FJC Long Travel Build: 3Link Rear w/ Coilovers, Camburg, and more

[FJLED]

After around a month waiting for misc parts to show up (well still waiting on my bypasses, chormoly links, and axles) its time for some more progress. Probably not much interesting for those focused solely on expedition travel, but thought I'd toss em up anyways.

[FJLED]

Floor will be chopped and the tunnel will be rebuilt to get it up within the frame rails rather than hanging 5" down like most folks are running them. Rather not kill groundclearance at breakover.

[Cody1771]

which underdrive unit is that? looks like a NWF Blackbox-i. that thing will have a crazy low gear ratio!

[FJLED]

You are correct - NWF Blackbox-i. Liked some of the design features of it over the Atlas 4 underdrive and its supposed to run quiter than the Atlas 4. I'll give it a shot and see how it works out. I'll end up with a 1:1, 2.27:1, 3.8:1, 10.3:1

I really wanted to go with the blackbox + StaK3 case for the bad ar$$ factor alone. The ratios would have been more fine tuned to my liking (not sure how useful a 10.3 is...rather have something around the 5-6:1 range which you could get with the StaK3 before the huge step up), but I'm sure I wouldn't have been competent enough to get the true value out of that setup (almost too many ratio options to deal with, another lever to confound me, its one loud case which seems to be hit or miss mfg wise, and its another 50lbs heavier than the Atlas 2). Hence why I went the trusted Atlas2 route which will hopefully be as quite as the Marlin Lefty case I had in there. I'm sure the blackbox will add noise, but hopefully not as bad as the Atlas 4 sounds.

[Cody1771]

awsome!! been waiting to see someone use this. really instrested on how it works out. once you get it on the trail any chance of a full review? honestly i cant imagine needing that many gears on your t-case but im still intrested! the atlas 2 is an amazing case. the original blackbox was pretty quiet. NWF makes a wicked product but make sure you let us know how it works out. i think its considerably quiter than say building a NP203 rangbox for a double.

[Cody1771]

oh yeah. SUBSCRIBED loving this build

[01tundra]

Very nice! I'll be using this thread for reference when I start building my other half's FJ in the near future.

There's no way I'd take a Stak over an Atlas.......hell......those no way I'd take a Stak period.

I have several friends with Staks and they've had nothing but problems out of those heavy boat anchors. I've had two different Atlas' in my Tundra (oringinal 2-speed and now a 4-speed) for a combined 75k miles and have never had a single issue with them.

My original Atlas 2-speed + Inchworm crawl box was pretty noisy when coasting. The 4-speed Atlas is a lot quiter, but you still get a little noise translated through the twin sticks, nothing terrible though.

If you look at the Atlas install booklet you'll see a little picture of my Tundra from years ago on the top of the page in the Tacoma/Tundra section .

Anyways.......Atlas for the WIN!

[Cody1771]

just for anyone who is intrested the crawlbox he used is called the Blackbox-i and is made by North West Fab here on Vancouver island. they have a great line and teh Blackbox is not just for the atlas, they make it for a full line of transfer cases and even have another blackbox that will bolt on to any round bolt patter transfer case.



http://www.northwestfab.com/blackbox-i.html

they also make double kits.

[FJLED]

Very nice! I'll be using this thread for reference when I start building my other half's FJ in the near future.

There's no way I'd take a Stak over an Atlas.......hell......those no way I'd take a Stak period.

I have several friends with Staks and they've had nothing but problems out of those heavy boat anchors. I've had two different Atlas' in my Tundra (oringinal 2-speed and now a 4-speed) for a combined 75k miles and have never had a single issue with them.

My original Atlas 2-speed + Inchworm crawl box was pretty noisy when coasting. The 4-speed Atlas is a lot quiter, but you still get a little noise translated through the twin sticks, nothing terrible though.

If you look at the Atlas install booklet you'll see a little picture of my Tundra from years ago on the top of the page in the Tacoma/Tundra section .

Anyways.......Atlas for the WIN!

A boat anchor is definitely a good way to describe the StaK cases, as you've highlighted there are some significant quality issues with some of their setups. Atlas has a much better quality service overall.

Only reasons I didn't go with the Atlas 4 was, noise (rode in another FJ with one and the underdrive unit was quite loud), availability...they only started producing them a month ago which means they are quite backed up, and the only other reason is cause I wanted to see more of them on the road and hear feedback on the new units...I know of a couple that had issues when they were reworking them in 2010, but haven't seen problems with the new ones that are coming out now.

Since there seemed to be positive feedback around the NWF product I figured I'd give it a go. Hopefully it lives up the expectations.

[FJLED]