Castor plates or bushes

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Ive just bought a 4 inch lift for the shorty without bushes or plates. I was just wondering what people use and recommend. Heard a bit about both but would like to know a little more.

[Area54]

you won't need castor plates with a 4" lift, you can put in castor bushes if the rig wanders a little bit. All castor bushes will limit flex in the front a small amount, but not enough to worry about. I have some second hand bushes for sale if interested. Are you installing the gear yourself?

here's some pics of plates to give you an idea what they are...

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Thanks Area 54

Yea i am installing it myself, might wait to see how she goes without plates or bushes. I was thinking of getting bushes because we are going around Aus next year and im putting the 2 inch back in and ive heard you can leave the bushes in unlike the plates

[Area54]

Yeah, sounds like the way to go for your intended driving. Won't hurt the truck any, running without enough castor, just might wander a bit. For a cheap and simple fix you could run a self centering steering stabiliser - a lot easier to install and setup. With the castor bushes you need to remove the radius arms, press out the factory bushes (fun job, unless you have the tools to do it or get a shop to do it), press in the new bushes at the correct setting and reinstall the arms.

[giddyup_fatboy]

Ive just done a 4inch spring lift on my LWB GQ & the 5 degree caster plate still hasn't given me the correct amount of caster .

Best advice is fit the kit & get the castor measured up by a steering joint. I had mine checked by Mitcham Steering in Melbournes South East & they advised i needed 6-7 degrees of castor correction . I returned the offset bushes that where supplied with the kit & had plates fitted.

Be ready for a wild drive to the place your having the steering checked becasue it will wander all over the place like youve just finished a slab....

Check out the following link http://www.bigballsoffroad.com/prod55.htm
Bigballs for 4inch lift recommends 2.5 degree offset caster bushes for a LWB & 5 Degree plates for a SWB..

If all else fails ask Cheesy .

[blu125]

That's the correct advice. Put it on an aligner and check the castor - should be approx. pos 1-3. Less, as it will have, gives wander, more gives shimmy. My LWB with 6" springs & 7deg plates has 3deg pos.

With a 4" lift, if you weld on tabs and redrill a new front hole 35mm (centre to centre) from existing hole you will have approx 2deg pos.

Offset bushes that give more than 2 degrees of correction are too thin and have a short life, forget 'em.

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Thanks guys,
hopefully i will get around to putting the lift in this weekend and i will see how it all goes