Suspension for SWB NJ

[Brett G]

Evening ladies and gents.

went down to my local TJM bloke today and asked him about suspesion upgrades for my SWB 1996 NJ 3.0l with 100K on the clock. he suggested replacing the factory original shocks and thats about it. he was saying that the skitish nature of the shorty doesn't go well with been raised.

i must say that even travelling on rough highways with lots of patched up potholes at 100 odd km's and hour it sometimes can get loose. i want to improve the ride and some lift would be nice but it is not super critical. so the questions i have are...

1. should the springs be replaced at the same time as the shocks? the TJM bloke was saying there was no need (at least i know he is not trying to rip me off)

2.are the shocks fairly easy to do yourself or is it not worth the hassel... are there any things to watch out for when doing the swap??

3.how do the TJM range compare to Old Man Emu?

4.what is a good price for this sort of gear?

Cheers people, sorry for such a long post.

Brett
2.

[Bitsamissin]

Hi Brett, obviously your not after a super raised rig but something that rides a bit better the shorties can get a bit choppy.
For better rebound control a quality shock will make a big improvement.
The TJM XGS shocks aren't too bad they run around $140 Ea I think.
But if your willing to spend a little more you could go Koni, Bilstein or even Rancho 9000X with the 9 stage adjustable feature, these shocks all run around the $200 mark each.
Don't be too scared to raise the shorty though plenty of people have without any drama's.
You can crank your front torsion bars 1-2" and install lifted raised rear springs with matching shocks all round.
As a guide rear coil springs are around the $200-250 mark for the pair and shocks anything from $140-$220 Each.
Installing shocks is pretty straightfoward.
TJM and OME are about on a par IMHO and are built to a price.
I have Koni's on my lwb and they improved the ride dramatically, I will be replacing them for other reasons though.

[Noisey]

Firming up the suspension by replacing the rear springs with a set of heavy duties improved the ride. Replacing the shocks with ranchos made a huge difference to the "skittishness" on high speed loose tracks. Replacing the torsions (only did them Friday arvo) and cranking them has tightened up the front end to a huge extent - to the point where the rear swaybar not being there is not even noticeable. Lifting the body gave me a better view of the chick in the car next to me but made no real difference to the handling.

All mods are easily carried out by yourself.

Pricing - don't go cheap on the shocks (they have been the best money spent and the biggest imporovement). Rear springs by memory were around the $170 mark.

All this is based on a SWB NH.

Still pretty eager to step out on loose tracks (in the rear) and the ride on rough roads can be a little scary at times.

[RoldIT]

Still pretty eager to step out on loose tracks (in the rear) and the ride on rough roads can be a little scary at times.

Disregard comment, this dude just can't drive ...

[Brett G]

cheers for the feedback, rang the TJM bloke in Orange today and he quoted me $570 installed, then rang another TJM bloke and he said $580 supplied with another $75 on top of that for installation... pays to shop around. if the shocks are $140 each then they are only charging me $10 for installation, heaps chaper than what i could do it for and it would probably take me all day.

cheers again

Brett