Suspension for 80 Series

[fester2au]

Hey guys I know your first thougth will be to bag me but please bear with me.

I am looking for a cheap but not nasty suspension set up for my 80 Series for many reasons but most is because we don't use the car a lot and seldom go anywhere extreme these days which is why I sold my fully loaded GU and downgraded in cost and vintage to an early 80 Series.

I'm looking for about a 3" lift these days and not really interested in the extreme stuff to keep it facoty lookign and avoid attention, so no adjustable bits or non original lookign stuff.

I was thinking of Pedders because I can get it cheap from my cousin who works for them and basically all we do these days is beach camping, general touring, forestry tracks and the odd LC Park trip (couple of times a year) with only medium grade tracks. The truck has alloy bar and probably never get a winch, diesel motor, may make a rear bar sometime and tyre holder and factory tanks. We do stick a reasonable amount of camping gear in the back and tow a Jayco camper but I would get airbags for that if required although with the Patrol we didn't really need them.

To get the lift we were probably looking at the extra heavy duty springs and I was going to look at the foam cell shocks, nothing less. My main concern is the ride comfort unladen for when we do run around town and the odd highway jaunt. The other option is the heavy duty set up with packers if we need a little extra height. I have a set of Lovels on loan from a mate that were suppose dto be 2" from a 100 Series but whilst the back is good height front is really low making us think the Lovels were specced for heavy rear loads by previous user.

My second issue, is if the Pedders are very average and please I want some genuine input not the typical Holden/Ford style debate, is that the pricing I'm getting is not a hell of a lot lower than what 4wd stuff from here is advertising on his web site suspensionstuff for example, so either the Pedders stuff is quite dear in the first place or my cousin is actually ripping me.

So anyone got first hand experience of the Pedders stuff or can contribute on say the Dobinsons or Lovels stuff as priced on suspsnsion stuff web site etc.

[Frankenyota]

I posted below about suspension for my 100 which is the same suspension set up as your 80.
I'm looking at keeping the standard height or max of 2", lovells seem to be a good price.
Anyone run lovells?

Matt

[chunks]

Haven't fitted any myself, but the Procomp shocks seem to be pretty popular and inexpensive item. Matched with some Kings/Lovells/Name brand coils you should be in action for under a grand. Also 4way Suspension (ToughDog) have 20% off at the moment so you could pick up some of their Foamcell shocks and coils for a good price.

[Blackwolf]

to your question about pedders being expensive? yes they are, couple months ago when i had a VN commodore i wanted to lower it ( super low springs, shortened shocks, adjustable panhard bar, k-mac strut tops ) they where going to charge me $1800 to do it including labour, i though stuff it so shoped around ( ebay/repco/autobarn/supercheap/auto pro and so on ) and manage to get everything for under $600 ( $570 if i remember correctly paid for the king springs superlow, monro shortened shocks, k-mac's, and adjustable panhard ) took me a few hours to put it in and with the left over money i had i bought a full rubber/bush upgrade kit which consisted of upper and lower control arms for the rear, new rear sway bar rubbers, all new rubbers up front also, even with this everything came to $810 to lower my VNwith all new stuff, so they where going to charge me $1200 for labour? yeh i can firmly say they overcharge...

[fester2au]

Yeah not so much the cost as I've since determined I'm gettign the stuff at or near cost. but experience of ride quality and longevity.

Was quoted $1400 by one store supply only for springs, shocks, and caster bushes. I can get all that plus steering damper off my cousin for $960 and he will instal the caster bushes and do an alignment for free. The other stuff I always do myself anyway.

[eighty80]

I too am in a similar boat...I currently have pedders gear in the rear and cant fault it...nice firm but comfortable ride, and it can take a load. The front does need changing and based on the prices I've been given I'm actually better off changing the whole lot as it seems more cost effective.

Pedders wanted close to $1600 to do the lot...which really isnt even in the ball park of what you and I can get in many other brands. You dont seem to see many 4x4s with Pedders gear...I dont know if this is because they arent any good for 4x4ing, or because of how they are priced??

[JOHNZ]

mate i thought you said you were getting that stuff at cost.
my price for the same type of stuff is $1000.
cheers

[eighty80]

mate i thought you said you were getting that stuff at cost.
my price for the same type of stuff is $1000.
cheers

its not pedders though is it?

[chunks]

to your question about pedders being expensive? yes they are, couple months ago when i had a VN commodore i wanted to lower it ( super low springs, shortened shocks, adjustable panhard bar, k-mac strut tops ) they where going to charge me $1800 to do it including labour, i though stuff it so shoped around ( ebay/repco/autobarn/supercheap/auto pro and so on ) and manage to get everything for under $600 ( $570 if i remember correctly paid for the king springs superlow, monro shortened shocks, k-mac's, and adjustable panhard ) took me a few hours to put it in and with the left over money i had i bought a full rubber/bush upgrade kit which consisted of upper and lower control arms for the rear, new rear sway bar rubbers, all new rubbers up front also, even with this everything came to $810 to lower my VNwith all new stuff, so they where going to charge me $1200 for labour? yeh i can firmly say they overcharge...

4x coils - $300
4x shocks - $360~
Adjustable panhard $110~
KMAC strut tops $250 + ?

Total = $1020

Sorry mate but unless you got everything at cost price i find it hard to believe you only paid $570 for all that.

[Blackwolf]

to your question about pedders being expensive? yes they are, couple months ago when i had a VN commodore i wanted to lower it ( super low springs, shortened shocks, adjustable panhard bar, k-mac strut tops ) they where going to charge me $1800 to do it including labour, i though stuff it so shoped around ( ebay/repco/autobarn/supercheap/auto pro and so on ) and manage to get everything for under $600 ( $570 if i remember correctly paid for the king springs superlow, monro shortened shocks, k-mac's, and adjustable panhard ) took me a few hours to put it in and with the left over money i had i bought a full rubber/bush upgrade kit which consisted of upper and lower control arms for the rear, new rear sway bar rubbers, all new rubbers up front also, even with this everything came to $810 to lower my VNwith all new stuff, so they where going to charge me $1200 for labour? yeh i can firmly say they overcharge...

4x coils - $300
4x shocks - $360~
Adjustable panhard $110~
KMAC strut tops $250 + ?

Total = $1020

Sorry mate but unless you got everything at cost price i find it hard to believe you only paid $570 for all that.

i paid $50 for the set of 4, they where brand new not 1k done on them ( some yup bought them put them in his VN and found it was to low, took them out and chucked them on ebay i won them for $50 and picked them up.)

$40 for the nothane spring cushions also

shortened shocks all round? package deal on ebay - $160 ( only thing i paid full price on )

adjustable panhard bar ( not the normal adjustable, the " bent for the exhaust " adjustable ) - $70 from ricerbarn ( good old 20% off sales lol )

k-mac adjustable strut tops - $250 ( usually about $270 - $350 depending where ya go, i got them from supercheap through a mate )

now by my calculations thats $570 ( but dont quote me on that have just finished yet another 16hr shift lol ) a good saying my boss tells me often, its not what you know its who you know just shop around took me about 4 days longer to get it lowered but i saved myself a ton of cash lol

[Suspension Stuff]

to your question about pedders being expensive? yes they are, couple months ago when i had a VN commodore i wanted to lower it ( super low springs, shortened shocks, adjustable panhard bar, k-mac strut tops ) they where going to charge me $1800 to do it including labour, i though stuff it so shoped around ( ebay/repco/autobarn/supercheap/auto pro and so on ) and manage to get everything for under $600 ( $570 if i remember correctly paid for the king springs superlow, monro shortened shocks, k-mac's, and adjustable panhard ) took me a few hours to put it in and with the left over money i had i bought a full rubber/bush upgrade kit which consisted of upper and lower control arms for the rear, new rear sway bar rubbers, all new rubbers up front also, even with this everything came to $810 to lower my VNwith all new stuff, so they where going to charge me $1200 for labour? yeh i can firmly say they overcharge...

4x coils - $300
4x shocks - $360~
Adjustable panhard $110~
KMAC strut tops $250 + ?

Total = $1020

Sorry mate but unless you got everything at cost price i find it hard to believe you only paid $570 for all that.

i paid $50 for the set of 4, they where brand new not 1k done on them ( some yup bought them put them in his VN and found it was to low, took them out and chucked them on ebay i won them for $50 and picked them up.)

$40 for the nothane spring cushions also

shortened shocks all round? package deal on ebay - $160 ( only thing i paid full price on )

adjustable panhard bar ( not the normal adjustable, the " bent for the exhaust " adjustable ) - $70 from ricerbarn ( good old 20% off sales lol )

k-mac adjustable strut tops - $250 ( usually about $270 - $350 depending where ya go, i got them from supercheap through a mate )

now by my calculations thats $570 ( but dont quote me on that have just finished yet another 16hr shift lol ) a good saying my boss tells me often, its not what you know its who you know just shop around took me about 4 days longer to get it lowered but i saved myself a ton of cash lol

That's cheating. I think you were lucky to get them nearly new on ebay.

[70Y07A!!]

have you tried going for maybe EFS?.

they do pretty good suspension kits

i have efs extreme shocks and heavy duty coils on my car and i cant fault them they travel well when off road but fantastic ride i got my shocks for under 800 and scored the springs which are near new...

[chunks]

That's cheating. I think you were lucky to get them nearly new on ebay.

I agree, Blackwolf i think you got lucky.

[Suspension Stuff]

have you tried going for maybe EFS?.

they do pretty good suspension kits

i have efs extreme shocks and heavy duty coils on my car and i cant fault them they travel well when off road but fantastic ride i got my shocks for under 800 and scored the springs which are near new...

The EFS extreme shocks are usually to suit the 4-5" lifts however I sell 3" lift coils that have been built so you can run the longer shocks without the coils falling out.

The problem with other 3" lift on the market is that they just sell the 2" lift shocks with them so you don't get flex benefits.

If Fester or anyone else is interested email me or phone me and I will do mates rates. You will need longer brake hoses and sway bar extension brackets.

I am currently out of stock on the front high flex 3" coils. I expect to receive them in 2 weeks.

Shane