lifted 80 drives like a pig

Post by **mick80** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:42 pm

i was wondering if anyone can help me i have a 80 with 50mm old man emu lift 30 mm coil spacers 2 inch bodylift 35inch bias baja claws i have front swaybar on not rear though it drives like a pig.
But if i take coil spacers out it improves but i dont want to i like the clearance
Will i need panhards or castor plates
i have recently had a baby and am worried bout driving it with her and mum in it as we live a fair way out of town and the roads arent real good
All you lads with your sixes and eights how do yous do it
Any help would be great

Post by **4x4Monkey** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:46 pm

Lift and comfort will never mix
having a high car will cause difficult driving cond
u cant have both
Fron wat u have said id imagine it would drive like a friggin bus

Post by **Simo63** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:12 pm

mick80 wrote:i was wondering if anyone can help me i have a 80 with 50mm old man emu lift 30 mm coil spacers 2 inch bodylift 35inch bias baja claws i have front swaybar on not rear though it drives like a pig.
But if i take coil spacers out it improves but i dont want to i like the clearance
Will i need panhards or castor plates
i have recently had a baby and am worried bout driving it with her and mum in it as we live a fair way out of town and the roads arent real good
All you lads with your sixes and eights how do yous do it
Any help would be great

I would have thought you might have gotten away with the 80mm lift (50mm spring and 30mm spacer .. the body lift only adds to the top heavy feel but doesn't impact on caster at all) but maybe not. I would think that with only that much lift you could go for the caster correction bushes and not the plates as they are usually only applicable for a 4 inch or greater lift. Same with the adjustable panhards. The fact it improves with the spacers out tends to point to caster. Talk to a suspension place, they will set you straight.

When I did a GQ I owned a few years ago (3 inch lift) I took it to a steering place and they put it on their wheel alignment machine which showed that it just needed the caster bushes to bring the caster back around negative 2.5 degrees.

The big 35's may also not be helping as they will tend to "track" around the road and follow bumps and ruts quite easily.

Hope this helps (oh and congrats on the new baby).
Simo

Post by **MYTTUF** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:42 pm

I think the basic formula to follow for castor correction is basically for every inch lifted you need to add 1 degree of castor. I had a 50mm spring lift then added 30mm packers and it wasn't great so had some 2 degree castor bushes added and it was better on the road with 33inch muddies. With the 34inch beadlocked not balanced JT2s it was a bit wandery. That was OK though.
Time has passed and 4inch Tough Dog colis have been added to the rear with adjustable panhard and the JT2s are now fitted up to GXL rims and are balanced, well as good as they could be, and the car is now all over the place. I am getting some 4inch coils for the front, 5 degree plates and an adjustable panhard this week to hopefully improve the ride and handeling. I believe the tyres do tend to have a mind of their own but hope by doing the front suspension better it will be all good otherwise I'm up for a tyre deal again.
Jonesy

Post by **guzzla** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:54 pm

caster plates will help greatly but ur screwed with the biasply tyres as they have too much flex in the sidewalls and this created poor handling and delayed breaking at the least. not to mention that they r illegal on ur truck and no engineer would approve them, not to mention all your insurance is void and your whole family could be declined for compensation should you have an accident.

based on the fact that your trucks only mildly modified radial claws are more than ample, i know coz ive got em (2nd set) on a much more modded truck and they balance well, r engineered and drive great.

put ur front bar back on as it makes next to bugger all difference being off, offroad but ties it down better onroad.

good luck.

Post by **mick80** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:48 pm

thanks lads had idea but yous confirmed i have already orded a set off radials and a wheel alignment booked in for this sat hopefully it helps
i too think its a mixture off tyres and castor
am i right for panhards with 80 mm lift
if i just go for 3 inch lift without spacers would that help
thanks again oh yeah simo this one was a girl keen to go back for a boy but than again chicks four wheel hopefully she will
got a pic of my truck

Post by **dubs** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:05 pm

Mate Ive got a 3 inch lift in mine.I put some aftermarket arms in it from an engineering place here in bris and it drives perfect.I havent done the panards as yet but will as the rear wheel sticks out an inch on the drivers side.The arms were supposed to be for 4-5 inch lift but it drives perfect with the three inch.Im only driving on 285's at the moment though

Post by **lance475** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:28 am

Put your rear bar back on and change to radials for the road to start with. There would be no reason to go to the 3 inch lift without spacers, the height will be pretty much the same.

Post by **hypo** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:30 am

I have 3" lovells coils and 30mm spacers in mine, I also have the castor bushes 3 or 4 degree and it drives nice on my 315 cooper st's, I have some adjustable panhards here from the 6" coils I had in the old 80 that im gunna put into this one.

Also have the olt 5degree caster plates here that I'm not using anymore, if you need them PM me and you can have them a a very reasonble price.

Post by **muddy80s** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:54 pm

hi i had a 2 inch lift on my 80 and it wandered pretty bad just with that.was told that you need castor bushes at least for 2 inch so i put them in and it was perfect. i now have 6 inch lift with plates and its overall pretty good considering the amount of lift. as for the panhards try measureing the distance between the outer edge of the tyre and the edge of the wheel arch on one side of the car then try measuring the other side of the car if they are much different in length then you need adjustable panhards. plus try to keep your sway bars in it will make it drive heaps better .you can buy extended mounts to allow this.you can get away with having the rear one in with this lift without the extended mounts but would probably not recommend it offroad as you can damage your shocks when the wheels travel right down.hope this helps

Post by **mick80** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:11 pm

thanks fellas tires on order (radials) it is in tyre shop now getting wheel alignment and castors if needed

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