Suspension Measurements 2

[gxl_d4d Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close gxl_d4d]

Installed the following:
Front Shocks Bilstein BE5-A712 (bottom circlip position used)
Rear Shocks Bilstein BE5-A713
Front Springs Lovell TFR-118
Rear Springs Lovell TRS-119
Rear Air Bags Firestone CR4135

FD: 735mm before, 770mm after
FP: 735mm before, 770mm after
RD: 770mm before, 810mm after
RP: 770mm before, 806mm after

All measurements are with 5psi in the rear air bags.


I've got a factory alloy bar, TJM bash plate, N70ZZ size auxilary battery up front.

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Just finished some suspension work recently where the aim was to achieve a 50mm lift and retain a comfortable ride.

At the front I fitted Lovells 64610087F front struts and OME 883 springs with a 10mm collar under the spring seat (same setup as the Ironman struts).

At the rear I fitted Lovells 64612489 rear shocks with 7mm spacers on the sway bar mounts. The rear air springs were raised with 14mm spacers under the height sensor brackets.

Front
735mm static before, 800mm after
845mm maximum extension before, 890mm after
110mm downward travel before, 90mm after

Rear
780mm static before, 825mm after
745mm Lo before, 790mm after
815mm Hi before, 860mm after
880mm maximum extension before, 930mm after
100mm downward travel @ Normal before, 105mm after
65mm downward travel @ Hi before, 70mm after

Happy with the result for now, rides more comfortably than before and also handles better.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Nice results Peter. I haven't paid attention/noticed anyone talking about the installation of spacers on the sway bar mounts. I'll have to start trolling back through some threads. Can you explain to me what this achieves? (Pics would be nice too?)


Craig

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Hi Peter
Nice results
How do you acheive the 930 max droop (+50mm on stock) on the rear without the airbags dislodging?
Are the rear shocks from a 150 or 80 series?
Also would love to know about the sway bar spacers you mention.
Cheers
Marc

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Craig & Marc,

I probably should start my own rig build up thread to explain all this with pics, but the rear sway bars stop shock travel beyond about 615mm extension, so shocks with an extended length less than this will be no issue. The Lovells 64612489 are a long travel option for the 120 series Prado, but are also listed for the 80/100 series Landcruiser, 150 series Prado and FJ Cruiser. This rear shock has an extended length of 618mm and I opted to space the sway bar mounts by 7mm to take the pressure off them at full extension. The Airbag Man do a 10mm rear sway bar spacer, but I decided that 7mm was sufficient for my purposes since 7mm allows for up to 622mm shock extension.



The Lovells 64612489 rear shock and 7mm sway bar spacing allows up to 930mm max droop, but I still need to pin the airbag in the same fashion as Craig has done by using Marc's R pin idea to stop the air bags from dislodging.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Hey Peter

I reckon you should start a build thread

Arent you concerned about over extension of the airbag?

Cheers
Marc

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Hey Peter

I reckon you should start a build thread

Arent you concerned about over extension of the airbag?

Cheers
Marc

Yep, I am concerned but someone has to test them and if they let me down or go pop I'll be "forced" to upgrade!
My theory of evolution is if it breaks replace it with something stronger.

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Just finished some suspension work recently where the aim was to achieve a 50mm lift and retain a comfortable ride.

At the front I fitted Lovells 64610087F front struts and OME 883 springs with a 10mm collar under the spring seat (same setup as the Ironman struts).

At the rear I fitted Lovells 64612489 rear shocks with 7mm spacers on the sway bar mounts. The rear air springs were raised with 14mm spacers under the height sensor brackets.

Front
735mm static before, 800mm after
845mm maximum extension before, 890mm after
110mm downward travel before, 90mm after

Rear
780mm static before, 825mm after
745mm Lo before, 790mm after
815mm Hi before, 860mm after
880mm maximum extension before, 930mm after
100mm downward travel @ Normal before, 105mm after
65mm downward travel @ Hi before, 70mm after

Happy with the result for now, rides more comfortably than before and also handles better.

The front height settled down to 790mm, so I decided to give it a tweak last night and removed the front struts to replace the 10mm spring seat spacer with a 20mm spacer. I also adjusted the rear sensors and replaced the 14mm spacers with 16.5mm ones.

Final results are:

Front 810mm
Rear 830mm (865mm Hi, 795mm Lo)

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

tweaked the prado today.

front sits at 835mm
(895mm-900mm at full droop)
2 deg castor RHS
3 deg castor LHS

rear sits at 865mm

changed a few things since my last post on measurements. i have now taken out all of my OME and are running on dobinson coils all round now.

in less than a year, the OME fr coils have dropped a massive 25-30mm, plus i also added a winch recently before i updated the front end.

i can supply a full parts list to anyone who is interested in how my prado is set up. i am running the new set up in, and i will post up some current height measurements before the week end.

a quick measurement was:

fr @ 835
droop at 900

rr @ 870
no airbags
havent measured droop.

i know massive flex isn't everything to a lot of people, but i've always been one to push the suspension limits on all of my cars. i can confirm one thing, and that is the 150 series and the prado are slightly different to the 120, and that is is a lot harder to acheive my set up in those vehicles. shock mounts and slight chassis changes add to that. even though the parts change over and inter-fit between the models, the 120 is still the easiest to modify in a more extreme kind of way. go 120's.

flex pic to break up all the reading.

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

I just checked my suspension post fitting the rear bar and second spare and have gone down about 15 to 20 mm at the back

FL was 790 now 790
FR was 790 now 800
RL was 810 now 790
RR was 810 now 795

I have the OME 895 coils on the back so I'm thinking of looking at a set of OME 896 coils. Obviously I have the rear bar and second spare plus rear drawers constantly fitted. I suspect the OME 897 coils are probably too much (constant load of 400kg+).

Thoughts anyone?

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

I just checked my suspension post fitting the rear bar and second spare and have gone down about 15 to 20 mm at the back

FL was 790 now 790
FR was 790 now 800
RL was 810 now 790
RR was 810 now 795

I have the OME 895 coils on the back so I'm thinking of looking at a set of OME 896 coils. Obviously I have the rear bar and second spare plus rear drawers constantly fitted. I suspect the OME 897 coils are probably too much (constant load of 400kg+).

Thoughts anyone?

Poly Airs mate

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

I just checked my suspension post fitting the rear bar and second spare and have gone down about 15 to 20 mm at the back

FL was 790 now 790
FR was 790 now 800
RL was 810 now 790
RR was 810 now 795

I have the OME 895 coils on the back so I'm thinking of looking at a set of OME 896 coils. Obviously I have the rear bar and second spare plus rear drawers constantly fitted. I suspect the OME 897 coils are probably too much (constant load of 400kg+).

I decided to go with the OME 896 coils in the end and now measure 820 both sides at the back.

For the record, I measured the droop with the car on the hoist and got 880 on the right and 890 on the left - that's with the OME 60004 Prado shocks. Be interesting to see what I get with the N74Es and extended sway bar links.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

That sounds pretty good
Sounds like youre in a pretty good place now.
How does the ride feel?

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

How does the ride feel?

To be honest it doesn't feel any different Marc

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

To be honest it doesn't feel any different Marc

Excellent, just what you wanted then?