Long Travel Questions? (1 Viewer)

[crujones]

Hi,
I have been building up my FJ for a while now and am considering weather to get a long travel kit or just go to coil overs. Currently it is on stock springs with no sway bars and the front has 2 inch bilstien adjustable lift shocks.

I drive my FJ on the street a lot and off road is moderate with only a few places that give me trouble crawling. Currently I am running a set of stock jeep Rubicon tires that are about 32 inches tall and my next set of tires will probably be 33s but I have no need to go bigger than that. I would how ever like a better ride at 15-30 mph offroad.

The question is Will I see a big jump going to a coil over kit like the radflo extended travel kit and how much bigger will a 2 inch TC or allpro kit be? Also is the stock Toyota FIS stuff up to quicker speeds off road?

I've seen a lot of people put both type of kits on but haven't heard any real world testing. Post up and tell me how your rigs suspension works.
Thanks

 

[Mtbcoach]

I'd suggest trying to refine your ideas of what you expect out of your FJC.

The advantages of a long travel kit won't be felt at the speed you indicated without some suspension tuning.

I'd go straight to a coilover, something you can adjust in spring loading and damping. There are a handful of quality kits out there, I'd suggest going to ICON's from my personal experience...

 

[Delancy]

I'd suggest trying to refine your ideas of what you expect out of your FJC.

X2.

It is very easy to overbuild an FJC, trust me.

Though the LT set ups do improve on road handling, it's not enough to justify the expense and off road benefits are better suited to high speed gains, not slow crawling or mild wheeling.

In retrospect, I should've SACd the FJC before all else, since that's what I "needed" and would've had less in it, BUT honestly would've left it at a 2.5" level lift with quality COs/shocks and saved the money for any other number of current builds that suit purpose better.

I'd suggest going to ICON's from my personal experience...

Radflo's mo better.

 

[Mtbcoach]

X2.

It is very easy to overbuild an FJC, trust me.

X3

In retrospect, I should've SACd the FJC before all else, since that's what I "needed" and would've had less in it, BUT honestly would've left it at a 2.5" level lift with quality COs/shocks and saved the money for any other number of current builds that suit purpose better.

X2, although I was very happy with the performance I was able to get with my build. Yet, a SAC'd FJC is what I REALLY wanted...

Radflo's mo better.

Never ran them, your recommendation means they must perform...

 

[Delancy]

In all honesty, I'm a Radflo fanboy because of Glenn's unparalleled customer service, attentiveness to "needs", and product quality.

That said, I would've been better off sticking with the original King's and CSS rear coils, had I known what purpose the FJC would inevitably serve.

 

[lgrt]

You have a tough decision.

I've been running the TC 2" Front Long Travel since they first come out back in late 08. I will tell you it makes the truck handle great on the road... not a sports car but it handles great because of the wider stance. Designed for desert racing it also makes a big difference on trails and rock crawling (on Rubicon half the rigs had LT and half did not. The LT trucks had the advantage.)

That is the good side... now for the bad.
You will spend $5K on parts alone. Your rear end will be woefully unmatched and will not be able to keep up with the front. However a rear long travel from Metal Tech will fix this.

And as everyone has said it is easy to over build your truck and dump thousands into mods... I've done it.

An alternative that may give you a solid set up for how it sounds like you wheel is Metal Tech's Rear Long Travel kit. They have a number of stages that allows you to select the appropriate level for your style of wheeling.

Going Long Travel in the rear will provide you significant advantages on trails and rock crawling... and costs a lot less than a front LT. You will still upgrade to a good 3" suspension lift set of coilovers up front.


Give Metal Tech a call to chat about your needs and what you want from your truck. They have more experience than most is just about anything Land Cruiser and don't try to sell you something you don't need. Mark or Travis will work with you to ensure you have the info you need to make the right decision for you.


And when it comes to coilovers: I've always run Sway-A-Way and really like them. Most of folks I run with go ICON and they love them. ICON and Metal Tech teamed up and ICON built a couple rear shocks for their Long Travel shocks. Radflo is another solid suspension manufacture. You really can't go wrong with these three.


Good luck getting a setup that is right for you.

 

[crujones]

Thanks for the info guys. I think I'm going to just do a quality coil over and rear spring kit. I've narrowed it down between radflo and saw. I like that I can get the radflo in extended travel and a full kit from touted is fairly cheap. Any first hand experience that you guys can give me? Thanks

 

[Delancy]

I've ran Radflo in an OE width with a 700lb coil on an overbuilt FJC and the coil was way too stiff. 600lb is what I believe to be the sweet spot, even with an unnecessary roof rack (on mine. Now removed).

Installed SAWs on a locals FJC and was pleasantly surprised that the 700s didn't feel remotely close to the same on any other number of COs installed prior to.

Can't beat Radflo's, plus they're not blue, not red, so a win/win, all the way around.

Think Glenn offers an inclusive "kit" with the rear Eibachs now, too, so should be single source-able.

 

[crujones]

So I think I have decided to go with the radflo 2.0 in the front and in the rear I think I am going to do a Metal tech dual rate spring with bilstien 5100s and extended brake lines. This appears to be a cost effective way to get more travel in the rear and a much better ride quality all around. I noticed MT rear long travel kits come with bump stop extenders. I'm only running 32 inch tires now and the max I will go is 33s. Also any reason not to use Bilstiens with the MT coils?

 

[Delancy]

To benefit fully from the MetalTech coil requires 28.50" extension with 11" Travel.

This will allow 4" up and 7" down from ride height.

Coils bind just short of a 35x12.5x17 BFG KM2 (which is ~34" tire) just before the rub on the metal fender (not the OE flare) mounted on a 17" TR with 4" BS and a 1.25" spacer.

At full droop, the links will bind on the axle housing running a aft mounted sway bar, but the OE sway will limit full extension well before the shocks max out.

I'd order Radflos for the rear, too, maybe even stiffer valving, since the MT coils do allow a bit more body roll.

 

[crujones]

Thanks. I think I will do the front radflo extended travel with light racing ucas now and save up till I get the funds to do the stage 2 long travel rear kit.

 

[BlackCherry07]

heres a pict of the metal tech LT with 800lbs coils

I love it my old kit that tire would be 10 inches off the ground

 

[AutoCraft Aus]

Im running our custom rear coils, which are 320lb, and stay captive using a 29.5" rear piggyback bypass Icon Shock made to our requirements, and we use a 40mm bump spacer, a 50mm sway bar drop bracket, and offset control arms to stop the arms hitting the sway bar, or diff housing on droop.

The front we run the extra extended travel Icon Coil overs with 700lb coils on my heavy FJ, but I use 650 on customer cars.

I also have the Icon bypass front S2 set up secondary shock which runs 24" aprox length.

I also have the billet front arms set with 4.5 deg extra caster.

Rim to fender edge height [bottom edge of rim beside tyre up through middle of tyre] I have 810mm [32"] and I have 840mm loaded rear [33.3"]

On Droop I have 900mm front [35.4"] and rear 1050 from memory, [41"]

We have to manipulate the rear abs lines, and brake line brackets, and the upper control arm will touch the fuel tank on full droop.

 

[bobbynelson0730]

^Such an epic build, may be a little biased but SWEET TIRES!!