New toyota class 7

[mexracer10]

This truck has been in the works for a year and a half and is finaly ready for its first race at the baja 500 truck has some some new designs that help with the difficulties that toyotas present in keeping them 7 legal. Fox shocks, Blitzkrieg spindles and hubs, 3.4 sds efi engine.

[Hemp]

what kind of tires are those?

looks great

[mexracer10]

Tires are khumos 35/17 picked them up at the corr track thats why they are grooved. They seem to do very well on soft stuff but we shall see if they are baja tough.

[Negrete 5-1600]

Good Luck, Hope all goes well for you guys at the 500.

[BajaFand]

What are the new designs that keep the truck class legal but improve it alot more over what some other class 7 Toyota's do?

[mexracer10]

Primaraly the front suspension, we went with a reverse j-arm and placed the shocks towards the front of the lower arm. We also used a saginaw steering box mounted verticaly behind the engine on the driver side. I am sure the idea is not new but it was our first time putting something like this together.

[Kritter]

Primaraly the front suspension, we went with a reverse j-arm and placed the shocks towards the front of the lower arm. We also used a saginaw steering box mounted verticaly behind the engine on the driver side. I am sure the idea is not new but it was our first time putting something like this together.


What was gained with a reverse J-arm? Why not use a rack?

[BajaFand]

Kritter, my guess is to get a strong and reliable steering system in the truck that is not so cost effective. The stock Toyota racks aren't very strong. Also with a stock rack the pivot points of the steering have to stay the same as stock (unless you do some sort of linkage or crazy bracket or something), and with center-mounted arms that won't work.

I don't know if they did it on this truck, but some A-arm trucks use a saginaw box with an I-beam style swingset steering linkage to obtain the travel needed and also get a good steering ratio. Carl Renezeder's TT has this as well as Kyle Taylor's prerunner and his old TT (now Scaroni's of course). In Kyle's prerunner you only had to turn the wheel 90* to get to full lock in either direction.

[mexracer10]

The stock steering rack is too wide and does not allow for the suspension to cycle fully since the arms are almost center mounted. Also the stock rack seems too peuny to be reliable. The steering box used does work with an idler swing on the pass side where the tie rod is connected to. This set up is used widely and proven. The upper arm is a reverse j arm because the truck originaly came with the steering behind the spindle and made the whole set up opposite of what is used more commonely, j arm in front and shocks in the rear of the lower arm. So inorder to keep the stock demensions we put the shocks up front and the j arm behind the shocks. In the pics the arms are not on the truck but you can see the tabs where they mount up.Well its late and i am off to the 500 in a few hours reports and pics when i get back.

[baja619]

Saw it down there at the 500, looked good!

[bcampbell04]

this was a very nice looking truck. i was checking it out during tech. it definitely stood out and looked very nice

[mexracer10]

The truck for its first time out exeeded everyones expectatons when it was first 7 truck at valle de trinidad. But luck would have it that the steering box mounts failed in addition to being nailed by a 5-1600 car twice the truck flipped and landed on its roof/ side at very low speeds ending our day around rm 154. Lots more r&d to do and tons of work to get the truck up and running, but it will be back

[lvsteve]

what size tubing did you use for the main cage?

[mexracer10]

1 3/4 chromo for the main cage and 1 1/2 for the rest