I would like to report some feedback on what I would consider has been a successful
suspension upgrade for my Landcruiser ute.
I came to a decision to upgrade after reading a report by Bungarra – ‘GVM adds up Does yours?’ which put forward the real concern with people driving around essentially overloaded. (posts 81681 & 81743).
I carry a travelander camper and fully loaded with
water, fuel, food, and all the extras I would be pushing right at the GMV for the ute.
The second consideration was after seeing the report from Rumpig on ‘Another dual cab bent chassis’ in post 81850. The main issue I could see from this was I was running air bag
suspension pumped to the max to carry the load of the travelander and did not want to end up with a cracked or bent chassis when out remote.
After looking around and asking a lot of questions and getting some great feedback I chose to go with West Coast Suspensions (also formally known as Jenkins Spring works established 1924). (no affiliations just happy customer)
http://www.jenkins.com.au/about.htm
I chose to go with the front coil upgrade of 18mm dia coils and 8+2 rear leaf upgrade. This will give me a heavy duty about 400kg extra in capacity. It also will result in a 50mm lift all round. I was not fussed about the lift as I have not felt a need for extra ground clearance. This also included new shockies, steering dampener, greasable swing shackles, urethane bushes all fully installed.
I seriously looked at their 3900kg with a GMV upgrade but thought this might be just a bit too hard.
Even with this
suspension upgrade my concern was it might be just too hard when unloaded and was still concerned when loaded with the camper it might not be enough.
Well after the upgrade my concerns where put to rest. Driving around with no load I found it softer and even ‘springier’ than the original Toyota
suspension.
After a weekend away with the camper for the first time after the
suspension upgrade I was amazed to see the camper load going on as I cranked down the legs on the camper and see the
suspension barely dropped 20mm. Full
water and full fuel but only a weekend worth of food and gear.
They installers (Rockingham
suspension) said I would not need my air bags anymore and I think they where right. I have kept them in place as it allows me to add a bit more to the
suspension and just tighten things up a bit if I felt I needed it. It also allows for the load to be carried at 3 points along the chassis rail now instead of most being supported in the middle at
the hump over the axle.
Well now very happy.
Time will tell on the long term serviceability but so far it has been great.
David