man- a- free lift (1 Viewer)

[Steve-O]

Steve, the Old Man Emu N73L/N74L has 11" of travel.

Geeze, on the ball arent you. Well almost, they have 280 mm of travel, which is about 11 1/32". You thought that 1/32" didnt make a difference didnt you!

The problem you will have with a 6 inch lift is the distance between the shock mounting points. The remote resevoir shocks never come with posts, you have to use a shock adapter, which is going to take up some of the space you have to mount the shock. What we are trying to achieve with these shocks is not maximum travel, but equal up and down travel. Even though there are shocks with 14 inches of travel out there, using the stock mounting points wont allow you to use the full 14". You will have tons of drop, but no upward travel. The only way to get around this is make the shock mounting points farther apart, which not everyone can do at home. We are looking into that as well, we will see what happens.

 

[clownmidget]

You will have tons of drop, but no upward travel.

No upward travel, huh?

Not to belabor the points I'm trying to make or insult you or MAF in any way, but I was trying to demonstrate that none of this is "new" and several folks run 6" lift springs on an 80 over difficult terrain w/ 14" travel shocks. It's not for everyone. The drop brackets are nice and all, but it's not warp drive or Mr. Fusion ! Definitely post when you guys have that.

 

[Steve-O]

I am well aware that none of this is "new" and that you can run 14 inch travel shocks on your cruiser. What you didnt show is if you are using that full 14 inches, or if you moved your shock mounting locations farther apart. We are making a kit that we can sell to everyone, with little modifications. You said it yourself, its not for everyone. I am willing to bet that a 12 inch travel shock will get the same flex as your set-up. You can modify and weld up all the crap in the world in your backyard, but when you make a kit to put on the market for mass production it is a different story. I'm still trying to figure out what you are getting at here, that you have a 6 inch lift and dont like our approach? Warp drive is coming soon.

 

[clownmidget]

I'm still trying to figure out what you are getting at here, that you have a 6 inch lift and dont like our approach? Warp drive is coming soon.

Just trying to demonstrate that you can do it more ways than one!

Folks on this thread have brought up questions many times that already have answers that don't rely on MAF finishing this lift kit. I know your kit has to be marketed but as they say, proof is in the puddin'. If you don't have a complete 6" suspension lift with 12" of travel that can be bought and wheeled this weekend then you're still on the porch...

 

[lcwizard]

the rear suspension will handle that kind of travel. personally i wouldn't allow twelve inches of shock travel in the front on my 80 with the stock length radius arm. when the right tire compresses and the left droops
the radius arms try to twist the axle tube in half. you'll be busting the
radius arm brackets off your axle. the longer the arm the less twisting
A six inch longer arm will gain you two inches of travel without adding
more load than the factory intended.

 

[Steve-O]

Just trying to demonstrate that you can do it more ways than one!

Folks on this thread have brought up questions many times that already have answers that don't rely on MAF finishing this lift kit. I know your kit has to be marketed but as they say, proof is in the puddin'. If you don't have a complete 6" suspension lift with 12" of travel that can be bought and wheeled this weekend then you're still on the porch...

Fair enough, this forum was to talk about the drop brackets rather than the 6 inch lift, but the full kit should be out pretty soon. We are still testing shock lengths and sizes, we of course will use the longest travel we can that wont damage any other parts of the vehicle. I'll put up the new kit when it is ready.

 

[lcwizard]

so what's the final assessment? good rating or bad?
did the handling improve?

Well who has seen the new drop brackets from man-a-free looks pretty good has any one picked one up yet .. what do you think?

 

[jeffotthomebuilder]

I know it's been awhile, but do I need a drop bracket for 4" lift fzj80 or adjustable panhards? Hopefully neither. Please advise

 

[concretejungle]

I know it's been awhile, but do I need a drop bracket for 4" lift fzj80 or adjustable panhards? Hopefully neither. Please advise

did you even read the thread?

 

[ncrockinfj]

I know it's been awhile, but do I need a drop bracket for 4" lift fzj80 or adjustable panhards? Hopefully neither. Please advise

you will need both and it will cost thousands of dollars

 

[livinoffroad]

well, it's arguable that lowering the back of the front control arms will affect much practical ground clearance, given that the front part of these arms is much lower.

I like the idea that their caster correction will work with 3" per their ad. That would cover Js, whereas Christo's plate apparently are for 4" and up IIUC. OTOH, I was surprised to see the cost of the caster drop bracket. That does seem high on the face of it for the complexity of the part. But if one thinks in term of development effort and likely small number sold, that is more understandable. Kind of a catch 22, though, if they price them high, they won't sell many, so they have to be high to recover costs. And v.v. So a marketing decision I guess. If it had been priced lower, I would have gone for it to avoid messing with either bushings or grind/weld plates. But it's a lot of $$ to avoid the above.

It seems that some serious thinking and good understanding of suspension principles went into this design. Seems like it covers a lot of aspects.

As I mentioned in the earlier thread that was moved (why?) I would have liked to see the caster brackets with more holes to make them "adjustable" for different lift heights...

Again, it's easy to criticize this effort after the fact, but let's be thankful that somebody took the risk to develop and offer more goodies for us.

(Interestingly, it does strike me, though, that this is the perfect forum for somebody with an idea to present it and ask for feedback before the design phase is completed, since there is so much expertise here.)

I had these "way overpriced" drop brackets installed on my rig, when I had Man-a-Fre install my 2.5" lift back in '05, and never looked back. When I asked them which was better, their recommendation at the time was that, for that particular lift, with the 30mm spacers (no stink bug) increasing the overall lift in the front to over 3.5", the caster correction inserts which come with the OME lift would be at the far end of their ability to correct caster, and I told them driveability, and stability at high speeds was essential for me. They made me a good price on the brackets, which made the overall cost of the lift quite reasonable, given the quality of the steering geometry I would retain.

A quote from Steve:

07-22-05, 10:31 AM
#8 (permalink) Steve-O
250+ Club





Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: SoCal
Posts: 763


Glad to see the kit stirring up so much contreversy! I do appreciate everyones outlook on it, the number one concern for people so far seems to be the ground clearance. We have been testing this kit (mainly with 6 inches of lift) for over a year now. The lost ground clearance doesnt seem to be an issue so far. We look at it is as more protection for other accesories. So far every time we hit an obstacle, the brackets just slide right over.

Just so everyone knows, the kit will work all the way up to 6 inches of lift, greatly improving the handleing of the vehicle. As for the cost, the kit is costing us quite a penny to make, if anyone looks real closely at the quality and design of the brackets, you will know very quickly that you are getting what you paid for. Although a picture is worth a thousand words, seeing them in person is a jaw dropper.

__________________
Steve H.


So I thought, "how many times am I going to lift this vehicle, I can do this right, or I can do this over. I have had no problems, no ground clearance issues, no regrets, great handling, and after all, the bottom of the pumpkin is always the lowest clearance point anyway. 70,000 miles on them brackets, and goin' strong.