Opinions on Total Chaos 2wd Uniball kit

[cleartoy]

Anybody have any experience with this kit? Ive seen it on a truck before, and it looks tough. The guy was complaining that he did not get full travel (11") wheras the company says 11-13". Thats in their range, but i guess when you spend $2700 you expect the most.

Reason im asking is I want to hook up my 94 Toyota 2wd, and am debating about buying this kit, or having the guy that does all my fabrication make 4" wider or so with Uniballs.

Thanks.

Got Sand??

[BIG_FAT_LOSER]

I do not have the kit, But their arms are already 3" or 4" wider and a uniball option is available. I was quoted a little aver 3 grand for the uniball kit at Kartek. Might be less if you get it direct. But as with the other products from Total Chaos, I have heard nothing but good things.

<font color=red>PAT KAPKO</font color=red>
"DISCO FEVER"

[Mike_HKmtrsprts]

It looks like a nice kit, is that 11" with a coilover or with stock torsions. Because I was told that Camburgs kit gets 14" with a coilover. Look around before you drop that kinda money.

[sam_i]

wait a minute - this was supposed to be your daily driver!!

I've started working on my 93 too - as much as the cold (here in wisconsin) allows me to......

good luck with the kit - keep us posted on what you do

samir

"..... damn Jimmy, that some ass good coffee"

[cleartoy]

The guy had the stock torsion bar. Thats a good point, i didnt think about that.

Yeah, if i buy a kit or have one made, i do not want to run balljoints. I believe Camburgs kit uses ball joints(they have a pic with the arms with Billstien bypass and some air bumps.

Duffco has a kit, with an upper Uniball, but i believe a lower ball joint.

THanks all.

Got Sand??

[fishd00d]

I beleve all the kits that are "bolt on" use a lower ball joint. I could be wrong though.

I have heard nothing but good about the Total Chaos 2WD kit also. My 4WD is great! I have heard of some problems with the duffco upper uniball (on a race truck :) ) breaking.

Personally I would go with the Total Chaos kit.

Go Big Or Go Home

[JasonHutter]

We have a unibal on the upper a-arm and balljoints on the lower arms. When we first started running this we broke a lower ball joint in half (basically pulled the ball out of the joint). What was happening is we were still using the stock type bump stops on the lower a-arms for up travel. We hit too hard and the lower arm stopped at the bump stop, but the tire wanted to keep going. The tire ended up in the clutch master cylinder before it stopped. To remidy the problem, we mounted hydraulic bump stops directly above the upper uniballs and built a pad for them to hit above the uniballs. We haven't had a lower ball joint blow out since (knock on wood), because everytime we hit the hydraulic bumps we are pushing the ball joint together instead of pulling it apart.

Jason
P.S. We still carry spares though!

I should clarify, we don't have the Total Chaos kit, just the same consept.

[cleartoy]

THanks for the info guys. That makes alot of sense. I had to re read what you wrote a few times Jason, but that is so logical, I almsot fell out of the chair. Sucks you had to learn the hardway, but now you are set.

Got Sand??

[sbro]

Duffco makes a pretty solid kit. I know they just chaged the strut frame on the setup, and it strokes around 14" travel. Give Duffco Dan a call, he's a real cool guy. Here's a link to the site:
http://duffcoenterprises.com/long travel.htm (http://duffcoenterprises.com/long)

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by sbro on 12/04/01 04:39 PM (server time).</FONT></P>

[jeff]

Somebody needs to contact Duffco Dan and tell him he needs to rethink his website page names. Spaces between words wreak havoc with most systems and his links all point to a local machine... not one connected to the net.

Example - long travel.htm
C:\My Documents\My Webs\Millennium4\images\franktoy3.jpg

I tried an e-mail link to tell him myself but it didn't work from my school machine.

Aloha

[Jkrell]

Dan over at duffco builds quality toyota suspension. Overall, he knows toyota's and toyota setup pretty darn good. He is currently building my toyota prerunner/racetruck (more of a prerunner but maybe I'll make a race or two in mdr class 1400) and it's coming out pretty good. I think we are going to try and tow it up to the Inland Prerunners sand blast this weekend for display in the Duffco booth. Come by and check it out. Also, dan will be racing his street truck that has his long travel kit on it in the stock class. Low horsepower but that truck should be pretty nimble with the short wheelbase and 31" tires. Time will tell, but I've got my money on him.

Jon Krellwitz

[DuffcoDan]

You are working with a Short/Long Arm suspension system. The limitations on wheel travel are from the short, upper arm topping out. There are a number of things that can be done to keep the upper spherical ball from topping out too soon. Just to name one, you can add height to the spindle, which might be hard to understand, but it lessens the camber change throughout the travel. This translates to more wheel movement. It is important that you do your homework on set-up. This is the key to getting that "extra" travel. If you don't know what to do then have a reputable shop do the set-up. You can expect 12-14" of travel with a three inch extended upper arm w/ spherical ball. At the limits of the travel (metal-metal) you can get up to 15". When the shock, bump stops, limit straps, etc. are installed it is safe to say there is approximately 14" of working travel.

[TrucksR4Girls]

My brother has that same kit, and im buying it also. He gets 12" out of it, and if you get a new spindle you can get up to 14!. Duffco says they offer 18" if you buy there spindle, BUT I know one of the guys who helped design there suspension and he says they use bad material! Total Chaos, or camburg would be the way to go, and there is always things you can do to get extra travel!

[Kritter]

TrucksR4Girls

Why dont you read the post right above your's...from the man himself.

Kris

"Revenge is best served cold"

[DuffcoDan]

I would like to know where to get one of those tape measures that show 18" of travel on a Toyota with stock pivot points. That would be cool!

[John_Bitting]

Dan just add true blue paint.. Gets you the extra inches everytime..

[havahockey]

Like Duffco dan said, 18" with stock points? Hard to imagine unless you go 7" wider on each side :)

98 Tacoma Prerunner, Camburg Long Travel Kit, Deavers, 7100's, blah blah..

[fishd00d]

Duffco Dan you gotta check out the video of you jumping :) And then when you fixed it you had everyone yelling for you when you came around :) http://www.pencilart.com/sandblast

it will be up in about 30-45 min

Go Big Or Go Home

[sbro]

JB, shouldn't you be weeding out slanderous posts like that of TrucksR4Girls ?

[Kritter]

I agree with sbro. Incompitence at its best on TrucksR4girls part.

Kris

"Revenge is best served cold"

[klaus]

Incompetence is no reason for us to interact. Otherwise this would not be the first (or last) post that may or may not be right. Plus who are we to say what is right or not.

All posts are just opinions and friendly advise...etc etc etc

[Jerry Zaiden]

Dan,

We have a kit that no one really wants to fork over the $$Dollars$$ to get. The kit is $8000 installed. You know what it takes. The kit has 1.500" Uni balls upper and lower, custom Uprights, Custom Sway-A-Way Torsions and 4 tube By-pass shocks. This suspension system will cycle 18" in the stock pivots.

[Jkrell]

Good lord thats a lot of money. I have no doubt that jason could build a front end that awesome. That guys the man. But I would have to agree probably not a real big marketplace for $50,000 toyota prerunners.

[polar]

Ive heard of 19 with stock points, only 5 inches over...

Go big or go home!!

[singlehanded]

Ya, i've heard of big foot.

local

[Jkrell]

with duffco's kit I could have set it up with 16" and it is only 3 inches wider. BUT!!!! The alignment angles (pos. camber) were all wrong and it never would have handled properly. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would take a tremendous amount of work and $ like Jerry at Camburg said to make happen. And really, due to how light these trucks are if you put the proper torsion bar and shocks in there and take the time to set up 14" of wheel travel properly it can be scary fast. Just my opinion, but after a recent ride in Duffco Dan's truck Im a believer.

[BIG_FAT_LOSER]

my yota has only old Downey strap upper arms, bigger tortions and shocks. Cycles 10" and works well. I was one of 6 out of 24 trucks that took the jump at the Sand Blast 46'3". Was only 2 feet short of winning. It has been said before that 12" of properly valved suspension will out perforn 24" of poorly valved suspension. The world famous Dan Vance's truck (may it rest in peace) was limited to 12" in front I have been told.

<font color=red>PAT KAPKO</font color=red>
<font color=yellow>INLAND PRERUNNERS MEMBER OF THE YEAR </font color=yellow>

[drtdevil93]

dan vance's was limited down to 16" in front

erik

[Greg]

The winner of the jump contest overall had only 12" of travek in front and 14" in back...pro-lite specs.

Greg http://prerunners.com/images/assorted/xmasdaffy.gif

[fishd00d]

And like 800HP :)

Go Big Or Go Home

[Steve_HKmtrsprts]

and was built to race that kind of track.

[Greg]

Actually, they run a 2700 cc "pinto" motor. It makes around 350 hp and the run it through a g-force trans. They just have that combination dialed-in and make the most of what the rules allow. Keep in mind that particular truck has been the fastest pro-lite all year in CORR and only runs a second or two off the fastest Pro-4 trucks. I'll have some pics up of other stuff those guys have built soon. Thier lastest project...4-linked, 3"bypassed, early '90's f-150 with a 2001 supercharged lightning motor.

Greg http://prerunners.com/images/assorted/xmasdaffy.gif

[Kritter]

Esslinger builds some crazy 4 cylinders and the price shows.

Kris

"Revenge is best served cold"