Suspension lift opinions sought

[sharpy]

Hello gents

As per title this is my 97 lwb collie with 255/85/r16 mud tyres 80 series front springs in the rear along with standard 80 series shocks and up front new standard height springs and shocks with a 25mm strut top spacer.
She has approx 50kg in the boot and half a tank off fuel

What do you guys think?

Cheers Simon

 

[Shayne]

 

[sharpy]

That's good so far so good then thanks for that shayne

 

[Shayne]

Looks ace Sharpy we just don't have many 90 series regulars on the forum any more .

Do you have spacers behind them standard alloys ?

 

[Ben Stratford]

Looks ace Sharpy we just don't have many 90 series regulars on the forum any more .

Do you have spacers behind them standard alloys ?

Looks exactly like my old 90 apart from the lift. Std suspension was a bit soft as i recall and the rear felt a bit light. How does it ride sharpy?

 

[sharpy]

Hi shayne no not yet I'm on the lookout for some and Ben so far the ride is a lot better than 20 year old springs and shocks that just came out

 

[diggerdave]

That looks excellent. Collies look great with a lift

It looks as though you have more than 50mm lift at the front somehow (which is what a 25mm spacer should roughly give) when I compare it to mine which has the same sort of lift at the front. By contrast the 80 front springs don't seem excessive at the back (I thought they'd be taller).

Do you get any problems with rubbing? Mine's happy with 265/75/16 but your 255/85/16s are a fair bit taller

 

[white90]

Looks the dogs mate, nice truck.

 

[Beau]

Perfect timing! I'll be popping some 80 series springs on the rear of mine soon as well. Looks perfect.

How does it ride?

 

[sharpy]

The ride is softer than before but not in a wallowing way but the springs and shocks were 20 years old and I've not had chance to test for any rubbing issues when flexed but normal driving and tame lanes it seems fine. I am going to extend the rear bump stops to stop any rubbing under compression and swap the droplinks for the sway bar for longer ones to make the most of the new suspension and am seriously considering longer brake line as well as well as some wheel spacers to widen the track out and a wheel alignment of course

 

[Shayne]

Thinking about it your tyres are about the same as mine in height and the gap between wheel arch and tyre about equal , and I have a 2" body lift and very firm +2" heavy duty springs ?

I must guess the ant roll bar is the only thing preventing the cv binding (running out of travel) when a front wheel is left hanging ?

 

[sharpy]

That's interesting shayne would longer droplinks or a diff drop help or indeed both help?

 

[Beau]

Diff drop would help indeed. Though the CV's don't actually look bad angle wise but like he mentioned above they may bind on full droop

 

[Shayne]

Maybe it just looks taller in pics ?

I'm just suggesting you look at it is all , i think it was Chris that experimented with adding a spacer on top of a 2" suspension lift on Lil Blue and ultimately decided it was asking too much of the cv .

A diff drop can only bring the cv down about an inch because the rear of the diff connects to the prop over a chassis cross member .

But hey you might not need one , pics only tell half the story .

 

[sharpy]

Ground to under flare measures 980 all round and bottom of rim to same point measures 810mm all round and I've only put new standard height springs and shocks plus a 25mm strut top spacer on so was surprised by the gain at the front. So do we think get it on a ramp and see what happens at full droop and with longer droplinks in?

Thanks for the info so far

Simon

 

[Shayne]

I just thought maybe it looks taller than it is because you don't have wheel spacers or a wider rim . A 25mm strut spacer has been tried and tested by many on standard springs without fail , new springs and recessed wheels giving me an optical illusion maybe .

 

[Shayne]

2" body lift and +2" Pedders hd front suspension but they couldn't give me heavy duty plus 2" for the rear so i put spacers on standard height hd springs .

 

[sharpy]

Not wishing to sound like Steven (sae70) I would be interested in measurement of others that have lifted their trucks in a similar way just to see how they compare to mine above

Would putting a diff drop on have any detrimental effects if the angles don't look to bad?

 

[sharpy]

By the way nice looking truck

 

[Shayne]

Its suffered since that photo was taken believe me .

Just ran out quick because my bathrobe's not waterproof and i get 63cm front and 64 at the rear from the bottom of the wheel rim to the underside of the arch . Drivers side .

Passenger side is typically a bit taller i think . I don't have a dropped diff .