2005 Lexus GX470 | Beyond the Bolt Ons
The light duty Toyota Tacoma and 4Runner platforms are a great candidate for overland or dual sport style builds, combining reliability and on-road comfort with reasonable off-road performance. With a plethora of aftermarket upgrades available to upgrade the suspension, the builder can go from stock to near race-level quality components with little more than bolt-ons and hand tools. Upgrading the suspension though, inevitably leads to pushing the limits and weak links appearing elsewhere. Invariably, as we find these weak links we’re forced to break out some of the bigger tools serious off roaders have relied on for years…grinding, drilling, welding are not for the faint of heart and should only be done by experienced individuals or professional shops. In the quest to make our porky little Lexus GX470 as reliable as possible, we made sure to add as many bits of insurance as possible.
One of the most common issues with these trucks is maintaining alignment. The alignment is set from the factory using adjustable cams on the pivot points for the lower control arms. It’s a very simple and flexible solution that works well for street driven vehicles. Once the capability of the vehicle has been increased though, higher sustained speeds and harder impacts off road become common and several things happen. First, the bolts can rotate fairly easily; the only thing holding them in place is the torque on the cam. Under more extreme impacts the thin sheet metal tabs that the cams index off of can fold over easily as well (we’ve even seen reports of mis-informed shops hammering them over to align vehicles, which should never be done!). Luckily, there are a couple simple fixes!
We developed the Taco Tabs with a simple concept in mind: an alignment that stays put. Cam bolt deletes are actually fairly common, any vehicle platform that uses cam bolts for alignment tends to suffer a similar issue. With the Tacoma and 4Runner platform, it was relatively simple to adapt a straight through bolt to replace the cam and a flat piece of steel to physically lock the alignment in place. Our Taco Tab kit includes several plates for each individual cam which allow you to set 1 of 3 positions: minimum, neutral, and maximum. We’ve found it to be a clever solution that is holding up over time; previously we could barely keep a truck holding alignment after even a basic trip to the sand dunes with a fast run through the whoop de doos. A small degree of rotation on the cams still translates to a wheel thats no longer straight on the way home…we’re happy to report that after numerous trips to the Sierras, the local sand dunes, running all over the Mojave desert and criss-crossing the rugged peninsula of Baja California that our trucks are still tracking straight and true!
Making sure those Taco Tabs have a firm home to index on, Total Chaos had our back covered with their Cam Tab gusset kits, a long-time favorite in the pre-runner crowd. These laser cut brackets weld together simply and replace the factory alignment tabs with a much more durable solution that won’t fold over under a big hit, and reinforces the mounting slot with additional material for the bolts to ride on. It does end up being a fairly in-depth install as a lot of disassembly and prep work is required to get in and weld these on properly. This is a good time to install some Whiteline bushings in the lower control arms to tighten up the road feel and eliminate stiction in the front suspension.
Adding more suspension travel, larger tires, and decreased backspacing do wonders for the vehicle’s stability both on and off road, and certainly add to the ‘look’ we all crave. The price to pay, is that the stock wheel wells designed around 30-31” tires start to run out of room. If you really use the vehicles to their full potential you will find that the firewall pinch seam is a common rub issue on the Toyota platforms, which is a relatively easy fix. Peel back the plastic liner, pie cut the sheet metal every 1.5-2” and hammer it flat. The more in-depth issue, also well documented, even for people who seldom venture off road is the ‘body mount chop’. The way Toyota angled the body mount, it protrudes slightly into the wheel well and once you hit the magic 33” tire size you’re going to experience some degree of rubbing. Wider tread width and decreased backspacing further exacerbate the issue. Many companies offer a simple plate to patch in, but we did add 1 unique difference to ours: an angled face that increases clearance without having to make as extreme of a cut. Some competitors offerings cut off areas that are not even close to the area that rubs, and we’ve seen many hack jobs on this procedure, including people simply cutting off vital structure and leaving it as ‘good enough’ because they lack a welder. In our opinion, this is actually dangerous, as you are compromising vital structural rigidity, and the body mount is clearly positioned to help stop the wheel from intruding into the passenger compartment in an offset head-on collision.
Yet another known weak area in the front end of the 120-series platform is the steering knuckle, or sometimes called the spindle. While it’s certainly an improvement upon the earlier Tacoma and 4Runner setup, it still has a long thin arm that reaches up from the wheel bearing flange surface to the upper ball joint. Heavy use, jumping, or extra weight added in the form of armor and gear can all contribute to a failure of this part. Even a slight bend from a hard hit on one side is enough to ensure your alignment will never be in spec or even the same side to side. Total Chaos offers 2 separate gusset kits for this part: one that allows you to retain the factory sway bar, and a simpler one that omits a sway bar provision. We’ve installed both, but for most users we would recommend the sway bar specific gusset. It’s got a little extra meat, and having the option to still run a sway bar is nice, especially on daily drivers that may even see towing duties like our GX does. This gusset kit is a very in-depth install, even though it sounds simple. It requires the knuckles to come completely off and quite a bit of prep time to ensure proper weld penetration and alignment of the various pieces.
Moving to the rear end, there aren’t quite as many issues to address, but one common issue we hoped to avoid was ovalizing the lower control arm bolt holes. The factory brackets are very thin metal, and the lower arm sees a lot of load as it’s responsible for both managing torque loading and locating the rear axle. Total Chaos offers a great pair of link skids that reinforce this mount and add a lot of surface area to the locating hole for the bolts. We did have to trim these brackets a little to work with the huge set of rod ends that ICON specs for their rear lower links.
This round of upgrades is certainly not necessary for the mall-crawlers, and while the price of many of these gussets and reinforcement parts are low, the labor to install them does add up quickly if you’re not able to do yourself. These upgrades do all line up nicely with many of the common mods though….it’s easy to add the rear link skids if you’re already upgrading the lower links. Doing a front end refresh on a higher mileage vehicle is a great time to add the spindle and cam tab gussets and will save a ton of overall labor as the disassembly work is done; and we often do the body mount chop at the same time we’re doing a system, wheels and tires. However you choose to go about these mods, they are must haves if you plan on pushing the limits and want every last bit of peace of mind when exploring the remote back country or just showing off for the group.
