What Suzuki to use...

[V.W.Dave]

Mate the 60s are strong but honestly if I could go back I would go for hilux. The 60s centers are huge... and you loose so much clearance its not funny. Or look into rover diffs they are already set up to be linked. They are disc brake all around already. The centers are a little weaker centers but its easy to put lux diffs in.

[ShaneGQ]

Rover diffs hey... what model are we looking at as I have not bought any diffs yet. But i will look around to see what is there. As for the coilovers what size would I be looking at.

[V.W.Dave]

Any of the Range Rover or Disco 1 are a good CHEAP place to start. I just picked up a 90 rangie 100% complete just missing the motor for $300 off a wrecker. It was a steel.... It has a 4" spring set on it with 12" adjustable ranchos and a few other goodies on it.

If you can get your hands on a complete chassis it will help you out A-LOT as you can cut off and weld on all the link mounts and spring mounts. But if your going to be using air shocks you wont need them. Best thing about the rover diffs are they are small but wide so you don't loose diff clearance like the bigger yota diffs.

As for springs if you use them a lot of people have used plenty of different things. A lot of people use the rear springs out of the LWB Vitara's as they are nice and small. When you go to the wreckers just grab a few different sets from a few light cars. Most wreckers will just give them to you.

If you jump on http://www.auszookers.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; there is a lot of info and they are all zuki nuts. Another good person to talk to would be Gwagen on here he is the Suzi spring Guru.

If you are going to go over 35s you need to look at what it takes to make a rover diff/axils stronger. From memmory it cost about $700 for the rear and $2000 for the front but after that they are good for up to 40s. To add to that you are about half the weight of a rover so you may be able to run bigger tires from the get go.

Rover diffs from stock are normally 3.5 so the Hilux center upgrade also lets you upgrade that at the same time.

[ShaneGQ]

Yeah I have been told 4 different types of diffs now. I am leaning towards GQ diffs as they are already set up for a link set up. I am going to use only Coilovers and ditch the spring/ coil configuration. I cut the rear panels today to allow for when I set the diffs back. Coilover info would be great.

[Gwagensteve]

It won't make any difference if the axles are already set up for links - they are likely to be in the wrong spots - as an example, Patrol chassis are much wider than suzuki, and the radius arm setup on the front of a GQ is rubbish - it doesn't flex on a patrol let alone a sierra. Rover will be closer as the chassis is a fair bit narrower, but odds are it will still be wrong.

It doesn't really matter what you use for springing, the success of the suspension will be down to the link configuration.

I'd be using 60 series or rover - both offset rear, full floating. Rover is wider, lighter, and likely cheaper.

Steve.

[ShaneGQ]

Ok thanks Steve...

[Highway-Star]

If you are going to go over 35s you need to look at what it takes to make a rover diff/axils stronger. From memmory it cost about $700 for the rear and $2000 for the front but after that they are good for up to 40s. To add to that you are about half the weight of a rover so you may be able to run bigger tires from the get go.

From what I have seen of Rover axles, I'd go out on a limb and say some of these customised Vitara Full float rear ends some of the guys are running would be close enough to as strong as a Rover rear. The custom shafts in the front of my LJ are near on the size of a maxi drive rear shaft anyway, and made from the same material.

[Gwagensteve]

May well be true, but there's more money in a vitara rear floater than a whole early rangie. When you consider the other useful stuff from the rangie ( most of the suspension, transfer etc) it starts to make more sense to use a rangie as a donor IMHO.

Personally I think it might all be pointless - If it's for driving genuinely hard terrain swapping axles results in a net loss IMHO, but some people are happy with a sierra that's only as capable as a big car so long as it looks like a big car *(See note)

I'm planning a LWB vitara build with Rangie running gear (axles/transfer/ZF auto/3.9V8 but as a high country car, not for driving anything especially hard. I'll keep a suzuki axled car for that.

Steve.

* The exception here are comps. If you're in a comp you have to build within the rules so depending on how the terrain is setup you have to build what works for the rules of that comp. If that means 40" tyres, then obviously, suzuki diffs aren't going to work.

[Remydog05]

A Sierra with 31's on it is more capable than your GU

Yeah it's not a joke...See this is why i said everyone is entitled to their opinion... Clearly they are capable, but really your comment... I would like to see a seirra with only 31's follow me at land cruiser park..Anyway, good luck with that..

I am looking at doing mods to the seirra that i have bought. If others dont like that or their dad is better than my dad, then really don't bother to comment.. I am sure others are doing things outside the square so go and claim your greatness on their thread, as I am not interested... I am sure that hilux are great, as patrols are and so are suzuki's all in their own right, so lets leave it at that and have a nice day.......

I had a SWB Sierra with a rear locker and a 1.6efi and drove pretty much everything at Cruiser park many times with GQ comp cars.
We did a 5 hour night run with Russell Mason and all the rocky boys and did most of the major tracks like Crusier Canyon, Hilux Hill, etc etc.

OH and I only had 30inch tyers on it. 31's would have been even better.
Dont underestimate the lil sierras who could!