Tuff Country Traction Bar

Anyone got a picture of them installed?

Do they work? As well as budbuilt?

$180 to potentially end axle wrap is hard to shake my head at

 

Bump

 

This one?
Tuff Country 50995 Traction Bars Pair 4wd for Toyota Tacoma 1995-2004 | Tuff Country

Looks pretty flimsy...

 

Build your own

My buddy made his own with DOM

Mounts look super basic, get me a drawing and I can cut some out

 

Look like a joke setup...

RS?

 

Ya, there's different pics floating around but I think it's the same
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/TFY-50995

 

The way that bolts to that L bracker bothers me.

 

Well that's a new one all together... It looks close to Budbuilt https://budbuilt.com/19955-2004-Tacoma-Traction-Bar-w-E-Locker_p_590.html
...But not custom for a 1st gen

 

Ya, definitely not the best choice methinks.
Revived my own thread since I started thinking about this again and found it in the search history lol

 

$600 buck because it's a tacoma bolt on kit? Fudge that, hard pass. The RS is stupid simple to setup and assemble at half the cost.

@El Taco Diablo recently installed the RS IIRC. He can probably agree that it's super simple to built and weld.

Couple of the guys I offroad with have the RS setup and like it.

 

100% agree. The Ruff Stuff traction bar was one of the easier projects I've worked on this winter FOR SURE.

I looked at the Bud Built... lol... I didn't buy the Bud Built.

I absolutely, positively, WOULD NOT waste my time on the bolt on version of something like a traction bar... that would be hot garbage.

 

FWIW

Mine is the heavy duty traction bar. I bought it with no tubing, and bought the DOM tubing from my local steel yard. Cheaper shipping and the steel it's self was a little cheaper.

The HD traction bar is, in fact, heavier duty. But, it's also easier set up and adjustable.

 

I have a front and rear upper link... Kinda like the trackbar. It's super heavy duty with 2.0ODx.250wall DOM and use 1.25" heim at both end

 

I'd be welding..

 

Whelp, now I'm 90% in on a 4 link or nothing

 

I didn’t really want to post this but gotta show the good with the bad.
Bought this back in 2020 for $120 didn’t care for that bolt in the back being in single shear, thought it looked hokey but for the money and no welding i’ll give it a shot. The first 2 years with the 2.7 ltr it performed as advertised stopped axel wrap completely and no issues at all, about a year ago or more I installed a 1uzfe (lexus v8) and thought this will be the end of the TC trac bar. Nope still holding up and I have been hard on it, rabbit starts from a light, broke the tires loose a couple of times, so far holding up pretty well no issues.
However, I dont off-road other than being on the beach a few times, only put about 6000 miles a year on it, so this is not a validation of its performance. Don’t know if i would trust it in extreme off roading but for average citizen daily driver I think its a good cheap solution for axel wrap, I just wish they would redesign that aft saddle bracket for double shear. The pic with the washers is about the one they sent and what I ended up using for clearance issues, i used an old hat washer from an old shock.
R/
Andy

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

4 link will require fuel tank relocation.

You could do a 3 link with the stock fuel tank location.

4 and 3 link is a lot of work to set up correctly.



Axle wrap can also be addressed with a better set of leaf springs. I never had any problem with axle wrap with my Alcan leafs.

The reason I did a traction bar is I went to Chevy 63 inch set up.

Even the most expensive set of Alcans is going to be cheaper than just a halfway decent 3 or 4 link.

 

Not even with a parallel setup? Or a hybrid? (parallel on tank side, cross on right -- it's doable from a mathematics standpoint though I couldn't find an example) Leaving the leaf springs alone should mitigate the need for a panhard bar from what I can tell since the left-right motion is already taken care of

Really I need to set up a gopro down there and see how bad it is. I can FEEL it though... especially now with the 35x12.5s

 

Even with 35x12.5 I didn't have a problem with wrap with my Alcans... that is another reason I did the bar though, I went to 63 inch leafs and 37s
There's not a lot of space down there once you start looking. There is literally zero space on the driver (fuel tank) side. You have about an inch and a half between the driveline and fuel tank, and absolutely no space on the outside side of the fuel tank.

I had to reroute my exhaust for the traction bar and that was a tight fit in and of it's self.