Best street Sas

[southernrights]

ok im building up my explorer, its hasnt been driven in a while, but it still runs and starts. So i want to swap out the stock ttb, for a d44. But first i need to decide, what suspension setup.... leafs or coils is the easiest to setup for the street/highway driving?

leaf springs or coil springs??

 

[mitch]

well the easiest for swaping an axle (time and money) is going to be leaves. but i like coils better, and are not that more difficult to do than leaves. is this just going to be a pavement pounder or are you going to be taking it offroad any?

 

[RockRanger]

well the easiest for swaping an axle (time and money) is going to be leaves. but i like coils better, and are not that more difficult to do than leaves. is this just going to be a pavement pounder or are you going to be taking it offroad any?

I gott call BS on this. Leafs sound easier but a coil setup can be done easier and cheaper. Get an early bronco axle it will just about bolt in. All you have to fab is a trackbar mount and a tranny cross member. To get leafs to work RIGHT you have to do cross over steering whih adds to the cost of the swap. I have leafs and knowing what I know now I would do coils instead. (I will be doing coils in the near future)

 

[RockRanger]

Also My leafs are pretty soft and while it works good offroad the body lean on the street can get interesting. On a coil setup a couple tabs and you could reuse you front sway bar pretty easily.

 

[mitch]

thats why i wanted to know if it was just going to be used for street or takin offroad, also it depends of what axle you use, whether coils or springs well be easier. i also like coils better, thats why im getting parts for my swap and im going to be using coils.

 

[section525]

You'd have to have a pretty specific reason to do leafs on a 1st gen.

 

[RockRanger]

You'd have to have a pretty specific reason to do leafs on a 1st gen.

Cause I thought it would be cheaper. That is the only reason I went with leafs. It turned out that it ended up probably costing more. Here is what gets you on the leafs. If you are trying to go leafs you are probably using a waggy axle that is leaf sprung. So now you have 6 lug front and 5 lug back. To get them to match you need to eather get new axle shafts for the rear and have your drums re drilled or you have to convert the front to to 5 on 5.5 and get wheel spacers for the rear. New axle shafts for the rear would be cheaper if all the dana 44 stuff is in good shape and can be reused. ( bearings spindles and roters)

Then it comes to wheels. I got a good price on 5 lug wheels so that swayed me a bit. But around here usually it is much easier to find 6 lug wheels from the toy guys used and cheaper as well.

 

[CodePoet]

I'd go coil. I'm using a full width d44 in mine and the only "special" consideration i have is spacing out the buckets abit...but that's even easy . You can buy everything you need so fabrication is minimal. I do know a guy who makes trac bar mounts, if you need I'll give you his contact info other than that you can buy full size ra mounts, if you want full size coil buckts, and f250 shock mounts, pretty simple really

I wouldn't waste any time or money on leaves...i have them in the rear for now, eventually i'll ditch those in leiu of a link suspension

 

[section525]

I wouldn't waste any time or money on leaves...i have them in the rear for now, eventually i'll ditch those in leiu of a link suspension

I just wanted to make my front and rear suspensions match. So it was either leafs in the front or t-bars in the rear.

 

[Stic-o]

I just wanted to make my front and rear suspensions match. So it was either leafs in the front or t-bars in the rear.

don't confuse the poor guy Johnny

 

[FROADER]

My coil setup, drives just fine on the street, even at 80mph.

 

[IZwack]

I'm going to ask this cauz im a newb: why would it matter if this vehicle's street performance is the focus?

Just kind of looking at the factors that affect a vehicle's road behavior, leaves and coils are pretty much the same. Maybe if the coils were angled in at the top like / \ - then that would give a little bit better road handling capability. But for the most part, the two suspensions are the same on road.

So double yew tee eff - am I missing something here?

 

[section525]

I think he wants to do a swap but is not concerned with obtaining the best off-road performance.

 

[IZwack]

I think he wants to do a swap but is not concerned with obtaining the best off-road performance.

Ah "ko"

 

[southernrights]

yea i want the best street driving sas swap on a budget, im doing the swap myself

it has to be street friendly i live in the city its kinda far to wheel(2hr trip 1 way). And i dont have the cash to buy another truck to tow this one, and i love driving this thing!

 

[IZwack]

ahah I just realized your in Maryland! woot

see if you can make it to the next meet-n-greet:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1505068#post1505068

 

[southernrights]

for the coils spring setup- would i have to make raduis arm mounts and crossmember? or can i use the eb one?

 

[IZwack]

for the coils spring setup- would i have to make raduis arm mounts and crossmember? or can i use the eb one?

you can use the EB one - or adapt it (make it stronger?) to your liking thats the fun part of this thing, you can do whatever you want.

Do try to come to the next Meet-N-Greet, a few of the members there have either done an SAS or are in the process of doing an SAS. So you can ask away and probably see some rigs with some setups.

 

[southernrights]

thats one of the days im susposed to work, but ill try to get off

 

[IZwack]

thats one of the days im susposed to work, but ill try to get off

dont sweat it, if u can make it - thats great. if you cant, then im sure theres a next time... just want to let you know that there are a few of us here in MD