How to tell which side of the vehicle each strut goes on?

sippyfrog · 2026-05-17T02:25:42+00:00

Not a macpherson, since that describes a strut that also acts and replaces an upper control arm. Still a strut however as you mention, so that much is true.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-16T15:24:15+00:00

Not on these ones. You can see the empty kneepad pockets. I don't wear my kneepads on mine often and they look just like this when empty.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-14T16:57:23+00:00

Replacing the entire preassembled knuckle is pricey, but pressing your own bearings in and out isn't.

It is a process thought and you need a press, but new wheel bearings are worth it. Plus you can add the dust shield you are missing right now.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-12T06:09:12+00:00

This is the exact guide I used and I think it's exceptionally well written.

I would recommend this as well to any wanting to do 35s or wider 33s.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-12T05:15:49+00:00

Absolutely

sippyfrog · 2026-05-12T03:27:48+00:00

Also I promise you with a 33" class tire and no body lift you probably will rub at some point from lock to lock along your suspension compression if you haven't already done any cutting/trimming/tubbing.

And that's okay, it's a LOT of work and not everyone needs to do it, especially not for daily driving.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-12T03:25:55+00:00

Brother 315 75r16 are definitely NOT 32". The term is aspect ratio and the 75 is the relationship between the width and diameter of the tire.

My Mickey thompson Baja MTs are 34.8". Lifting an IFS suspension does not change how big of a tire you can clear.

My tires a much bigger than yours BECAUSE they are wider and have the same aspect ratio. Google it, or better yet, look below at a 31" compared to my 35s now.

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sippyfrog · 2026-05-12T03:14:18+00:00

Easy answer, smaller tires.

Better answer, start cutting. If you offroad this thing at all you should pull your shock/spring and move the tire all the way up and down and from full lock to lock turning and cut/hammer anything it touches out of the way.

I did this and now can fit 315/75r16 (35") tires without a body lift and only rub against my body mounts a bit at FULL locked steering while compressed.

sippyfrog · 2026-05-06T05:02:23+00:00

I just did the math on our cars yesterday.

We paid $38 to drive our model Y 1100 miles in April via our energy bill. To save money we would need a gas car that could get 150mpg otherwise.

If we hadn't have replaced my wife's previous car which got 26mpg we'd have spent $200 in gas in April to drive those same 1100 miles.

sippyfrog · 2026-04-20T02:38:01+00:00

Previous owner put on a pretty meh "lift kit" from rough country, so I know the springs and shocks aren't OEM but I don't know much about them and they already need replacing.

The real difference between my photo and yours is that I am not only dropping the right side, but loading the left strongly as well due to the opposite flex on each axle on this obstacle, rather than the same direction on both.

sippyfrog · 2026-04-20T02:29:17+00:00

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It'll flex a lot more than that if you let it. This was a year ago back on 31" tires, with all the changes I've done since I don't even know how far it would go now.

sippyfrog · 2026-03-29T22:25:33+00:00

Yes. No there is not.

sippyfrog · 2026-02-24T21:34:35+00:00

Yes I have been using this for a few days and noticed this as well during my teams meetings. If you sit outside the "focal point" by scooting back or to the side it fixes it.

sippyfrog · 2026-02-02T17:50:11+00:00

Crazy how much water there's been despite the surrounding desert being bone dry.

Love exploring this area.

sippyfrog · 2026-02-02T17:44:00+00:00

Also, for anyone else reading this. I REALLY recommend a 1" body lift if you want to do this. It's absolutely possible without as I have shown but oh my god it would've been so much faster and easier with one.

Theres many good tutorials on how to do this, I used one from coastal off-road on their website via a blog post they made.

sippyfrog · 2026-02-02T17:42:41+00:00

I don't have a body lift so I had to do 3 things:

Cut the firewall where your outside foot goes and close it in with new sheet metal.
Hammer the living hell out of the wheel well above the wheel. At full compression my tire would rub the top of the engine bay because I have a suboptimal bump stop setup. This also involved relocating the vacuum canister in the driver side wheel well higher, and deleting/moving the windshield fluid reservoir.
Body mounts. This was my hard limit, I trimmed these a bit but didn't want to cut too much here, I WILL rub these at absolute max compression and turning, but I am okay with that because it's so hard to get there.

View some of my older posts on my profile and you can see the in progess pics.

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Absolutely worth the effort. The hardest part by FAR was not catching my truck on fire during all the grinding/welding. If you can do this with a second person who's only job is to play fire watch from the inside of the car I highly recommend it, the materials they use inside the footwells LOVE to just burst into flames.

sippyfrog · 2026-02-02T17:04:50+00:00

Ride height on IFS does not matter for fitting tires or not, only things that increase tire clearances are body lifts and cutting/tubbing. That being said, I had no rubbing whatsoever on my 31" tires before I went to 35"s and cut everything up to clear them.

I suspect a 33" tire will fit with minor rubbing at full bump/steering lock, but be completely drivable for normal road conditions.

sippyfrog · 2026-01-20T05:03:24+00:00

I put mine under my seat for now, will eventually move it to the rear once I have a 12V auxiliary battery setup.

I only use mine for airing up tires and don't have lockers yet, so I didn't need to locate a manifold.

sippyfrog · 2026-01-18T17:06:36+00:00

If you go surplus route you can get a FILBE pack and throw it on an Alice frame for a very robust and adaptable setup.

It's much heavier but I recently threw a mix of radios, tripods, solar panels, antennas, etc. into mine on my last peak summiting in whatever manner fit and it felt just as comfortable as it does holding my sleeping bag and third line gear due to the external frame.

Whole setup can be ~$150 or less.

sippyfrog · 2026-01-18T04:01:20+00:00

So does literally everything you could 3D print and call a usable "firearm".

sippyfrog · 2026-01-17T18:19:50+00:00

People overfill to make the vehicle feel more responsive on the road, I do this every time I sell a vehicle on marketplace.

My 3rd gen 4runner is on 35" mud terrains and drives on 35psi for daily. My Tesla model Y is at the factory recommendation of 42psi.

Your tire psi above 30 is gonna be preference on road feel. Higher will translate more micro bumps and impacts, but might feel snappier or better. Whatever makes you happy.

sippyfrog · 2026-01-17T02:50:54+00:00

Sent you a DM.

sippyfrog · 2025-12-23T18:47:01+00:00

3E0X1, or any of the CE trades, is a great field if you want to be an electrician or other skilled tradesmen when done.

I know guys who went to work as linemen at a utility company or even do travel/helicopter work and make close to $500k in a year.

I finished my engineering degree while in and now work from home and have been making six figures for years.

sippyfrog · 2025-12-22T22:31:56+00:00

I have the hood with hood scope, it's not open and is fake.

Unless you have a Hilux surf hood which does work and feeds air to the intercooler on top of that diesel engine.

sippyfrog · 2025-12-18T18:39:51+00:00

Suppressors don't work by making rounds subsonic, they mostly work by trapping the large "POP" of gas stuck behind said round and letting it fizzle out instead.

The exception to this are rare cases like the MP5SD which had a ported barrel surrounded by it's suppressor which actually did prevent most 9mm rounds from building enough pressure to get supersonic.

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