Tapage
Club 4X4 Panamá
I'm not a cool kit and neither have a 40 but love my SO on Tencha .. one day I would love to go at least rear coils or maybe ORIs dunno .. but I'm not a CO fan ..
Are the cool kids still doing springovers? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Flipper1938
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rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
Street and Forest Service type roads SUA IMHO. with a suspension lift you can run 33's no problem and the truck will perform nicely. I ran mine that way for many years.
If you want to run harder trails you need to start looking at lockers first, then SOA. Just one mans opinion but lockers will open up lines on obstacles and mitigate the need for clearance.
If you do the SOA, cut and turn the axle, biggest mistake I made on my build was not doing that.
If you want to run harder trails you need to start looking at lockers first, then SOA. Just one mans opinion but lockers will open up lines on obstacles and mitigate the need for clearance.
If you do the SOA, cut and turn the axle, biggest mistake I made on my build was not doing that.
- Thread starter
- #23
A question for somebody with a springover using FJ60 springs... what is the distance between the eye of the shackle mount and the bolt hole on the spring mount? Is 41.5" right for the front?
Take a look at my avatar pic and these below for articulation and ride height. I'm on my iPad and don't have access to other detailed pics. I flipped both my front and rear springs (rears are 60 series), did an SOA, cut and turn, out boarded the front springs, and stock flat springs with a main leaf removed. I'm a bit wider too with the 60 series axles wat a 105ish wheelbase, give or take (never really measured). I can stuff a front tire and opposite rear tire until almost touching the top of the wheel wells while the ground tires stay connected to Tera Firma. I am very stable on off camber hills and the ride down the road getting to the trail is comfortable although I have firmer shocks installed at the moment than I'd like. Shackle reversals also improve things a bit, but I didn't do that for lack of time and don't plan on doing it at this point.
If done correctly, an SOA rig will have all the articulation you need almost all the time with the only limitation being that they are leaf springs and still have those universal characteristics. So going fast on washboard roads tends to get old very fast but low tire air pressure can help with that a bit on fire-roads. This is where coils are definitely superior. Coils also are better for finding the spring rate that works best for you and the process is easier to fine tune things than SOA which besides shackles, bushings, shocks, and adding or removing leafs is pretty much set once built. Changing ride height and spring rate is almost limitless with coils.
If done correctly, an SOA rig will have all the articulation you need almost all the time with the only limitation being that they are leaf springs and still have those universal characteristics. So going fast on washboard roads tends to get old very fast but low tire air pressure can help with that a bit on fire-roads. This is where coils are definitely superior. Coils also are better for finding the spring rate that works best for you and the process is easier to fine tune things than SOA which besides shackles, bushings, shocks, and adding or removing leafs is pretty much set once built. Changing ride height and spring rate is almost limitless with coils.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to fubar the front angles too. I'm off by a few degrees but it doesn't impact driving unless I forget to tighten the bolts up after getting off the trail. I have to keep the front shackle bushing pretty tight and replace the bushings once a year. That's more out of habit than necessity most of the time though.
I have done quite a few cut and turns now and I found that what works best for me is to try to set the axle up while on the truck with full weight on the springs.. simply having it on the bench and turning the pinion up 10 degrees and your knuckle back 6 degrees may not show the same results once the axle is bolted up under the vehicle.. depending on if you did a shackle reversal or changed the length of your shackles or the height of your mounts all has an effect on how that diff is going to measure up once under the truck...
I don't know how many degrees I actually turn the front pinion up usually.. all I do is aim the front pinion directly towards the output of the tcase but just slightly lower and then weld the spring perches in position. . From there I then turn the knuckles while on the truck. .. I usually cut the weld that allows me to turn the knuckles back while the diff is out of the truck. .. you can either use a big 4inch pipe cutter or if you are good with an angle grinder and a cutoff disc you can do that too. . I just run some masking tape around the diff tube and cut along that. .it keeps the cut line straight. . Its actually a pretty easy job once you get into it. . With the knuckles I usually turn them back somewhere in that 5-8 degrees. . If they are turned back any further the steering will feel heavy and if they aren't turned back enough than the steering will feel quick and twitchy which is not what you want. . I don't run a steering stabilizer and don't feel you should need to. .. they are more of a bandaid to cover up any shortcomings with the steering and handling. . That being said I have driven other vehicles with and without them and the sprung over vehicles that had them did have less harsh feedback through the steering wheel. .. your call on that one. .
And as far as stability goes it's OK. .. I ran bagged out springs with bilstein shocks and the truck has always had good road manners when I had 60 series axles under my truck.. I did find myself doing quite a bit of rock crawling with the truck and didn't feel super stable. I only go crawling twice a year though so the feeling of instability may have been more due to my comfort level of being off camber more than anything. . From that point I then put 1.5 inch spacers on my 60 series axles and that was slightly better but now I am running 80 series width diffs under my 45 and it feels super solid.. I have a newer set of mostly flat ome springs under the truck with bilsteins again. No issues going 80 mph down the interstate. .
I don't know how many degrees I actually turn the front pinion up usually.. all I do is aim the front pinion directly towards the output of the tcase but just slightly lower and then weld the spring perches in position. . From there I then turn the knuckles while on the truck. .. I usually cut the weld that allows me to turn the knuckles back while the diff is out of the truck. .. you can either use a big 4inch pipe cutter or if you are good with an angle grinder and a cutoff disc you can do that too. . I just run some masking tape around the diff tube and cut along that. .it keeps the cut line straight. . Its actually a pretty easy job once you get into it. . With the knuckles I usually turn them back somewhere in that 5-8 degrees. . If they are turned back any further the steering will feel heavy and if they aren't turned back enough than the steering will feel quick and twitchy which is not what you want. . I don't run a steering stabilizer and don't feel you should need to. .. they are more of a bandaid to cover up any shortcomings with the steering and handling. . That being said I have driven other vehicles with and without them and the sprung over vehicles that had them did have less harsh feedback through the steering wheel. .. your call on that one. .
And as far as stability goes it's OK. .. I ran bagged out springs with bilstein shocks and the truck has always had good road manners when I had 60 series axles under my truck.. I did find myself doing quite a bit of rock crawling with the truck and didn't feel super stable. I only go crawling twice a year though so the feeling of instability may have been more due to my comfort level of being off camber more than anything. . From that point I then put 1.5 inch spacers on my 60 series axles and that was slightly better but now I am running 80 series width diffs under my 45 and it feels super solid.. I have a newer set of mostly flat ome springs under the truck with bilsteins again. No issues going 80 mph down the interstate. .
I ran that setup for a few years. It did suprisingly well both on and off road. The trick was balancing the springs so they flexed with similar characteristics. At first the rear was a lot looser/flexier and would make some off camber situations sketchy. Sometimes, if I was trying to pop up a ledge on a steep incline, the front would make it up but then all the weight would hit the rear springs and the front springs would push the front out and the only thing keeping me from landing on my lid was the spare tire. The rear springs would be pushed down and in by the stiffer front springs. Looking at the sky sucks.
- Thread starter
- #28
I don't have a motor in it yet to flatten out the springs....this thing is gonna be TALL.
I started out with stock springs with flipped rear SOA on 40 axles. With a doubler and a long front shaft, no cut and turn- it drove fine at highway speeds. I now have out boarded front springs with 1 ton axles on the same stock springs and I'm really happy with it. It is wide and stable and flex is good.
Give you an idea. Flipped and Flat SOA with leaf removed and TJ flares I put on today got tired of rooster-tailing.
I also run 37s but they are bias super swampers. Not great for on road. Usually only run them in the summer for trails and so I fits in the garage. Your seeing 35s in the pic.
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With 2.5" SUA lift on mine, 36" tires, the top of the cage is a hair under 7'. A spring over would not allow me in the garage anymore.
done and never would go back
You mean measured along the spring? If not, it depends on the weight on the spring.
- Thread starter
- #34
No, I was asking about the mounting points on the frame. A stock fj60 is supposedly 41.75" ...but that is with a arched spring. Going soa flattens out the spring and might change where the shackle hanger needs to be placed.
No help there. I could only tell you where they ended up on my frame, and re-reading your post, I didn't use FJ60 fronts. Carry on.
