Outer Limits 4x4 Board

mate has a ford courier and wants to take tortion bars out and replace shocks with coil overs can it be done cheers

anything is possible.

It can be done, I'm not sure if the cost would outweigh the benefits though.

Others will be able to elaborate more on the specifics.

he's thinking he will just take out the tortion bars and fit coil overs

Tell him to take it to a customs shop and get them to either have a quick look and price estimate, along with work necessary. That'll see if he's serious. I can't imagine anything about the job would be "just"...

does he know why he wants coilovers instead of torsion bars? it is a fairly pointless modification - it will require some bracing to the shock mounts and control arms as the shock mounts are not designed to support the weight of the vehicle. it will not increase travel or improve ride.

dumbdunce wrote:does he know why he wants coilovers instead of torsion bars? it is a fairly pointless modification - it will require some bracing to the shock mounts and control arms as the shock mounts are not designed to support the weight of the vehicle. it will not increase travel or improve ride.

Exactly.

dumbdunce wrote:it will not increase travel or improve ride.

Unless the torsion bars are wound right up... the coil overs could be much better.

tortion bars are wound up pretty hard so was thinking may give a bit more travel he is a fitter and turner so he can modify anything

the down travel limiting factor for IFS torsion bar setups is not the bar, it is the outer CV. The CV needs to remain within its operating angle limits when at full droop and turned out full lock (ie the right hand side wheel turning right)

the torsion bar itself will provide almost unlimited down travel; if you cut or remove the rebound stops you can easily exceed the limits of the CV's by winding up the torsion bars. coilovers conversely will severely limit travel - you only have a small space to play with (have a look at the length of IFS shocks!) so either the coilover will be too long and restrict up travel (bottom out on bumps) or too short and will limit down travel (top out in holes).

all 4WD IFS systems are an on/offroad compromise biased fairly heavily towards on-road handling, comfort and safety. they do not generally perform well off-road, and there isn't a lot of point in going down that path - you will spend a lot, break a lot of stuff, and never be happy with the results. so many guys have thrown thousands of $$ at IFS hiluxes only to chop it all out and do a RFS conversion, also very expensive. think first, spend second - what do you want the vehicle to achieve? if hard-core wheeling on big rocks etc is appealing, you're starting with the wrong vehicle. that's not to say it can't be done, but the money you will have to spend will be astronomical.

summary: coilovers are fairly pointless modification - they will require some bracing to the shock mounts and control arms as the shock mounts are not designed to support the weight of the vehicle. it will not increase travel or improve ride. will probably also require engineer's approval to be road legal, add at least $1000 right there.

dumbdunce wrote: all 4WD IFS systems are an on/offroad compromise biased fairly heavily towards on-road handling, comfort and safety. they do not generally perform well off-road, ....

I tend to disagree. IFS systems can be made to perform reasonably well offroad. You will never get the flex that can be achieved by a SAS, BUT, knowing how to drive a vehicle with IFS, that is, by taking the right lines, having suspension set up properly (for example making the rear do the work by softening it up, correct springs, shocks and shackles, and allowing it to flex), not just sinking the boot in when the front end does (and will) pick a wheel up, and then add a couple of lockers, and you can do alot more than is given credit for.

Horses for courses, but if you don't want to complete in tuff trucks or do a winch challenge, then IFS can be made to perform reasonably well.