Solo Motorsports Four Wheel Drive Toyota Tacoma Long Travel Suspension

Are you considering buying a long-travel kit for your current generation 2005-and-up, four-wheel drive Toyota Tacoma? Well, if you’re like most people, you will do your research before plopping down a few thousand dollars on a suspension kit. However, it’s not always easy to figure out the right type of kit for your truck, especially if you find yourself on a forum message board. With countless opinions to read and choose from, we decided to spotlight a long-travel kit that may help you in your decision-making process.

For over 20 years, Bobby Quarnstrom has been serving the off-road community with high-end long-travel kits through his shop Solo Motorsports in Covina, California. Although Solo Motorsports is a full-fabrication shop that can build anything from high performance desert race trucks to daily driven prerunners of any make or model, the company specializes in Fords and Toyotas. And when it comes to long-travel four-wheel drive Toyota Tacomas, they’re one of the best.

“A lot of our customers wanted more travel than the other kits on the market,” said Bobby. “To achieve that, we put a CV at the inner and a Dana 44 U-joint at the outer. With a Chevy snout, you’re also allowed a 6x5.5-inch bolt pattern. You don’t have to change out your wheels and can upgrade to 5/8-inch wheel studs. With all of that combined, you get more wheel travel, which is the name of the game, and more track width.”

As we all know, though, off-roading is a numbers game. You always want to have more inches of travel than everybody else. Overall, the Solo Motorsports current body style, four-wheel drive Toyota Tacoma long-travel kit is a great suspension kit. However, you’re going to have to drop down some extra dough to get those few extra inches of travel out of your four-wheel drive machine. Let’s first take a look at what’s included in a Solo Motorsports Toyota Tacoma long-travel kit.

For an additional cost, you can swap out the tubular upper control arms for more heavy-duty boxed UCAs. The boxed upper arms are CNC-cut from high-grade U.S. steel and feature 7/8-inch rod ends. It’s the upgrade to consider if you want the most out of your kit.

In order to achieve the full 19 inches of wheel travel, you must also purchase the ¾-inch steering upgrade at the rack and pinion to allow more suspension droop. Solo Motorsports had discovered through research and development that some companies had their upgraded steering tie-rod ends too long, too short, or in the wrong position, which creates unwanted steering characteristics at full droop or full bump.

Another upgrade that helps squeeze every inch of travel out of a Solo Motorsports LT kit is the four-wheel drive 4340 custom axle package. With this package, the stock components are replaced with 4340 axles, 300M 930 inner CV joints, 4340 stub axles, heavy-duty U-joints, 930 CV boots and hardware, and lastly, Warn four-wheel drive part-time hubs. As a result, your axles are going to be stronger and allow more freedom as your wheels and tires cycle through the suspension.

The final ingredient to get all 19 inches of travel is the shock hoop. The Solo Motorsports shock hoop enables you to use a 10-inch coilover, which is critical to achieving the maximum amount of travel. The shock hoop is an easy weld-on design and picks up on the factory holes for alignment. Lastly, you need minor inner fender modifications and to order some glass.

For the two-wheel drive Tacoma drivers out there, Solo Motorsports offers an almost identical long-travel kit. You still get 19 inches of travel, but you don’t have to deal with any axles, saving some money and installation time.