Better ride: Lux Dual Cab..... Front coil conversion?

[Milamber]

Hi All,

I would really like to obtain a better, more comfortable ride in my solid axle lux (95')....... after riding in an 80 series Land cruiser with solid axles/coils my truck feels like a expensive pogo stick/bucking bronco...........
The set-up at the moment is parabolics front and rear with EFS gas shocks (too hard maybe?). The front is actually quite responsive with the parabolics, but the rear is far too firm (standard two leaf parabolics with large helper spring and smaller helper on the base of that). I rarely carry a heavy load, so I was thinking of removing the helper leaves from the rear; does anyone believe that this will improve the ride? The other alternative, is to just fit a coil conversion in the front, I know people from this site have done this; What was the cost? Where is the kit available? Did the conversion significantly improve the ride, or should I just play around with the set-up I have?
Thanks for your help, Cheers.

[Elmo]

i would reccomend against removing your main helper springs from the para-bolics, only because a mate of mine just did it, same reason...just too harsh, problem is we s-bended his springs on the first half of the first trip out, in a crappy 3Y petrol no lockers and only 33's

if your good with a welder and dont mind spending a LOT of time researching, (90% research 10% production) coil conversions can be done quite simply, cheaply and easily on a hilux

just use the search button

[slosh]

If it's the rear that's way harsh, coils in the front prolly won't make the truck much smoother.

Longer springs in the back- or just softer ones if you want better highway ride- should make improvement. Bear in mind you will need a track bar to control axle wrap (make something yourself or buy for about $500).

You can get a leaf truck riding 90 per cent as good as a coil truck if it's done right.

[Milamber]

Do you mean a track bar for the rear diff is required if running softer springs?
Anyone got any suggestions for "the perfect" ride set-up? I thought the parabolics would be just about perfect, but...................... boing....boing......

If a track bar was installed on the rear, could the helper (they are separate anyway and are only activated when bumps are hit..... unfortunately this is all the time...) springs be removed? I figure that given the main springs are the same as the front set and they carry the engine around, the same set up for the back would be more than enough...... except for the twisting factor, as described by slosh above.

Cheers.

[Roctoy]

buy my OME IFS rears and put them all round, makes hilux way comfy!

[Elmo]

yeah pretty much

when we pulled the main parabolic leaf out of richo's rig it was very very comfy, and flexed up great as well

2 downsides:

1: loss in height, 2: axle wrap

the loss in height you could fix by putting axle spacers underneath the spring pack, this would however make axle wrap even worse again, so you would definately have to put a ladder bar in as well

all up tho, once done it would be quite a nice little set-up

[Milamber]

Where would I find a ladder bar/track bar for the rear diff?

I'm not even sure how it would mount up, anyone have any clues/picks?

[Elmo]

check out Mick at superior engineering, over near strathpine, nth brisbane for the ladder bar

it looks simply like an A shape laying on its side

basically theres 2 mounts directly on top of eachother about 200mm apart on the diff end, and then on the chassis further forward (approx 1 metre) theres a shackle hanging down where by you attach the the other end of the ladder bar

does that make any sense whatsoever????

[My Lil Lux]

Or look up the write up on Guts Lux at SnakeRacing.com , otherwise in Feb issue 2004 of 4wd Monthly, he was runnin a snake ladder bar. I flipped the two load springs on my IFS springs upside down, so there not actually doing anything but will stop springs from snapping if two much down travel.

[Milamber]

I just spoke to a guy at Carrols Springs (my parabolics are Fireflex) and he said there should not be a problem with strength if the helper is removed. He thinks that the only problems would be 1. loss in ride height and 2. Loss of load carrying ability. He also said that if done right, spacers can be used and there would be no increased axle tramp...... Maybe I'll give it a shot, the ladder bar sounds like a pain.... and expensive. what do you think?

[Elmo]

feel free to try it, cause i know exactly what your thinking....we did too

but when richo's 3Y a gutless 2.0l petrol with over 300,000km on the clock, spinning only 33" tyres, std gearing and no lockers spat it out on the first half of the first trip

i'd be a little cautious

for the price of a few more sets of springs, and a lot of hair getting ripped out, a ladder bar isnt much, and saves a lot of hassle and frustration

[V6XtraHilux]

i got a current V6 petrol hilux, and am looking at keeping the rear Toyo springs, but putting in 50mm axle blocks, also have air locker in at moment, and looking at getting 33s.

will the axle blocks with this setup significantly increase the axle wrap and tramping?? any feedback would be great.

thanks.