Outer Limits 4x4 Board

i'm thinking of RUF conversion on the lux...

what are the benifits of doing this?

i have no idea where to start, ie, what i parts need to get, and how i would go about doing it?

Are you going high steer or cross over? If not no point doing it.

Benifits are more flex as springs are longer and also moves diff forward.

Have a search there is heaps of info on it.

check out weiners thread in members build ups hes just finished it

cheers shane

Bloody hell, this is coming up a lot lately.

Check out a few members threads.

I wouldnt do it without:

high steer
dropped front hanger
shock hoops
extended shackles
u bolt flip

Benefits? Flex! Bigger tyres!

cheers guys,

time to do some reading

yamaha__308 wrote:Bloody hell, this is coming up a lot lately.

Check out a few members threads.

I wouldnt do it without:

high steer
dropped front hanger
shock hoops
extended shackles
u bolt flip

Benefits? Flex! Bigger tyres!

I agree, except you can run big tyres with normal lift just be prepared for scrubbing

im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

thehanko wrote:im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

Redrilled your perches already?

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

Redrilled your perches already?

not yet. been waiting for it to stop raining so i can get under the car without the mud.

planing on using/enlarging the stock front hole on lhs and drilling the rhs? why got some tips?

35s will fit without scrubbing with ruf and no redrilling.

I Didnt go the drop hanger way, although it gives you more lift without the arched springs its an inch's more lift i didnt want. i have about 5 inch of compression before hitting the pitman on the leaf pack, which is enough for me and it wont hit the arm even without stops unless your dakar rallying it, the sump is also close because of the lack of lift but have not damaged anything engine wise, the ruf gave me 3inch lift above standard which is what i was after.

Nor have i done shock hoops but will be doing them in a few weeks, 10inch shocks (4inch lift hilux shocks) bottom out now without springs opening the slightest so they were needed but flex is increaded 10fold with the ruf.

Nor have i done u bolt flip kit, it is better with a little extra diff clearance but not a must, i havnt hit my bolts once with 35s(nothing that has hung me up or noticable anyway), so not a must but something to add to the list.

Ruf would be dumb without the extended shackles, banana extended shackles are the money, keeps the shackle away from the front cab mount.

this is a 35 with the perch redrilld 35mm.


thats with 33's


ill get a square on foto of them, could easily fit 37s with no scrubbage how it sits.

Hi maybe off topic but did you have to do anything with front tail shaft with that much flex?

Mine already pulls apart with 10'' shocks and no RUF the shaft has been extended and i have a 25mm spacer on it

4RUNNER_01 wrote:Hi maybe off topic but did you have to do anything with front tail shaft with that much flex?

Mine already pulls apart with 10'' shocks and no RUF the shaft has been extended and i have a 25mm spacer on it

Yep, I have made a new tailshaft out of 50x50x5 SHS and 40x40x4 SHS.

Of you can get a longer slip joint made up somewhere.

thehanko wrote:

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

Redrilled your perches already?

not yet. been waiting for it to stop raining so i can get under the car without the mud.

planing on using/enlarging the stock front hole on lhs and drilling the rhs? why got some tips?

Well if you only want to move the diff forward an inch you won't need RUF, just re drilled perches.

as weiner said you can make a box one or get a longer slip joint put in, i used a stock shaft and extended the length, which with longer shocks will still fall out but with the flex at the moment its fine, braking to the point where you stop the car on a big hill sometimes makes the diff roll so much that the shaft pulls out but i fixed that problem.


thats the car running 35s, thats what i get out of the ruf, as you can see the mains in the pack are still pretty much shut, the shocks are limiting further travel, so for the money the setup works perfect, some 14inch shocks is what im putting in soon, looking for something that doesnt stop the suspension from working, using 100% of the shock and making it work as a limiting strap is not good for it, nor the tower/hoop that is welded to the chassis.

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

Redrilled your perches already?

not yet. been waiting for it to stop raining so i can get under the car without the mud.

planing on using/enlarging the stock front hole on lhs and drilling the rhs? why got some tips?

Well if you only want to move the diff forward an inch you won't need RUF, just re drilled perches.

thats a good point which i hadnt considered. but my front rhs is fugged, totally sagged probably 2 inches so i was going to use my rears i had spare for the job.

ive got 3 sets of springs to play with, but have certain constraints, as neither set of fronts is 100% (1 sagged, 1 has a snapped eye out of the main), but apart from that have lots of bits to play with to get the front end supported but ok off road - I hope.

Worst case i could get the front reset, but it sagged very quickly once i started using the car offroad so i dont think it would last long.

thehanko wrote:

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:

Weiner wrote:

thehanko wrote:im doing it the dodgy way without cross over, not going to for massive flex, just want to move the diff forward a little (only an inch) to stop rubbing with 33's. hopefully going in on monday.

chances are i will then crack it and go high steer

Redrilled your perches already?

not yet. been waiting for it to stop raining so i can get under the car without the mud.

planing on using/enlarging the stock front hole on lhs and drilling the rhs? why got some tips?

Well if you only want to move the diff forward an inch you won't need RUF, just re drilled perches.

thats a good point which i hadnt considered. but my front rhs is fugged, totally sagged probably 2 inches so i was going to use my rears i had spare for the job.

ive got 3 sets of springs to play with, but have certain constraints, as neither set of fronts is 100% (1 sagged, 1 has a snapped eye out of the main), but apart from that have lots of bits to play with to get the front end supported but ok off road - I hope.

Worst case i could get the front reset, but it sagged very quickly once i started using the car offroad so i dont think it would last long.

Just put an extra leaft in the RHS for the meantime.

No point doing RUF without all the gear I think.

I cant afford to go any thicker on the spring pack, I could play with that pack.

ill see how it goes. wellas sooon as this damn rain buggers off.

berad did you use IFS rears or std rears in your ruf?

Also you've done redrilled perches and the movement from the springs?

This is prollie a stupid newby question but you can't learn without asking. What is the difference between high steer and crossover?
If there is already a thread about it just point me in that direction. Thanks

Matt_85Lux wrote:This is prollie a stupid newby question but you can't learn without asking. What is the difference between high steer and crossover?
If there is already a thread about it just point me in that direction. Thanks

High steer has both steering drag arms (or whatever they are called) above the springs where crossover has one above and one below.

Advantage of going high steer is less chance of bending an arm as they are both up high.

did my ruf on tuesday and pretty happy with it.

i bigger leaf in the drivers side than the passenger and so far its still sitting flat.

I wanted to use the rears i had and faced the following problem.

I didnt want to shift 2 inches forward as 1 havent extended the drive shaft enough for that. using the exsisting middle hole.

yet I didnt think i would completely stop the rubbing if i only moved it forward 15mm using the exsisting front hole.

A new hole was going to over lap with the existing front hole so it had to be filled, made flat then re drilled as follows.



then flattened and redrilled to make



did up the other side and voila.

issues solved include:
not enough lift
diff forward 1 inch
front sits level now - no drivers side sag
better clearance on drag link and spring pack
now clears 33's pretty well.

issues created... time will tell

I used:
drill, grinder, basic hand tools, welder, paint, adjustable draglink, modified torque rod, extended shakles. 1 beer and a few hours.

I did initially put the std shakles back in but the were permanently resting on the chassis which was not good.

craz3d wrote:berad did you use IFS rears or std rears in your ruf?

Also you've done redrilled perches and the movement from the springs?

Std rears, ifs rears are thick leaves and are an odd 3 inchs longer than stock rears , i have ifs in the back, if you use ifs in the front you need to move the rear spring hangers to get back good shackle angle

I redrilled the perchs about 35-40mm, in all i had to add 150mm to make the front shaft work.

Ruf is good but if your just wanting to clear tyres, a simple redrill and spacer for the shaft is the cheapest easiest option which will get the job done.

bit of an update on my poor mans ruf.

shocks are limiting drop, which isnt good for the shock, but its probably also stoping the articulation from going to the point where it fouls whic is a good thing.

as far as i can tell nothing is fouling anywhere which is a huge improvement for me, no rubbing on guards etc.

But im also not tucking up as well as before, which suprises me as i thought it would be a softer set up, however with the extended shakles the springs need to flex alot more to tuck up as much.

Could the torque rod be limiting up travel? they are something i dont fully understand, and can only see them as a major limit on flex as they do not work throught he same arc as the springs, and as such would bind up from what i can tell.



It used to tuck up at least 10cm more into the guard on the high side, and i think it will drop a fair bit more with longer shocks.

yes it limits travel, do you have an adj one? if not thats sagging your suspension, once you go hi steer/x over you can remove it as with stock draglink steering, it tries to roll the diff as you steer where as histeer is a east west motion.

not adjustable, just shortened.

if its still too long would that limit uptravel?