically trailer their trucks out to the desert, because they run super high RPM’s on road, are loud, uncomfortable to sit in for a long period of time, have TERRIBLE fuel economy, and are otherwise purpose built for One thing only: Going very fast over very big bumps. Not to mention, the odds of breaking something that can’t be fixed in the desert is pretty high.
Prerunners are built with big power, and big suspension travel. Usually they are only 2wd, though 4wd is becoming more common. Race seats & harnesses, and a cage are pretty much mandatory as you get more power and suspension, because it’s pretty easy to land your truck on its lid at 80km/h+ the faster you start going.
Suspension is usually IFS in the front, with either beams or a-arms. Rear suspension will be a long travel spring under axle setup, or trailing arm 4-link setups. Front travel would usually be 16+ inches in the front and 18+ inches in the back, with 22-26” being very common.
We went to the desert recently in Ocotillo wells with the JD Fabrication guys to blast around the desert, and it was insane. The most fun I’ve had in a very long time. But after ripping around the desert for the day, it was back to the tow trucks, sleeping in campers, and then trailering home at the end of the day.
There are for sure people who drive out to a cool spot in the desert, and setup camp there, but they will have minimal gear because prerunners typically have minimal space, and are trying to keep their weight even so that they aren’t getting bucked over big hits.
The rock crawling builds are similar to a prerunner, where they often are either towed to the trails, or are driven there, but only over as short of a distance as possible. Rock crawler truck builds can range from relatively mild, to tube chassis truggies.
Rock crawlers are trying to get to places that nobody else can get to. 4wd, lockers, transfer case gear reduction, huge suspension articulation, and massive tires are the mainstays of a build meant for crawling. Usually you’ll see solid front axles and winches, with exocages on these kind of builds.
Typically a prerunner will have an internal cage because the smaller cage is a bit stronger, and the truck also looks a lot cleaner without a jungle gym around it. Rock crawlers, on the other hand, are basically using the cage as a giant full vehicle slider. The roof can slide along trees or rocks, the quarter panels and rockers are protected, plus they can roll over, then flip the truck back on it’s wheels and try again.
Rock crawlers roll pretty often, but at slow speeds, trying to get up super off-camber obstacles. While race seats and harnesses would be a lot safer, you need to be able to see the ground right under your wheels, and you just can’t lean out of your seat at all with a harness. That’s why most rock crawling builds will just keep the stock seats.
I would say that the biggest difference in design philosophy between a prerunner cage and a rock crawler cage is that a prerunner cage is meant to save the driver/passengers, while a rock crawler cage is designed to save the vehicle. I don’t know if that’s totally true or not, but it’s an observation.
Rock crawlers will often go on day trips to the trails then head home, but they will just as often hit a difficult trail, and then camp out for a day or two before heading home. They just will usually use a ground tent and more simple camp setup because having a low center of gravity is super important for the kind of obstacles these vehicles are built for.
So I hear you saying “but Braeden, I don’t fit into any of those categories, I do two, or all three of those things”. I hear you, and I understand. I also do all of those things, but the truth is, my truck can’t really do any of them very well.
When you try to compromise between 2 or 3 different styles of build, you inherently have to make compromises. Maybe you built a long travel tacoma with a rtt and camping gear on it, and like to hit the desert, and camp for a week straight. That’s awesome, but I guarantee you aren’t driving in the desert even close to how a dedicated prerunner does, PLUS your truck probably doesn’t drive nearly as nice on the highway as a milder truck would.
Or maybe you like to overland into really cool locations, and there are some pretty techy rock features on the way that you get up and over. That’s rad too, but you’re probably locking up the diffs, and possibly winching up sections that a dedicated crawler would drive over like it’s flat.
I’m also trying to build a truck that does all of these things, but my tacoma is loud and annoying to drive on the highway, with tonnes of body roll and terrible fuel economy. It’s also relatively slow in the desert, because it’s heavy, underpowered and doesn’t have the suspension travel or cage to really go fast. Then when I get to a rock crawling feature, my truck is too long, and the spring under leafs get hung up on rocks, and the front IFS doesn’t have forced articulation like a solid axle would.
I basically want a vehicle that doesn’t exist! Like an Ultra4 Truck that can do crazy rocks, go super fast over whoops, but with a roof top tent and a fridge and good fuel economy and on-road handling.
Everything is a compromise depending on what you want to do, and your build might not completely fit into any of these molds, but it will be a combination of certain parts of one or another. Maybe you don’t mind roughing it a bit more on the highway and at the camp site, so you sacrifice those things for a more capable crawling truck. Maybe you’d really prefer to cook a proper nice meal and hang out at a beautiful spot for a few days without rocks in your back, so you lean towards a more comfortable camping setup, and sacrifice all out truck capability.
There’s an infinite amount of ways you can build your truck, and that’s the beauty of this hobby. Your truck is like a statement of what you're into and where you like to go. And things change over time as well, I can’t count how many times I’ve changed the direction of my own truck build as I learn things and my interests change.
If you want to check out the day we spent having our minds blown in the desert, you’ll like this video, or if you want to watch us trying to tackle some of the harder rock crawling features we’ve tried, maybe watch this video! Hopefully this video helped break down the differences in builds and why each truck is built the way it is.
Overlanders get a lot of flack from the older styles of off-roading like the rock crawler guys or the prerunner guys, saying that they spend a tonne of money on their trucks, then just drive on pavement. But I know just as many rock crawler and prerunner builds that actually only live in their garage, and their hobby is more just building a cool truck than actually driving it.
]]>Hey guys, I’m Braeden with Overland Outfitters. You know what day it is! We are diving into another Frequently asked Friday, so let’s get FAFing about!
Today I wanted to talk about the pros and cons of steel vs aluminum armour.
First up I figured we could just talk about the general benefits and deficits of Aluminum and Steel.
There are a lot of different kinds of armour you can get, and the material that they are made out of matters more or less depending on which part we are talking about.
We’ll start with the front of the vehicle and work our way back!
So in the front you have the front bumper; Here, aluminum is great to save weight, but if you plan on winching a lot, or doing hard recoveries in the front, steel will be the better option. I had an aluminum front bumper on my truck, and I did bend it under a hard pull. However, the light weight is really nice, so if you don’t intend on abusing it, it could be a good option.
For the skid plates underneath the vehicle, the same general idea applies. If you plan on dragging your truck over rocks frequently, steel is definitely the better option. Not only are they stronger, but they also slide better. Aluminum actually tends to gouge and get stuck on rocks. However, if you just want skids to protect your vehicle from the odd accidental bad line choice, and don’t intend to really hammer them hard, aluminum can be a great option that will save weight.
Getting into the sliders, I would absolutely never recommend aluminum. I’ve seen steel sliders bend from heavy hits; so aluminum would stand no chance at all. If you want to use your sliders as a hilift point, aluminum won’t be able to support the weight of the vehicle either. Aluminum “sliders” are more like glorified side steps than actually useful armour. Not to mention, once again, that aluminum tends to gouge and get stuck on rocks, rather than SLIDE over them like they were designed to.
Finally, the rear bumper. I don’t know of many brands that offer an aluminum rear bumper, and that’s for a reason. If you ever want to use a built in hitch to tow a trailer or hold a bike rack or anything else, aluminum would not be up to the challenge. The rear bumper also sees the most abuse from getting dragged on the ground and over rocks frequently. Typically your rear suspension is able to handle weight better than the front anyway, so Steel rear bumpers are definitely the way to go for the back of the vehicle.
So basically, Aluminum is an okay choice depending on how hard you use your vehicle, and how often you are doing recoveries or dragging through rocks. However, the further back you go on the vehicle, the more sense it makes to use steel.
But that’s just what I’ve experienced running both aluminum and steel skids and front bumpers. I want to know what your thoughts are! Has Aluminum worked well for you? Or is steel the way to go? Let me know in the comments; If you liked this video, hit the thumbs up, and if you want to see more of our frequently asked questions getting answered, make sure you subscribe!
See you all in the next one! BuhBye!
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Hello all of you! This is Braeden again with another Frequently Asked Friday! Lets goooo!
Today I wanted to talk about Upper Control Arms. In our shop we only work on Toyota’s, so that’s what I’ll be going over here, but the same general information applies to most independent A-Arm front suspension.
So the upper control arm or UCA for short, is a part of your front suspension. In a double A-Arm setup, you have a lower control arm and an upper control arm.
Typically, you’ll find that people talk about changing their UCA when they are changing the suspension on their vehicle and adding lift. There are a few reasons for this!
The first reason to change your UCA is because, through the range of your suspension’s travel, your alignment changes, especially the Caster.
I’m going to make another video in the future about alignments specifically, but for now, all you need to know is that having a higher positive caster makes your steering more stable and turn into corners slower. Having a lower or even negative caster will make your steering very twitchy and your steering wheel won’t return to center as well. For off road, we usually try to aim for a caster somewhere between 3-4 degrees.
So as your suspension droops out, the geometry causes your vehicle to lose caster. The same applies to lifting your truck, which also causes you to lose caster.
A big misconception is that higher caster equals more clearance for big tires. This isn’t really the case;
What an aftermarket UCA does is move the upper ball joint out and towards the back of the vehicle. This increases the amount of caster you can get, while also adding back the camber that would be lost, correcting for the higher ride height. I recommend changing your UCA’s for 2” of lift and strongly suggest changing them for 2.5” or more. However, they are mandatory on many suspension setups for the next reason!
The second reason for upgraded UCA’s is for additional droop. Most aftermarket suspension kits, especially the high end setups, allow for more down travel than what the stock shocks can do. However, the stock UCA limits this travel for two different reasons. One; the ball joint doesn’t have enough range of movement, so it starts to bind; and Two; there isn’t enough room on the inside of the arm, so as the suspension droops out fully, the stock UCA will contact the coilover.
The third reason to swap UCA’s is for additional strength.
There are 3 main brands of UCA that we sell in our shop. We sell SPC, JD Fabrication, and Total Chaos.
SPC UCA’s are cool because they have a greasable ball joint that can be adjusted. This allows you to fine tune your alignment, as well as use your alignment to make more clearance for larger tires easier.
However, in my experience, if you wheel hard and are driving off road a lot, the SPC arms can’t quite handle the abuse. For most people they will work great, but for those people that are going quickly down rough roads on a very frequent basis, the SPC ball joints tend to develop play. I’ve seen them need to be replaced after around 9 months of hard use. Another brand, JBA, also has a similar issue, and I’ve replaced a lot of JBA ball joints because they wear out so quickly.
Total Chaos makes a very strong UCA. They use polyurethane inner bushings, and a uniball outer joint. If you’re going for strength, these are a solid option. However, depending on where you live, they might not be the best choice. Here in BC, Canada, we get a lot of rain, and harsh winters with salty roads. The exposed uniballs on the TC arms require a lot of maintenance and care to be kept running smoothly in those kinds of conditions. The poly inner bushings also tend to squeak a LOT. We have a hard time recommending the TC arms to any of our customers, or for anybody that lives in a similar climate to us.
JD Fabrication makes a really great UCA. They have 2 options, depending on how strong you want the arms to be. They have one option that uses stock rubber inner bushings. These are great because they simply just work. They are quiet, and reliable. The other option is to use uniballs on the inner pivot. JD has custom seals made to try and keep as much mud and grit out of the uniballs as possible, which helps keep them working, even in harsher climates.
For the outer, JD uses what’s called an EMF joint. These are made in Canada, and are a uniball, but are sealed on the top, with a grease port. This is kind of the best of both worlds, between going with the greasable ball joint, and the strength of a full on exposed uniball.
But this is just what I’ve found in my own experience. What UCA’s are you running on your truck? What’s been your experience with them? If you’re still just planning your build out, what kind of UCA’s are you leaning towards getting? Let me know in the comments! And as always, if you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, but even better, subscribe so you don’t miss the next FAF!
]]>This Friday and Saturday, save big on all orders over $1,000. Applicable both in-store and online, on all the products we sell.
Spend $1,000 get a $100 Gift Card
Spend $2,500 get a $350 Gift Card
Spend $5,000 get a $750 Gift Card
This is an excellent opportunity to save some money on that big build you’ve been wanting to do!
Ps. Quotes can be sent out ahead of time and paid for on the day of the sale, so don’t wait until the last minute to get something together.
Happy shopping!
LCA Skids
Drop Bracket Lifts & Spacer lifts
Dual battery cages in stock location
Cold air intake
We often get people coming into our shop, or sending in emails asking for a few different products, and I have the same answer for each one: “don’t bother”. The overland scene is very expensive, and there are a lot of products out there that are not necessary, or don’t work very good. I figured I might as well make this video in an effort to save you some money to spend on other things that will actually help you go further.
I’m going to go through a few of these mods that I don’t think are worth buying, and let you know why. I’m fully aware that some of these mods are popular, so if you disagree with me, let me know in the comments below!
These are skid plates that bolt to your lower control arms in the front. Typically most of the ones I’ve seen are made of aluminum, but there are steel ones out there as well.
In my opinion, these LCA skids are completely pointless. I’m really not even sure what they are supposed to be protecting? The LCA is a pretty robust chunk of steel already, and doesn’t really need any protection. But as soon as you bolt a skid on there, you are actually losing clearance under the truck. Not only that, but you are increasing unsprung weight which hampers suspension performance.
On many of the LCA skids I’ve had to remove to work on trucks in our shop, when we remove them, a whole bunch of water and mud comes pouring out of the drain holes on the LCA that were blocked by the bolts and skid, meaning that you are actually making it more likely to have rust issues in your LCA when running these skids.
I’ve smashed stock LCA’s on lots of rocks and literally never seen more than a scratch or maybe a small dent. To me, these LCA skids actually do more harm than good to the capability and longevity of your truck.
I frequently get asked about installing 2 batteries in the stock battery location, or installing a larger, heavier battery in the stock spot with a battery cage.
I have nothing against dual batteries, or bigger batteries. I don’t even have a problem with battery cages themselves. What I do have a problem with, is how these cages mount to the stock inner fender.
If you’ve ever looked at your inner fender, you’ll know that it is made out of pretty thin sheet metal. Every single one of these battery cages I’ve seen mount to this sheet metal with a combination of small bolts, and self tappers. When you install a cage like this, throw in a second battery, doubling the weight, and then go drive down bumpy back roads, those small bolts and screws WILL rip out of your fender. I guarantee it. I’ve seen it happen so many times, including in my own truck. Mine ripped out and let the batteries bounce around under the hood, destroying my headlight. I’ve seen batteries put holes in engines as well, which is way worse than a broken headlight.
If you’re going to get dual batteries, it’s much better to spread the weight out and put the second battery somewhere else. Or if you really want to put a battery cage in the stock location, do yourself a favour and get a steel one, then weld it straight to the fender with some extra reinforcements as well. That will be much much stronger. Trust me on this one, I’ve fixed too many of these.
A drop bracket lift is essentially taking all of the suspension mounting brackets on your truck, and moving them down a few inches with a big kit. Typically it requires cutting out a cross member, adding big spacers to your spindles and shocks, as well as dropping your whole front diff down.
Most of the people who install this kind of lift are only using their trucks on the street and want to fit big tires without doing any work to the body. That’s fine if that’s your goal, but if you are into overlanding or offroading at all, this isn’t the best way to go. What you end up doing is raising your COG quite a lot, while not actually gaining any clearance under your vehicle, AND making your suspension weaker with all of the extensions and spacers. I’ve seen several trucks with drop bracket lifts that are breaking CV’s constantly because of the weird suspension angles, as well as a lot of broken or bent shocks and spindles because of the extra length needed to make it work with the dropped bracket.
You will be much better off with a standard lift, and making larger tires fit in other ways. Also, if you ever wanted to upgrade suspension, lower your truck, or even return it to stock, you won’t be able to with a drop bracket because of the permanent modifications required for install, cutting out that frame cross member.
If I’m being completely fair, spacer lifts do have a place: if you’re building a truck for looks around town, but don’t actually plan to take your truck offroad ever, then a spacer lift will work just fine for you.
But for anybody that wants to upgrade the performance of their suspension, especially for offroad, a spacer lift should be avoided. The spacer changes the shock geometry and allows parts to make contact when they shouldn’t be. Typically, the UCA will contact the coilover on extension, which can lead to breaking shocks or ball joints. They also make the ride a lot rougher.
Oh snap, I said it. This is a pretty controversial stance to take, but hear me out.
A cold air intake is basically designed to relocate your stock air intake so that the engine is sucking in colder air. Colder air is more dense, which means more oxygen being put into the engine, which gives better combustion, and more power. All good things! This is how Turbos and superchargers work, by forcing more air into the engine.
However, on modern vehicles, the stock air intake is already a cold air intake. In most cases, the stock air intake is actually pulling in colder air than the aftermarket ones! On older engines, typically the air intake was right on top of the engine, so it was pulling in hot air from the engine bay. Now days, the air is typically pulled from inside the wheel well, where cooler air is.
A “cold air intake” actually moves the air intake back into the engine bay where the air is warmer! Yes, they usually have some sort of boxed off area to try and keep the air cooler, but its certainly no better than the stock one was to begin with.
There are all sorts of arguments about filter efficiency and everything else, but to me, it’s just not worth it, and I haven’t seen any evidence that a cold air intake increases power at all.
Hopefully this is a helpful list for you! Overlanding is a very expensive hobby, and I would much rather see you spend money on a more practical mod, or even just spend your money on gas! Getting out on a trip is the goal afterall isn't it?
If you have any questions about what you SHOULD be modifying, check out our previous blog about the order you should build your truck in here, or send us an email and we can talk about your build specifically and what would be the best for you!
]]>But every truck must have a weakness, right? For the Toyota Tacoma, 4Runner, and FJ Cruiser, that weakness is the cam tabs.
Located in the front suspension, cam tabs make sure that your wheels stay aligned while you drive. As the cam turns, it moves the control arm back and forth between the tabs, which ultimately adjusts your alignment.
The reason that this setup is weak is because as you drive down the road, your tires are putting force against the control arms, which essentially act as levers against the cam and tabs. If you hit a big enough hole or bump, it can put enough force on the tab that they’ll bend and become flat. This will cause your control arm to move in and out of place, forcing your truck out of alignment, resulting in a negative driving experience.
But there are several ways to solve this problem, and we’re going to explore four of those right now!
This is the easiest and cheapest way to save your cam tabs, and something we often do here at Overland Outfitters.
When we’re doing suspension lifts, we always take out the lower control arm because Toyotas are notorious for rust issues around the cam. Essentially, the sleeve on the cam fuses itself to the rust that lies in the inner control arm—if the rust is really bad, sometimes we have to cut it out of the vehicle completely. To avoid the rust, make sure you remove your LCA's and cam bolts, and grease them up.
While the lower control arm is out, we’ll weld a bead behind the cam tabs—the lower control arm has to be out to ensure you don’t melt the bushing. The bead then acts as a gusset, so the tabs don’t bend out as they normally would.
While this is a great option for most, it’s not for everyone. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys jumping their truck or you want bigger tires fitted, I would suggest going with one of the options below.
If you want something a little stronger than welding a bead behind the tabs, then the Total Chaos Cam Tab Gussets are going to be your best bet.
These essentially do the same thing as welding the tabs, but they’re a lot stronger, so you’re not going to run into many problems. These require cutting off the OEM cam tabs, and replacing them with a much stronger tab instead, which gets welded to the LCA mounts.
For those looking beyond simply adding a gusset to the cam tabs, the Marlin Crawler Gusset Kit is the next strongest option.
While this still adds a strong gusset to the cam tab, it also adds strength to the entire lower control arm pivot. The pivot is naturally a weak point in the Toyota trucks, especially if you’re wheeling your truck hard because this can cause bends or tears in the lower control arm.
Installing the Marlin Crawler Gusset Kit is going to give you way more strength than any of the above options although it does take more labour to install due to the many moving parts.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to push your truck to its limits, then the JD Lower Control Arm Pivot Kit is going to be the kit for you.
This kit isn’t specifically designed to reinforce cam tabs—rather, it replaces the lower control arm pivots, including the cam tabs, with much stronger material. Instead of using a thin sheet metal for the pivot points, which is what the stock models include, a quarter inch of steel surrounds the control arm, allowing the control arm to move forwards—this permits you to clear bigger tires at the firewall.
Another benefit of this kit is that it has a built-in skid which has a higher clearance than any other skid on the market by about two inches.
Overall, the JD Lower Control Arm Pivot Kit is the best choice if you’re looking to reinforce your truck’s entire front suspensions setup.
Ultimately, to decide which setup is right for you, you need to define how you’re going to use your truck. For a majority of people, welding a bead behind the cam tabs will do just fine, but for those of you that want something sturdier, you’ll want to look into some of the other options mentioned.
Have you ever bent your cam tabs before? If so, what did you do to fit it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
]]>We love Toyota's, but the factory logic leave much to be desired. Poor throttle response, constant gear hunting & less than stellar fuel mileage. YotaTune can help!
We're excited to have local tuner @yotatune join us on September 17th from 10am-2pm. Come to the store for some food and get your truck tuned! Prices range from $380-$490 and all tunes are first come first serve. Hope to see you there!
]]>Tues-Fri 9am-5pm
Sat 9am-3pm
Closed Sun/Mon
(& the Saturday of every long weekend)
]]>As a part of your front suspension, UCAs connect the front wheels to the frame of your truck. That means they play a huge role in the alignment of the wheels and how hard you can drive, especially if you’re the kind of person who likes to rip down backroads.
Typically, people only change their UCAs when they’re changing the suspension on their vehicle or adding lift. But there are other cases when it’s a good idea.
Let's take a look at the top three reasons you should upgrade your UCAs!
The caster is the front/back angle of your wheel, and when your suspension droops or you lift your vehicle, you lose some of that caster. When you upgrade to an aftermarket UCA, it moves the upper ball joint out and towards the back of the vehicle. This increases the amount of caster you get while also adding back the camber that would have been lost, correcting for the higher ride height.
When you have more caster, it helps create more stability, especially when driving at higher speeds. The lower your caster, the more sensitive your steering is going to be, causing you to correct yourself more often when out on the road.
For off-roading, we typically aim for three to four degrees of caster, but it also depends on your vehicle, suspension set-up and other details.
When it comes to lifting your truck, I recommend switching out your UCAs when you’re at two inches of lift or more — this will give you the best performance. If you’re going for a lift of 2.5 inches or higher (which I don't recommend) you’ll definitely want to swap the UCAs for new ones.
Getting extra travel depends on the suspension setup and what kind of shocks you have — simply changing the UCA isn’t going to do anything. Most aftermarket suspension kits allow for more down travel than stock UCAs can provide. This usually happens for one of two reasons.
The first reason this happens is because the ball joint doesn’t have enough movement in it, causing it to bind up as the suspension droops out, ultimately limiting the travel.
The second reason is because there isn’t enough room on the inside of the arm, so as the suspension droops out, the UCA will contact the coil and bind up on the coil of the shock, which again, limits your travel.
Essentially, if you change your shocks and they allow for extra travel, then you have to change your UCAs.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to wheel your truck really hard, then you’ll want to change your UCA to have a stronger ball joint and arm in general. Aftermarket UCAs are always stronger than stock.
If you’re in search of a new upper control arm, look no further! At Overland Outfitters, we carry three main brands of UCAs: SPC, JD Fabrication and Total Chaos. All of these brands are great, but the best one for your truck will depend on a variety of things — such as the make/model, how often you go off-roading, and the climate where you live.
Want to learn more about which UCAs are best for your truck? Take a look at the video above for more information, or you can find all of our UCAs and their descriptions here.
What UCAs are you running on your truck? What’s your experience been with them? Let me know in the comments!
]]>You’re all packed and ready to explore the BC coast, just you and your truck. Getting into the trails, you're stoked on life out in the wilderness.
And then you hear it — the snap of a CV, the pop of a tire, the indescribable rattling of your engine as the truck just stops. Now, without the appropriate tools to repair your truck, you would be left completely stranded.
I have had my fair share of break-downs and broken parts. Thankfully I've always been prepared with the right tools to get home on my own, and with experience, I've been able to put together a tool kit that hasn't let me down yet.
What tools should you always take with you when off-roading with your Toyota? Let’s take a look!
First, you need somewhere to store everything. I personally use the Blue Ridge Overland tool bag, which has room for all my tools and then some. It also fits nicely behind the rear seat of the Tacoma. It is expensive, but I've definitely enjoyed having it.
A lot of people will go out on the trail, and only realize that they don’t have the right equipment to get their wheels on and off after they get a flat tire.
After swapping to new wheels or tires, a breaker bar with the right size socket for the lug nut key is essential to get your wheels off. Typically the stock lug nuts and tools won't work on your new wheels, so you want to make sure you always have the right sizes for your lug nuts and sockets before you head out — you don’t want to get caught on the side of the road with the wrong ones.
If you ever snap a CV axle, you’ll want to carry a 35mm socket for your axle nut. It's a bit hard, if not impossible to get at with just a big crescent wrench, so definitely pick one of them up.
Generally, you’ll also want to keep both deep and shallow sockets in your tool kit. Toyota trucks use metric sizes, not standard, so you don't have to double up with a standard set as well if you want to keep it light.
I also keep an extra spark plug socket just in case. Not common, but if you ever get a bit too zesty and hydrolock your truck, a sparkplug socket might come in handy.
When it comes to Toyota trucks, you only need to carry metric wrenches with you. I like to carry a variety of sizes with me just in case, but the majority of bolts on a Toyota will be 10,12,14,17,19,21mm.
One of the most important wrenches to keep with you is a 10mm flare nut wrench. If you ever blow a brake line, you’ll need one of these or else you'll likely round that nut off.
These are just a few of the most important tools I keep in my kit when off-roading, but you can find a comprehensive list below.
Think I missed something? Are there any tools more important than the ones I mentioned? Hit me up in the comments!
]]>So let's clear things up!
For wheels, you have four main measurements: diameter, width, backspace and offset. What are they? Why are they important?
In this post, we're going to take a look and discuss how they affect both the look and performance of your truck, specifically for Toyotas.
Buckle in!
Diameter is pretty simple: it's how large the wheel is across the circumference.
The larger the wheel, the shorter the tire sidewall will be. So the first question is, how short do you want your sidewall? For off-road, you want a larger tire sidewall to allow the tire to wrap around obstacles and give more traction. For street, you want a shorter sidewall so you get better handling as the tire won't deflect as much around corners.
You also need to pay attention to what size wheel will fit your vehicle as brakes can come into contact with wheels that are too small.
As we work mostly on off-road Toyotas in our shop, we typically install 17” rims on Tacomas and 4Runners. Some 16” rims can fit the Tacoma, but not the 4Runner.
Width is probably even simpler than diameter. It’s the measurement of how wide the rim is. You want to select a rim width depending on what size tire you're installing.
If your rim is too wide for your tire, then the bead (the part that boa bra bra) can pop off really easily.
On the other hand, if your rim is too narrow, then that will change your tire profile and give worse traction and bad wear patterns.
Keeping with our Toyota theme, we typically recommend a rim around 8.5” that will fit most 33s and most 35s.
Backspace is the measurement from the wheel mounting surface to the inside edge of the rim. This is important because if your backspace is too high (wheel further into the wheel well), then you can rub on the UCA, spindle or frame, depending on your tire size.
A low backspace on the other hand will make the wheel “poke” out of the wheel well, which might be a cool look but is going to affect the scrub radius and cause the tire to rub on the fenders or firewall.
Backspace is affected by how wide the rim is. So if you’re running an 8.5” wide wheel with a 4.5” backspace, then the wheel will be 4” outside of the wheel mounting surface. Of course, where and how much your tire rubs depends on what size tire you’re running.
I typically recommend somewhere between a 4 to 4.75” backspace. However, some people like lower backspace to get that staaaaaaaance.
Our final measurement is offset, which is linked directly to backspace. Basically, offset refers to how far the wheel mounting surface is to the wheel’s centreline. This is the only spec that is in MILLIMETRES for NO REASON.
A lower offset means a lower backspace. Common offsets for off-road people are 0 or -10. However, I’ve seen people who want lots of poke who go all the way down to -38.
Personally, I prefer to use backspace over offset because it makes more sense to me, but offset is very similar. Everybody has their preference, but people that prefer offset are just a little weird.
So that’s it! That's the basics on wheel fitment. Hopefully that helped to clear some of the cobwebs and make sense of a topic that's been way overcomplicated.
I’d love to hear from you. What size wheel do you run? Do you prefer offset over backspace? (Why????) Do you like a bunch of poke or prefer a more conservative stance?
Let me know below in the comments and make sure you check our YouTube channel where we share more useful content like this. Or if you're looking for wheels yourself, be sure to check out what we offer!
]]>Here's what you need to know:
Time - Saturday, March 26th 12-4pm
Location - Overland Outfitters Shop - 17969 Roan Place
Anyone is welcome to sell used parts, however, we will only be allowing sellers vehicles in the lot. If you aren't vending, please park respectfully on the neighboring streets. Sellers awnings, tables and popups are encourage. It might be wet!
There will be a sale held at Overland Outfitters store during the event, so be sure to pop by and check out what's going on there as well.
See you Saturday!
]]>
A lot of people ask us what order they should build their truck in. so I’m going to talk about what order you should build your truck so you can get off-road.
There are different directions you could go in depending on where you live and what you want to do, so I’m going to share the order I recommend you go in to upgrade your truck so you can get to all of the places you want to go, comfortably and confidently.
It’s worth saying that the purpose here isn’t to build a hard-core rock crawler or a go-fast desert racer but a versatile rig that'll get you where you want to go.
Let’s get started.
Upgrading your truck can be an expensive hobby, so if you're just getting started, I always recommend that you think very practically. What do you want to do? What do you need your truck to do? What makes the most sense for you?
Do that first.
If it’s camping, then get some sort of tent. Need dry, lockable storage? Then maybe take a look at a tonneau or a canopy.
You’ll get the most value out of what you make the most use of, so that’s where you should always start.
Tires are one of the most important upgrades you can do to your truck.
Tires are your only contact to the ground (hopefully) and they’re the best way to gain ground clearance and traction. There are two things to choose from when you’re looking at tires: what size do you need and what kind.
When it comes to the kind of tire, you're looking at all-terrain or mud-terrain depending on how aggressive you are and what kind of terrain you drive on the most.
With size, you can go with more a stock size, you can go huge with a 35" if you want to go wheeling, and right in the middle, you could go for something like a 33” which is a good compromise—good on road, good off-road,
That’s a decision you want to make right up front so you can get those tires on the ground and build the rest of your truck around the size of tire you want.
Almost as important as tires are sliders and skids.
Here in BC, Canada, the trails are tight, there are lots of trees and big rocks. Odds are you’re going to bash your vehicle and you want to protect it. You do that using sliders and skids.
Sliders will protect the sides of your vehicle from trees, letting you slide around obstacles. If you land on a rock, they’ll protect you from that too. You can also use them as a Hi-Lift point, which often comes in handy.
Skids will make sure you don’t put a hole in your oil pan or rip out your coolant line. Not speaking from personal experience or anything.
When you’re going out in the middle of nowhere, It’s important to protect the most vulnerable parts of your vehicle from damage because BCAA's not going to come out to get you. I mean they might but—
They’re not coming to get you.
Suspension is one of the most exciting things you can add to your truck. People hear suspension and they think, “Oh I want to get that lift...”
To me, it’s not that important. I would rather go for performance and the ability to haul weight so when you start loading stuff on your truck and putting bumpers and sliders on, you’re able to support that weight when you’re going down back roads.
Higher performing suspension will also give a much nicer ride off-road and be easier on your vehicle as well as your body.
Lockers will help you go more places than almost any other mod.
What lockers do is help transfer power to both wheels by locking the axle to help you climb over obstacles or get through muddy terrain.
You want your wheels to always have traction and these new electronic gadgets like A-TRAC work pretty well but won’t give you as much control as a locker will.
Bumpers are a great upgrade for a bunch of reasons. Obviously, they provide protection for smashing into stuff.
But they’re also very useful for providing recovery points on all four corners of your vehicle.
Ideally you do your front and rear bumper at the same time, but it’s not necessary. If you can’t, then you’ll have to decide what is more important to you:
Nothing will save you like a winch will.
If you are starting to go out more alone, or to more difficult terrain, this is a very handy upgrade to have. A winch is ideally installed at the same time as a front bumper to save time and effort.
The last thing on my list is lights. I often see people put lights on their vehicle first because it’s a quick, easy and relatively cheap thing you can do.
And they are really cool and fun, but for me lights are low-priority. Don’t get me wrong: they're great for seeing at night, especially when you want to back up or look around corners going forward without nailling cross ditches.
But they’re not as important as the other stuff on this list in my opinion, especially if you’re looking to build a capable truck that gets you places.
So that’s it! At this point, once you get through this list, your vehicle is pretty capable. From here, order isn’t as important anymore and we’re back at what makes sense for you.
If you want to pack around a bunch of stuff on your roof, then maybe a roof rack is the right move. Or if you find that you are away camping for several days in a row without seeing another person, a fridge could be a game changer.
The biggest thing is to just get out and use what you have. You don’t need all this stuff to go outside and have fun.
A rule of thumb that I used to get my truck to the point it’s at now, was if I couldn’t get to three places I wanted to go because of an upgrade that held me back, then I would do that. This helped us upgrade slowly and still get out exploring.
We started out at all the well-known and easy places and as we got more confident and experienced, and the truck became more capable, we started going further and further away to more and more difficult locations.
But that’s just what I think. What do you think? What did I miss? Did I forget something obvious? Let me know in the comments!
]]>Independent Front Suspension is the most common kind of suspension that we see coming through our shop. We are Toyota specialists, so we see a lot of both Tacomas and 4Runners. Having run our shop for a few years now, along with the time I've spent reading on forums online and being a part of the wheeling community, I have realized that there are a few big myths floating around regarding lifting an IFS vehicle; Especially when it comes to fitting larger tires. Although we mostly work on Toyota's, these myths apply to all A-arm style IFS vehicles.
The biggest misconception I've seen is that a suspension lift is a requisite to putting bigger tires on a vehicle with Independent Front Suspension. That is simply not the case. Excluding drop bracket lifts, a suspension lift will not give you any additional clearance for tires.
I can explain it this way; lets say your vehicle has 8” of IFS travel. At your stock ride height, you are sitting close to the middle, giving you 4” of up travel, and 4” of down travel. That's a great ride height for good suspension performance over bumpy terrain with equal parts up and down travel. Say you install a suspension lift that lifts your vehicle 2 inches. Now, out of your 8” of total travel, you have 6” of up travel, but only 2” of down travel.
Here you can see that for the same amount of wheel travel, a larger tire will not clear the wheel well when the suspension is compressed, despite clearing at ride height.
Regardless of where you sit within your 8” of travel at ride height, at full extension or full compression, your wheel will still end up in the exact same position as it would have with your stock suspension. This means that whether you are on stock suspension or a high end suspension setup, when you bottom out or turn your wheels, you will rub in all the same spots with bigger tires, regardless of how much lift you have.
With a suspension lift, you might clear bigger tires at ride height; but that is only useful if you rarely leave the pavement. We are a performance oriented “off-road” shop, so I like to assume that our customers actually use their vehicles to get off-road. If that's not you, then by all means, a lift and bigger tires will work fine on your way to the mall.
No matter what size lift you have, to properly clear bigger tires is going to require modifications. And I don't mean bolt on modifications. I mean hammering, cutting, grinding, and welding to make more space in your wheel wells to clear tires when your suspension is at full bump and your steering is at full lock. There is no way around this, whatever else you've read on the internet. It's physics baby!
I find that, for the Tacoma and 4Runner, a 33", or 285/70R17 is the best compromise for most people. They give more clearance, more off road comfort and traction, all without needing to do any major cutting in the wheel well, and without an excessive impact to on-road performance and economy. All that is usually required for proper clearance would be a mild cab mount chop, moving the pinch weld some, and a bit of plastic trimming, depending on the specific wheel/tire combo you go with.
I'm not going to talk about drop bracket lifts here, because in my opinion, they are not useful for overlanding. Although they will give you additional room for larger tires throughout the full range of travel, they will not give you better performance, and will raise your center of gravity unnecessarily high (lower is better). All while giving you no additional clearance at the belly of your truck, because all of the brackets have been extended down. In my personal opinion, it's not the best way to lift a Toyota.
This leads to the second myth that I have seen around: that lifting your vehicle equals better performance. I already touched on this a little bit earlier, but I want to elaborate a bit more. When you lift your IFS vehicle by preloading the coil more, or installing longer or stiffer coils, you are only changing your ride height. The actual wheel travel remains the same. Thus, you will have less down travel. This means that the higher you lift your front end, the more often you will feel your suspension top-out (fully extend) over holes, or after big speed bumps, etc. which can give a rough ride, especially combined with the generally stiffer coils or additional pre-load. For this reason, I recommend keeping your lift between 2-2.5".
Most of the more budget friendly lift options, such as Bilstein 5100's or Old Man Emu Nitrochargers lift your vehicle by using more preload, or a stiffer/longer coil. While they will generally perform as well as or slightly better than stock, they generally do not add any travel to your vehicle. Higher end suspension from brands like King or Fox usually have an "extended travel" option. These coilovers will allow you to lift your vehicle 3", but only lose 2" of down travel, giving much better performance (along with drastically superior strength, heat dissipation and damping). They generally will give you around 1" more travel than a non-extended coilover. These extended length coilovers do require an aftermarket upper control arm on Toyota's though, to clear the coil at full droop.
Ivan Stewart's famous race winning trophy truck was kept very low, while getting as much wheel travel out of the suspension as possible. This, combined with large tires, gives the best performance for most off-road scenarios.
So, after all of this, what do you gain by lifting your vehicle? You do gain a small amount of ground clearance in some areas, such as break-over angle. However, larger tires are the best way to gain more ground clearance. Unless you are only after the look of a lifted truck, lifting itself should not be the goal of changing the suspension on your vehicle. Performance should always be at the core of every modification, whether that's suspension, armour, lighting, or whatever else. I would prefer to set up a vehicle with less "lift" knowing that it will perform better and put less strain on stock components off-road, even if a bit more trimming or cutting is required at ride height.
What other myths have you heard about regarding IFS? Did you learn anything from this post? Did I miss anything? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
If you're interested in getting some suspension, or any other work done on your vehicle, get in touch with us about our installations!
]]>When it comes to getting into the backcountry, we believe that everyone needs to be prepared and responsible in doing so. Not only for yourself but out of respect for the areas you are exploring. There is always a certain level of risk involved with travelling in the backcountry whether it be mechanical issues, wildlife, injuries, weather, landslides, etc. and it is all of our responsibility to be prepared before going out into remote areas.
Part of being prepared to travel in the backcountry (& part of the fun) is doing the research to find cool spots.
We all have the same resources available at our finger tips to find the gems; whether it be BRMB, Gaia, Avenza, or numerous other resources. Every place Braeden and I have traveled has been found through BRMB, searching google earth, trying random roads or travelling with close friends. (And tbh not every trip leads us to the most breathtaking view. Some have lead to dead ends or lots of mosquitoes. It’s all part of it!)
Geotagging has unfortunately caused certain ‘picturesque’ areas to become overrun and mistreated by the masses. Some of whom, unfortunately, have little regard for the environment, leaving garbage, waste, and destruction behind.
We recognize that not everyone acts this way and we are happy to see more people getting outside, but unfortunately this is a very real result of our ‘social media’ age.
We are not trying to be rude in ignoring your questions, but we won’t openly share these types of answers over social media, because when it comes to ‘leaving no trace’, we believe that applies online as well.
Not everyone will agree with this take and that is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions! This is in no way an act of ‘elitism’ as some might call it. It’s just what we feel is our responsibility to be good stewards of the backcountry and making sure we are encouraging people to do the same!
When asked in person, we have been happy to show customers how to use a BRMB and will even point out general areas that might be a good fit for customers to explore (be it Squamish or Harrison Lake, etc)!
We feel that if we are going to encourage people to get outside, we also have to do our part in educating, to ensure people are doing it safely and responsibly. We want to do what we can to avoid adding to the problems, while still encouraging people to explore the backcountry of British Columbia and beyond!
]]>Our trip started in our usual style; late. We were trying to leave in the evening before the weekend, but couldn't make the ferry in time. To make sure we got the most out of our 4 day weekend, we set our alarms for 3.30 AM. With about 2 hours of sleep, we made it on the 5.30 ferry, and rolled into Powell River around noon!
From there we carried on with the goal of reaching a zone north of Powell River that I had found while looking for cool new areas in our BackRoad MapBook. After talking to some local friends, and researching as much as I could online about it, we still weren't entirely sure if it was actually possible to get a truck up there.
According to my research, the area has active logging, but it is all barge access, with no roads in. I found some vague information about an ATV trail that accessed the area, and we decided to try and squeeze our truck in.
We poked around Powell River and Lund a bit before getting into the woods. I wanted to try and make a video of the trip, so I ended up running the camera, while Jenna hopped into the drivers seat. She aced the trail, weaving between the tight forest, without any spotting or guidance at all. Super impressive!
Getting through to the other side was a bit of a surprise. To be honest, I was expecting winching and lockers and all sorts of fun shenanigans. However, it proved to be a relatively easy drive, though very tight, with some muddy and flexy spots. Nothing the trusty Toyota Tacoma couldn't handle though! The road opened up after several deep cross ditches, and we hit prime, hardly used logging roads.
We explored a few different roads on our way to our goal location on the shore of Powell Lake with a nice view of the mountains behind. Pulling up the the barge landing, we found a decent spot to pop the tent and spend the next couple of nights!
The next day we went exploring the area. Our first stop was an old homestead. The house itself is long gone, but the foundations are still there, with lots of old homesteady type junk lying around. The forest in that area felt both spooky and enchanted, right near the river, it would have been an awesome spot to live. On the walk in though, we came across several fresh looking bear, cougar and deer tracks in the mud. Getting eerie vibes, we decided to head back to the truck.
We ended up cruising around the mountains, checking out all the roads and finding some cool views. We found another lake with an old canoe tied up that we took for a paddle around, before cooking dinner on the shore. We went back to one of the higher elevation view points we had found, and watched the sun drop behind the mountains before heading back to our camp site.
Waking up, we decided to leave relatively early so we could meet some friends in Powell River who were heading back from the island. We had a nice lunch with them, hung out on the beach, and then met a few other friends to camp with that night. We headed up TinHat Mountain. It's typically a hiking trail, but there is also a fun wheeling trail that takes you almost to the top. Of course we drove! The TinHat cabin is a really beautiful little cabin with an incredible view of the countless lakes and mountains surrounding Powell River. We camped that night with a nice mountain view, before heading back down the coast on our way home.
Tired, but refreshed, we thoroughly enjoyed our solo adventure, new zones, seeing friends, wheeling and camping in beautiful weather. Can't wait to do it again!
Braeden.
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