TTB coils

I had a thought the other day, I have the red coils (skyjacker?) for a 6" lift and they don't flex for crap but I remembered I am maxing out my shocks on up travel (I only have about 3-4" shock up travel from ride height I think) when I'm playing in the dunes and didn't hurt the shock when my passenger side spring unseated... my flex limitations might be that my radius arm bushings are about 4" down travel from maxed out at ride height. All I know is I went about 2' or less vertically up a friends ramp before I lifted a tire.

Was thinking about going to softer coils then remembered maxing out the shocks at speed, I think I should lengthen my radius arms (have parts and a plan) and get the bushing angle proper then look into springs, what are your thoughts?

Thanks

If I wanted flex from TTB I would do the following:
xj coils with jeep style coil retainer
longer shocks
f250 shock towers
extended radius arms using johnny joints
..........anything less and you will be disappointed.

look through mah build thread!!

So, since you got the 3.5" coils and had to space them up for your 4" lift I'd need the 6" and maybe have to space up a little? I think I could deal with that, 300ppi sounds better than whatever I have... not quite as soft as the XJ coils which is fine with me since it's not just a trail rig. If I want to keep using this thing for the dunes and trails I'll need better shocks so I don't compress them too much over bumps at speed... have you tried driving around without the sway bar if you've got it going yet?

The EB 3.5" Coils on my rig got me in the neighbor hood of 5-6" of lift and thats an exteded cab so you should be close, you could always throw some washers uner it to get it fine tuned. I used Bronco Graveyard coils which are superlift coils I believe NOT THE Superlfex cause those are far far to soft speaking from experiance LOL

Sway bar is on and feels great around turns (altho there is a significant difference in handling)

My BC Bronco 3.5 EB coils only netted me 3-3.5" of lift.

scotts90ranger said:

So, since you got the 3.5" coils and had to space them up for your 4" lift I'd need the 6" and maybe have to space up a little? I think I could deal with that, 300ppi sounds better than whatever I have... not quite as soft as the XJ coils which is fine with me since it's not just a trail rig. If I want to keep using this thing for the dunes and trails I'll need better shocks so I don't compress them too much over bumps at speed... have you tried driving around without the sway bar if you've got it going yet?

Click to expand...

scotts90ranger said:

I had a thought the other day, I have the red coils (skyjacker?) for a 6" lift and they don't flex for crap but I remembered I am maxing out my shocks on up travel (I only have about 3-4" shock up travel from ride height I think) when I'm playing in the dunes and didn't hurt the shock when my passenger side spring unseated... my flex limitations might be that my radius arm bushings are about 4" down travel from maxed out at ride height. All I know is I went about 2' or less vertically up a friends ramp before I lifted a tire.

Was thinking about going to softer coils then remembered maxing out the shocks at speed, I think I should lengthen my radius arms (have parts and a plan) and get the bushing angle proper then look into springs, what are your thoughts?

Thanks

Click to expand...

overcompressing or max stretching your shocks is handled by limit straps and bump stops made to handle the job...some sort of airbump is worthy money invested if you play in the sand at speed.

of course playing in the sand at speed may require more or larger capacity shocks as well.

the softer the spring rate the more critical the limit strap air bump arrangement....when you soften the spring rate on a ttb rbv the steering usually has to be addressed as well. usually because generally the stock pivot drop locations are deviated from and matching the steering isnt always feasible with bolt ons.

Yeah, working toward that, my suspension will be getting a makeover in the spring, winter is too busy so far (considering my engine and transmission are scattered across my rig and the garage right now). I don't play at super high speed, usually 4 low 5th (say 45ish tops) at most for now, I just have the cheap Nitro shocks from here, so I'm not out a lot if I kill one...

I'm more looking for the slightly stiffer coils for high speed stability, don't want to have to run a sway bar if I don't have to... bumps and straps are fine, just haven't gotten that far.

Plans for redo:
-lower the truck front and rear a little, maybe 1-2" tops
-softer coils
-extend radius arms and push axle forward about 1"
-functional bump stops and limiting straps
-relocate front shock upper mounting location if needed
-possible custom steering setup, suspension needs to be finalized first though

I already have a good stash of spacer washers, and have about 1" under my coils as it is

Ok, pulling this thread back from the dead as I finally have broken the front end, well compromised I guess, still drives ok just bent things a fair amount . Was out in the snow doing about 15mph and found a log with the passenger side front tire, bent the passenger side beam and the radius arm crossmember has some issues... some creative use of a winch on my buddies rig got it straight enough to drive home.

Anyway, I'm probably gonna change the bent beam and get the rest as straight as I can to get it by for a little bit and finally get this project rolling, it would be really nice to have proper caster so it tracked straight down the road...

Ouch! That sucks.

Probably couldn't hurt to beef things up some much like the prerunner guys do (beam braces, gussets, etc.), though I s'pose that could also open the door to other bent/broken parts whenever you hit immovable objects like that... Maybe what you need instead is some kind of log (and/or rock) radar -slash- x-ray detection device w/monitoring screen so that you can avoid such hidden hazards (get the super-deluxe model that also has the automatic high-speed vaporization feature).
(would come in handy for all the idiot cell-phone texters that are on the roads too )

Yeah, shocks can make or break your performance in dunes or over whoop-de-doos. I run Fox 2.0s on mine with 30/90 valving and it's great for my needs, though I can feel they'd need to be stiffer if I did a lot more airtime (that or maybe it's air bumps I would need, I just have stock bumpstops on it currently, I can certainly feel when the suspension hits against them with a pretty good thud on a landing lol).

, good idea. I must have been looking at the other side of the road and missed that dang log...

In the last few years of use and abuse I'm actually really happy with the suspension setup, it's handled pretty much everything I've put it through and made my friends scratch their heads a bit which is fun . My only complaints are the front axle needs to move forward to clear the fenders better, and IT NEEDS MUCH MORE FRIGGIN CASTER!!!! , the cheap shocks I got work pretty well and it behaves very well on the street and in the dunes or on the trail. One of my friends has a favorite phrase when watching my truck: "It looks broke, so it must be workin right!" , he keeps insisting I need to see a video of my truck going down a dirt road from the front...

The plan for the really short term (this weekend) is to swap to an unbent beam and fire up the tractor (small one, but it's heavy and moves really slow, so easier than other options) and try to drag the truck sideways to straighten out the frame and radius arm crossmember as much as I can then redo the alignment... should make it good enough to be usable. Then in the next 2 months as soon as I get my Tracker out of the garage is to extend the radius arms and put the mounts on the frame just in front of the tranny crossmember, as well as push the axle a little forward without having steering issues.

Junkie, you're still of the opinion that I'm best off using the stock type bushings, right? being a dual purpose rig getting the occasional DD duty. If I set the bushings so that they are not preloaded at ride height that should help my travel in my mind as I only have like 6" down travel before the bushings are completely bound right now...

I prefer bushings over rod ends, yes (if that's what you're asking). In this application (with extended radius arms) I have never found them to be flex limiters (just don't overtighten/overcompress them). They should last longer and transmit less noise into the chassis as well.

For a hard-core racer/basher or something trailered I'd probably consider rod ends though (they're a bit easier to design brackets for too), but for something driven on the road a lot I stick with bushings.



Yeah I've occasionally gotten the "front looks broken" comments from Jeep or other guys too. Whatever... it works, so that's really all that matters.