Suspension thoughts.... (1 Viewer)

[1973Guppie]

Currently I am running 850 front and 863 rear OME suspension with 285's. I am going to be purchasing 315's here shortly and have been doing a bunch of reading. Seems that many people are running the 850J front and 863 rears combo with L shocks.

Ideally I am trying to avoid changing the castor correction or having to purchase new control arms and / or CV driveshafts, which is why I would like to stay as small as a lift as possible.

Is it worth the extra flex of the L shocks and front 863J springs to purchase these new and install when buying my 315's or will my current setup work well? It does sit a bit stinkbug right now but levels out when loaded up with all of our family gear.

Just curious if anyone has any real world #'s on how much more flex you get when switching to the L shocks from the standard nitrocharger shocks?

FWIW, I have already installed the swaybar drops, rear bumpstop drops and have the slee blue front castor correction bushings installed. Front slee bumper and rear 4x4 labs bumper, mtech sliders.

thanks in advance for your opinions and experiences.

 

[scrowley]

You would need castor plates with front j's. j's also make 315's look small. I run j's. With 37's. 1" spacer in front.

 

[CruiseOrlando]

What are your plans with the rig? What kind of offroading do you do, or would you like to do?

That's the real question - to hell with the rest, make the truck do what you want and let that drive your decision.

And your wallet, for that matter

 

[scottryana]

I run OME heavies front and rear, there is a touch of stink bug, but I have a light rear bumper and no second or third row in. The problem with OME heavies and 35's is that you will get rub. Go to J's and you might fight caster issues. So really you need to decide on what the right call is for you.

Overall I am very happy with my truck on heavies and 35's, here in Richmond because a 1/2" taller and I wouldn't fit into the parking garage BUT in Moab I was jonesing for J's+ and 37's!

Let your ultimate use be your deciding factor.

 

[half k cruiser]

You would need castor plates with front j's. j's also make 315's look small. .

Very true, I constantly get people asking me " whoa, are those 33's on there ". No f^ckface, they are 315's, they just look like 33's because the truck is so damn big.

 

[1973Guppie]

You would need castor plates with front j's. j's also make 315's look small. I run j's. With 37's. 1" spacer in front.

ok, so maybe I can just stay with my 850's up front then, would like to have the most minimal lift with the 35's, truck drives great right now with the blue slee bushings....

 

[1973Guppie]

What are your plans with the rig? What kind of offroading do you do, or would you like to do?

That's the real question - to hell with the rest, make the truck do what you want and let that drive your decision.

And your wallet, for that matter

yeah, the wallet part is the problem,

I want to be able to run the dusy and rubicon and have an all around good camping, family wheeling truck, on road manners are important to me. Ideally I would like to keep the suspension I have and just run 315's, so I will try that first.

 

[1973Guppie]

I might just go with the 315's now, see how it works and then in the future move to J's if necessary....what I don't want to do is spend the $$ on a smaller set of tires and have to buy a new set sooner than later.

 

[1973Guppie]

I run OME heavies front and rear, there is a touch of stink bug, but I have a light rear bumper and no second or third row in. The problem with OME heavies and 35's is that you will get rub. Go to J's and you might fight caster issues. So really you need to decide on what the right call is for you.

Overall I am very happy with my truck on heavies and 35's, here in Richmond because a 1/2" taller and I wouldn't fit into the parking garage BUT in Moab I was jonesing for J's+ and 37's!

Let your ultimate use be your deciding factor.

pm'd u about your setup....

 

[1973Guppie]

would love to hear real world opinions from folks running 315's and 850 front and 863 rear OME setup. Any opinions on how much more flex an L shock would give you over the standard OME shock. I could not find any data on shock lengths between the two.

 

[GW Nugget]

Run what you have... add a front coil spacer if needed.

As for real numbers read further.
I have 851s + 25mm front & 860 rears with 315s & have slight OK rubbing NO fender ripping rubbing.
If you have wheel spacers take them off on your first run out & you can add them back on if you have clearance later.
You want to tuck in those 315s in the huge fender wells NOT hitting flares if you have them. If no flares I believe your golden.
I also have 1.5" bumps front & rear.
My suggestion is to run the 315s with your current lift.
As for the L shocks you might slightly unseat the front coils "might" you'll have to check. I run the 25mm coil space & have no unseating with a 26.5" ext. front shocks.
That's the L shock front length 26.5".
27" is all my front end will flex with no shocks, any further will start hit stuff (sway bar & tie rod starts hitting the arms).
OME did there home work with the L shocks.
As for the rear I have not had unseating with the L shock ext. length of 26.9"

I'm NOT a 80 series expert here... this was my personal experience with my LX450.
I just went through all this a couple months ago.
My build thread is "My Family Haulin LX450 build" if you want to read my thread.
Hope this helps.

Gary

 

[1973Guppie]

thx Gary, very helpful, I have been following your thread, nice build! I have no flares. Sounds like I may eventually go wit the L shocks and spacers. Good to know I can use my existing setup and just add to that. My existing shocks are wearing out so it will be time for some new ones eventually.

 

[1973Guppie]

Gary, what did you do for castor correction? I am using the 3 degree slee bushings now and am assuming I probably won't have to do any more correction if I add a small spacer like you did?

Front bumpstops - forgive the dumb question but my truck never had them? I believe my bumpstops are inside of the springs up front? curious what you used for the front for bumpstops. My rear bumpstops have already been dropped

 

[1973Guppie]

edit: ok I see slee sells front bump stop drop blocks......

 

[retrofive]

Gary, what did you do for castor correction? I am using the 3 degree slee bushings now and am assuming I probably won't have to do any more correction if I add a small spacer like you did?

Front bumpstops - forgive the dumb question but my truck never had them? I believe my bumpstops are inside of the springs up front? curious what you used for the front for bumpstops. My rear bumpstops have already been dropped

I know using J's and Slee bushings when I added a 2" coil spacers in the front it pushed me over and I went back to stock bushings and MT plates.

 

[Rwhat]

I have J all around and 1" spacer up front and slee castor plates. I got horrible vibes from the front drive line. I pulled the front shaft and went OEM u joints. Still the same. I tried phasing the shaft too. I ended up with a DC shaft.

I have 4 other friends with the same setup and was the only one who needed to go to DC shaft.

Several of them went to slee springs mediums and heavies and they are still good.

So maybe with Js without spacer you can avoid a DC shaft.

 

[retrofive]

I have J all around and 1" spacer up front and slee castor plates. I got horrible vibes from the front drive line. I pulled the front shaft and went OEM u joints. Still the same. I tried phasing the shaft too. I ended up with a DC shaft.

I have 4 other friends with the same setup and was the only one who needed to go to DC shaft.

Several of them went to slee springs mediums and heavies and they are still good.

So maybe with Js without spacer you can avoid a DC shaft.

I hear you. I'm really on the border of going DC. I have a little ds vibe, but not enough to bother me to much. I think a DC would eliminate it completely.

 

[1973Guppie]

thx for the thoughts guys, appreciate it! I think I have decided to do 315's with my existing setup, add a 25mm spacer in front (less than an inch), L shocks (existing shocks are getting OLD), 1 inch front spring bumpstop drop.

 

[jp_waltz]

I have the same setup as Rwhat does. J's all the way around w 1" spacers in front. I have the fox 2.0 shocks and love them. My rig sits almost level and rides great. No driveline vibe or rubbing of the 315's. I have slee plates bt havnt put them on yet. Currently using the 3* bushings that I had from the previous med lift. It wanders a little but not bad at all. I'll press in my new stock bushings and put on the plates next week though. I have extended brake lines and all the dropped stuff to make it all work like it should. I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Pm of you want any more info.
Paul

 

[Rwhat]

I still get deceleration vibes. However prior to the DC shaft. It would vibrate like crazy. You could see the T case handle do the hula and really feel it in the floorboards.