FJ Cruisers of Northern California

New Metal Tech "Heavy" Long Travel installed

So, I drove 20 hours (1176 Miles) this weekend up to Newberg, Oregon (Portland suburb) to have Metal Tech install their new Heavy long travel suspension. They expressed up the first pair so that I could have them for the Rubicon run next week. The other 49 pair will go standard freight once the Spring manufacturer finishes the run.

I'll have action photos when I return.

The additional heavy rating really helped with the tippy-ness that would have happened with the old set up. We removed the sway bar, so it still leans in the turns, but that's to be expected with the roof top tent.

Before (with 285/75 16 - 32.5" height)

After (with 35 x12.50 17):

details:

Basically, I gained a little more than an inch of lift height over the OME heavies, as I have the same tire clearance after with the taller tires. total height gain (tires and lift) was 2.50".

The greatest gain was the additional 7" of droop. I "turtled" a couple of time last year, and don't expect that to happen this year. We'll know in a week

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Permalink Reply by Ross Woody on July 2, 2013 at 10:51am

So, unfortunately, I made it about 1/2 mile into the trail, and broke the teeth on the ring gear at the "alligator pit". Had to be towed home by AAA. It's at Toyota of Vallejo getting fixed.

Unfortunately, I have 88,000 miles on it, so it's out of warranty, but I appealed to the Toyota Customer Experience Center, and they will reduce the parts cost by 50%. It was a Dec 2006 diff with the E-Locker.

So, action photos will have to wait until the End of July at McGrew.

As far as the 16->17 -- The tire choices are very limited in the 16" size (as well as 18"). Most tires are now focused on 15", 17" and 20". I was considering going to 34" tires, but wound up with 35's, so I could have stayed with 16's

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Permalink Reply by tacocat on July 2, 2013 at 10:50pm

Damn. Talk about suck.

I'm surprised you didn't opt to do a gear swap.

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on July 2, 2013 at 1:25pm

Hey which RTT is that???

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Permalink Reply by Ross Woody on July 2, 2013 at 2:23pm

It's the Columbus Roof Top Tent by Authome. It's the one that pivots open on gas shocks. The other Autohome is the Magiolina, which cranks up. More headroom in the Columbus, and a little less expensive. I bought that one used a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on July 2, 2013 at 2:30pm

I also have a Columbus! How many people do you sleep in that one? Which size is it and what roof rack is underneath?

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Permalink Reply by Ross Woody on July 2, 2013 at 2:59pm

It's the Medium -- Just two -- not sure how you'd get three in there, unless it was a small child.

It's the Baja Rack, and they make one that is wide enough for the Medium. I had it on an ARB rack before, but it's a pain to reach the bolts, and the sides hung over. I happened to find a small Columbus, so I'm going to mount the ARB on my FJ40, and mount the small on it.