coil springs , my spacers

jockyboy · Sep 21, 2012

Hi again are you ready for me to ask another stupid question very new to this game.

my lift is with my factory coils i just put spacers on them and 2 inch shackles on the back.

when i get new coils do i get 2 inch larger coils and not put on the spacers?

what about west coast shocks are they any good.

please what else is good to get for better quality for car. going to do a lot ,lot more driving so wanna get set.

i joined Rockingham 4x4 club in rockingam WA excellent bunch of guy's great family club, going down to harvey on sunday maybe probably not to much mud i have only 265/75R16 maxxiss all terrain

Old.Tony · Sep 22, 2012

Eventually you'll find that the factory springs aren't performing very well. A good off-road leaf spring pack is miles better than the factory leaves. Up front, you have to watch the suspension under full compression. The stock upper control arm can get in the way. The spacer works, but a longer spring will feel marginally better. Can't say much about West Coast shocks - I've got OME Nitrocharger Sports on mine.

jockyboy · Sep 22, 2012

Hi Old Tony cheers mate,

what size of springs then tony and all do you think i should get, what are good leaf springs.
as you are saying a larger spring would be better or should i get a larger spring and put on the 50mm spacer as well.

Old.Tony · Sep 22, 2012

If you put the spacer on you'll increase the lift even more. That's where people run into trouble with the UCAs. Spacers are also restrictive. Imagine the distance between the to and bottom of the spring as "the amount of flexibility". A spacer doesn't have it, period. You might not notice it, you might never need to flex that much, but if it was my truck I'd leave the spacer out.

The spring depends on your load. Up front, the load doesn't change a lot but there's a big difference between factory plastic and bullbar+winch. You really do need HD springs up front to manage the extra 80+kg.

Up the back, again it depends what you want to do. If you need to carry a load around some days and others not, dual-rate springs (or the TSDS triple-rate springs from Sax Suspensions) are the go. I've got OME Dakar dual rate springs on mine and they're bloody awesome, but they're the only spring I've had other than the factory stock ones so I can't offer an opinion based on a large variety.

As for the size of the springs - ok, the leaf springs are set anyway, but for the coils, you should really get a suspension place (and that includes ARB, TJM) to do that. That's what I did - I don't know the unsprung length of my front coils.

jockyboy · Sep 23, 2012

what's a suspension place buddy,
ok i will get larger heavy duty springs i'll leave spacers out, i dont carry much weight like tools e.t.c. just now but got new canopy and will end up use it for more tourin, have to get better leaf springs?

jock

Old.Tony · Sep 23, 2012

A suspension place ... like Pedders, ARB, TJM (they all do 4x4 suspension). Zordo (a supplier to the users of this forum) will help you with the right parts and mail them to you, then provide excellent phone support.

Anything is better than the rear leaf springs that come with the truck. Eventually they'll sag and when you upgrade to anything else (well, maybe not welding the axle to the chassis) you'll wonder why you hadn't done it before.

With the Dakar springs on ours the ride is SO much better than standard we're amazed. The shame is you're 5,000km away or I'd take you out for a drive so you can feel it for yourself.