99 LC Suspension Upgrade Input

[Abe Nitro]

Hi,

I am ready to purchase a suspension system for my 1999 Land Cruiser. General use for this vehicle will be: daily driver, family camping, long road trips, lighter duty CA boulder trails (Parts of Fordyce, Coyote Lake, maybe Dusy ect). Bumpers will be replaced when the stock ones get bent. No plan for a winch. When I purchase a rear bumper it will be Slee's without the tire mount.

Please give your input, based on experience, as to which suspension components you recommend, and also provide any technical-install tricks I should be aware of.

My initial plan, unless this list overwhelmingly advises otherwise, is to purchase a complete suspension from Slee (OME Springs, torsion bars, shocks, and diff drop). I will also be buying Slee's sliders and installing them at the same time.

I appreciate your input.

 

[DMX84]

Perfect combination IMO. What springs are you planning on using?

 

[Abe Nitro]

Perfect combination IMO. What springs are you planning on using?

Planning on medium spring rate OME, but I am not certain on the best height.

 

[BMWSTOY]

Exactly what I am planning after research,

If it is for loading up and camping with it like I will do, I would go heavy duty, but then I will not be using mine for daily driver duties.

I hear folks going medium wishing for more load capabilities after. Just a thought.

 

[spressomon]

Hi,

I am ready to purchase a suspension system for my 1999 Land Cruiser. General use for this vehicle will be: daily driver, family camping, long road trips, lighter duty CA boulder trails (Parts of Fordyce, Coyote Lake, maybe Dusy ect). Bumpers will be replaced when the stock ones get bent. No plan for a winch. When I purchase a rear bumper it will be Slee's without the tire mount.

Please give your input, based on experience, as to which suspension components you recommend, and also provide any technical-install tricks I should be aware of.

My initial plan, unless this list overwhelmingly advises otherwise, is to purchase a complete suspension from Slee (OME Springs, torsion bars, shocks, and diff drop). I will also be buying Slee's sliders and installing them at the same time.

I appreciate your input.

You're on it....but be careful as modding is somewhat like dominos

 

[3rd Cruiser]

Abe,
I went with the medium 865 springs in the rear and firm shocks all around. N133's in the front and n101's in the rear. I like this set up. Nice ride around town and off hiway. I really load it up for camping and the suspension handels it very well.

Personally I think heavy duty springs would be overkill until you install the rear bumper. At that point you would probably need to increase the spring rate.

If you haven't already done it, make a good set of light truck tires your first up grade. All the armor will quickly overload the OEM tires.

I love the slee step sliders. They came in real handy last weekend when we hoisted a trashed tire up on my roof rack. I also used them as the jack point for the high lift jack.

 

[Abe Nitro]

Thanks for the quick and objective input. We'll be set up pretty much the same.

 

[Auggies'Blu]

For daily driver duty, how bad is the ride with the medium springs/firm shocks combo?

Other than the wife, three kids and my fat***, the truck is never really loaded. Thanks!

 

[dclee]

I'm planning, for the same uses, for the medium lift, and supplement that with AirLift bags in the rear. This truck is driven daily by my wife and she has to be able to easily move a baby in and out (thus no huge lifts), plus I don't want the CoG any higher than necessary for safe road handling. Medium should also give a better ride, and if really loading up for a camping trip, we'll have the air bags in back to keep the truck level.

 

[SINCITY100]

Hi,

Bumpers will be replaced when the stock ones get bent. No plan for a winch. When I purchase a rear bumper it will be Slee's without the tire mount.


My initial plan, unless this list overwhelmingly advises otherwise, is to purchase a complete suspension from Slee (OME Springs, torsion bars, shocks, and diff drop). I will also be buying Slee's sliders and installing them at the same time.

Hmm.. NO plan for a winch, but with a Slee rear w/o tire mount, and sliders...

IF you plan on leaving your 100 set-up that way for a while and you DONT plan to load your rig with say, more than 4 people, a ton of recovery gear and spares..( gas, the kitchen sink, etc..) I would be tempted to say go with the OME Medium (865 springs) kit w/ diff drop.
The ride would be quite nice, and you will have a lot of flex available in your suspension when wheeling.

But.. Keep in mind that ANY added weight would be a burden on the rear springs and you will wish ya had more back there. sooo, 866`s would then come into play.

I ran with the 866`s in back and was VERY happy with the 100`s performance (I was loaded with a bit more weight/equipment though) It was the ideal combo for me.

well..that is, until I added MY kitchen sink : (

 

[SINCITY100]

I'm planning, for the same uses, for the medium lift, and supplement that with AirLift bags in the rear. This truck is driven daily by my wife and she has to be able to easily move a baby in and out (thus no huge lifts), plus I don't want the CoG any higher than necessary for safe road handling. Medium should also give a better ride, and if really loading up for a camping trip, we'll have the air bags in back to keep the truck level.

Thats another great option Dclee.. Air bags do give you a lot more flexibility, especially when carrying a variety of loads.

Personally, I have stayed away from "bags" only because I heard they reduce flex when running on tougher trails ( if thats true at all ? ) and perhaps more maintanence/repairs due to leaks and such.

But if I had them, they would`ve saved my rear (no pun intended) several times when I kinda overloaded my rig with the lighter-duty springs.

 

[Abe Nitro]

Thanks for the input. You are pretty much agreeing with what Christo recommended. Basically go with the medium springs then upgrade if and when I get a rear bumper or find I need a stiffer and progressive spring rate.

Articulation is important to me. Sufficient flexibility to keep the wheels in contact with Sierra Nevada granite is a key consideration.

I'll be installig this in the next couple of weeks and will post pics and initial impressions when I am done..

Again, any other advice, considerations, or tech wizardry insights are appreciated.

 

[spressomon]

Assuming you have a good (fast) jack, jack stands, air impact, etc., you can swap springs in the rear of a 100 in 30-minutes total time. Maybe if you are only heavily laden just a few trips a year it might be a good solution to have two sets of springs and do the swap as necessary.

 

[dclee]

Personally, I have stayed away from "bags" only because I heard they reduce flex when running on tougher trails ( if thats true at all ? ) and perhaps more maintanence/repairs due to leaks and such.

Yeah, I've heard this as well. In fact, AirLift even says so, though in a different way: they say don't totally deflate the bag to get back full articulation because you might rip it if you fully flex out. So you leave a little air in it, which makes the bag act as a sort of bumpstop, thus limiting flex a bit.

But my feeling is that the rear already flexes so much more than the front, a little loss back there is not necessarily such a bad thing, and may even make the suspension more balanced, which is always the goal (though you usually want to increase flex on the deficient side, not decrease the side that already flexes well!).

So, in short, for my purposes, this still works fine. If/when I ever actually get it in (waiting for at least the factory warranty to expire), I"ll report back on how it works. BTW, here's some real flex for you:

 

[SINCITY100]

Good lord

That almost looks un-natural !

Now if you could get flex like that on either end of a 100....

 

[dclee]

Good lord

That almost looks un-natural !

Now if you could get flex like that on either end of a 100....

Hehe, that's a UNIMOG 404 in that picture. Now get this, those coils are not Mercedes coils, they're from... wait for it... a Ford Aerostar minivan!!! I s#!t you not!

 

[SINCITY100]

Hehe, that's a UNIMOG 404 in that picture. Now get this, those coils are not Mercedes coils, they're from... wait for it... a Ford Aerostar minivan!!! I s#!t you not!

....does that mean the Aerostar is actually an off-road sleeper ! ? ;p

 

[dclee]

Well, I think someone needs to chop one up and take it on the trail to find out. Maybe it's like those old VW Synchro vans!