How can I improve on my stiff suspension?

[river]

I have man-a-free shackle reversal with their 2 1/2" Safari springs up front and 4" Safaris in back with Old Man Emu Nitrocharger shocks. Greasable shackles & pins too. The ride is very stiff. I removed the bottom leafs to help soften it a little, but it's still very stiff. A friend suggested that I get some different shocks like Bilsteins. Is my problem the springs or shocks? Anyone have some advice or am I stuck with it being stiff?

 

[77TLCFJ40]

Pull the shocks and take it for a short low speed ride. Did it soften up to your liking? Then softer shocks are needed. If not, I suggest making sure all your shackle bolts and spring pins are not over-tightened which won't allow the springs and shackles to flex. Still too stiff? Load up the truck with lots of weight and flex the springs. I drove diagonally thru a 1.5 to 2 foot ditch repeatedly leading with the drivers side, then the passengers side. This allowed each spring to fully droop and stuff their full range of motion multiple times. Any pics of your set-up?

 

[youmustbecrazy]

hard to say without pictures, but how is your shackle angle? If it is straight up and down or close to it you may need to move shackle hangers to get measurable angle. My son did this with a 4 inch lift and the ride changed dramatically.

 

[tucker74]

Have you broken-in the springs? You can do this by taking it off road to flex it out, but if you want to speed up the process you have a couple of options. One - use some car-ramps, put one at the driver front and passenger rear and let sit for ~4hrs ... swap ramps and repeat. Two - park your truck across a ditch to get the same articulation I was describing, ~4hrs and repeat. If your springs are old, sometimes PB Blaster between the pack before doing this helps loosen them up. This made a night and day difference in my 4" skyjacker springs -

Before:

After:

Tucker

 

[fj404life]

That before pic looks like my 69 with a SOR 4" kit!!

 

[Downey]

Stiff Ride

I have read enough complaints on Mud about OME shocks being too stiff, that I now absolutely believe it (without ever wanting to own a set of them myself). Try softer shocks ( like Bilstein 5100 series). Also, the comment above about the spring shackle angle being too vertical (which promotes stiff ride) is spot on!!!

 

[map101]

Blitzen 5100 shocks. Are the soft or are there softer shocks out there. I want to find the softest shocks possible, any ideas. I have a 4 inch lift.

 

[Ziffdaddy]

I, too, have the safari 2.5 and Bilstein 5100's. I put my lift on a little over a year ago and it never 'broke in', even driving around with 400 lbs of sand bags in the back for 5 months!. The 5100's definitely helped bigtime, (I put them on about six months ago) but I just pulled the bottom spring off of the back set and it's perfect now. Sounds like the shocks could be your prob. Also, do you have the hard top on? I do and I'm sure the difference in weight of having it on or off will make a big impact, too.

 

[Bodean]

Remember that these things aren't supposed to ride like a caddy. My 4" Skyjackers ride smooth but they have had the piss wheeled out of them. Flex em' a little and see if that helps. Good luck.

 

[river]

Thanks for the input guys, I'm leaning towards the Bilsteins. I keep hearing good things about them. Anyone want my one month old OME nitrochargers?
My shackle angles are nearly vertical but there's no way to remedy that very easily.

 

[tmarx]

What lenth shackles do you have ? I shortened my shackles from 125mm (pin to pin) to 75mm and that was a great improvement in terms of comfort. When I flexed her a bit it improved further but then I really loaded her for an extended overlanding trip. Comfort wise, she was on par with my 105 ser but the shackles were just too short and I ended up banging them springs. Now I am going to fit slightly longer shackles I have 4" hell creeks and OME shocks (Hilux and Mitsu Colt shocks)

 

[river]

I have the greasable shackles that came with my suspension kit from MAF. The rear ones are the anti-inversion kind. So they are longer than stock. I don't know how long they are.

 

[Oman4x4]

I come from a Jeep background - and I have a 2001 coil-sprung TJ with Bilstein 5150 Shocks. It rides very nicely.

A friend's Jeep with Old Man Emu shocks had a VERY jarring ride in comparison. I'm very happy with the Bilsteins.

I'm planning to move the Jeep over to Fox Racing Shox soon, but at around $400 per shock as opposed to around $100 a shock, it's a very different league to the Bilsteins. That said, I am VERY happy with the performance of the Bilsteins and think they are excellent value for money.


For the FJ45 project I'm starting, I'm going with Deaver for the Leaf Springs, and possibly Bilstein for the shocks. Deaver does high speed desert racing springs. Should be a very nice combination. Friend had them on the back end of a Silverado and was very happy.

The Deaver's are not cheap, but given I'm over in Dubai in the UAE, I'll probably pay a small fortune on shipping so might as well buy something worth while to start with.

 

[74fj]

I was talking to one of the guys at specter offroad and he even said bilstein shocks were some of the best but not on a landcruiser. Bilstein shocks have a rebound and procomp shocks do not providing a softer ride is how he explained it. And the procomps are cheaper. I do not know from experiance though. My truck has Old Man Emu shocks that are prob 10 years old (on it when I bought it) and will beat you black and blue driving on smooth ground!

 

[Mace]

Or look at tunable shocks.

F-O-A is a very reasonably priced shock company.

 

[river]

I don't understand the rebound or no rebound issue. That's the problem, I don't know what to look for in a shock to get the ride that I want. Isn't there a definitive answer out there as to which shocks give the best ride? Of course not, that would be too easy
I better not spend anymore money till I get more educated on the subject.
I did raise it up on blocks today on opposite corners to help break in the springs.