Long Travel BS Thread

Yep! I’m probably close to 15k or more into mine. Rides and performs like total ass. Only now (with help from you guys) am I starting ti fix that. It’s a loooooot of work.

 

That’s a good thread. I really wish I had a garage to do something like that. Eventually I want to bump off of my upper arm so I might as well get rid of the wheel wells now.

Ouch. That sucks. I saw yours when searching. You did a nice job with those.

Agreed. Looks like much more room. Doing it this way seems way easier than rebuilding the wheel wells. Especially if you live somewhere without salted roads.

I’m going to do a cowl intake as well. Right now I have this pseudo snorkel that’s going to get ripped off one of these days.


It has a regular snorkel head on the fender. Kind of lame but it worked for a while.

 

I guess i should have been clearer. I didn't mean the stock springs would be ideal or even good. I was trying to emphasize that if you're on a budget there's a few things you can do to improve ride quality before leaf springs even come into question ei plating the frame, replacing the flimsy factory shackle hangers, upgrading shocks. A spring under kit that's already put together will cover a lot of that + the spring under part, but those things can be done individually as well for a lot less money than a complete kit. Personally i found that upgrading the rear hangers was as good an individual improvement as new leafs and new shocks

 

@erok81 yeah i wish I would have checked clearance more so than I did, but I also didn’t have 35’s when I built it all so it’s always a pain looking back on things I did that I cut out 1-2 years later as my idea for the truck changes…. Man I wish I only had 15k into my suspension….this damn truck is a bottomless pit.

 

I would have cried having to redo that. That’s why I am cutting waaaay more than I need to just in case. Definitely don’t want to revisit it.

I hear you on cost. That’s just a guess on my suspension. My number one rule with things like these…never ever add up what you’ve spent.

 

oh for sure I don’t wanna know what I’ve spent…lol

 

This makes a lot of sense thanks for the clarification

 

I have seen people take 63" Chevy springs (probably just the main leaf since its long), bend them in a press to give more free arch and mix in a bunch of thin leafs to make a custom pack with a reasonable amount of success. Lots of trucks with leaf springs out there, just a matter of how much work you want to do to get where you want to be but adding arch to leaf springs is nothing new.

Also, added flutter stacks to all shocks on my 4runner, MUCH better. Definitely took the edge off all the small bumps. The rear seems a little floppy though with the flutter, .012 stack and .008 stack on rebound. I will probably crack those open again and plug a bleed hole to control it a little better.

 

Should be running more than .008's on rebound. IMO that's too light for leafs as well. Probably why it feels floppy.

 

I did this to my old chevy
Hybrid leaf pack, used the main chevy leaf and the rest is a deaver pack
A bit stiff on pavement but awesome on the trail

 

I’m running 8’s on my rear rebound with the bypass wide open. But if you’re adding bleeds then yeah you might have to slow down the rebound

 

Not saying it doesnt work. Just saying .008's are basically meaningless. The crack pressure is insanely minimal with .008's. I feel like this is where people start to experience bucking and a sloppy feel. What I've been doing that works very well is something like this

---- .008
-----.008
------.008
-------.008
--------.010
---------.010

It has decreased the tendency to buck and feel loose while still dropping out sufficiently when needed. Im all 10's and 12's on my rebound side, but you get the idea. Either way, shock tuning isn't a one size fits all deal. Closing off bleed is going to have a very negligible impact in his case considering its not taking much to blow open that .008 stack.

 

I've run the 63 swap, and now the JD Sua kit.

The 63 swap is soa unless you add a tonne of arch. I ended up with around 4.5" of up travel and 8" down travel, with the rear end around 3" higher than stock, which was higher than I wanted. It rode okay, but the lack of uptravel is what killed it for me. I would hit a big bump and the rear would bottom out and then buck the whole truck. The articulation was really great for crawling.

The JD Sua has been really good. I have around 9" up travel and 7" down travel. The rear end handles high speeds so much better than the 63s did. I would say articulation is about the same between the two, but I have been hung up on the Sua Leafs a few times when crawling.

My opinion is that if you strictly crawl, 63s are good. If you strictly do high speed, Sua is good. If you do any sort of hybrid (like me) Sua is better than 63s.

 

This guy seems to boogie with SOA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rTlx96YGWw

 

Thanks for the info. I’ll definitely do a hybrid thing since my off road style is about 80/20 go fast/crawl.

 

I’m thinking of cracking them back open and plugging 1 bleed hole. With the addition of flutters front and rear it does have slightly more body roll than before.

 

Plugging up bleed holes is going to create harshness in the small chop. I would start by upping your biggest shims on the rebound side first. That should help. Start with the first one or two and see how you like it. .008's are basically no valving at all.

 

One thing to notate, if you've got a Performance Series with aluminum body, they use a bleed shim, not a drilled hole. You'll need to purchase a new shim to swap out in order to alter the bleed. I've had decent luck getting rid of bleed on the front of my truck and using a flutter for small bump compliancy. It's not perfect but it's been slow progress on getting the ride quality I want. I'd second this thought.

 

I got my machine, I definitely think this thing is worth the money. Any tips? I think this was at like 190 amps

 

Grey welds are usually from too much heat or not enough shielding. Either back down the amperage or speed things up. Also, get a gas lens. Cleanliness is extremely important. No mill scale, no oil. I like to wipe my base metal and filler with acetone.