January 26, 2018: My IFS Steering Upgrade Officially BeginsA few days later the truck was back in the shop, this time for a complete IFS Steering System Overhaul!
I have been keeping a very tight lid on my steering upgrade project. By this time I already had four months of research into it and was ready to get measurements and start test fitting.
The next event was King Of The Hammers and my goal was to show up one weekend early to take a group of Tacomas through a few trails, ideally and specifically, Solid Axle Swapped Tacomas. It would be awesome to have my Marlin Crawler-powered IFS Tacoma tackle the same difficult Hammers trails alongside SAS'd Tacomas. I did manage to get four SAS'd Tacomas committed but ultimately had to cancel. There was no way I'd get the Steering upgraded in time to run these 40s off-road, least I forget I still have inner fender trimming to do.
I don't think I've discussed this yet and I'd like to bring up what I believe is that
there is no 2005+ Tacoma IFS Rock Crawling steering solution available today.
Here is my reasoning for this:1. In our experience and types of trails we wheel, a 35" tire is about the minimum you'd want to use to truly go Rock Crawling.Yes, you can be a Rock Crawler with 33s, but for example, 33s is considered by most a small tire for use on trails such as the Hammers in southern California. Further, most Marlin Crawler-equipped solid front axle Pickups and 4Runners are running 35s & 37s on the Rubicon. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority is actually 37s.
2. If we can agree that 35" is a basic entry tire size for the serious Rock Crawler, then we have a problem in that it is already a known fact that the 2005+ factory IFS steering fails with 35" tires in the rocks.I've already seen and experienced this first-hand. Custom inner tie rods (ITR) have been developed and even sold by at least one prominent company, however, kits are either discontinued or include disclaimers due to the fact that once the ITR is upgraded the factory steering rack fails, even with 35" tires. Surely the serious IFS Tacoma Rock Crawler shouldn't be expected to carry spare P/S Racks...
In fact, since January, I've had almost a dozen people contact me who have broke their own steering racks: Tacoma, 4Runner, and FJ C owners running 35" and 37" tires. It is a known issue that factory racks do not hold up in the rocks.
3. Therefore, we must conclude that the factory IFS steering should not be used for even the base-line of Rock Crawling.More specifically it cannot be trusted. This is one of a few reasons to go SAS that I'll have to tackle if I'm to damper the status quo.
4. In conclusion, I must develop IFS steering strong enough (as I will find out through my own testing with 40" tires) for the serious Rock Crawler thereby creating the World's First Actual Rock Crawling-Specific Tacoma IFS solution on the market.This is my goal with the project and I have been very busy over here getting this developed.
