Well now after a year i am happy with my IM lift kit.

[smokyjoe]

Hello again in toyota land.
I havent been very happy with my Iron man suspension lift as the lift was not at all worth the bother, one quick call to west coast and a set of 10mm and 15 mm spacers where winging themselfs to my door
One busy weekend removeing the IM which hardly lifted my colorado, made it feel like a pig on stilts and made all who sailed in her seasick
Of came the front struts which looked like they had spent the year at sea as they where so rusty, sanded down primered and painted,

old and new springs note new ever so slightly shorter

and the old strut next to the new, note spring platform spacer

now this is the bit i cant get my head round both the new and old shock has the same amount of travel,

The bottom mount to spring platforms are the same length before spacer, the springs are slightly shorter and the travel is the same length so how is it supposed to lift the vehicle
Am i missing something here or is it just plain and simple voodoo magic that lifts the truck

Anyway my colly is now in the clouds so im driveing round with a smile from ear to ear it has also lost most of the wallowy soft feel it had before hand. so now im happy with the old gall again so onto next mod

 

[Ben]

the only thing i can think of is maybe the new springs are stiffer, and that provides the lift. ive come across other manufactories in the past who sell lift springs like that.

 

[wobbly]

I know this might sound a bit daft, but is it possible that your truck already had a lift kit fitted, so you've replaced like for like?

Pete

 

[fridayman]

I know this might sound a bit daft, but is it possible that your truck already had a lift kit fitted, so you've replaced like for like?

Pete

I had the same disappointing lift from my IM kit. I also ended up adding spacers to get the lift (using up some travel).

 

[sae70]

It is very odd that the two of you were not happy with the lifts that you got I've always been happy with the IM lift on Fiery I didn't even look to see what springs were for what side I just fitted them all without consideration that they may be handed I've either been lucky and happen to have fitted them correctly or it doesn't really matter The only thing that I would say about my 'B' kit is that I would have liked the rear springs just to have had a tad more lift/spring rate as she sits pretty much level possibly a tad down at the rear before I've fully loaded her with all that I carry, although I do have around 150Kg over standard in the rear at all times (storage, tools, compressor, strops and some spares). I've been considering either upgrading to a set of 'C' springs on the rear or a pair of Matt Savage air bags, just havn't had the time to call either WestCoast or Savage to discuss the pros and cons of either as yet. Did you do anything with your rear set up when you added the spacers to your front springs smokyjoe

 

[fridayman]

I added spacers to the front to try and match the lift at the rear. The truck actually rides better with a bit of weight in the rear, like on a full tank with a few things in the back.

 

[smokyjoe]

I know this might sound a bit daft, but is it possible that your truck already had a lift kit fitted, so you've replaced like for like?

Pete

I thought the very same last year but the rear where KYB and the front where toyota, also no paperwork for fronts in the folder that came with the car.

I had the same disappointing lift from my IM kit. I also ended up adding spacers to get the lift (using up some travel).

It was nice to hear that more people had the same problem with little or no lift and i was ready to call it a day and order a different kit, then when i saw pics here of the spacers fitted to a few collys i thought i would give it a try first glad i did now.

Did you do anything with your rear set up when you added the spacers to your front springs smokyjoe

Nope as the rear was aleady 2 inches higher than the front, its now just slightly higher.
i bought and fitted mine the same time as you and the part numbers where the same, you also got way more lift than me which i find strange,
I might add that this time i did have to use spring clamps to fit them back to the strutt with the spacer, there was no way they would go without as they did last time

 

[wobbly]

I thought the very same last year but the rear where KYB and the front where toyota, also no paperwork for fronts in the folder that came with the car.


Nope as the rear was aleady 2 inches higher than the front, its now just slightly higher.
i bought and fitted mine the same time as you and the part numbers where the same, you also got way more lift than me which i find strange,

From reading this, it looks to me that the 'KYB' shocks / springs that were originally on the rear were a +2" replacement for the original Toyota items, and that the Ironman were of the same size.

Looking at the photo of the two side by side, the KYB also appears to have been yellow originally. It may even be an IM spring sold by someone else.

Pete

 

[wobbly]

Had a quick look on the KYB site

http://www.kyb-europe.com/catalogue.asp

They do two types for the 9* series, I reckon standard and uprated.

They show their coils as black though, whereas your original one looked to have yellow on it?

You think the front coils and shocks were original Toyota when you took them off, and that the IM front coils didnt lift the front ?

Did the person you bought it from do a lot of heavy towing?

Pete

 

[smokyjoe]

Think i may have confused you with some of the wording

From reading this, it looks to me that the 'KYB' shocks / springs that were originally on the rear were a +2" replacement for the original Toyota items, and that the Ironman were of the same size.

The KYB shocks and springs from the back where standard length as the new iron man are longer, the reason the back sat higher was that the original fronts where sagged that much you could hardly get a finger between the bumpstops.
The new iron man lifted the back even more, the front did lift from the sagged originals but not as much as addvertised hence now fitting spacers to bring it up to

Looking at the photo of the two side by side, the KYB also appears to have been yellow originally. It may even be an IM spring sold by someone else.

Pete

That pic is of the front springs only, the rusty ones on the right are the originals and the yellows are the year old ironman, the pic is just to compare them as they are millimeters from being the same length.

I was always happy with the rear lift just not the front

 

[Chris Green90]

What size spaces did you get Joe. I was pretty happy with mine to start with but after adding the.winch on the front and after a year on them i feel that have sagged back to almost no lift. So. I am hoping this Will work for me to.
Chris

 

[smokyjoe]

They show their coils as black though, whereas your original one looked to have yellow on it?

You think the front coils and shocks were original Toyota when you took them off, and that the IM front coils didnt lift the front ?

Did the person you bought it from do a lot of heavy towing?

Pete

it has a towbar so thats possible,
if you look at the top pic you can see the old rear springs on the bench in the background they are blue. the shocks where a sort of purple colour.

 

[smokyjoe]

What size spaces did you get Joe. I was pretty happy with mine to start with but after adding the.winch on the front and after a year on them i feel that have sagged back to almost no lift. So. I am hoping this Will work for me to.
Chris

in the pics you can see both spacers, they are on end in pic 4 one silver 15mm one goldy colour 10mm, i whent straight in and fitted the 15mm silver ones so have the others if you want them your welcome to try them, although you may well need the 15mm ones yourself.