Yes. And delta 4” arms. All for sale. PM me as not to hijack this thread.
Help me diagnose a driveline vibration - Slinky 3" lift
- Thread starter digitalmarker
- Start date
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The icon springs are for lighter 80’s. The Dobinson Tapered springs are for carrying weight. We must all do our homework.
Thats what I thought. But after getting confused from stuff that would contradict the other stuff i read from the searches I called both Dave at Delta to discuss the Icons, and then David at Dobinsons (who were both above and beyond in terms of customer service). I was schooled that the Dobinsons C97-147vt and 146vt are for stock weight rigs, and designed for comfort and road manners. They can also handle some weight, due to the variable taper which is why they are taller. Because they are taller does not mean they are higher lift or rated at a higher load. If you want less manners but articulation go wit the flexicoills. Homework complete.
My rig is stock weight. Both the Icons and these Dobinsons are supurb. (Im running Icon 2.0 shocks) Very comfortable ride on road. not harsh at all. Minimal roll. I can say I might notice the Dobinsons are slightly more comfortable, but anyone else would never know the difference between the two in my opinion.
In case people data gather from this thread... I'll throw my Slinky 75mm experience up here.
I run the 75mm heavy lift and the mods in my signature. I sit at exactly 3" of lift and have no driveline vibes. I'm using the 2.5" LandTank caster plates. Caster numbers are somewhere between 2 and 3. I can drive fine up to 80 mph. Above that, my rig still drives fine but I get natural scare reflex!
I run the 75mm heavy lift and the mods in my signature. I sit at exactly 3" of lift and have no driveline vibes. I'm using the 2.5" LandTank caster plates. Caster numbers are somewhere between 2 and 3. I can drive fine up to 80 mph. Above that, my rig still drives fine but I get natural scare reflex!
Just another reference point here. I had the 3” flexi coils first with Dobinsons rubber caster bushings, stock driveshaft
2.2° caster with a 22.8” front hub to flare
Problem recognized:
rubber caster bushings split and failed leaving me with excessive knocking in the middle of Utah (not a long life caster solution for me)
3” flexi coils rate was too light for my heavy 80, excessive sway and bottom out 180#/“ initial rate and 275#/“ main rate
Had a lot spline play from my stock DS so needed to replace/upgrade the DS
Caster bushings paired with stock arms and ~3” lift had my radius arms rubbing steering arms at flex
I went all in, like I should have from the start and upped my lift to a 4” via 3.5” vt 144vt coils, Tacoma dc shaft, Delta 4” arms. With the 4” lift (24” hub to flare) and 3.6° caster I now solved all those issues. I could have swapped Delta arms for LT plates, but needing new OEM bushings and someone to weld the plates for me with the plates, the cost difference wasn’t too much so went with Delta arms.
Flexi 3” vs 3.5” tapered
Thanks for this solid data conveyed via good visual aides and easy to understand sentences. Nice pumpkin btw.
- Thread starter
- #147
That's wild. I am running 75mm Slinky Heavies, I have a Slee front bumper with a 9.5k winch, and (assuming the stock distance of 20" between fender and hub) I have 4-4.5" of lift.
Haha, Fall is the best time for laying under the truck.
Measuring around the tire.
I believe part of the kornfusion is that these springs were designed down under where they have many more (better?) TLC variants than us. The FJ80 is lighter than the FZJ80 by a few hundred and I believe the beautiful, beautiful HDJ and HZJ turbo diesels are even heavier than the FZ. Add to this the fully loaded VX.
But wait there’s more. They drive on the other side of the road and their toilets spin backwards.
- Thread starter
- #151
Not sure what you mean? I am measuring center of the hub to the fender flare. My understanding is that this method eliminates the inconsistency introduced by tire sizes.
When I measure with tire installed the tape must wrap around the tire. Perhaps your flare sticks out more than the tire.
All you have to do is keep reducing castor angle (raising the pinion) until the front shaft doesn’t vibrate. It’s as simple as that. Your challenges with this will go down in history.
Box Rocket
SILVER Star
More data points for posterity. An opinion first though. Caster bushings should be the last resort solution for caster correction. First choice should be aftermarket radius arms with proper caster correction. If that’s not in your budget then factory radius arms/bushings with caster plates would be my next choice.
I really like the Delta “laminated” radius arms and I really like the forged Blackhawk radius arms. Besides the caster correction built into these arms, the better clearance at the bushing eyes is the other upgrade compared to stock arms which can contact the axle brackets when flexing.
While I don’t have the cool factor of the aftermarket arms or their built in benefits, factory radius arms/bushings combined with Slee caster plates have worked perfectly well for me. I also did a bit of grinding work to the eyes of my arms so they wouldn’t contact the axle brackets as soon. Again not quite as good as what you get from aftermarket arms but still pretty good and they work. The forged factory arms are very strong too (even though I’ve bent a couple). Haha
ok the data points. 75mm heavy duty Slinky lift. As mentioned, factory arms, caster plates at 2-3° caster. Tacoma DC front driveshaft. No steering link clearance issues. More importantly no vibrations. I regularly drive 75-80mph for hours at a time. I do have a little noise on deceleration but it’s been traced to a tcase output bearing not the driveshaft. That will get fixed when I pull the trigger on tcase gears.
Other measurements. I don’t think 20” from hub to fender is correct for stock height. I’ve personally measured a couple different 100% stock 80s and I got 21” from hub center to bottom of fender flare. If I’m not mistaken there is also a 40th Anniversary Edition 80 with less than 100 miles on it in the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum that also measures 21”. I am planning to visit the museum again in the next week or two and I will take a tape measure and confirm.
Assuming 21” is correct and not 20”, then I think @digitalmarker is actually very close to the advertised lift height for the Slinky kit.
My hub to fender flare measurements are:
LF 24”
LR 24.25”
RR 24.5”
RF 24”
This is also matches or is very close to the advertised 3” lift height for the 75mm Slinky kits.
Couple other things that most should know already but for anyone reading that isn’t clear, the dual rate tapered wire coil springs will always have a taller free height than a non-tapered wire linear or progressive coil spring of the same lift height. That’s because the tapered section will almost fully compress at ride height.
Icon coils and Dobinson flexy coils seem to be better suited for lighter (near stock weight) rigs. The Dobinson tapered coils and the Slinky tapered coils will still ride comfortably but handle heavier loads better.
for reference, here is my 80 with the 3” Slinky lift. 35’s in the top image 37’s in the bottom image. No other differences besides the wheels/tires.
I really like the Delta “laminated” radius arms and I really like the forged Blackhawk radius arms. Besides the caster correction built into these arms, the better clearance at the bushing eyes is the other upgrade compared to stock arms which can contact the axle brackets when flexing.
While I don’t have the cool factor of the aftermarket arms or their built in benefits, factory radius arms/bushings combined with Slee caster plates have worked perfectly well for me. I also did a bit of grinding work to the eyes of my arms so they wouldn’t contact the axle brackets as soon. Again not quite as good as what you get from aftermarket arms but still pretty good and they work. The forged factory arms are very strong too (even though I’ve bent a couple). Haha
ok the data points. 75mm heavy duty Slinky lift. As mentioned, factory arms, caster plates at 2-3° caster. Tacoma DC front driveshaft. No steering link clearance issues. More importantly no vibrations. I regularly drive 75-80mph for hours at a time. I do have a little noise on deceleration but it’s been traced to a tcase output bearing not the driveshaft. That will get fixed when I pull the trigger on tcase gears.
Other measurements. I don’t think 20” from hub to fender is correct for stock height. I’ve personally measured a couple different 100% stock 80s and I got 21” from hub center to bottom of fender flare. If I’m not mistaken there is also a 40th Anniversary Edition 80 with less than 100 miles on it in the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum that also measures 21”. I am planning to visit the museum again in the next week or two and I will take a tape measure and confirm.
Assuming 21” is correct and not 20”, then I think @digitalmarker is actually very close to the advertised lift height for the Slinky kit.
My hub to fender flare measurements are:
LF 24”
LR 24.25”
RR 24.5”
RF 24”
This is also matches or is very close to the advertised 3” lift height for the 75mm Slinky kits.
Couple other things that most should know already but for anyone reading that isn’t clear, the dual rate tapered wire coil springs will always have a taller free height than a non-tapered wire linear or progressive coil spring of the same lift height. That’s because the tapered section will almost fully compress at ride height.
Icon coils and Dobinson flexy coils seem to be better suited for lighter (near stock weight) rigs. The Dobinson tapered coils and the Slinky tapered coils will still ride comfortably but handle heavier loads better.
for reference, here is my 80 with the 3” Slinky lift. 35’s in the top image 37’s in the bottom image. No other differences besides the wheels/tires.
