Random 37's fitment / flex shots / ....

[baldilocks]

Gentlemen, these late entries are last years news. @GW Nugget, already knew this, already put this info into print and shared it with me personally last year when I stepped up to 37’s. His Truth took a good bit of time off the process I went through.

With that said, there are small nuances with each vehicle or perhaps the thinking of the builder. Different intended purposes also demand more of this or less of that like up travel or flex period.

The OP of this book seems to want it all for cheap - minimal lift, 37’s, no trimming and very minimal bump stop extension. What he may not be considering is, with the stock set up he had maybe 2” -2.5” up travel and way more down travel (is Toyota mad?). With the tapered coils and a 3” bump stop drop he will have more up travel than stock and a boat load of down travel. It’s simply moving the travel downward and, with taperd coils, adding travel if the longer shocks are installed.

 

[Box Rocket]

Actually the tapered coils don’t add any more down travel. Down travel will be limited by the shocks, control arms, or limit straps typically or a combination of those. Shorter coils like OME will still droop as far (if the shocks allow it) but the coil will drop free of the top bucket. The benefit of a tapered coil is a taller free height of the coil without added more lift so that at static height the tapered section collapses and in essence acts like a coil spacer. When it droops the tapered coil has greater length and won’t separate from the coil bucket and more importantly will still be putting downforce on that wheel which improves traction.

 

[baldilocks]

Actually the tapered coils don’t add any more down travel. Down travel will be limited by the shocks, control arms, or limit straps typically or a combination of those. Shorter coils like OME will still droop as far (if the shocks allow it) but the coil will drop free of the top bucket. The benefit of a tapered coil is a taller free height of the coil without added more lift so that at static height the tapered section collapses and in essence acts like a coil spacer. When it droops the tapered coil has greater length and won’t separate from the coil bucket and more importantly will still be putting downforce on that wheel which improves traction.

Yeah useful down travel - the other kind tends to leave springs on the trail behind you.

 

[GW Nugget]

Ok, just had time to read through this. It looks like @Nay @Box Rocket @baldilocks & @AutoCraft Aus are on the same page with fitment with just a few variables.

The reason Darren @AutoCraft Aus could fit 37s on Ruby with stock front bump stops was because he was using stock wheels which are 4.5" BS on 8" wheel. Also chose the narrow tread MTR which works perfect.

For historical purpose I wanted to say same stuff as previous post but in a different way.

Stock bump stop gap is a bit different through the years but is basically 50mm/ 2" with approx 1.5" of cone crushed, pic below.
That's a total of 3.5" of up travel.
If one adds 75mm/ 3' of lift they will have a total of 6.5" of up travel.
To fit anything larger than a 33s one must lower bump stops to prevent tires from contacting fenders, this will restrict up travel.
Since we are talking 37s lets say we need to start with lowering bumps 2.5" now we are dealing with 4.5" of total up travel.
(This will align with Nay's math because he has 2" front bumps with 5" of up travel.)
Back to 4.5" of up travel with my math, now 2.5" bumps allows most 12" long travel shocks to fit just fine.
I'm a 40/60 guy when it comes to shocks & Nay is a 50/50 guy.
40% of 12" is 4.8" let's just say 5" just to make it easy.
So we need a lift that gives 5" of up travel to fit this 12" shock... 3" of lift does not do it for my math, so we need to lift the vehicle higher or cut.
This is why most will say a 4" lift is a perfect lift for 37s.
There are other ways to get to 4" of lift, 3" suspension & 1" body lift comes to mind"Ha, ha... cut out fenders is another way to go lower COG.
4" of lift is needed if you do not want to bust out the sawsall.

Does this make sense?

My journey to fitting 37s:
Started with 315s with 1" wheel spacers, had to lower bumps in front 1.5" & 1.25" in rear. I did not like the restricted up travel in front so I installed a 1" body lift to remove the front bump stops. The rear still needed the 1.25" for the longer OME L shocks.

When I went to 37s I had to put back in the 1.5" front puck bump stops. I eventually cut the front fenders so then I could again remove the front 1.5" bump pucks. In the rear I slid in a .25" shim to the 1.25" bump stop. that ended up at 1.5" At this point I had an 3" suspension lift & 1" of body lift, cut front fenders... was running .5" bumps in front & 1.5" in rear with those FJC wheels with 1.25" spacers.

Now I went wider by 1" with 3.5" BS 9" wheels & had to lower bumps .5" to prevent bad rubbing. I'm now at 1" front & 2" rear plus counting the body lift is equivalent to 2" front & 3" rear bump stops without a body lift.

I also want to add that I have found out when adding bumps that it doubles at the tire. For instance in the rear, when I added the .25" shim it restricted the up travel by .5" close to same in front, close enough to make the same statement that bump stops restrict by double.

 

[Cass007]

I ordered a dobinsons 3 inch tapered and was wondering if anyone has that lift and 37s. It was already answered that it's not enough without lots of bumpstops, and more lift with good backspacing on the rims. I abandoned the whole 37 idea for now.

Now everyone is just using this thread to post flex shots, nothing wrong with that.

I have this exact setup sitting in the garage waiting for the last pieces to arrive before install. I am searching for the proper wheels atm, wanting beadlocks, but price and availability is causing delays. I also have a 1" body lift installed. Once I get it all installed I will report back with any rubbing issues.

When ordering the suspension I spoke with David @Dobinsons and he started with weight and mods on my truck and then gave me some package options for long or shorter travel shocks. The shorter travel shocks were several fewer parts and less money invested. I went long travel since this is a wheeling rig and the terrain around me is stumps and mid sized boulder fields. The more I can keep a wheel seated over a drop-off or rock, the happier I will be after spending my first trips out bottoming out on the stock height bump stops everywhere.

I was advised to run 2" bump stop extensions in the front and 3" extensions in the rear.

 

[ccslider]

I have this exact setup sitting in the garage waiting for the last pieces to arrive before install. I am searching for the proper wheels atm, wanting beadlocks, but price and availability is causing delays. I also have a 1" body lift installed. Once I get it all installed I will report back with any rubbing issues.

When ordering the suspension I spoke with David @Dobinsons and he started with weight and mods on my truck and then gave me some package options for long or shorter travel shocks. The shorter travel shocks were several fewer parts and less money invested. I went long travel since this is a wheeling rig and the terrain around me is stumps and mid sized boulder fields. The more I can keep a wheel seated over a drop-off or rock, the happier I will be after spending my first trips out bottoming out on the stock height bump stops everywhere.

I was advised to run 2" bump stop extensions in the front and 3" extensions in the rear.

I'd imagine with the body lift you should have minimal rubbing. I dealt with Mike and he did the same. I also got the 30mm spacers for the front. The reason I went with the regular shocks was because I didn't want to compromise up travel and it's not a rock crawler. I have too much weight for rock crawling. I'd get a old mini truck for that.

I was looking at method wheels, they have alot of options.

Looking forward to to seeing your setup.

 

[Nay]

I'm a 40/60 guy when it comes to shocks & Nay is a 50/50 guy.

Everybody is a 50/50 guy (except non-dudes, but they are still 50/50).

All other travel is non-articulating. That’s why a 5” up 5” down will generally outperform a 4” up 8” down. The latter’s 50/50 is only 4” of travel.

A 12” shock with 5” up is still only 50/50 for 5”. But that extra non-articulating droop will stress bushings and require things like extended brakelines.

That’s why flex pics are extremely dangerous to follow - they don’t tell you much of anything in isolation and it’s nearly impossible to buy into an idea that less can be as much as more for a lot less money.

 

[synapse]

Apologies if this will be off-topic since this is a "fitment" thread. But just to be a bit of a devil's advocate here since we only ever seem to talk about rubbing when talking about 37's. Has anyone ever really evaluated braking when moving up to 37's especially when we have more added weight.

Here in NZ(I'm living here temporarily but bought an 80 which will be brought back with me to NA when it's time to move back) you must go through certification for going any tire size that differs from stock by more than 5%. So I had to go through certification to go to 35's recently. Certification test requires all alignment to be within spec(mostly looking at castor), and a road handling and braking test. I went full stainless lines and EBC Greenstuff pads and passed road handling test with flying colors, so I wonder what more would get 37's certified or if I could have passed as is...

Generally speaking, in NZ modding a vehicle is fairly lax, just have to do it with quality and safety in mind. That being said, I don't know any 80's here that have gotten certified for 37s.

I'm not holding a bias'd opinion here as I've built the wagon with 35's and knowingly/likely be going to 37's when I import the LC to NA without much more fuss to get them to "fit", but wonder how many people focus on the extra braking when fitting larger tires.