convert stock IFS/ solid rear with leaves to coil overs?

[inh]

I was reading through one of the many, MANY offroad mags i have, and started thinking about how hard it might be to ditch the rear leaves and front torsion bars, and just weld up some coilovers in thier place, namely universal air suspensions air assisted coilovers, with a shock, coil, and airbag that lets you adjust ride hieght up to 5 inches... seems like it shouldnt be too tough, at least for the rear. the front may require custom suspension arms (not sure of the technical name)

 

[justin146]

RCD makes a coilover conversion for the front. It doesnt require much fabrication. THe rear would be the hard part. Unless you were planning on alot of lift, you would have to cut holes in the floorboard and make a hoop to mount the tops to. There isnt enough height above the rear axle and below the body to use them without major modification. I say go for it

 

[zhanx]

a cantilever in the rear might work

 

[white96x]

ya i've seen a cantilever setup done on an explorer before, but for the time and money you put into it, you might as well 3-link it....imo

 

[inh]

Yea a 3 link is what i was thinkin about doing. I think it;d be cool and be a good way to get a lot of lift

 

[white96x]

Yea a 3 link is what i was thinkin about doing. I think it;d be cool and be a good way to get a lot of lift

the reason people 3-link anything is for way more travel than you would get with leaf springs, not necessarily for a lift....if all you're interested in doing is lifting the rear do an SOA, if you wanna have like 20+" of travel in the rear then 3-link it

 

[inh]

i dont want to deal with the axel wrap and other spring problems that come with SOA. That, and the rear end isnt the problem child, its figuring outhow to get massive lift in the front without sas.

 

[white96x]

well for the front you can do a superlift,rcd, camburg,dixon brothers or something custom and if it's a disco you're after, then the performance of the above named companies is probably not what you're after...

 

[inh]

it probably wont happend but its fun to think about... I wonder how hard it would be to fab up custom control arms? and the brackets to drop the front driveline down..

 

[white96x]

from what i've heard it's not that easy....i know 'mcneil' makes 'em as well as 'the lab designs' maybe you can take a look at those to get an idea, but just new arms themselves won't give you much except strength, it's the uniball that gives you the travel....but if it's 'massive lift' you're after upper arms won't give you any lift

 

[inh]

well what i was thinking is that custom arms would allow 1) routing of a coilover with the room it requires, and 2) droping the spindle/hub assembly for a bit more travel. I remeber...section525 ithink had a set of the lab designs ones for sale. maybe i need to research suspension lifts a little better.

 

[slravene]

gotta ditch the gas tank for a fuel cell...not arms will fit back there with the tank in place.

 

[white96x]

gotta ditch the gas tank for a fuel cell...not arms will fit back there with the tank in place.

we're talking about the front suspension

 

[slravene]

ditch the rear leaves and front torsion bars, and just weld up some coilovers in thier place

....

you just gonna run a wireless axle in the rear?

we're talking about the front suspension

 

[justgetinstarte]

ok all i dont know what a wireless axle means. but for the rear i would do a link like the dude that wrote the "dose this make my rearend look big". it seems to work well i just dont know how all the geomitry works. i hope he will join us cause well it is ausome. i am also looking to do the same kind of thing. I would like to do a 2/d44 with coil overs on all four. just trying to find out what coils to do and how to hoock them all up to the frame without fing things up. well i hope this helps alitte.

 

[justgetinstarte]

Ok all I don’t know what a wireless axle means. But for the rear I would do a link like the dude that wrote the "dose this make my rear-end look big". It seems to work well I just don’t know how all the geometry works. I hope he will join us because well it is assume. I am also looking to do the same kind of thing. I would like to do a 2/d44 with coilovers on all four. Just trying to find out what coils to do and how to hook them all up to the frame without messing things up. Well I hope this helps a little.

 

[410Fortune]

Allright this thread has a bunch of BS in it

Mcneil MAKES a 3 link kit that will fit your 4 door Explorer without gas tank mods, etc

Desert style 3 and 4 links flex awesome but the trailing arms the CO mount to for the mechanicla advantage required to get 24+" of articultaion from a 16" stroke shock hang really low for use on a trail truck

a 3 or 4 link handles completely different on the street, something to think about for dual use truck

Putting a dana 44 in the back of your truck is working backwards, the 8.8 is stronger

Coilovers will not attach to your frame without making hoops/cages/or mounts

The spring rate is the last thing you need to worry about now.

You can really screw things up if you just grab some coilover shocks and mount them up, you need to understand how the suspension cycles and why, the geometry, and what you want to accomplish with your truck.

I say leave it up to the experts......for your 92 truck there are several long travel kits you can purchase where most/all of the guessing has already been engineered for you...