long travel

[longbeach00tacoma]

has anyone made their own arms and if so do you have dimensions?

[mpower]

so but was thinking of fitting the stock arms with heim joints and uniballs dont know if it would help though

[BLOWNYOTA]

you don't need dimensions, you need this.

http://www.chaosfab.com/product/tacomaltlg_03.jpg

[miguelitro]

I would have to agree with ^.
Somethings are better left to those who have years and years experience, have built and trashed countles sets due to insufficencies, and have finally got it dialed to the point they release them to the public.
if you had the skills to fab arms you would know people building race cars, if you knew people like that that you wouldnt be asking here...
thats my dos pesos
Mike

[Tweeter]

what's long travel?! :rolleyes:

[Factor]

Also check out velocity fab and JD Fab. Pulls a crap more than TC (TC is still good though!)

[AllJumpStyle]

and some people like their 4wd :p

[TRDtacoma1985]

and some people are poor.

[Tweeter]

And some people never started with 4WD to begin with :D silly sally!

[VietNguyen82]

and some people are poor.

:lmao: haha, I second that.

[miguelitro]

I'm rich bitch!

i wish then i'd have LT instead of beating my shit up.

[Tweeter]

Sell crack. That's what I do. I was debating on selling heroin too to get bypasses but then I thought I'd be bringing too much heat on myself :p

[CanyonRacerX]

Learn how to make meth and you can have like a 95% profit at the end of it plus all the toothless bitches you want, the downside is you might get hepatitis or the clap and you may accidently blow yourself up. Life: it's all give and take ya know. :rolleyes: :D :D ;)

[Gregoma]

Not tweeter but tweaker!!!

[NTAPHSE]

Lets get back on topic here. Has ANYONE built their own arms? I can fab arms no problem, but its always eaiser if someone has already built them and can give you some tips.

FYI, I was down at Geiser Bro's last week and some of the fab guys in the shop had built their own arms for Tacomas and Chevys. There isn't much to the actual construction (if you can fabricate). It's more a matter of knowing how far to stretch the arms and whether you have to compensate in any direction when extending the arms. You guys that buy your shit can say whatever you want. I have always built whatever I can and that's how I like it.

[AllJumpStyle]

I say go for it then, however if you want them to work well, it's a little more involved than you think. There's a reason all the kits on the market were designed in cad programs.

If you want more travel than by all means make some 6" over arms, it will drive like shit though. Camber, caster, and toe are not the only dimensions that matter.

I'm not saying I know everything there is about building arms, but I know enough to protect me from myself.

Good Luck

[miguelitro]

yep way too many factors like said above if it is to be drivable...add to that list scrub and then ackerman which i cna teven begin to really explain.
Mike

[NTAPHSE]

Well that's what I'm getting at. I can do the bending, welding, cutting, and common sense engineering (I'm a product designer by trade). But if someone else has built them, then they could give a newbie pointers like it needs to be 3" longer straight out, or it needs to kick back by a 1/4".

Has anyone compared LT arms next to stock arms? I really wonder if they are just longer or if there is some magic trick that we don't know about. You have to consider that the companies that sell LT kits want you to think they are really hard to build so you'll spend the money with them. The bottom line is there is a lot of custom fab work that goes on in with all different types of cars, and LT kits are no different.

[Tweeter]

Has anyone compared LT arms next to stock arms? I really wonder if they are just longer or if there is some magic trick that we don't know about. You have to consider that the companies that sell LT kits want you to think they are really hard to build so you'll spend the money with them. The bottom line is there is a lot of custom fab work that goes on in with all different types of cars, and LT kits are no different.

My TC arms compared to my stock lowers and Camburg uppers are MUCH bigger. It's the geometry that is the bitch about arms. The arms themselves are easy to make in the whole process it's getting the amount of travel and camber change and making sure nothing binds that's hard. I say go for it. And yes they are 4" wider per side or whatever. The money you're putting into long travel arms is not the 4130 you're paying for but the R&D to make sure they work and can get the truck under "control".

[Baja Belk]

Lets get back on topic here. Has ANYONE built their own arms? I can fab arms no problem, but its always eaiser if someone has already built them and can give you some tips.

FYI, I was down at Geiser Bro's last week and some of the fab guys in the shop had built their own arms for Tacomas and Chevys. There isn't much to the actual construction (if you can fabricate). It's more a matter of knowing how far to stretch the arms and whether you have to compensate in any direction when extending the arms. You guys that buy your shit can say whatever you want. I have always built whatever I can and that's how I like it.

Camber, caster, ackerman, scrub radius, shock angle, shock placement, clearance, pivot-points - you're right, anyone can make "arms", but to make arms that work and work well, that's what takes know-how.

[NTAPHSE]

Understood. What I'm getting at is did they have to change all that much to account for all of those things? Or are we being gullible and all they did was stretch the arms straight out by 3"? That's why I asked if anyone has compared a stock arm next to a LT arm. That would give us an idea of whether the arm is just stretched or if things are positioned completely differently. Not trying to be a pain, just trying to see if anyone has ever questioned these things.

[miguelitro]

no they are not just 4" longer...unless you got what they call dirty hooker travel. then you might as well go 6 over right?

[rojodiablo]

Understood. What I'm getting at is did they have to change all that much to account for all of those things? Or are we being gullible and all they did was stretch the arms straight out by 3"? That's why I asked if anyone has compared a stock arm next to a LT arm. That would give us an idea of whether the arm is just stretched or if things are positioned completely differently. Not trying to be a pain, just trying to see if anyone has ever questioned these things.
The only way to really tell is to make a jig, or get a donor truck, and measure and record all angles of sweep, castor and camber change through cycle movement, and then you could figure out how much different the angles are from stock to known travel. It could be done with donor truck, but would take a while. There was a post on this on www.Dezertrangers.com a while back. Some suspension gurus gave tips, pointers, and there were some books to read for more info posted. Best way to get a LT kit is to wait until some guy forgets to pull out of his chick, and he will be selling the kit for diaper money. ;)