Manefre 4" springs

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Brycec said:
I did call Kurt he doesn't have.a.4" spring kit only 2 1/2",
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I know Kurt @cruiseroutfit list his kit 2” to 2.5” lift and the last thing I would do is argue anything Toyota with Kurt.

I can tell you that I measured my 55 before and after installing his kit and it was closer to 3.5” in the rear and 3.25” in the front as delivered, I removed three leaves from the rear to level the pig when I ran the 33” tires and put them back in when I put the 35” tires on, I now have ~15,000 miles on these springs and still run the 35” tires with zero issues.

Good luck I hope you get the issue resolved with Manefre.
 
You are right , the. New springs are only a 1/2" difference between the front and rear. My stock springs were 4 " difference. Why doesn't anyone make a 4" lift for these. Seems to me it would be a much better way to go than soa. At least more convenient. I'm hoping to deal directly with atlas springs and hopefully pave the way for those that want 4" springs to have a resource
 
Brycec said:
Why doesn't anyone make a 4" lift for these.
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Simply bending the spring into a U to gain lift and keeping all the factory mounting points is not as simple at it would appear. If you take things out of the equation like ride quality and proper suspension geometry it’s still a difficult task on the FJ55 because of the relatively short factory shackles and the fact that the new U shaped springs will have a physically longer main leaf if the factory mounting points are to be used, as this new U shaped spring compresses and starts to flatten out it will get to the point that its longer than the arc the shackles can handle and they will “invert” or move past the usable arc. You can run the calculations yourself but when I looked into it I came up with something around an 8” shackle as being “ideal” for the 4” springs but less than ideal for a pig trying to use factory mounting points. The readily available aftermarket shackles are too short to work properly with a large arc “U shaped” lift spring. Now if you factor ride quality and suspension geometry back into equation the idea of a large U shaped spring gets impossible to use factory suspension mounting points especially in the front where geometry is what makes the vehicle drivable or not.

I’m not trying to discourage you from trying to come up with the perfect replacement springs for a pig just passing along some info you might find useful in your quest to get there.
 
Thank you jmack , I get what your saying, but on the flip side I've lifted multiple vehicles with springs from Suzuki to suburbans and if they are the right length there is no moving of the spring perches or cutting and turning of anything. It was pretty simple, but the spring needs to be long enough for the shackle to do it's job, and in this case the centering pin would also be in the proper position if the spring was the right length
 
youll never get full flex out of a SUA lifted spring with stock hanger locations... best case is a functional compromise
 
Brycec said:
but on the flip side I've lifted multiple vehicles with springs from Suzuki to suburbans and if they are the right length there is no moving of the spring perches or cutting and turning of anything.
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I get it and I have also worked on a car or two before I tackled my pig project and like I said above I’m not trying to discourage you from trying to come up with the perfect replacement springs for a pig but my gut is telling me that you will find the same thing I found when trying to tackle this same issue. The guys before us know what they are talking about when they say the Cruiser Outfitters lift is the easiest complete moderate lift for the pigs or SOA if you are looking for something higher on a budget, everything else go full custom with full length Chevy springs or something similar or jump into coilovers.

The factory pig mounts and shackle orientation are not conducive to large spring lifts.




Good luck I hope you get your pig on the road soon and join us at the pig party!!
 
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those are much nicer than their older predecessors.
 
I went through this a decade ago with Alcan. They did same. More arch. Same main leaf spring length.

I ended up having to have them de arched.

As for 4"....you can get 4" out of OME heavy easily. They have to list them as 2.5" but with no armor you get 4" or so.
 
OME are listed as 2.5" light and heavy. Aussies have some lift law that says 2.5" is max.

If you run OME heavy front and rear you will get the proper spring lengths and 4" of lift unless you are heavy with lots of bumpers and gear.

This is 33's with no lift.

What size tire you want to run? 35's all day with 2.5" will work.

IMG_6651.webp
 
onemanarmy said:
why would it be more difficult to design a lift spring for the 55?
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I can’t speak to the others simply because I haven’t spent any time measuring them for springs. For 55’s specifically the spacing of the factory spring hangers is fairly close and to get medium to high lifts you start arching the springs into a substantial U making a spring over an attractive alternative if ride quality is a concern, another issue is the short shackles and their ability to have the range of motion with the longer main leaf that would be needed for a proper medium to high spring only lift, the rear would be pretty straight forward with just a longer shackle but the front is a different story, 55’s have something like 1.5° of caster and adding any length to the front shackle decreases that number killing drivability again making spring over an attractive alternative.

I’m not pretending to know everything but I have spent a considerable amount of time and money chasing the dream of keeping my pig spring under for a lift that’s fractionally higher than the Cruiser Outfitter’s kit in the front and it’s not as straight forward as it appears, I would have been money and time ahead to strip all the factory hangers off the frame and build a complete custom setup or just live with the kit as delivered because it actually worked pretty good.

(Edit to add) I personally believe the Cruiser Outfitter 55 specific lift kit is about as high as you can go in the front for a complete bolt on SUA kit and still keep the 55 usable on and off road, shackles are on the verge of inversion at compression and caster is decreased to around 0.5°. I ran these springs pretty hard in the beginning and the shackles never inverted on the trail but flexing the pig with the forklift they would get close. Caster was corrected with shims.


Just for clarification I’m running 35”X12.5” tires with rear Cruiser Outfitter springs as delivered, the front springs needed about ½” more lift to sit level and with the 35” tires moving the front end forward 1” helped with tire rub at full stuff so those springs are a combination of the OME springs and a new main leaf with 7” long shackles and relocated mounting points.

This setup has very good ride quality, very stable at speed (I’ve had this pig over 100 MPH), flexes very well off road and overall I’m happy with the outcome.
 
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onemanarmy said:
40, 60, 70 are all spring under. J**p CJ and YJ are spring under.

why would it be more difficult to design a lift spring for the 55?
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Good point, but we are talking about a Pig. Its like a marlin that will fight you all the way onto the deck. And by then you will probably have been stupid enough to have bought another pig along the way to save it from certain doom.
 
bobm said:
What's the Pucker factor at 100 mph :rofl:. I'm scared at 60mph :steer: :rofl:.
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Ha, our speed limit is 80 MPH and the flow of traffic is closer to 85/87. Driving my pig up to about 90MPH is one hand on the wheel uneventful drive just like any modern pickup, I’ve ran it up into the triple digits a few times to merge into faster moving traffic and although it’s not terrible I wouldn’t want to drive at those speeds for any length of time.
 
J Mack said:
I would have been money and time ahead to strip all the factory hangers off the frame and build a complete custom setup
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I remember @FJBen was starting to get serious about suspension on his Pig and concluded his best waste of money, er, I mean "investment" was going to 4 link in the front, 3 link in the rear.

He got Alcan to make a fairly decent set of springs for his Pig:

flexy1.jpg
 
I just contacted ruff stuff. And for 1500 I can get a front 3 link and rear 4link that comes with everything except springs. Considering I have 2000 into this leafspring setup. Opinions?
 
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