Suspension upgrade

Hi Tony,

Thanks??? Do you have a suspension upgrade?

First thought. You bought a ute.

Sharon,
Yep, but I am disappointed that it came with no hole in the muffler or a gearbox knock.

It is a space cab that suits my wife and I. She reckons it gives her some space from me. LOL.

RA.

You know all jokes aside there was a ranger and a B... Parked up at our shop this arvo they do look nice and look like had plenty of room. Im thinking they are as rough as our 76 with the leaf springs. Lesson learnt there!!
Cheers

Old Girl,
Behave.

Have a good one

Hi, Can vouch for the OME suspension also. Just got these fitted to our Toyota FJ Cruiser and although the ride is a little firmer I think the vehicle handling is a big improvement. The OME suspension also raises the vehicle by around 50mm.
We had a duel cab BT50 prior to the FJ and reckon the BT50's are brilliant vehicles. The only reason we changed was the FJ is slightly smaller and easier for my wife to drive. The carrying capacity of the BT50 is much greater than the FJ Cruiser which is something we miss and had to buy a trailer for our gear.
CU Glenn

Thanks Rosco,

will check them out.

hi guys
i got a quote from sax susp this week for my old mazda bravo dualcab diesel
2 rear springs and 4 shocks will give 40mm lift $2290 freight freeto bunbury this month or $120 fr there after
i like the3 stage action and design of the sax system
i am yet to decide
cheers

Rosco,
I hate to tell you this but your cruiser is designed to work up at the GVM not empty or half loaded.
Having said that you have to remember that leaf springs were designed for horse and cart days not 21st century vehicles, they are cheap to make and work well fully loaded.

Disco.

You've got me stumped there Disco old mate. I fail to see your point.

I am well aware of the failings of leaf springs, just as I'm equally aware of the benefits of coils (I was a Landy tragic for 25 years straight and 4 different Landies, before going to the dark side).

But when the springs are flat at 500 kg under the GVM ... then I start to feel they are not fit for purpose (as I originally stated).

Ask any suspension shop,they will tell you the 79 series leaf springs were rubbish. Malaga Suspension (WA) do a thriving trade removing the brand new suspension from landcruisers destined for the mines and replacing them with aftermarket.
They do this because they know the OEM leafs and coils will be dead within a few months of hard work

Rosco,

Dropped in at Sax in Underwood, Brisbane and had a look at their suspension system and Lisa took me for a ride in their Hilux (thats another story) so I decided to go with that system cost me $2,300 which I feel is well worth it as it rides much better, it's no landcruiser but 100% improvement. Sax really looked after me and spent considerable time on the truck as I did not want it lifted any as I feel it's high enough as I'm a short person. Would highly recommend the Sax people and they are willing to talk without the hard sell.

Thanks Rosco for the lead.

Scotty

Hi,

It was, but all i'm asking is for some feedback on an upgrade kit for the suspension, am I doing something wrong here?

Scotty ,you could improve them by either removing a leaf or getting a suspension shop fit something softer.
Generally ,leafsprings in utes are designed for load carrying.
You tend to lose some of the load carrying ability when you soften them up ,but if you dont need it ,that the way I would go.

Ive got ARB leafs on my troopy and they are the most comfortable I have had on the 4 landcruisers I have owned

Thanks for your in depth observations, have you upgraded your suspension, or just being unpleasant and insulting

I hear where your coming from, the problem will be that any softer suspension will be fine when empty but not adequate when towing your van, I have a similar problem
Easiest solution is to keep a bit of weight in the back, I carry a few jerries of water, easy to dump it and refill as needed, I also run the rear otyres 6-8 psi less than the front when running around empty

Alby.

I had some weight in the back but added more and it has improved quite a bit. My van is only a small windsor rapid 1600kgs i think so it does not or will not make a great deal of difference.

I have to add a canopy and a boat loader and tinnie, but the boatloader and tinnie will only be on for the trip up to nt once a year ( they weight 35 plus 70 total 105kgs minimum)

But i have 9 months driving around town, will try it this fishing trip and judge it on my return, love the petrol, i mean diesel consumption was 11 now after a few kys its down around the 9.8 will be interesting to see with the van and tinnie. The cruiser was petrol and 11 with the van 19 and with the van and tinnie 27, but that was driving 110klm per hr as NT is a 10,000klms round trip.

Will be an interesting trip next year.....

Has roughly the same power as my cruiser but more grunt if you know what i mean.

Scotty as another has suggested the Parabolic springs may be a suitable option for you then???
I have no personal experience with them but have heard others are happy with them so may be worth investigating

I have a friend with a dual cab Hilux and he has removed a leaf out of his spring pack and added airbags and loves the better ride, he also tows a small van.
I personally am not a fan of that option as I think you put too much load on the chassis

Scotty,
The spring makers can make the spring more progressive and still retain the load rating of the vehicle.
They then will let you know what shocks to use to match the springs.

This will keep everything legal. The only difference is the ute might sit down more in the rear end with load.

Hi Ashez,

Mine is the new 3.2ltr model, why did you get the suspension upgrade, was it for off road or on road or both. What difference did it make to off road and on road. Do you carry a heavy load as i worked it out at 500kgs including bullbar, canopy, tinnie, roof rack, fridge, genny etc

Around town bullbar, canopy say 150kg most of the year, what suspension did you get and why?

regards

Scotty

General day to day travel i don't carry heavy loads, but occasionally i do. I did the upgrade mainly because I was unhappy with the rear leaf springs, they would flex far too much with any load greater than 300 kg.
The other reason was because I had fitted bull bar, steps long range tank canopy etc.
Fitted an OME /w constant load 200kg leafs in rear, new torsional bars, and nitrocharger sports all round. No real reason for the arb brand, just did some research on these forums and seems to be a lot of people using them fairly trouble free.. When loaded (400 - 500 kg) the ute sits fairly parallel to the road as opposed to nose pointing skyward. On & off road handling is a little better, most noticeable improvement is when driving on corrugated dirt roads, just feels a lot more stable.
Has a small amount of lift 1 inch in the front and 2 in the rear which isn't a bad thing for off road..

Hope this helps,

Ash

Ash,

A chap gave me a link to this, is your replacement leaf springs the same as this http://www.saxsuspension.com/ on paper the methodology sound correct, is the arb similar?

Scotty

Nar mate, just ordinary leafies on mine. The sax springs look interesting though - and I did look at them prior to my upgrade.
From my line of thought, the adjustability is of little use because I wouldn't be inclined to change once installed, and I'm curious how much extra strain is placed on the 3rd stage spring sitting up there all on its own. I'm sure it's all fine though. Are they expensive?

Ash

I got quotes for both Sax and ARB (shocks and springs all round incl fitting). Sax ended up about $270 dearer so there's not a lot in it <10%)

Ash,

What was the quote, around the $2,200 mark?

Yeah, about 2300 fitted including wheel alignment. Regardless of which brand you chose, you will also need a centre bearing kit to change the angle of your tail shaft else there will / may be an annoying shudder that occurs on take off (due to increased height in the rear). At lease they make a proper kit for your vehicle Scotty. I had to pack with washers instead. I think the kit is about $50.

Could you expand on that a little please Ash ??

Yeah its a fairly common issue. When you upgrade the suspension the rear of your vehicle will usually sit about 2'' higher than previous. This increases the angle that the tailshaft meets the center bearing and can cause a shudder on take off - probably because the uni joint is operating a little beyond its intended range. Im no mechanic so someone else may be able to explain better.

To resolve, the center bearing needs to be lowered a little which will reduce the angle and put things right. Or if you carry enough load, you would never have the problem in the first place.

You can do a search on it if you like. Have included some links below also. Tried to add a pic but keeps failing.

[url=http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=80668&start=30]

[url=http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=118&t=104421]

Dropped in at SAX in Brisbane and they took me for a ride in their hilux with the SAX suspension upgrade and explained the mechanics.

So I get one fitted on Thursday this week $2,300 will let you know how it goes. The lady their hit the roundabout and went straight over it and mounted the kerb to show the difference, very impressive, scared the hell out of me.

Scotty

Good to hear and glad I was able to help. I'll know more about their product after I drop the tug off tomorrow, but from the sound of it, I should hopefully be happy.

The main man from Lovells returned my call today (he has been away).

He was most helpful and honest and confirmed the advice I had received that their setup was primarily designed for vehicles more or less always fully loaded. In our case of somewhat loaded most of the time he confirmed we wouldn't be happy with the ride.

I know I'm only a single sale but it was refreshing the receive honest advice from a vendor, even at the expense of a sale.

The only doubt that I have is that they bounced the front of my BT50 and said that they replace the front struts and it firms it up and they drove around at speed with little roll.
I am thinking that it may be just too firm, although it did iron out the skull crushing and jarring. Was thinking that i maybe only do the back and leave the front standard? is this an option as I don't mind a little bit of movement at the front, don't want to be driving a brick. Any suggestions?

Me personally ... I wouldn't know as I'm not familiar with IFS setups.

getting one fitted thursday....

Already lowered them, thanks...