Here is Mikes Tundra.  Here is his write up on his rig:

The tundra phenom started off in July of 2000.  As a birthday gift to myself, I purchased my tundra.  It started off as a stock V8 4WD SR5 access cab thunder gray model.  The same month I took it offroading and that’s when “the mod bug” began.  List of modifications to date are as follows:  

Suspension/drivetrain  -  SFA with a dana44 from a Cherokee widetrack, 4.88 Yukon(front) and Precision Gear(rear) gear sets, Lock Right locker front and back, Bilstein 5100’s 12” front 14” rear, Chevy 4” leaf springs front, stock rear with Daystar AAL, 1” block and fabbed shackles, Warn locking premium hubs, Part Mike steering knuckle, drag link and tie rod for hysteer x-over, 85 toy steering box, Sky-manufacturing high steer arms, High Angle flange d44-2-toy, Marlin Crawler 2” wheel spacers,    

Exterior – 35x1250x15 Wildcat EXT’s, 15x8 Eagle Alloy 058’s, Line-Xed bed(over-the-rail), better built truck box, custom painted taillights, dressed in Bentup.com armor(front pre-runner style bumper, rear wrap-around bumper and rock-sliders), Hella 500 driving lights. 

Interior - Alpine head unit w/ 6 disc changer, Pioneer speakers on all 4 corners(6.5” in front, 6”x9” in the rear)  

Engine – AEM Brute Force intake system, JBA EVOL exhaust(all piping after muffler cutoff), Yellow top Optima battery.

Before the SAS: 285/75/16 MTR’s with TRD IS rims. Teamwest SAWS in the front.  AAL in the rear.  Bentup rear wrap-around bumper.

The SAS (solid-axle-swap) was planned for the summer of 2005.  However, an accident in April of 2004 bumped the planned project a year ahead.  Long story short, a late 70’s model tank came around the corner too fast, lost control, locked his brakes, went over the center divide and hit my truck on the front driver side.  His car drove away while my truck was towed and the long 6 month process began.  The other driver had no insurance and no registration and the cops let him go, WTF?!?!  Impound the car or something, lazy ass cop (I’m not degrading all the law enforcement, just the cop that responded to the call)!  Anyways, since I had uninsured motorist insurance and I had just paid my truck off a couple months before, the insurance company wrote me out a check to get my truck fixed.

Pic of my truck at the accident scene:

I was able to get a donor axle from a member on the Pirate4x4 forum.  The donor is from an 81-84 Widetrack Cherokee.  WMS is 64”.  Knuckles were rotated to about 6-7 degrees from a friend locally here in Concord, CA at a great price.  After I installed the lockright locker in the front carrier (the rear was installed a year prior by Mike Ross-Norcal TTORA Prez.) the 4.88 gears, rear toy third and the d44 housing was taken into 4WD Specialties in Concord, CA for the regearing.  Turn around time was about 12 hours.  Great people to work with and I’d recommend them anyone needing a gear install.  Prices were the lowest I found.  After that was done, the axle was then built up at home and ready for the swap by the end of June

Precision Gear 4.88’s installed in the rear third member.  Lockright Locker was already installed prior.

Axle built and ready to go under the truck.  IFS diff and CV axles removed and sold.

However, with the annual TTORA Takeover event in July, the guyz at Bentup.com had their hands full with customer projects as well as their own rigs.  My truck was then towed to their compound in August by another tundra owner, Mike Donofrio, thanks!  Surgery is now ready to commence.

Here’s my truck on the trailer getting ready for the trip to the Bentup.com compound.

Progress pics of the swap.

Frame cleaned up and the Rancho 4” leafs bolted into place.

Axle underneath holding up the weight of the truck.

After much anticipation and some setbacks, the truck was done and ready to roll in September.  AJ drove my truck from Sutter Creek to his place in Sacramento.  My GF and I drove out and couldn’t believe what we saw.  I was amazed and happy to finally see my truck back on the road after 6 months.  The surgery was success and will soon be tested to be a capable off road rig in the spring/summer of 05.  Driving home was different as I was not use to it.  Especially, with the difference from IFS coilover setup to a SFA with leafs.  The truck felt stout and I couldn’t be anymore happier with the results.  Although I drove the truck with no front bumper and rock sliders, I later made another visit to the Bentup compound for the fab-up of the front pre-runner style bumper and rock sliders.  Another thumbs-up for that fab work.

Thanks goes out to the guyz at Bentup, TTORA, TundraSolutions, Pirate 4x4, and all the guyz that helped me with all the questions.  Also, thanks for that guy hitting me.  If it wasn’t for him, I’d be using my tax return to pay for the swap.  Definitely, a big thank you goes out to my GF who put up with me for the 6 months my truck was out of commission.

Here’s a flex shot.  Also, you can see the front pre-runner style bumper and rock sliders all done.  Mounted on the bumper is a pair of Hella 500 driving lights.

Here’s a couple more at Prairie City OHV in Sacramento, CA.

For additional pics, questions or whatever, you can email me at:

ponsie-mike@comcast.net

Thanks,
Mike

Copyright © 2004 Teddnet.com
Last modified: December 29, 2004