A good place to start?

[Drewby]

Hi. I have recently acquired a couple of discos. I have a few questions.

I have priced up Suspension Stuff 2" lift and flexi coils. I want to get into the rough stuff and be able to get out too. Are these any good? I believe suspension stuff to be good, but hear conflicting stories from les R...*cough cough*
What's the truth? What is the best combo for someone starting out?
I'm aware of the white tiger 2" body lift. I hear nothing else will do.

Anyway. Will leave it at that for now. Thanks in advance.

[Drewby]

50 views an no advice? Hmmmm

[Vern]

Did you search on here?

I have the body lift in mine, whilst expensive it is a good kit and its engineer approved.
Both company's know there stuff in regards to suspension. I use les Richmond coils, but source my own shocks. Coils balance out well, but they aren't flexicoils, which I'd like to give a go.

[Ozdunc]

I'd stick in a 2" lift before fitting a body lift, as you gain more ground clearance.
If you want to fit bigger tyres you can add bumpstop extensions ( as well as the 2") to prevent the tyres fouling the body work, which would give a similar result to a body lift.

I've used flexicoils (from Autocraft, but they are both made by Dobinsons) and they been great. I'm not sure you really need them on a 2" lift unless you're planning on running some long travel shocks (in which case you'll need the extended bumpstops in any case, and possibly some swaybar extensions or disconnects).

Its the shocks, not the springs that really made for a great ride. The springs just support the weight you put in it

[modman]

Extended bumpstops mean poor/cheap planning
Do it right the first time with raised or appropriate shock mounts
You haven't meantioned tyre size yet............
What are you prepared to spend?
Dc

[Ozdunc]

Extended bumpstops mean poor/cheap planning

Dc

With respect I completely disagree with that statement.

Lets use a 2" lift with flexicoils for example.

Imagine a stock suspension system with a 8" travel shock (4" up/4" down). And the shock has a 8" compressed length and a 16" extended length.
Now you add in a 2" lift flexicoil.
Using the standard shock you now have 6" travel up and 2" down, so you want to use a longer travel shock (9"). This shock has a compressed length of 9" and 18" extended.
You can do 2 things here to prevent the shock being over compressed
1. Extend the bumpstop 1"
2. Raise the shock mount 1"

Both will enable the shock to go to its compressed length of 9", but what happens to the travel and stroke of the shock.
With the bumpstop you have reduced the up travel back to 5", but you have extended the down travel by 2" to 4" and the shock is sitting near in the middle of its stroke with 5" up and 4" down available.
With the raised mount you have 6" travel up but only 3" down. Maybe a better set up for loaded touring. But you don't need flexicoils, linear coils may serve you better.

Another advantage of lowering the bumpstop 1", is that you can increase the diameter of the tyre by 2" without it rubbing.
With a raised mount any increase in tyre size may need a body lift to accommodate the extra tyre size.

Then there's cost.
Let say you want to run a 2" lift, with 9" travel shocks, castor bushings and a bigger wheel size (31" -> 33"). All together $3000.

Then what are extra costs
1. Bumpstops.
Bumpstops $100 (or less if you fab em yourself), and err... thats it.

2. Raised mounts.
The mounts (I dunno turret costs but say) $300. The engineering cert to approve the mount changes and keep it legal $1000.
Body block kit $80. Welding changes to the gearstick to lengthen appropriately, and positioning the radiator correctly, and any changes that might be needed to the steering mechanism (say... $500)

I completely fail to see the poor or cheap planning of using bumpstops in this circumstance.

Having said that I completely see advantages in altered shocks mounts for bigger lifts/ longer travel shocks, but very few circumstances where I wouldn't use them in conjunction with extended bumpstops (or trimmed bumpstops in the case of Series vehicles).

Since I'm on a roll and we're talking flexicoils.

Same 2" lift / 2" larger tyres but running a 10" travel shock. You could extend the bumpstops 50mm, but then you reduce your up travel back to stock at 4" and droop to 6".
In this circumstance I would use a 1" stop and move the mounts 1", and run 5" up and 5" down. You don't need a body lift, but you'll need an engineering cert to stay legal and relatively simple to do.

YMMV

[Drewby]

Some really good advice there. Thank you to all.

Still a lot of information that is over my head. Being from Canberra, I think I can get away with a fair bit when it comes to offroad mods. I wont be driving around in stupid assed places where the cops like to hang out and defect people. Besides that it looks no more than 2" I suspect they wont give it a second look.

As for tyres, I was going to buy some off ebay. 15" with -25 offset.
Was hoping for 33" or more rubber. More seems to be almost always best. (unless it scrubs)

I was all prepared to do a guard chop and fit flexi flares in preparation for larger tyres.

Is this offset acceptable with travel in mind?

[modman]

Wow😂
Op didn't mention tyre size disco type or budget
He asked a simple question and mentioned bumpstop spacers.......
I would plan my suspension around the lowest COG I could design. That design wold involve as much up travel that I could dial in.
That's all I read into.........
Glad you got that rant off your chest though[biggrin]
Dc

[uninformed]

With respect I completely disagree with that statement.

Lets use a 2" lift with flexicoils for example.

Imagine a stock suspension system with a 8" travel shock (4" up/4" down). And the shock has a 8" compressed length and a 16" extended length.
Now you add in a 2" lift flexicoil.
Using the standard shock you now have 6" travel up and 2" down, so you want to use a longer travel shock (9"). This shock has a compressed length of 9" and 18" extended.
You can do 2 things here to prevent the shock being over compressed
1. Extend the bumpstop 1"
2. Raise the shock mount 1"

Both will enable the shock to go to its compressed length of 9", but what happens to the travel and stroke of the shock.
With the bumpstop you have reduced the up travel back to 5", but you have extended the down travel by 2" to 4" and the shock is sitting near in the middle of its stroke with 5" up and 4" down available.
With the raised mount you have 6" travel up but only 3" down. Maybe a better set up for loaded touring. But you don't need flexicoils, linear coils may serve you better.

Another advantage of lowering the bumpstop 1", is that you can increase the diameter of the tyre by 2" without it rubbing.
With a raised mount any increase in tyre size may need a body lift to accommodate the extra tyre size.

Then there's cost.
Let say you want to run a 2" lift, with 9" travel shocks, castor bushings and a bigger wheel size (31" -> 33"). All together $3000.

Then what are extra costs
1. Bumpstops.
Bumpstops $100 (or less if you fab em yourself), and err... thats it.

2. Raised mounts.
The mounts (I dunno turret costs but say) $300. The engineering cert to approve the mount changes and keep it legal $1000.
Body block kit $80. Welding changes to the gearstick to lengthen appropriately, and positioning the radiator correctly, and any changes that might be needed to the steering mechanism (say... $500)

I completely fail to see the poor or cheap planning of using bumpstops in this circumstance.

Having said that I completely see advantages in altered shocks mounts for bigger lifts/ longer travel shocks, but very few circumstances where I wouldn't use them in conjunction with extended bumpstops (or trimmed bumpstops in the case of Series vehicles).

Since I'm on a roll and we're talking flexicoils.

Same 2" lift / 2" larger tyres but running a 10" travel shock. You could extend the bumpstops 50mm, but then you reduce your up travel back to stock at 4" and droop to 6".
In this circumstance I would use a 1" stop and move the mounts 1", and run 5" up and 5" down. You don't need a body lift, but you'll need an engineering cert to stay legal and relatively simple to do.

YMMV

all that work in the front end to have it robbed by castor correction bushes :D

And why would you have to get a different shock tower certed, and NOT a different bumpstop?

[Ozdunc]

all that work in the front end to have it robbed by castor correction bushes :D

And why would you have to get a different shock tower certed, and NOT a different bumpstop?

I don't follow? Its not much work.

Castor is related to lift, with a small lift like 2" you only need bushes to provide correction back to spec. You could pony up for corrected radius arms, but not sure you'd really get any benefit for the expense.

For bigger lifts and longer travel - bushes aren't suitable, they can't give enough correction and they bind on sideways deflection.

Why does a shock mount change require engineering? Cause the regs say it does. And from memory if a bumpstop limits the up travel to less than a 1/3 of the total travel I think it would need engineering too. You'd need to check the regs for your state. Any lift over 50mm needs engineering to stay legal.

[modman]

CC bushes...........👬

Dc