Right on with that setup! I do run a 1" spacer with the J's in the front and it feels like the optimal "low" lift height for 37's. J+1" = 24.25" front and 863's = 24" rear. Perfect for my light build.
3" lift or lower, and 37's or bigger?
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Right on with that setup! I do run a 1" spacer with the J's in the front and it feels like the optimal "low" lift height for 37's. J+1" = 24.25" front and 863's = 24" rear. Perfect for my light build.
At any point did you have your 37"s with stock gears? What did you notice most when regearing? Why did you go 5.29's and not 4.88's?
I ask because I'm stock geared for now and will be re gearing within 6-8 weeks, I want to make sure I do it right the first time.
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It's all preference, if you go with 37"s or bigger I would go with 5.29's anything below that I would say 4.88. The issue is with 4.88 and 37's or higher you will have problem going up steep climb on the highway. I have 38.7's with 5.29 and my drive up a steep climb was not bad at all. As fare as for doing rock crawling I can get over obsticals a lot easier with 38's then if I were to have 35's.
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There are only a few possible cases where I would say go with the 4.88's over the 5.29's with 37+ tires.
1) if you every plan on a diesel swap in the future.
2) if you are supercharged (but I'd probably still go 5.29)
3)if you are too broke to fix stuff, since the r&p can be a common failure point (but in this case I'd just stick with the stock gears) this is my situation.
4)if you have a crawl box (again, I still might go with 5.29's in that case)
No one I've ever seen has regretted going with the 5.29's, but quite a few have gone with 4.88's and wished they had gone deeper.
We ran a J lift with 2" spacers up front and 37" tires. We cut the front fender wells roughly 3" all the away around and drop the rear bump stop 4" to keep the tire from stuffing too hard. It can be done but you have to be willing to sacrifice sheet metal if you want any kind of articulation.
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So it seems most folks running a 2-3" lift are running 1-2" spacers up front. So essentially a 4-5" lift up front.
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My personal experience/preference on 37" tires and gears: When I first put them on (2006) and attempted to drive it on the highway, mountains, it sucked, so bought 5.29's. Before I got them installed, figured out how to drive it, use the shifter! If it is down shifted before it gets bogged down, it climbs well. If needed 2nd gear, will cruise at 60mph+ (indicated, uncorrected, so ~72mph) has pulled any highway grade that I have found in this mode.
Off road, it didn't suck, but could be better, lower gear would help. I installed the Marlin low range transfer gears. This restored the trail gears, without messing up the "rubber overdrive" that I'm OK with on the highway.
For my uses, relatively light, no towing, this has worked well. At this point, it's unlikely that I will install the 5.29 gears.
Off road, it didn't suck, but could be better, lower gear would help. I installed the Marlin low range transfer gears. This restored the trail gears, without messing up the "rubber overdrive" that I'm OK with on the highway.
For my uses, relatively light, no towing, this has worked well. At this point, it's unlikely that I will install the 5.29 gears.
So you are still running stock gears? I have really thought about doing stock gears with marlins crawler gears... You are swaying me that way.
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I think this is the way I'm going to go.
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Yep, stock diff gears.
I ran 37's and 4.88s for a while. If I was to keep 37's I would want 5.29s. It was super sluggish with the 4.88's, to a point of annoyance. It was worse than stock gears and 315's. I can't imagine what it is like with stock gears. I don't want to start any arguments here, but I don't think height has much to do with how much tire you can fit. It is all about the bump stop extension. 3 or 6 inch springs doesn't matter, stopping it from stuffing too far in the wheel well is what matters. Offset this with some longer shocks and you have the same amount of overall travel, just more droop than compression.
This is not correct. A longer coil, is a longer coil. A stock rear spring in the rear is 475mm, open length on a medium coil. A heavy coil is even less. A 3" flexi coil is 590mm open length. A coil is useless once it leaves its perch (it may as well not be in there at all). So most pics of down travel is for photos only.
After taking with a bunch of people here. The consensus is you guys build trucks for the type of tracks you frequent. As we build ours for all kinds of terrain. What Evers put in front of us. And reflected in our comps.
Here's some flex and runs on the devils marbles during tuff truck. And some flex from 2005. Although they are all comp trucks. Some with rear steer and hydraulics. Keep searching and watch the trucks with only suspension, tyres and lockers.
http://youtu.be/thcPvMWYx1M
http://youtu.be/jjEvjqiiMhg
http://youtu.be/thcPvMWYx1M
http://youtu.be/jjEvjqiiMhg
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I don't need to search/watch youtube, I actually wheel my rig, often. First with 33"s (295's) now with 37"s, so have first hand experience.
What bad experience did you have with your 37" tires to make you so against them? Last I heard, big tires are not road legal in Aussie land, how did you get around that? Maybe that is why most there are stuck with small tires?
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Most of the "kits" are setup for significant additional load in the rear, if you don't load your rig like that, the rear will be high. This is why some run front spacers. If ordering a new setup, I prefer to simply order taller springs for the front. On a stock weight rig, OME heavy springs will net ~4" of lift in the rear, J springs in the front will net ~3.5", so combined with L shocks, makes for a good lift.
I have nothing against 37's at all. They are awesome! I'm just pointing out how very little wheel travel there is due to the stock or extremely small suspension lift. And how beneficial usable wheel travel is. There are other ways around a low COG.
Ps. Everything is illegal here.
Ps. Everything is illegal here.
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My personal experience on 37" tires, have setup or helped with a few of them. Like with any big tire, there will be challenges, will need some work to fit, with 37"s it will be even tighter.
One of the keys is the width. A wide tire will require much more cutting, one of the reasons that I run the Cooper STT, it's the narrowest (at tread width) 37" that I have seen.
Rim width/back space is important, a 37" fills the wheel well, with little room to spare, especially on the rear. I prefer the 17" factory IFS wheels, FJC, Runner, Tundra, etc. They are slightly narrower (7.5") and have slightly less backspace, combined with a 1" spacer moves the tire center line out ~5/8". Puts the tire right where it needs to be and can't be achieved with stock '80 wheels, any further out and it hits the outside quarter edge at full compression, further in and it rubs the frame/wheel well at full flex.
Spring lift height doesn't really have that much to do with it, just determines the amount of compression travel to the bump stop. Shock length, allowed travel/flex, is more critical to fitting. It's tight, but they can be made to fit/flex, I get full travel of L shocks.
There likely isn't a "recipe" each setup is going to require tuning to get it to work. With enough fiddling, they work well. With a narrow tire is really isn't that big of a deal, all of the ones that I have worked, run flares without issue, mud flaps, stock bumpers, etc, are out or would need trimming.
An early shot of mine, still had the stock bumper, but fits in the wheel well.
One of the keys is the width. A wide tire will require much more cutting, one of the reasons that I run the Cooper STT, it's the narrowest (at tread width) 37" that I have seen.
Rim width/back space is important, a 37" fills the wheel well, with little room to spare, especially on the rear. I prefer the 17" factory IFS wheels, FJC, Runner, Tundra, etc. They are slightly narrower (7.5") and have slightly less backspace, combined with a 1" spacer moves the tire center line out ~5/8". Puts the tire right where it needs to be and can't be achieved with stock '80 wheels, any further out and it hits the outside quarter edge at full compression, further in and it rubs the frame/wheel well at full flex.
Spring lift height doesn't really have that much to do with it, just determines the amount of compression travel to the bump stop. Shock length, allowed travel/flex, is more critical to fitting. It's tight, but they can be made to fit/flex, I get full travel of L shocks.
There likely isn't a "recipe" each setup is going to require tuning to get it to work. With enough fiddling, they work well. With a narrow tire is really isn't that big of a deal, all of the ones that I have worked, run flares without issue, mud flaps, stock bumpers, etc, are out or would need trimming.
An early shot of mine, still had the stock bumper, but fits in the wheel well.
Stock rim no back spacing 2" bump stop 37" Swamper
FWIW, More articulation turns the tyre in more. I run 15x11 neg 44, with 35x12.5. 3.5" back spacing (from memory) and have no flare/wheel well/chassi binding issues on both sides of the rear. I realise this would be much harder to do on a us spec with appossing panhards.
