Jackaroo front suspension

Hi Martin, any of your big 4By retail stores can get aftermarket torsion bars but remember you can wind yours up which is a far cheaper option . You must remember that when you wind up or raise the front end you will lose a co-responding amount of downwards travel before the top arm hits the bump stop , limiting this "drop" can result is hanging a wheel in mid air and there aint no traction there! I too have a 99 Jack and I accept the limitation of IFS , but I get a good ride and it handles reasonably well compared to a beam axel .
I have seen somewhere a mod that iremounts the top balljoint and uses a low profile bottom bump stop which from memory gives about 1 1/2 inch rise while retaining the overall travel. If I remember where I will post it here.

Cheers. Dave L.

Hi Pete . Yep that is the site that I was referring to , here is a quick transcipt to give Martin an idea what I was on about.

"The 1998-2002 Trooper/Jack offers good front suspension travel for an independent front suspension ( IFS ) vehicle. in 1998+ Isuzu used longer control arms to allow for improved travel in stock form. The most common method of increasing the static ride height ( lift ) of the Trooper is to "crank", or add additional pre-load to the torsion bars. This method will allow about 1" of lift without using manual hubs, or the CV boots will fail quickly. More importantly though is the loss of droop, or more accurately called suspension extension travel. Increased extension allows the vehicles tires to follow the contour of the terrain ( articulation ) and provide better traction.

On an Isuzu Trooper/Jack, and most IFS vehicles, you want a minimum of 60 mm (2.36") of extension travel. The Trooper in stock form has nearly 80 mm of extension travel. Without any modifications, for every millimeter of lift you gain by cranking the torsion bars, you loose the same amount of extension travel.

Suspension Camber: There are no complete suspension lifts on the market for the Isuzu Trooper that address all of the changes in suspension dynamics (such as a drop kit). One of the effects of only adding torsion bar preload is the change in Camber. In the case of adding lift there is an increase in negative camber (while looking at the front of the vehicle the top of the tire will be closer to the centerline of the vehicle than the bottom) Negative camber is great for rear engine race cars that want to limit understeer, but it does not make for a neutral handling SUV. You normally want a centered or slightly positive camber. This allows the vehicle to understeer slightly, instead of oversteer (when the rear end of the vehicle begins to slide). An SUV that understeer's is much more predictable and is safer."

Martin, have a look at the url that Pete supplied , it may be what you want , remember you can't do much with IFS , larger diamater tyres is another option and the Jack gear ratios arn't too high for that but consider the insurance implications.

cheers Dave L.

a few companies do thicker bars, my efs bars are 2.5mm thicker from memory and obviously higher in the spring rate. Only get new ones if running heavy accessories or standard ones have gone soft (my l/h one did). Run some nice gas or foam cell shocks with them.

About 40mm above stock is the best compromise (stock height has 17mm between the bumpstops) and still works real well off road.

G'day Martin,
Try a place called 4wdusa i believe they are in perth.the websire is www.4wdusa.com.au.
Good Luck
Don