well I love spring over... its soft suspension for day drive and improve in articulation , the only problem I see . if you are off roading and you like to use alot of gas... like a rockbouncer you will need a traction bar..(I dont know the real name in english) .. to withstand the punish off big tire and big gas pedal. we do a lot of SOA in my shop and the traction bar is a must
70 series spring over ,who has done it and would you do it again ?
- Thread starter joekatana
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
How about sua and a body lift? Sua can flex you just have to set it up to do so. I used to hate body lifts, then I thought one day-well it doesn't lift the whole chassis so that's good for cog, I have the fab skills to hide the body lift, I would avoid cutting up the body for tire clearance, it costs about 2 or 300 buck max, and it's way easier to pull the tranny or tcase. So I did a 2" on my 40, nobody ever notices-even cruiser geeks. I wish I did it a long time ago. Just throwing a different thought out their.
Been involved in a few 7x SOA builds, no different than a 40 Series SOA IMO
My fave!
My fave!
I'm late to the discussion, but I sprung over my 77 series 8 years ago.
First build:
- custom made steering arms
- stock leafs with a single add leaf
- crap used Rancho 9000s.
- no sway bars
results: great flex, wallowed on the highway, but I could high speed wheel it on the roughest terrain that you could do with 40's and 2wd. in 4wd, high speed runs were even better. Basically I'd end up waiting for everyone else that was getting their spines crushed in coil, linked and leaf sprung trucks. my kids always fell asleep during the drive with the diesel rumble, gentle swaying combination.
Second time around:
- ARB HD leafs
- same tired ranchos,
- still no sway bars
- reduced form 40's to 37s.
results: tires made a large difference. I went thru several different sets: MTR, Swamper IROKS, Pitbull Rockers, Procomp extreme MT (35's), Pitbull Rockers (2nd set)
each time the tire change made the truck behave differently. The MTRs were the worst. Truck was twitchy and would be pulled all over the road if there were ruts or semi-truck wear groves. Sudden lane changes at random were a thing. The Swampers were very docile and actually gave decent fuel mileage. Put on the Rockers and it was a match made in heaven. Truck wheeled awesome, quiet on the highway, good fuel economy. only thing was that i was doing a lot of driving for work, so they were getting burnt down fast so I sold them. The Procomps were a decent tire, wheeled like Sh@T, (got stuck in spots i used to 2wd with Rockers), but the road manners were great. Finally went back to the Rockers (where I am today) and am still happy about it.
Ride was much firmer. Initially, I did the rears only with the ARB springs, but i removed the 3rd leaf to make it softer / lower the height. Truck stands 7'6. Felt like a 4WD Ferrari. eventually once the rears settled in, I put the 3rd leaf back to try and improve the ride more. year or so later, did the EMU heavy fronts and the set up was complete. Truck was nimble and felt neutral and fun to drive. Never had any white knuckle moments. Thought it couldn't get any better until...
Third major change:
- ARB Heavy springs all around
- ARB HD shocks all around
- reduced caster a couple degrees
- ARB standard height shackles
The change was so drastic that i feel its worth mentioning separately. The Emu shocks work great. Truck corners flat on the highway and logging roads, trailer towing is a breeze. Combined with the Rockers, it's a great truck to drive. Standing height 7'-7-1/2"
Summary:
Bite the bullet right away.
- EMU heavies
- Emu HD shocks.
- 5 deg caster
- Standard height shackles.
my 2cents.
First build:
- custom made steering arms
- stock leafs with a single add leaf
- crap used Rancho 9000s.
- no sway bars
results: great flex, wallowed on the highway, but I could high speed wheel it on the roughest terrain that you could do with 40's and 2wd. in 4wd, high speed runs were even better. Basically I'd end up waiting for everyone else that was getting their spines crushed in coil, linked and leaf sprung trucks. my kids always fell asleep during the drive with the diesel rumble, gentle swaying combination.
Second time around:
- ARB HD leafs
- same tired ranchos,
- still no sway bars
- reduced form 40's to 37s.
results: tires made a large difference. I went thru several different sets: MTR, Swamper IROKS, Pitbull Rockers, Procomp extreme MT (35's), Pitbull Rockers (2nd set)
each time the tire change made the truck behave differently. The MTRs were the worst. Truck was twitchy and would be pulled all over the road if there were ruts or semi-truck wear groves. Sudden lane changes at random were a thing. The Swampers were very docile and actually gave decent fuel mileage. Put on the Rockers and it was a match made in heaven. Truck wheeled awesome, quiet on the highway, good fuel economy. only thing was that i was doing a lot of driving for work, so they were getting burnt down fast so I sold them. The Procomps were a decent tire, wheeled like Sh@T, (got stuck in spots i used to 2wd with Rockers), but the road manners were great. Finally went back to the Rockers (where I am today) and am still happy about it.
Ride was much firmer. Initially, I did the rears only with the ARB springs, but i removed the 3rd leaf to make it softer / lower the height. Truck stands 7'6. Felt like a 4WD Ferrari. eventually once the rears settled in, I put the 3rd leaf back to try and improve the ride more. year or so later, did the EMU heavy fronts and the set up was complete. Truck was nimble and felt neutral and fun to drive. Never had any white knuckle moments. Thought it couldn't get any better until...
Third major change:
- ARB Heavy springs all around
- ARB HD shocks all around
- reduced caster a couple degrees
- ARB standard height shackles
The change was so drastic that i feel its worth mentioning separately. The Emu shocks work great. Truck corners flat on the highway and logging roads, trailer towing is a breeze. Combined with the Rockers, it's a great truck to drive. Standing height 7'-7-1/2"
Summary:
Bite the bullet right away.
- EMU heavies
- Emu HD shocks.
- 5 deg caster
- Standard height shackles.
my 2cents.