Posts by gt1guy
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The real problems that I see coming from store bought lifts, is the compromises that HAVE to be made working around all the factory bits and pieces. There's just no way around it. But, with a store bought lift, you're letting someone else make the compromises for you and, those may or may not be a compromise you'd have wanted to make on your own.
Educating yourself on how suspensions work can go a long way to help in making an informed decision in whether one companies compromises are more inline with what you're after, than another companies compromises. Being honest with yourself on the actual on road/off road time the rig will see, is something I think most people don't really do.
There was a great quote from a suspension design guru many years ago that makes a lot of sense and is simple. "Any suspension design can work if you don't let it move". That is so true.
Our problem is that we are wanting our suspensions to move, and move a lot. We want lots of up travel, lots of down travel, lots of ground clearance, and a low CG to boot. We don't want the front to lift or the rear to squat on climbs and we don't want the front to dive or the rear to lift dropping off things. We want tons of articulation off road with no body roll on road. We also want the axles to go straight up and down through they're range of travel all while keeping the pinion angle perfect and plunge on the driveshafts to a minimum.
That's a ******* tall order. You have to decide what's most important to you and go from there. Are you willing to cut and weld? Do you want to keep the Jeep pristine? Do you drive it to the trails or haul it on a trailer? Is it your daily driver or a toy?
There's a couple things on my build I did to facilitate the best of both worlds. They wont work for everybody, cutting is involved, but, I'll throw them out there anyway. One thing to keep in mind is that you only really need to use a very small amount of your total suspension travel on the street compared to off road.
Spring rates for articulation are too soft for street use, so I'm running 3 piece swaybars. I'll have a set of bars (low spring rate) for off roading and a big fat set (high spring rate) for the street. The big fat bars will eliminate the body roll on the street. It's two pinch bolts to loosen on the arms and pull out the bar, takes ten minutes. I don't even need to remove a tire to swap them out. This still gives a soft ride without the body roll, sway bars do nothing in two wheel bump.
I'm running bypass shocks. This allows me to have a set of street settings, in addition to crawling and go fast settings.
Compromises are easy, eliminating them is a lot of work, time, money, cutting, more cutting and more money.
Educating yourself on how suspensions work can go a long way to help in making an informed decision in whether one companies compromises are more inline with what you're after, than another companies compromises. Being honest with yourself on the actual on road/off road time the rig will see, is something I think most people don't really do.
There was a great quote from a suspension design guru many years ago that makes a lot of sense and is simple. "Any suspension design can work if you don't let it move". That is so true.
Our problem is that we are wanting our suspensions to move, and move a lot. We want lots of up travel, lots of down travel, lots of ground clearance, and a low CG to boot. We don't want the front to lift or the rear to squat on climbs and we don't want the front to dive or the rear to lift dropping off things. We want tons of articulation off road with no body roll on road. We also want the axles to go straight up and down through they're range of travel all while keeping the pinion angle perfect and plunge on the driveshafts to a minimum.
That's a ******* tall order. You have to decide what's most important to you and go from there. Are you willing to cut and weld? Do you want to keep the Jeep pristine? Do you drive it to the trails or haul it on a trailer? Is it your daily driver or a toy?
There's a couple things on my build I did to facilitate the best of both worlds. They wont work for everybody, cutting is involved, but, I'll throw them out there anyway. One thing to keep in mind is that you only really need to use a very small amount of your total suspension travel on the street compared to off road.
Spring rates for articulation are too soft for street use, so I'm running 3 piece swaybars. I'll have a set of bars (low spring rate) for off roading and a big fat set (high spring rate) for the street. The big fat bars will eliminate the body roll on the street. It's two pinch bolts to loosen on the arms and pull out the bar, takes ten minutes. I don't even need to remove a tire to swap them out. This still gives a soft ride without the body roll, sway bars do nothing in two wheel bump.
I'm running bypass shocks. This allows me to have a set of street settings, in addition to crawling and go fast settings.
Compromises are easy, eliminating them is a lot of work, time, money, cutting, more cutting and more money.
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With the adjusters cranked all the way in they essentially close the check valves and don't bypass at all. This will force all the oil to go through the valve stack, effectively creating a much stiffer shock. Bypass shocks are position-sensitive, not velocity-sensitive. I only intend to play with this on the short compression and rebound tubes......the ones closest to the valve stack at ride height. My thinking is that the zone on the street is going to be maybe 3" either side of ride height.
Right now I have 175/225lb springs for the front and 150/225lb springs for the rear, all 16" over 18". That's what Ryan from Accutune recommended I start with from his program. I told him my hunk of shit would probably weigh 6k. I've only tried slapping the fronts on so far, with 1" preload, and they didn't compress but for a couple inches. Obviously I won't know exactly what my rate will need to be until it's finished........but I have a feeling it will come in way under 6k.
Right now I have 175/225lb springs for the front and 150/225lb springs for the rear, all 16" over 18". That's what Ryan from Accutune recommended I start with from his program. I told him my hunk of shit would probably weigh 6k. I've only tried slapping the fronts on so far, with 1" preload, and they didn't compress but for a couple inches. Obviously I won't know exactly what my rate will need to be until it's finished........but I have a feeling it will come in way under 6k.
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I told Ryan I thought my junk would end up around 6k, that was all me. That's all he had to go off of when he sent springs. The Jeep was/is nowhere near finished when I tried slapping on the fronts just for the hell of it. So it was much lighter than it will end up, and got me to thinking it will much lighter than my initial guess when it's finished.
Luckily, I believe Ryan does free spring swaps as long as the springs aren't all chewed up. So once the Jeep is finished (in 2034
) I can give him the info of where everything sits and he can do his thing. I think I really overshot with the initial weight I gave him.
Luckily, I believe Ryan does free spring swaps as long as the springs aren't all chewed up. So once the Jeep is finished (in 2034
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