1986 Toyota 4Runner · Beach Bum Off-Road

Suspension

Long travel up front, a 3-link out back, and King coilovers on all four corners. It's the biggest change this truck has had. Everything's ordered — nothing's been cut off the truck yet, so this page fills in as the boxes land and the grinder comes out.

All parts ordered Nothing cut yet
A first-generation 4Runner up on a shop lift with a 3-link rear axle and blue King coilovers
The ideaThis is what's going under the back of it — leaf springs gone, axle held by three links, and a coilover on each side doing the springing. Wicked Creations' own truck, since ours still has the Samurai springs under it.

What's coming

the short version

The truck is getting a whole new way of moving. Not a taller lift — a different approach. Right now the suspension is built to hold the truck up. The new setup is built to let the wheels move.

Front — now

Rough Country 4" lift. It got the tires under there and it's been up plenty of trails, but it's a lift kit: more height, about the same amount of wheel travel.

→

Front — next

JD Fabrication long travel kit. Longer arms, wider track, and a lot more room for the wheel to move up and down before anything runs out of room.

Rear — now

Samurai spring swap — the old trick of putting Suzuki Samurai leaf springs under a Toyota. Cheap, softer than stock, flexes better than it has any right to. Still leaf springs, though.

→

Rear — next

Wicked Creations 3-link. The leaf springs come off entirely and the axle gets located by three links and a coilover instead. Way more travel, and it stays planted instead of hopping.

King 2.5" coilovers on all four corners. Same shocks front and rear, so the whole truck is damped by one family of parts that can actually be tuned and rebuilt instead of replaced.

Why bother

the honest answer
1

A lift isn't travel

This is the part that surprises people. Lifting a truck raises it up; it doesn't necessarily give the wheels more room to move. You end up higher off the ground and still running out of suspension in the same places.

Travel is what keeps the tires on the dirt. A wheel that can drop into a hole is still pushing you forward. A wheel hanging in the air isn't doing anything.

2

Leaf springs have to do two jobs

Out back, leaf springs hold the truck up and hold the axle in place. Those two jobs fight each other — make them soft enough to flex nicely and the axle starts moving around under power.

A 3-link splits the jobs up. The links hold the axle where it belongs, the coilover handles holding the truck up, and each one can be set up properly without wrecking the other.

3

It should be nicer on the road too

Easy to forget, since most of the pictures are of it in the dirt, but this thing gets driven places. More travel and real shocks mean it settles down instead of bucking over every expansion joint on the way to the trail.

Photo to come What's under there now, before any of it comes off.

The parts

what's going on it
LTfrontJD Fabrication long travel kit
3link rearWicked Creations
4King coiloversone on every corner
0leaf springswhen it's done

All of it is bought and paid for. Here's what actually got ordered.

The JD Fabrication front end kit laid out: lower arms, upper arms, limit straps, red bushings, brake lines and hardware
FrontJD Fabrication 86–95 4x4 Front End Kit th864xfek. New lower arms, new uppers, limit straps, bushings, longer brake lines and all the hardware. This is the part that replaces the 4" lift — the arms are longer, so the wheel gets a bigger arc to travel through instead of just sitting higher.
Weld-in tubular shock hoops with mounting tabs, bushings, clamps and bolts
HoopsJD Fabrication Shock Mount th864xfsm. Tubular hoops that get welded into the engine bay to give the front coilovers somewhere solid to hang from. Stock towers won't take them.
A blue King 2.5 inch remote reservoir coilover shock
ShocksKing 2.5 × 8" remote reservoir coilovers kth864xcops. The reservoir keeps the oil away from the heat, which is why they don't fade halfway down a washboard road. Rebuildable and revalvable, so they get tuned rather than thrown away.
A first-generation 4Runner on a lift showing the finished 3-link rear with coilovers
RearWicked Creations 1st-gen 4Runner 3-link kit. Three links locate the axle and a coilover holds the truck up, instead of a leaf spring trying to do both. This is their truck, not ours — ours looks like this later.

Shock sizes, spring rates and link geometry still get set once everything's in hand and measured on the truck rather than guessed off a spec sheet. Those numbers go here when they're real.

This one's a bigger job than the gauge cluster was. Cutting, welding, and a truck that doesn't move for a while. It gets written up the same way as everything else — as it happens, including whatever gets ordered twice.

Product photos above are the manufacturers' own — JD Fabrication, King and Wicked Creations. Everything from here on is shot in the garage.