simex's on sierra

[Gwagensteve]

Woah there plopper, by the sound of it, you're in way over your head.

A) Hilux shocks are a terrible choice for a sierra. to fit a shock that long, you're going to need to make custom mounts. Why make custom mounts for a poorly valved shock for the application? A Hilux shock is designed for a car that's twice as heavy as a sierra.

B) You need 6:5 or so transfer gears. You need these because they will almost perfectly correct 32's on the road, and give you plenty of low range. IMHO 32's and 4:1 transfer gears isn't enough to work in Victoria unless you avoid hills.

D)Your car has <80"of wheelbase. It isn't a hilux, it only needs to be as tall as necessary to clear the tyres. That's a 2" body lift and some bumpstop spacing, and some guard work. the taller you make it, the more unreliable, less stable, and more scary it will be. Trust me on this. Low is the new lift, and bumpstops are the new flex.

E) I wouldn't buy Rockhopper brand gears. They have had a poor reliability reputation (and are more expensive). I *think* they have these problems sorted out, but as they pretty much deny there was ever a problem in the first place, it's hard to recommend anyone else take the risk of waiting 12 months for a warranty replacement on gears that broke the first day they were driven on. I have Trail tough gears in mine, but I've seen trail gear as well and they look pretty good. I'm not aware of any failures with US made gears.

F) No diff ratio change will make your car properly useable on and off road. You can correct the gearing on road with 5.12 diff gears, but it will still suck off road unless you only drive on the flat. 41:1 crawl ratio isn't enough for a hilux with 32" tyres and over 200nm of torque, and it's not enough for a Sierra with 100nm and 32"tyres either.

Steve.

[31zook]

Yes i watched a soa truck go throug a section of track that i didn't even think was a side angle, and it came so very close to going over. Exactly same line, tyres were within an inch of each other and same speed. Its what stopped me putting soa on my next build list. 32s will take a dumpy hammer and a bump stop spacer. A RUF even a half RUF will get you far enough away from the firewall to not need any cutting. But to equal out a RUF you need 50mm lift springs in the rear. I used 4WD1.com to buy the rockcrawler rears and they flex well enough. And like gwagen said 6.5s are perfect on and off road.

[Junior91]

So pretty much what i have gathered is to get 32's running right i will only need 6.5 trail creepers? Will my 3" spring lift with bump stop extensions be enough? Just after your thoughts.

[cj]

its not just to fir the simex's i need the height anyway mate

Why?

[nick.gooding]

as Gwagensteve said you really only want a lift to fit your tyres.
the higher a sierra is the more unstable. sierras really dont need to be that high either because of how short there wheel base is and 32s will give you good diffclearence.
with 32' airleakers and some gearing your sierra will be unstopable.

[plopper]

its not just to fit the tyres mate, i want good flex in my car, and it seems that alot of people do spoa lifts and recomend them so i dont see why not.

[Spike_Sierra]

its not just to fit the tyres mate, i want good flex in my car, and it seems that alot of people do spoa lifts and recomend them so i dont see why not.

You don't need Spoa to get good flex. This can be achieved with Spua. I won't go into all the detail and turn this into a shit fight, but, to do things properly and legally, it takes a lot more money and effort to get Spoa working well, then it does to get a Spua working well, from my experience.

[cj]

Height and flex are not the same thing. Lots of people also don't run SPOA and don't recommend them too. There are pros and cons to both so perhaps a little more searching on here might provide some info to make a more informed decision either way. I'm not saying your wrong but it sounds like you are not basing your choice on too much more than what some others are doing rightly or wrongly without possibly fully understanding the ramifications.

[plopper]

yer true thanks for the replies guys appreciate ya help, i like gettin all the feedback so i can learn more about suzukis cause lasy few years ive just been trying to learn myself from watching my bro either though ive always loved 4wdriving cause my uncle does it but yer thanks for that guys, wat do u guys run spoa or spua? cheers

[cj]

I'm building SPUA. My approach is keep it as low as possible for the size of tyre you want to run and lockers can help overcome limited flex for most applications although I will have pretty good flex too. I tip over enough without raising the CoG more than necessary but that's just me. If you are going to go SPOA have a good look at what you are going to do about your steering. There are solutions out there but the good ones seem to cost a bit so you'll need to budget for that.

[lay80n]

The best option for you would be to read/search the million SPOA vs SPUA threads and builds and then ask some more indepth questions. I myself run SPOA, previously the same car had built SPUA setup on it as well. I recently re-built the suspension on my brothers ute - which is spua and runs 33 boggers on standard height springs. Both options can work excellent, but they need a more indepth analysis. Broad SPUA is crap or SPOA is crap statements are useless unless backed up by facts or reasoning.

Most important factors are tyre size, terrain, power, your ability to facricate, budget etc.

Layto....

[plopper]

yer ill have to do that really appreciate it, im lookin at the rocky road spoa kit and ive been talking to a bloke on outer limits that the over the top steering system works good so i have been researching a bit but ill look at those comparison forums thanks alot guys ya really helping me out appreciate it

[Spike_Sierra]

I run Spua, with standard rears up the front, and longer unknown leaves in the back, 40mm bumpstops in the front and 25mm in the rear, bashing of wheel arch seams and massaging of the headlight buckets.

This is how tall mine sits.


And flex from the spua setup.

[31zook]

This is mine SPUA rufed
On31s:

With 33s and a full ruf still SPUA:

If i was you i wouldn't do a SPOA. I tryed for ages to figure this same thing out and im happy with it SPUA

[ajsr]

spua on 34's sorry the second is so dark

[plopper]

so instead of getting a sopa, should i get new shock mounts, extended shocks and cut gurads?

[v840]

I run Spua, with standard rears up the front, and longer unknown leaves in the back, 40mm bumpstops in the front and 25mm in the rear, bashing of wheel arch seams and massaging of the headlight buckets.

OT but I've always really liked your Sierra Spike. You've done an awesome job with it dude.