75 series front springs in 60 series

[dbleon]

@dbleon What size tires do you want to run and what kind of trails do you want to do? SOA and 40s or other highly involved builds will get you far, but it's not like 3-4" of lift and 33s limits you to "fire roads and camping in designated spaces". I guess maybe folks need clarification on your goals to give good advice. Is this a dedicated wheeling rig? A family camper? A hunting truck? What's the terrain like near you - rocks, mud bogs, tundra?

Ya, the “fire roads and campgrounds” was a bit of /sarc.

I’ve run my current setup with 33s for about the last 85k+ miles. I’ve used my 60 for just about everything, hauling materials, towing boat, camping, off-road/exploring, travel, work, kids, commuting, blah blah blah. It has served its purpose very admirably.

Fast forward to 2023 and I mostly use my 100 series for DD, travel, kids, lake, etc nowadays, so the 60 no longer serves as the do it all.

Currently, I find myself wanting to set up the 60 more as a dedicated off-road, expedition, camping rig with the capability of traveling to and running most of the hardest trails without having the fear of having to avoid anything off-road due to lack of capability /within reason obviously.

I’ve run many trails here in AZ where I was working pretty hard to get the job done, or flat out turned around where other guys were making it look fairly easy .. maybe I’m a pussy, but some stuff just looks like it’s not worth the body damage.

I figure 35’s or perhaps 37s will give me the capability I need without having to beat the tar out of the truck to get there. I realize maybe it CAN be done on 33’s with the right skills, but I admit I’m not the most skilled and Id rather spend time enjoying the trips without having to strain myself or the truck too much.

Hope I’m not asking too much out of the rig.

 

[dbleon]

Sorry for the total thread hijack

 

[CruiserTrash]

@dbleon That all makes sense. Now that you've got the 100, let the 60 enjoy retirement. I'd say go nuts and do a SOA and a bunch of armor, or at least sliders. I'm sure Matt will advise since one of his trucks is set up that way. I don't know much about SOAs.

A local guy with an LS swapped 80 told me this recently: "35s are the new 33s, and 37s are the new 35s". Back in the day a lot of people were wheeling with 31s and 33s, but larger tires are becoming the norm now. The Forest Service and BLM don't do much if any trail maintenance so the old logging & mining roads of 100 years ago might have been fairly easy in the 70s & 80s, but with an additional 40-50 years of erosion boulders get exposed, and terrain gets formed. Lots of trails here in Colorado are more difficult than they were in the early 00s when I started wheeling. So ... why not just commit to 37s and build the truck around that? Whether HZJ75 front springs end up being part of that plan ... I guess you'll find out!

 

[cruisermatt]

@dbleon it sounds like this is what you want. Get out the grinder and the welder. Don’t go cheap on shocks.

Pictures on the Rubicon after I drove like 4000 miles from Florida to get there, with a detour to Colorado to wheel for 5 days there

Oh yeah, 80-85mph left lane everywhere

 

[dbleon]

Yep


Looks like Buzz is going under the knife again.

@cruisermatt.. looks like I’ll be digging into your build thread some more for a good recipe.

My fab skills are not A+ or even B+ but I’m confident I can do it. I’ve got some more $ at my disposal nowadays so I’ll try not to cheap out.

Any pointers or maybe good place to start collecting data ?

 

[dbleon]

Maybe I’ll start a new thread

 

[cruisermatt]

All the details for my setup are in my thread. There are a few things I would do differently, but overall the setup works really well