New James Duff Ex lift

[SuRrEaLNJ]

the stage 1.5 is still under new products on the site, but it does exist

 

[jd4242]

I had no problems when I called them for parts as I bought arms arms from a guy on here.the trans mount was modified to fit the 700r trans.they sold me the trans crossmember and the spacers for my heims with no problems

 

[KPSquared]

So, I just ordered the dual shock mount coil buckets this morning from Duff. I have a plan to do the EB 3.5 coils and also plan to run 4 Duff shocks in the front.

Any word from Stone Crusher on TRE steering kit? I am having a hard time not ordering the heim kit, but if I get caught with it on the street here, I'm in a world of trouble. I have heard of guys in BC (the next province over) getting taken off the road and having to get a trailer to get their rig home over heim steering... Apparently the DOT knows what they are looking for. Don't really want to risk that.

After some lengthly discussion with Brian @ Duff, he assured me that the Duff pitman arm is a full 4" drop over stock (anyone vouch for that?), which should be the same as the FA600... the FA400 is 2 - 2.5" over stock, and the FA600 is 4"... So, I ordered one of those as well... I need to get this steering straighter...

I may just have to suck it up and run the heimed stonecrusher stuff if I go to the EB coils. these Stupidlift coils SUCK (as I knew they would) but the lift was such a good deal, I couldn't turn it down.

 

[ThatFabGuy]

After I read your post today I called and informed Bryan that he had told you wrong. Duff doesn't sell a 4" drop arm, they have the same 2" that everyone else has. SCS hasn't worked out a TRE version yet, reason being cost. Anthony is a one man show and to have to stock enough tie-rods to get a discount on them would mean having to buy a bunch. Buying a few at a time and doing the machine work on them would raise the price to where no one would buy the kit. If you get a 3.5" coil with a rate around 300 lbs/in you may be able to use the stock steering with a drop pitman arm. I had very soft EB springs which I would not recommend for a daily driver. I now have the 5.5" EB springs that are 310 lbs/in and love driving the explorer now.
Any other questions, just ask.
Brad.

 

[KPSquared]

ThatFabGuy -

Sweet. I talked to Adam shortly there after and they had pulled the pitman arm off my order already. So the coil buckets are on the way. Gotta measure for shocks.

If I were to run the 5.5" coils and either use their lower buckets or build my own, how much higher am I going to be in the front? I have the superlift superstiff coils in front right now. I didn't need the adjustable alignment bushings but I suppose with a little extra lift from the 5.5's I will need them?

Also plan to buy or fab extended radius arms... I should probably wait until then to order new shocks. I am guessing b/w those and the 5.5 EB springs, I would have quite a bit more down travel?

If I were to run the 3.5 EB springs and just sucked it up and used the StoneCrusher system with the heims, is it streetable? I think the dual shocks would help, but I don't really need all the lean and I load it pretty heavy with camping gear. Any other coils that would work well?

 

[ThatFabGuy]

ThatFabGuy -

If I were to run the 5.5" coils and either use their lower buckets or build my own, how much higher am I going to be in the front?

Also plan to buy or fab extended radius arms... I should probably wait until then to order new shocks. I am guessing b/w those and the 5.5 EB springs, I would have quite a bit more down travel?

If I were to run the 3.5 EB springs and just sucked it up and used the StoneCrusher system with the heims, is it streetable? I think the dual shocks would help, but I don't really need all the lean and I load it pretty heavy with camping gear. Any other coils that would work well?

To answer your questions in order:
If you are running this on TTB you won't want to use the Duff 5.5" EB coils unless you cut some off the lower coil. As is, they will give you between 8"-9" of lift. I am running them because I have now done a SAS and am running 37" tires. You will want to find a 3" coil that has around a 300 lbs/in rating to get the right amount of lift for the TTB. When I had TTB I ran the Duff 3.5" EB coil that was rated at 225 lbs/in. It flexed more than enough, but daily driving was out of the question. The springs were so soft that the heavy Ex collapsed most of the windings and I could bottom them out on a speedbump. The body roll was damn near dangerous. I got the correct amount of lift but needed a stiffer spring for the heavy schoolbus.

Next, the lower coil retainers were my doing, you cannot buy them from Duff. You can buy their EB HD coil retainers and weld a foot on them and drill a 3/4" hole in the middle (what I did).

I would wait to buy shocks until everything is complete. You will get enough down travel that you will have to open the window on the beam. I used my Duff shocks as my limit as they have built in bumpstops. If I pulled them off I could banjo my extended brake lines. I figured let the shocks do it instead of what's stopping me.

The SCS is very streetable. Anthony has been very busy making these systems since my first posts naming him as the vendor. I expect you will start to see more write-ups about the SCS. As far as I'm concerned, anything extreme runs heims so as long as it's OK where you are, it shouldn't be a problem. Heims are cheaper to replace than TREs and they both wear out. I would like to see Anthony come out with a TRE version so that everyone could get it without worries. He is a great guy and stands behind his product 100%.

Dual shocks really don't do anything as far as the leaning, that will be controlled by your springs. Dual shocks do smooth the ride out and when wheeling cut the job of each by 1/2 so you don't get squishy shocks.


Hope some of this helps you out. If you have anymore ?s I'll try to help any way I can. If I had it to do all over again (or on my next rig) I would keep the D35 and do the 5.5" EB coils cut to fit the 6" lift brackets. 35s. Lockers front and rear and wheel the **** outta it. I like my new SAS but then you have to step up a notch on your wheeling. With the TTB you'd always be looked at as the underdog and could drop jaws anytime you done something half-assed difficult, with the SAS people just yell at you to hit the hardest stuff.

 

[KPSquared]

Well, maybe that's what I'll pursue... I'll keep my eyes open for the right coils or wait until I have some more extra cash kicking around. I love this truck how it sits and how it looks. I don't want to beat the crap out of it, I want it to last... I do have a guy here that is working on a TRE steering using a lot of various stock components from other rigs. Bent Bolt on TRS. Has a thread on his new steering. I may go that route if it works well for him.

 

[KPSquared]

So, this may be off-topic and require a new thread, but how does the Duff 6" lift work with the short pitman arm? Just the same lame bumpsteer as everything else? Why do these companies do this? It's freakin retarted.

If I buy the SJ FA600, will it solve my problem until I can get some kind of custom steering set up? I don't want to drop $250 unless I know it's gonna work. I want my steering to look like this:

(photo used without permission from www.therangerstation.com)

Is the FA600 gonna get me that, or should I just forget about it until I can get the SC set up or make my own?

 

[Naasau]

That picture looks like Skyjacker 4/6" drop brackets w/ skyjacker springs. Since the steering assembly looks almost horizontal, with the axle halves in the upper bolt holes at approx 4" I would hazard a guess that that picture is running on the FA400. Doesn't look like it clears the frame crossmember by enough to be the FA600.

I am no expert but I would assume that for a full 6" lift the FA600 would work great, and that the 400 would be a bit lacking. I have a skyjacker 6 inch lift up front and I'm not really thrilled with the drop of the FA400 (to be fair I haven't finished the alignment and I'm not sure if the springs have settled yet). My next move is going to be to go with the SC Steering and a FA600.

 

[KPSquared]

I don't think you'd need the FA600 and the SC steering... I'm going to order the SC setup this week, and then see how it goes.

It's not legal here, but I am running out of options...

 

[Cevebed]

its available!

the James duff 5.5-6inch stage 3 lift for 91-94 explorers are available from james duff. u just have to call and order the kit over the phone. ordered mine yesterday total cost 2082$ including shipping from TS to WA.

 

[Naasau]

/revive dead thread

/hijack

/sorry

Gotcha.. so more likely its just the angle of the photo that makes it look like the outer tire didn't move. If you get a chance, on flat ground, just turn the wheel and snap a pic. I know my ackerman steering isn't quite right now and if what you have is better (or same) I may switch to that style steering, which looks like it has quite a bit of potential.

~Mark

Maniak, did you ever switch over to the SCS setup?

 

[Maniak]

I tried to buy it but stonecrusher isnt selling their steering for explorers. Im still just using the dropped pitman arm with cut/turned beams.

~Mark

 

[Naasau]

Yeah, I got the same line from them last summer; apparently, there are too many manufacturing deviations on lifted TTB's for them to account for in every vehicle, so they were getting unhappy campers with products that didn't fit quite right. I was hoping that you had received one of their Beta kits so I could get another opinion on how the geometry worked.

Handily enough, there's a local shop here in Denver that sells individual pick & choose parts for steering linkages, so I'm considering fabricating a SCS-type assembly by myself. I may even use TRE's to avoid issues with the local police. I'll whip up a new thread for it when/if I decide to go through with it.