suspension lift for IFS land Cruiser

Ummm, ok personally I havn't had any experience with the 100 series torsion bar IFS but I had had experience with several other vehicles with IFS. I'm not sure how winding the torsion bar up is going to "tear the suspension apart". All you are doing when you wind the torsion bar is pre-loading the springs inside the bars so that they are compressed a little more than normal. This makes the ride a little firmer up front (just what is needed if you have bigger batterys and a bullbar or winch fitted aftermarket) and raises the height at which the front of the vehicle sits.

So basically the higher you go, the firmer your front "springs" will be. You also have to be aware that you have fairly limited front wheel articulation with Torsion bars to start with so the more you "wind" it up the less down travel you will have. On my vehicle I countered this slightly by trimming the suspension rubber bump stops and other people do ball joint spacers etc, but unless you are going more than 2" up it's really not worth buggering around with all that.

So anyway, in short, I can't see why you wouldn't be able to just wind them up 1" or 2" without any problems at all, you could even do it yourself, take it for a quick 4by to bounce it around a little and settle the torsion bars to their new height, then pop down the local tyre place and get a wheel alignment for $30! Cheapest possible suspension lift ever!

Yumi,

If you are living in Sydney, I might be able to put you in touch with people that have worked on this problem for some time and I think they have got it right.

Wayne

The problem from what I can see is that when you do wind the torsion bars up you are stiffeneing the front and which in turn coupled with the weight of accessories makes the front end too hard increasing the loads back to the suspension mounts which then tear off the chassis rails.
The IFS on a cruiser can't be replaced with solid axle and coils (like can be done with hiluxes etc) as the chassis is totally different to a solid axle 100, the front rails are further apart (too far to mount coils etc between wheel and chassis.
there is also asupicion that the actual rails are made of thinner material as well, using the IFS crossmember and bits to hold it all together.

You can buy a part to fix the IFS failure problem apparently; If you lift the hole vehicle you will not get the front level with the back IMO.

Say the front is a 1inch lower than the back, so you put a 2inch lift up back, you now need to lift the front 3inch so you will most likely run out of Adjustment on the Factory torsion bar.

So you put on a aftermarket one to just scrape out the 3inch up front, but now you have No downward wheel travel and you will chew up CV joint’s due the extreme angle you now have on them.

The only way to even the truck up without taring throe CV joints would be with Front suspension Drop bracket’s, this is how the 4-Inch lift is done up front with the Supalift kit for the Explorers.

Yumi,

We have 400 kg constant OME coils and Polyairs on the back, OME torsion bars and the ARB reinforcing plates at the front and Tough Dog Ralph shockers all round. This lifted the front about 25mm without putting excessive downward angle on the CV joints. An extra 20 mm was gained by changing the tyres to 285/75's. Seems to have been a good compromise so far.

Hi Yumi,

I only have experience with a Frontera with IFS.

Have had the front end wound up by about 1.5" for 4 years with no problems.

What the others have said above is all on the mark. CV joints - especially boot wear - is something to be mindful of, but I've seen this kind of lift advertised regularly in the major 4X4 magazines for a while now. (You can avoid excessive CV damage during normal driving on part-time fourbys by installing manual locking hubs.)

When you do crank up the front end, be aware that it will change the toe-in. (A recent 3" lift on the Frontera caused additional toe-in of 28mm!)

Cheers,

Benn

Ring up Traction 4 ARB or any other ARB . They put heavy duty torsion bars on mine ( and wound them up ) and also the ARB front suspension re-enforcement plate so that you do not have the front suspension failure that you have heard about .

i installed carrols torsion bars up front and ome 400kg springs in the rear with konis all round using arbs reinforcing plates and to date no problems.i wound the front up 55 odd mms and it rides and handles beautifully.cheers Paul

In my 100series IFS TD I have OME 400kg springs in rear, OME torsions up front, and OME Nitros all round. The above comments re CV joints are true - do not wind up too far!!! ARB recommend that you measure the distance from the lower edge of the rim vertically up to the guard. Then lift the vehicle so both front wheels are off the ground and measure again - there must be a minimum of 80mm difference or you will have CV joint problems. Mine measures 750mm when on the ground, but could go up a touch more I think, maybe another 20-30mm safely.

Good Luck!

Hi there Yumi, ring TJM at Penrith (Sydney) and ask for Scott or Noel Tell them Steve (Marks Mate with the disco) said to ring he'll look after you. Scott is the Manager there and has a 100 series with a 5 inch lift, see what he recomends for you. Phone no is (02) 47356691. Regards Steve M