Coil the front axle?

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Randy88FJ62

Randy88FJ62

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I have an 88 FJ62 SOA. It sits too high for highway travel and off camber wheeling. My solution for the rear has been done enough for me to follow (63's and French spring hangers into the frame to drop it 2").

Still not sure where to go with the front suspension at this point. I can do the same thing and french the leaf springs into the frame and drop it 2" or pony up and do coils.

Manuchao has swapped an entire 80's frame under his 60 and that is just a bit too much for me. I'm looking at a simpler approach.

My wheeling is compromised of the following: exploration in death valley, surf n turf dunes at Pismo once a year, and about 1 to 3 hard trails a year with the maximum difficulty being Dusy Ershim / Rubicon crawling.


I want a capable highway vehicle that can get me to and from trails, hit washboard roads at speed (~50 mph), and be able to do average technical trails in the summer. Is this worth doing coils in the front? My fab skills are basic but I have a lot of friends who have built buggies that can assist. Is fabbing a highway worthy coil setup doable for the average wheeler? Or would it be best to keep the leaf springs and put money into shocks?
 
How the truck handles at speed and in corners with Coils will depend on how well you set up the links, not the actual springs you use. That is where you need to focus your attention. Link design. Start reading on what you want to do, and how to get there.
 
well, you can't isolate a single variable on this equation .. all are part of the final result even " simple " item like sway bar.
 
Tapage,
I have front and rear sway bars at the moment.
 
@Randy88FJ62 , can you put up some pictures of your truck with height measurements? I have a hard time believing that your truck is "too tall" to do anything off-camber or to go down the highway.

Like mace said, it's not about the springs, or struts, you use, it's the link design.
 
I've got a few issues:
Need new shocks, the ones I have are blown out.
Current 16" alloy wheels are not wide enough. Need better backspacing.
Leaf spring ride is too rough but I don't want to dump money into a custom set like alcan.

So new wheels, new shocks, install chevy rear springs.

This all leads to how I adjust the front end when lowering the rear 2". Coils seem like the way to go for the long term.

Way down the line I want a larger motor in there too.
 
I am running rancho 9000 shocks in the front at their stiffest setting. They worked ok but have since faded. A lot of my driving is on death valley washboard roads so I think I'll kill any generic shock on those roads.

Are remote reservoirs the only ones I can run to prevent heat and fading on washboard?
 
Any quality shock will help with fade. However, if you truly need shocks to vent heat, remote res shocks are the best bet. A lot of the issues with the oil foaming are dispelled with a simple remote res. Piggy back shocks are a close second. They do a good job of removing the chance of the oil foaming, but not dissipating heat. A lot of shock fade is related to oil volume and actual travel.. Longer travel shocks won't fade as quickly as shorter travel shocks.

Washboard roads should not bother any quality shock. It's cycling the shocks over and over again that really generates heat.
 
Mace,
If I drive 55 miles of washboard (110 over a weekend) would that be within the specifications of a normal shock top handle?
 
Yes.. washboard is not hard on shocks. Whoops are..
 
It's all about the amount of movement a shock sees. When a shock moves a lot, the oil is forced through the inner piston valving. This increases pressure and does two things.
A) you get a ton of friction from the piston moving around in the shock body and
2) PV=NRT Because the volume is "mostly" kept at a constant, the simple action of the shock working and the ports reducing the flow rate through the piston causes heat to build up. That gets significantly increased when you have a Emulsion shock causing the oil to foam up and reducing the effectiveness of the piston..
 
I'm using 80 series control arms on a scout project I'm building for my son. Radius arms are a very easy system. They just don't flex as much as a three or 4 link will.
 
Don't be scared of radius arms. It's a pretty straight forward conversion and can definitely hold its own as far as flex goes.

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No offense, but that's not much flex.

That being said, flex is not the king of the off road world, My 60 does not flex for crap and had no problem at all on the Rubicon..
 
Mace said:
No offense, but that's not much flex.

That being said, flex is not the king of the off road world, My 60 does not flex for crap and had no problem at all on the Rubicon..
Click to expand...
None taken. It wasn't built to flex or I would have gone a 3link. It's not too far behind most of the SOA rigs I've seen and performs really well on washboards, whoops, and corners.
 
Who nailed it. Radius arm suspensions are a good way to get a solid, good performing front linked suspension without a lot of the headaches of a three or four link.

There is a reason some modern day trucks still use them after all.
 
Coil springs on a 60 are doable, but the cost, time and engineering needed make it something I can't see doing to give it better road manners. Easier to swap the 60 body onto an 80 frame.

Or just buy an 80.
 
For Death Valley style terrain it's tough to beat an IFS rig. Our 100 just soaks that s*** up and comes back for more and it rides like a luxury car on the highway.

If you figure out a suspension that works well on the highway and DV style roads and crawls on Rubicon well let me know.

My solution is an FJ40 for tough trails, and the 100 series for everything else.
 
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