AlaskanTundra

[Hayden87]

Hey everyone,
I thought I'd share with EXPO my Limited - 2005 Double Cab Toyota Tundra. Theres not a enough of us 1st Gen guys out here right now so i figured another build thread couldn't hurt.

Heres what I'm working with so far...
05 Tundra

Old Mods
- Toytec 3" lift kit w/ Bilstiens all around
-Toytec add-a-leaf in the rear OEM Spring Pack
-Total Chaos Upper Control Arms

Current Mods Up Front
-Total Chaos Fabrication Long Travel Kit w/Boxed Lower Control arms
-2.5 inch Fox Shocks w/remote reservoirs and High and Low Speed Compression adjusters
-16" 700 pound coils (Soon to be 18")
-New Steering Rack Bushings
-New OEM Lower Ball Joints
-New OEM CV's for use with Total Chaos Extended Axels Shafts

Current Mods Out Back
-Archive Garage Shackle Flip Kit
-Archive Garage U-Bolt Flip Kit
-Deaver Expo Pack from Archive Garage
-2.0 Fox Shocks w/remote Reservoirs and low speed compression adjusters (11.8" stroke stem-top shock)

Heres the truck relatively stock with a set of Cooper Tires ST's and the Toytec Lift.


I drove around for years in this configuration.
This was fine for on road driving however, I had nothing but issues with these components. In the end... I replaced the front shocks twice on both sides and the add-a-leaf sagged after just a short period of time.


That shock's done!

Then I added a Canopy for the winter up here... Well as luck would have it, it turned out great. The truck looked sharp as ever.


Then the Add-a-Leaf started to sag...



So after a lot of trial and error, I decided that I would take in to careful consideration the modifications that I did next. I've been on Expedition Portal for years now just watching, and decided that my experiences with the 1st gen Tundra were worth sharing. Especially now that they are gaining some traction in the Overland Scene.

So over the last couple of years as aftermarket parts for the 1st gen became available, I started to put this thing together the way it should have been from the start.

Started Off with the Archive Garage Shackle flip kit. This is my favorite mod on the truck. Having a traditional style hanging shackle just make the truck ride and flex so much better. With the archive kit, I also purchased the Deaver springs that were built in conjunction with Archive Garage. With all the love for Archive Garage, I figured I might as well grab the U-Bolt flip kit while I was at it.






I decided that with this new leaf spring system, I wanted to use a decent shock this time. I've got nothing against Bilstien, it's just that I didn't have much luck with their product. This time I decided that I wanted something better. I decided on Fox Shocks for my build. I see everyone using Kings on the Gram and figured I'd go another route. I ended up landing on what I thought was a universal stem-top mounted Fox Shock with remote reservoirs with low speed compression dampening adjusters. After I got them in the mail and had opened them, I realized that according to the sticker on the box that they were for the front of a Dodge Ram. Nowhere on the website I purchased from said that they were for Dodge trucks. I started thinking to myself about the weight of a Dodge Truck and figured that with all of that weight, that these shocks had to be valved pretty stiff and that they would be great for stabilizing heavy loads. In the end, I installed them with little modification. The first problem I ran into was that the bottom eyelets of the shock were larger than the Tundra's lower shock tabs. I ended up widening these tabs to accommodate the larger eyelet size. Next, I had to figure out a way to mount the remote reservoirs. After looking at my truck frame for an entire evening, I noticed that the rear cross member in the truck tied into the driver-side shock tower, thus adding reinforcement. I decided to cut a hole in the side of the shock tower to feed my reservoir through. In the end, I mounted my reservoirs on the underside of my bed on the ribs that ride on the frame. So Far So Good.




This is a photo looking straight up from the ground to the underside of the driver-side shock mount. If you look closely, you'll see that on the right side of the photo that there is another "backer" piece of steel that is over-layed and riveted to the top of the shock tower. This is the cross-brace that the OEM spare tire hangs from. Normally, I would never cut a hole in a high stress part like a shock tower, but with this added reinforcement it won't be an issue.

I've seen folks on EXPO do some different fab work on top of the shock tower to accept eyelet top mounted shocks however, I didn't have a welder at my disposal and I already had a stem-top shock ready to go.

 

[Hayden87]

Next, I snaked the reservoir through the hole and mounted the shock.

 

[Hayden87]

Another view from the side.
The passenger side of the truck was much more straight forward. There was enough room within the shock tower to route the reservoir straight to its mounting location.

 

[Hayden87]

With this Archive system, I've gained an immense amount of droop travel in the rear.

 

[Hayden87]

After I installed the Archive Garage system in the truck, I knew it was time to start penny pinching for the new front end that I needed. Especially if i wanted it to match the travel requirements of the rear. I decided that I was going to purchase a Total Chaos Fabrication Long Travel Kit. This kit would come with everything but the shocks and extended axle shafts. I went ahead and bit the bullet so to speak and ordered everything that I needed. The shocks took twelve weeks to get to me from the Lower 48 and the LT kit got to me in like 5 days. Needless to say, I had a lot of time on my hands until I could install the front end.

I decided that I wanted to do some rust remediation on the frame so that i would have it looking sharp before I mounted up all the new componentry. I went ahead and decided to park the truck for a month in my Father-in-laws shop and get down to it. I started by removing the Bed from the truck to gain easy access to the rear frame of the vehicle. I removed the rear axle from the truck and wire wheeled it to remove all surface rust. I then repainted the housing in black. While this was out from under the truck, I used more wire wheels to remove rust from all of the accessible points on the rear of the frame. I used POR 15 to complete the painting of the frame.

 

[Hayden87]

After the rear of the truck was finished, I rolled the truck out and turned it around to begin my front end project. LT TIME! After much disassembly, I had the front end down to it's core components. I once again wire wheeled all the accessible points in order to paint the frame. During all of this, parts started to arrive.

 

[Hayden87]

After Much Wire Wheeling, It was time for paint at last.

 

[Hayden87]

All in preparation for these beautiful pieces from Total Chaos


Mounted Up.

 

[Hayden87]

Next to be installed were the Fox Shocks.

 

[Hayden87]

After installing the upper and lower control arms with new cam adjusters for alignment purposes and test fitting the shocks, it was time to build the new axles. This was a chore to say the least. Utilizing new OEM CV Axles, I began to disassemble and cut. On one side of the OEM shaft you can remove the CV joint with a snap ring tool. The other side needs to be cut. Once cut, you have to remove all of the ball bearings from the CV cage and press out the axle stub from the cage. No fancy tools, just two blocks of wood a sledge hammer and a steel punch. This seamed daunting at first, but in the end it was fairly easy and was a great learning experience. Just as a Side note... Total Chaos provides instructions on how to cut the axles apart for reassembly.

 

[Hayden87]

Once I had the Axle shafts built, It was time to put this thing back together.
This new system has a great CV Angle.

 

[Hayden87]

Here's how the truck sits now after all of the work was completed. This is also how the front end sits with Fox's predetermined preload adjustment out of the box.

 

[Hayden87]

I ran the preload ring down to 1 and 3/4's inches
and the truck sits a little taller up front. Still has a nice raked stance though.

 

[huntsonora]

That is just right!

 

[Kpack]

Nice work on cleaning up the frame. I should pull off my bed to get the top of the rails but my bed bolts are pretty stuck.

I'm jealous of the LT kit as well. I would love to have something like that but I think it would make my track width too wide for some of the trails around here.