Lifting an FJ40, Body or Suspension Lift? (1 Viewer)

[Romer]

I would strongly reccomend not going skyjacker!!! .

Thats the first negative I have heard about skyjacker. I talked to a lot of people before I did my lift and OME was #1, and skyjacker and BDS were a tie for #2. I have had mine 8 months with no complaints. Maybe it has to do with springs for a mini truck vs. a 40.

I'd recommend them

 

[CruisinGA]

I'm with Romer as well.

Must be a minitruck issue.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

As shallow as it is, I just really like the looks of the lifted rigs. But then again I might get the look I am after by throwing some bigger tires on it. From previous posts it sound slike I can go a lot bigger with the stock setup. I might try that first.

Or maybe I'll just buy 2!

Not shallow, just self confident honesty! A big budget helps. Buying two sounds like a plan. You could drive a nice one while tinkering with a fixer upper. For the lift, check out the for sale section in this forum and others. I think there were some lift springs for sale not too long ago here, and no one responded. Also, some were for sale on the manafre website. The best deals on cruisers are sometimes found in your local paper. Ebay sales tend to have inflated prices. Despite this guy's incredible line of BS, this one looks like what you might want:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6443&item=2491186843&rd=1

 

[Jetboy]

Im not sure which skyjacker kits your running but I was using the softride 5" and the other problem I had was that the ubolts they sent werent long enough, and they expected the stock swaybar to still bolt up ??? not even close to possible. also the rear spring packs were so thick that the parking brake cable would rub through the shock on the pass. side and the lever would not be able to travel because it hit the springs!! I had to make a lot of adapters to "bolt up" the system. I also had poor front caster angles and drivability problems that I had to fix. all that plus the springs flattening was too much for me. I finaly just scavaged some springs and added them to the packs to level it out. It seemed like they had never actualy used the lift. in fact its almost impossible that they put on one before writing up the directions. I used them because I had heard good things too. I hope they did a better job on the cruisers.

 

[LT]

I ran the 4" downey springs for a 1 1/2 years and I enjoyed it a lot. The install is really easy, I did it and it was really the first major mod that I did myself to my Land Cruiser. Don't listen to Romer about the propane thing for the pins I just sprayed everything that was going to come off with wd40 for 5 seconds each, twice the night before. For the pin just wrench the nut to the very end of the bolt and get a 3lb hammer and go to town (that way you don't destroy the threads.)

For shocks don't buy any until you can flex out your rig. When you get a tire off the ground measure the compression and then run the biggest shock you can find with the compression measurement.

Oh yeah don't use hi lifts as stable jack stands like I did But make sure that you jack your frame up so that when you take the u bolts off the spring doesn't fly down as I experienced. Or you could take your tires off and lower the axle to the lowest position on the jack stand so that the springs are flexed down as much as possible. It will make it easy to install the lifted springs since the frame will need to be higher since there is more arch in the lifted springs than stock.

Travis

 

[Bucket]

BKerr, I got a 4" BDS kit that came with everything I needed except for extended brake lines for around $750. It included springs, shocks, poly bushings & u-bolts. It's an easy do-it-yourself; the tech articles on this site should get you through it.