These hand-built suspensions are made to fly in the desert

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Somewhere in the California desert, Nicole Pitell-Vaughan is probably sending her Toyota pickup over a sand dune or a rocky hill. Then she lands as surely as a leopard leaping from a tree, thanks to handmade suspension parts that can take a pounding way beyond what’s typically available on the market. If you’re a similarly inclined driver eager to avoid jostling your spine, Pitell-Vaughan’s company TOTAL CHAOS (styled in all caps because clients operate in the off-roading exclamation-mark zone) is here to help you achieve your all-terrain dreams.

Pitell-Vaughan and drew on her experience as an off-roader to launch her own fabrication company with her husband Matt Vaughan. Together, they have built some of the most resilient suspensions on the planet, no matter what extraordinary terrain you may be exploring.

Raised on BMX bikes, Pitell-Vaughan shifted to desert racing in adulthood. Eventually, she found herself competing in the hardcore Dakar Rally, a 5,000-mile grind against some of the toughest off-roaders in the world. Together, Nicole and Matt have built some of the most resilient suspensions on the planet, no matter what extraordinary terrain you may be exploring.

A car’s suspension system plays an important role for comfort, especially on rough terrain. It’s detrimental for the vehicle to experience stress on either end: topping out, during which the shock cannot extend any further, or bottoming out, when the suspension is compressed to the point where it can no longer absorb impact. Either case can cause an uncomfortable and jarring, spine-compressing jolt for the driver and/or passenger. Pitell-Vaughan and team set out to provide a bolt-on suspension based on their vast knowledge of off-roading.  

Hand-built and formulaic

Perhaps surprisingly, CAD, or computer-aided design, isn’t part of the initial design-build process. Instead, they mock up physical one-off prototypes that meet the company’s proven design standards and fitment specs to make sure their off-road fabrications work perfectly with the car they’re being added to. CAD is then used as the final process step once fitment and clearances have been validated. The prototypes will get scanned and then go through the design process of CAD.

“We don’t design on a computer, because you can’t cycle the suspension and find out where the tire’s going to hit or turn the wheels to see where the lug of multiple different brands of tires will contact in the fender well,” Pitell-Vaughan says. “We have to know if it fits the control arm at full droop [when the suspension is at its maximum downward travel or extension, meaning the wheels are at their lowest point relative to the chassis], and if there’s enough radius on the control arm to avoid contact with the coil spring. There’s so many variables that we want to work within that I consider us imagineers, not just engineers.”  

The suspension systems start with a factory control arm and fixture all the pivot points and mounting points, retaining factory geometry, Pitell-Vaughan says. 

“We try not to modify the steering geometry unless the product in research and development warrants those added features,” she explains. “We fully cycle and fit check these prototype parts starting with factory specs to ensure we have the necessary clearances to support many other aftermarket parts that are available for each vehicle platform.” 

I can attest to the soundness of the design behind TOTAL CHAOS suspension solutions. In 2021, I rode in the right seat in Pitell-Vaughan’s personal Tacoma when she shuttled the video team at the Rebelle Rally, one of the toughest off-road races in the United States (not to mention the first one for women). Each time the truck hit a bump—whether inconsequentially easy or intimidatingly large—the passengers barely felt it. The camera operators inside kept shooting the action right next to us as teams hunted checkpoints among the Glamis sand dunes in southwestern California. Thanks to the off-road suspension innovations of TOTAL CHAOS, the footage didn’t wobble a bit—not even at 70 miles per hour. 

Part of the secret sauce is urethane bushings, or sleeve bearings that reduce friction between moving parts. These bushings pivot freely on upper and lower control arms, avoiding the sloppy steering feel or body roll typical of rubber bushings. Urethane pivot bushings tighten the steering response for better overall handling and control when driving on and off-road, Pitell-Vaughan says. 

Another element is the spindle gusset, which reinforces the spindle (also called a knuckle). The knuckle holds the wheel onto the vehicle, connecting the upper control arm and the lower control arm to the chassis. The spindle is the link between unsprung weight (specifically, the wheels and tires) and the sprung weight (the rest of the vehicle). If you add an aftermarket bed rack, tent, or drawer system, which can add hundreds of pounds of additional weight to your vehicle, the added weight can weaken damaged spindles when traveling over uneven, rocky terrain. The gusset acts as extra reinforcement that could mean the difference between calling a tow truck and limping to civilization even if the spindle bends. 

Sticking as close to the original engineering as possible

TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication specializes in Toyota suspensions. However, it also offers mid-travel suspensions for vehicles made by Nissan, Dodge, Ford, Chevrolet, Isuzu, and more. 

There’s nothing wrong with the suspensions Toyota offers, especially on its top trims. The Tacoma TRD Pro includes 2.5-inch Fox internal bypass shocks with quick-switch adjustable compression technology, which facilitate multiple zones of damping control. Drivers can fine-tune their shocks depending on what they’re doing, so if they’re planning to go fast with multiple jumps that will affect the front end more than the rear, they’ll want more damping force up front. 

Still, Pitell-Vaughan’s company makes suspensions that go beyond what the average consumer could buy from the dealership. And they’re still careful to maintain the vehicle’s integrity as closely as possible to ensure any new parts don’t affect the overall performance. The team works within the parameters of the original manufacturer’s chassis and fender well suspension, Pitell-Vaughan says, adding durability and enabling the vehicle to go faster off-road.  

“There are certain things that Matt does not deviate from, and we try to avoid modifying much from Toyota’s factory steering geometry,” Pitell-Vaughan says. “Because when you go outside that scope, that’s where you’ll incur bump steer.” 

Bump steer is definitely an undesirable outcome: When that happens, it means a vehicle’s wheels steer themselves, changing direction without driver input. It’s caused by suspension movement, especially over bumps or during braking.

“We’re enthusiasts of our sport every day; we like to drive fast, and we like to go long distances, and we’d love to have fun,” Pitell-Vaughan says. “You can ruin an entire weekend trip wrenching all day on the trail, so we want to build something that performs.”

 

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