This was a fun trip with some stock 4×4 trucks.  It reminded me of the good old days of having to plan out every inch so you would not get stuck or rip you body to pieces.  What fun.

All pictures are courtesy of xjblue, and as always he has taken some great shots. Check out his webshots page to see some of his other trips.   Click Here for XJBLUE

Rattlesnake Trail 11 29 08

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It has been rated about a 2.5, while i have seen many stock jeeps and full size pickups travel the trail with not much dificulity.

The basic idea behind the spacer is to provide 1.5″ of lift over stock suspension settings as well as 1.5″ more overall travel.

The lift part is simple, on the 4runners and trucks the ride height is achived by adusting the torsin bar. While it is posible to crank the torsin bar until you have 1-2 inches of lift you really don’t want to do this. The main reason is the ride quailty, while there will be no change in travel at the wheel.

So this is where the spacer come in to play.

Here you can see the spacer on the upper a-arm. Because the upper a-arm conects to the torsin bar the space put between the balljoint and the upper arm translates to direct lift. Or for every 1″ of space you get 1″ of lift. Now the gain in travel works a bit diffrent and it gets in the overall design of a-arm suspension that I really don’t want to explain just know that you will gain travel, and in general it will be close to the size of the spacer, and with a few more tweeks you can gain even more.

After runnig ball joint spacers for almost 3 years I did see a few downsides. The bigest problem was made me really want to SAS my runner.

Next is it will have a lot a wear and tear on the over all steering joints on you truck. Here is a pic of what i mean.

Just look at the angle of the tires. When they are on the road they did not toe in that much.

Here is one more just before i broke a link.

If your fab skills are not up to the task then you may consider just buying the spacers from San Diego Off Road Innovations L.L.C