Minimum IFS Droop on 05+ Tacoma, 03+ 4Runner/FJC

[bulldog]

Great first post!

Welcome to ExPo!!!

Thx.

I don't think I stated a lift height... but it is around 3+ inches. My tires change often but with the current 285s the front lip of the stainless Shrockworks skid (at the lower lip of the front bumper) is about 23-inches from the garage floor.

To measure the droop, I measured from the center of the wheel hub to the top of the fender opening above the tire. You're right, it's not the easiest thing to measure.

Droop travel has never been my problem, but compression travel has been. With OME 886 up front the on-road ride was great/soft but off-highway the springs were too weak for all the weight of the car, and bottoming/rubbing was common. The adjustable coil overs mostly solved this, and my goal has been to get more height in front, while not loosing too much droop travel or a slight rear high attitude.

Thanks again for the input.

My mistake, I don't know why I thought you had 3" of lift.

Either way dial in to what suites your needs the best. I found that good droop goes a long way to help with ride and also stability on rocky terrain.

Another avenue you can explore instead of just cranking the coils is to have you compression valving firmed up a bit. This will help a lot more from bottoming out than just your coil springs. Coils are supposed to just carry the weight and give you the desired ride height, your shocks valving is used to control the motion and prevent things like premature bottoming, etc.

Bulldog - Welcome!

Thx

[Redline]

For sure

My increased spring rate went a long way toward curing the 'too soft' ride. I have lots of armor (bumper, full skids, including gas tank) and the car is simply heavy...

Measurements aside, my butt meter indicates that the droop travel seems adequate. I have done some slow and fast off-highway testing with the many combinations & adjustments. Yesterday I could barely get the left-front to rub/touch when the car was driven very fast over a bump test track, unloaded. I have extended bump stops.

Keeping adequate droop is important because although the Mall Crawler is a great off-highway rig, on-highway performance is very important and it needs to drive well on road trips.

[Redline]

A buddy and I remeasured the droop travel this evening. I was likely being too conservative with how far I could lift the front before measuring. He suggested lifting to the point where we could just barely rotate the tire by hand and this is what we did.

Using this method I have 2 7/16" of droop travel should be enough.

[bulldog]

That sounds more like it.

[mr.trd]

I wonder if the 4 runner has more travel then? Cause I thought I only had about 2.5" of lift and I just checked my downtravel and I only have 2 1/4" of droop on the drivers side and 2 1/2" of droop on the passengers side. And another weird thing is that I have the same amount of lift on both sides and I have 1/4" more droop on the passengers side. I measured from the top lip of the wheel to the bottom of the fender and used the same angle to read the tape so that wouldn't change my outcome.... I have Icon UCA's and Icon extended travel coilovers. The reason I checked is because it rides to good and I hit the front and rear bumpstop at about the exact same time when I go up the RTI ramp so my preload is about perfect up front. But I am about to install some 1/2" thick axle relocation plates on the rear to move my rear axle back 1/2" and was wondering if I could give the coilovers a couple of turns to keep the truck just a tad rear high and not alot rear high. I love the stance now so in a perfect world i would like the front to go up 1/2" also.... Do I have more lift than I thought and shouldn't be messing with it cause if it goes up 1/2" then my droop is under 2"?

I would have never gone through all this thought if it wasn't for this thread James...... Thanks! LOL Also making room for larger meats....that's why the rear axle needs to go back a tad and have the bumpstop hit just a tad sooner...the relocation plate I made sounds to good to work exactly the way I need it to...LOL

[Redline]

You're welcome Brant

I can't say that my measurements were super accurate, but hopefully they were close.

Maybe you do have more lift than you think? Maybe I do? I know I have more lift than I did with the OME front suspension, it's about 1.25-inches taller now (and adjustable of course). I also have extended front bump-stops (Timbren), too much smash mouth without them.

[jesusgatos]

Good posts Bulldog! I'd agree with just about everything you've posted. We built a Tacoma with DR/Icon extended-length coilovers and billet upper control arms. It was always a compromise between compression travel and droop. Until we added Light Racing hydraulic bumpstops. That allowed us to lower the truck so it had a little more than 2.5" of droop travel, and it took hard hits amazingly well. In fact, I've told a lot of people that the performance was embarrassingly close to our long-travel Tacoma. The only thing that kept me from driving it harder/faster was the fact that it wasn't caged.