i wish i had the power to scare things into not sagging, i could make millions!
NO (Low) Budget Lift
- Thread starter uzj100
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Trunk Monkey,
I gotta disagree with you on "increasing the wound energy of the spring" thing. If the vehicle weight is not changing, there is no additional wound energy in the T-Bars. Actually, because of the arc of the suspension bringing the tire closer to the center of the vehicle, there would be slightly less force requied to keep the vehicle off the ground but this difference is negligible. By cranking the bars, you are changing the starting location of where they begin to apply their force, but not the overall effort to push the tire against the ground.
If you begin to add more weight, then yes, more force would be required of the spring to keep a vehicle at the same ride height.
I don't see the need to install the bars from a lower mileage vehicle as being necessary. Yes, bars may sag over time, but the old bars are far from being shot unless they are somehow damaged or defective.
Adam
I gotta disagree with you on "increasing the wound energy of the spring" thing. If the vehicle weight is not changing, there is no additional wound energy in the T-Bars. Actually, because of the arc of the suspension bringing the tire closer to the center of the vehicle, there would be slightly less force requied to keep the vehicle off the ground but this difference is negligible. By cranking the bars, you are changing the starting location of where they begin to apply their force, but not the overall effort to push the tire against the ground.
If you begin to add more weight, then yes, more force would be required of the spring to keep a vehicle at the same ride height.
I don't see the need to install the bars from a lower mileage vehicle as being necessary. Yes, bars may sag over time, but the old bars are far from being shot unless they are somehow damaged or defective.
Adam
Trunk Monkey
Moderator
I can see what you're saying and agree that adding weight is the bigger factor, and for a stock truck, the cranked bars may never sag in the life of the truck.
Now let's talk about how cranking your t-bars limits your articulation . . . .
EDIT - Adam R, have you posted up pics of your $15 diff drop that I missed? Folks here would probably be pretty interested.
Now let's talk about how cranking your t-bars limits your articulation . . . .
EDIT - Adam R, have you posted up pics of your $15 diff drop that I missed? Folks here would probably be pretty interested.
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Jim_Chow
V8_Fan
It's simple physics. You're increasing the wound spring load on the bar, they can't stay that way forever. Just like leaf and coil springs sag over time, so will a torsion bar. Take a metalurgy class sometime and you'll learn all about it.
Also, if it's not a concern, why is he installing bars from a lower mile truck? Further, if they don't change, why is it a standard part of the Toyota alignment service to adjust the torsion bars bringing the vehicle back to factory stance?
They will loose their spring. Like I said, not overnight, but over time.
Any spring will tire out, but torsion bar will tire out a lot later than coil springs. There's a reason why US and Russian battle tanks use torsion bar suspensions.
Unfortunately I did not, but I still haven't put on the back splash plate yet so I may still be able to get a picture of it. In all honesty, it mimics the Slee product, but is .75 inches versus slee's .80 inch drop. Since I have the skills and tools, my time is cheap and I figured I could save some money doing this for myself.
The jist of the mod it to take a 4.5 inch cut-off wheel, remove the bracket on the cross member and lower it by .75 inches. You will also need to source an expensive and longer 14 mm bolt, a few washers and a nut to re-attach everything. You will also need to source some aluminum plate and cut .75 inch thick spacers for the two mounting points on the diff and 5 mounting points for the front splash plate. These will require longer bolts too.
Cutting thick aluminum is a chore and I probably have about 6 hours into everything including pulling the T-bars and re-indexing them since I ran out of travel on one of them at 1/2 inch of lift.
I still need to add a spacer to the front of the rear splash plate since the bracket attached to the cross member now sits .75 inches lower that it used to, but the body of cross member is in the same location (hope you can follow that). It's small interference problem that will require two spacers on the front of this splash plate to get it over the new lower bracket. I believe Slee overcomes this by making the whole cross member lower and flush with the bottom of his bracket.
Adam
The jist of the mod it to take a 4.5 inch cut-off wheel, remove the bracket on the cross member and lower it by .75 inches. You will also need to source an expensive and longer 14 mm bolt, a few washers and a nut to re-attach everything. You will also need to source some aluminum plate and cut .75 inch thick spacers for the two mounting points on the diff and 5 mounting points for the front splash plate. These will require longer bolts too.
Cutting thick aluminum is a chore and I probably have about 6 hours into everything including pulling the T-bars and re-indexing them since I ran out of travel on one of them at 1/2 inch of lift.
I still need to add a spacer to the front of the rear splash plate since the bracket attached to the cross member now sits .75 inches lower that it used to, but the body of cross member is in the same location (hope you can follow that). It's small interference problem that will require two spacers on the front of this splash plate to get it over the new lower bracket. I believe Slee overcomes this by making the whole cross member lower and flush with the bottom of his bracket.
Adam
Doron came up with it, he and I did ours years ago then Doron sent the info to Slee so he could work on a bolt-on solution.
John Shotts (shottscruisers) : photos : Custom Front Differential Drop- powered by SmugMug
Here are some pics of my $15 diff drop. Again, this is pretty close to how Slee does it and I also consulted the pics that Shotts posted up a while back. Basically I used some 3/4 inch aluminum plate to create the spacers to drop the diff and front skid plate. For the cross member bracket, I carefully cut if off, lowered it by 3/4 of an inch and braced the lower portion of the bracket with some 1 x 1 angle iron as you can see in the pic.
You also need to move the back diff bolt to the front position and purchase a longer rear diff mounting bolt. Longer bolts will also be required for the front skid plate since it is spaced down 3/4 of an inch. I also had to put in some 3/4 inch spacers for the two bolts in the middle of the rear skid plate to clear the bracket that has been lowered.
Throw on some satin paint and you've got a $250 mod for around $15 bucks.
Adam
You also need to move the back diff bolt to the front position and purchase a longer rear diff mounting bolt. Longer bolts will also be required for the front skid plate since it is spaced down 3/4 of an inch. I also had to put in some 3/4 inch spacers for the two bolts in the middle of the rear skid plate to clear the bracket that has been lowered.
Throw on some satin paint and you've got a $250 mod for around $15 bucks.
Adam
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Two more pics. One of the spacers for the front skid plate and a second of how the vehicle now sits with about 1.25 inches of lift over where it sat two weeks ago. I'm not sure how much it has sagged over the years, but I now have about 1/2 inch more space between the fender and tire in the rear. I'm also running airbags in the rear which brings it up about 1/2 inch over "stock". These are also 285/75/16 tires.
Adam
Adam
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So, for the record, Schotts was right and you were wrong?
Looks good, Adam. What model Bilsteins are you running?
You stated that your front end is up about 1.25" and you are running air bags in the rear. Is that it for suspension lift? Your rig looks pretty level, which is nice. Which air bags are you running? Manual inflation or did you install a compressor? Thx
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Trunk Monkey
Moderator
Uh, no. But, for the record, you can air bag a 100 for CHEAP. Friend did his for like $80.
Installed airbags in mine for about that. Took about an hour and a half to install...work great.
Greg
Greg
I'm running the standard 5100 series Bilsteins for the stock height LC. As for airbags, I'm running the Airlift system for a stock height LC as well. Cost under $100 and I use a manual system. Normally I keep them at 7 lbs, but pump them up to keep me level when I tow or have the rig weighted down with luggage, kids and dogs on road trips.
I also run airlift on this vehicle:
I also run airlift on this vehicle:
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