On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:05:21 -0500, "93toy4x4" <eboul13 RemoveThis @hotmail.com>
wrote:
>what are some cheap mods that i can do to improve the 4 wheelin ability of
>my 93 ext cab 4x4 5 spd.? gear ratios? new transfer case? i am a begginer
>and i am not sure what i should do first?
Get good all-terrain tires and air them down when driving on soft
surfaces, you can go down to 10 to 15 PSI safely, lower than 10 PSI
and you risk popping a tire off the rim. (Unless you spend a bundle
on special "bead-lock" wheels that clamp the tires in place.) And air
the tires back up to the normal highway pressure before you hit the
freeway headed home - either stop at the first gas station you see to
fill them up, or use an electric compressor.
DO NOT just run out and get a lift kit, raising the truck to the sky
can be the WORST thing you can do. The higher you get the easier it
is to fall over sideways, and the easier it is to break the
suspension. Toyota builds them rather strong at the factory, they
don't need a lot of tweaking.
Changing the gear ratios in the axles is expensive, and can totally
ruin your on-road fuel economy, and face it, you do most of your
driving on the highway. Unless you're building an off-road-only truck
that gets taken out to play on a trailer, leave the gears alone.
Make sure you have a good spare tire, a working jack and the other
tire changing tools, and put together an emergency kit. Things to
carry include a small shovel, an assortment of heavy plywood chunks
(placing under the jack in sand, getting out of a sand hole, etc) a
tow strap, flashlights and first aid kit, 12-volt air compressor...
See if there's a local off-roading club you can join, they often
take excursions out to local wilderness areas and go exploring. A lot
of off-road driving safely is in knowing what you can and can't do,
before you find out the hard way you can't.
You're out there forcing a 2 to 4 ton elephant (AKA your truck) to
dance a ballet on a greased stage, and there is a certain finesse that
you need to learn.
There are going to be places where you'll need to have another
person or two outside the car 'spotting' you, giving signals and
directions on wheel placement when trying to drive through a boulder
field without major body damage, and watching for clearance from trees
or other immovable objects.
Realize that most of the time caution is your best friend - but
there are also times that you have to go balls out and speed up to
save yourself... For instance, if you get way off camber on the side
of a very steep hill, stopping can be a sure recipe for a sideways
rollover. Get the car aimed either uphill or downhill, and maneuver
yourself to a safe place to stop.
And never lock the wheels up with the brakes trying to stop on an
ultra steep hill - the wheels will just slide on loose dirt or sand,
and you could slide right off the edge of a cliff. Again, sometimes
you have to keep momentum to retain some control - throw it into 4-LOW
before starting down that hill, and let the engine compression help
with the slowing and stopping. Just watch that you select the right
gear to keep the engine under the RPM redline when using engine
braking - it's easy to grenade an engine like that.
Conversely, if you're getting into trouble don't shift gears on a
stick vehicle casually - if you can't get it into the next gear, you
just lost a bunch of your braking effort when going downhill, and you
could lose momentum going uphill. You might have to tough it out in
the wrong gear to stay alive - lug the engine or stomp on the brakes
to keep it under redline.
If you haven't figured it out yet, doing it properly ain't /nearly/
as easy as it looks - the real trick is in making it look easy.
--<< Bruce >>--
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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