FJ55 Suspension

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I am in the same boat here. I am looking for a mild lift, about 2" with a little extra load carrying capability.

I am a little hesitant in ordering the Alcan's. I know a lot of the 55 owners rave about them but do a search and you will find a LOT of people HATE Alcan. I have even talked to about a dozen people who will never buy from them again. Myself included......... maybe. These people I have talked to have had Alcan springs on 40's, 60's and a HZJ75 pickup, but never a 55.

I recently met one gentleman with Alcans on a 60. He has a 4" lift and has to have his springs rebuilt every year because of sag. He has done this for the past 4 years. After a year, the springs start to sag out and his tires rub the fenders. He said it is a major pain in the ass but Alcan replaces the springs, free of charge.

My Alcan experience was similar. I had a 4" lift on my 60. I gave them all the specifications such as length, height desired and weight on the front and rear. After about 3 weeks of highway driving (not even flexing) the springs lost 2.5" of lift. The springs were flat and inverting against my frame. Also, my oil pan hit the top of my diff, I had a Cummins 4BT installed and absolutely needed a 4" lift. So after a week of hassling with Alcan, they refunded my money and I went SOA with the 60.

I would love to support Alcan, hell they are even somewhat local for me, less than 100 miles. I don't know what is going on with their springs, maybe their steel is crap. For whatever reason, their springs just do not hold up.

Now, it seems that I do not have much of an option with the FJ55. I may look at an OME for an FJ60 and see what kind of mods have to be made to do 60 springs. Mark mentioned 45 springs, so I also may look at that. I would love to find a simple bolt on kit for the 55. I might even consider the kit from SOR. As a last resort, I would consider Alcan. Again, I would love to support Alcan because they are local and I can custom order the springs the way i want them. I am just very hesitant because I have been disappointed by their product before.

I only threw my $.02 in for a different opinion on 55 suspension. Please keep this thread going as I believe it may be a valuable resource for fellow pig owners.
 
i mention Alcan over other custom spring shops because Alcan knows the 55's and has done several,,,

i would also recommend Deaver spring, they are real big with the tacoma group. before i bought my springs from MAF i went to my local spring shop in town and they said no problem they can make springs to whatever specs i want, they took measurements and asked me what i wanted, just like Alcan does. i would think any spring shop local to anybody can do this, i mean thats they're buisiness. a plus to a local shop would be,,,, local, warranty problems whatever.


now you got me thinking,,,, if i replace my rear springs why not try the local shop?? i accually have 5 spring shops in my big city, i had u-bolts made for me at one and watched them making leaf springs for a while, so i might as well use them again.
 
have alcans and love them......over the original pitted originals they made the pig ride like a dream!...they were made to totally normal specs; no lift or any other special features......tilll now they have held up great................no wheeling though except National park gravel roads

Lou
 
I have Alcans too, although I don't have them on the pig yet because it's still at the "spa having some work done." But, the thing that convinced me is that my brother had Alcan's on his pig. Then FJBen bought it. Then, after it went oops, I believe someone else on this board now has those springs. As far as I know...all happy customers, and it's been years since they were new.
 
n2666s said:
have alcans and love them......over the original pitted originals they made the pig ride like a dream!...they were made to totally normal specs; no lift or any other special features......tilll now they have held up great................no wheeling though except National park gravel roads
Click to expand...

Lou, do you have a side pick? I'd like to know what normal spec lift looks like. TIA!

:cheers:
 
red cruiser said:
Lou, do you have a side pick? I'd like to know what normal spec lift looks like. TIA!

:cheers:
Click to expand...


i would also like to see a pic of what a 55 looks like at stock height. Mine has stock springs but being 30 years old, they are a little flat. I am not looking for a lot of lift. I just want to run a 235/85R16 on some stock 16" split rims but also have some heavy duty springs for carrying extra gear for some longer excursions.

As far as Alcan goes, from what I can tell, their problems arose just a few years ago. I had always heard great things about them so I decided to try them 3 years ago. I was actually warned beforehand not to go with Alcan and I did not listen. I went with them and had major problems with their springs.

I have not heard a good thing about Alcan except from some of the 55 people on this board. It makes me wonder if they really do know what they are doing with 55's or if the people running Alcan springs on 55's are running older suspensions before Alcan went to crap?
 
I heard mention earlier that one option being considered was the springs SOR offers. I thought I had read somewhere that these are made by Dobinson but could be mistaken. Has anyone tried these out? Impressions?
 
cruiser_guy has them on his pig about 10 posts above this one. His pictures show before/after shots. Looks pretty good to me. I think he likes them so far.

I would consider the SOR route but they seem spendy. I think the rears are $285 apiece and the fronts are $250 apiece. By the time you buy bushings, shocks and new shackles, you have a $1,200+ lift. And that's not including the shipping.
 
have some pix of "Rusty" on the weather stripping thread...........don't have a true side view but have one with my "helpers".......am traveling and can't access any pix!....Alcan has the normal specs and lots of others so they can whip them out with just a phone call + credit card #

Lou
 
Grease Cruiser said:
cruiser_guy has them on his pig about 10 posts above this one. His pictures show before/after shots. Looks pretty good to me. I think he likes them so far.

I would consider the SOR route but they seem spendy. I think the rears are $285 apiece and the fronts are $250 apiece. By the time you buy bushings, shocks and new shackles, you have a $1,200+ lift. And that's not including the shipping.
Click to expand...

They were not that much.
 
cruiser_guy said:
They were not that much.
Click to expand...

Charles: Are you sure about that? Have you checked SOR's prices?

Here is what I found:

http://www.sor.com/sor/cat287b.tam?xax=5760

Front leaf springs= $512 (2X $256)
Rear leaf springs= $570 (2X $285)
= $1,082 springs alone.



http://www.sor.com/sor/cat288.tam?xax=3710

Shackles:
I prefer the greasable shackles at $25.99 each (4X $25.99) = $103.96 or
the 1.5" performance shackles at $52.00/pair (2X $52.00) = $104



http://www.sor.com/sor/cat289.tam?xax=3710

Bushings:
$1.87/each (24X $1.87)= $44.88

Leaf springs $1,082.00
Shackles 104.00
Bushings 44.88
Total $1,230.88

I did not even get new U-bolts which everyone should do when going with new suspension.
U-bolt kit $75 +/-


Oh wait! I forgot shocks!
Rancho RS 9000's $35/each = $140 or, I prefer
Bilstein 5125's $70/each = $280.

Even with the 10% club discount that SOR advertises, you still are going to have a $1,200+ kit! And,,,,, what about shipping?


Or, am I missing something?
 
Maybe they are made overseas and with the US dollar going down the prices went up. I paid around $200/spring for the front and a little more for the rear. I got them in March of this year when the US dollar was better than it is now.

Grease Cruiser said:
Charles: Are you sure about that? Have you checked SOR's prices?

Here is what I found:

http://www.sor.com/sor/cat287b.tam?xax=5760

Front leaf springs= $512 (2X $256)
Rear leaf springs= $570 (2X $285)
= $1,082 springs alone.



http://www.sor.com/sor/cat288.tam?xax=3710

Shackles:
I prefer the greasable shackles at $25.99 each (4X $25.99) = $103.96 or
the 1.5" performance shackles at $52.00/pair (2X $52.00) = $104



http://www.sor.com/sor/cat289.tam?xax=3710

Bushings:
$1.87/each (24X $1.87)= $44.88

Leaf springs $1,082.00
Shackles 104.00
Bushings 44.88
Total $1,230.88

I did not even get new U-bolts which everyone should do when going with new suspension.
U-bolt kit $75 +/-


Oh wait! I forgot shocks!
Rancho RS 9000's $35/each = $140 or, I prefer
Bilstein 5125's $70/each = $280.

Even with the 10% club discount that SOR advertises, you still are going to have a $1,200+ kit! And,,,,, what about shipping?


Or, am I missing something?
Click to expand...
 
No, the prices are seperate. I shot them an email for a price list, shipping to USA, and asked if they could make a 100mm (~4 inch) lift for us, as several of us are interested. Also, Ironman no longer produces FJ55 stuff. That is all I know for now. List updated.
 
Food for thought. My Friend Dazza just added a few leaves to his spring pack on his 60. I helped him do it all in a day and the other spring packs we scored for $60.

Dazza said:
You could add some leaves to your front and rear spring packs out of another stock cruiser to get a cheap 3" -ish lift

I added four leaves to my sagging rear and 2 leaves to the front (the largest of each) and got appx. 3" taller and heavy enough springs packs to load down with 4 people, lots of gear, cast iron cookware, a canoe, etc. With shackle reversal it might sit even taller???

If your rear leaves are really bad, some of mine were broken, you may need to buy 2 decent sets to avoid a still saggy rear end.

If you don't plan on loading down your front end with a bumper, winch, highlift, etc.... Maybe only 1 spring in front. Mine feels perfect, but it's heavier than stock. You may want to extend your sway bar too, if you plan to drive on highways, that is.

I also added some rancho shocks my friend had sitting around that fit, longer u bolts from a chevy drop kit for trucks, and suggest new bushings, etc.

It's not perfect, and mine squeaks a bit cause i made some mistakes and cut some corners, but I get 4 feet of articulation on the ramp at 4 wheel parts with my front sway bar attached.

Not bad for $60.

It's old school, and not pretty, but it works.
Click to expand...


A parabolic lift solution would be nice to see for the 55.
 
I have a 2 1/2'' shackle reversal with 1 1/2'' lift shackles and stock springs. On the front. I just put 4'' lift springs from alcan on the back. The rear springs I had made are 300lb of overload and 1'' longer.
It gave me 3'' of lift and a good shackle angel. the back looks to be just a Little higher then the front and that is fine with me I have lots of stuff :) I took it out in to the east mojove on a 100 miles of trail.
and it was grate
 
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