D30 SAS, leafs or coils?

[Kinserin]

Hey, I've got a 91 Ex that right now, has a wicked ghetto body lift, and a 1.75"-2" suspension lift, all of which was home made for testing the ride height before I start spending money.. What Im curious to know is, I've got a D30 from a 1988 Jeep Cherokee that I can get for free, it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up from what I understand, but thats still cheaper than $500 from the junkyard and then the rebuild cost (This is CND).

Anyhow, I love the ride height I've got right now, with 33s, but I've got two questions. One, leafs or coils for the front end with the D30? Im pretty sure its coils stock from a cherokee, but I like leafs in all 4 corners, and I've heard its cheaper than coils to lift. And the other question is, how low can you keep the truck by doing a SAS and SOA? Is SOA a guarenteed 4-5" lift? Because right now, the rear has a 2" add-a-leaf and is sprung under the axle (stock), with a 1.5" body lift, so basically, a 4" lift would be the max I would allow.

My brother in law seems pro-lots of lift.. Hes got an 83 yota with I think 7-8" of suspension lift, and 3" body, his 94 explorer has the 6" stage 2 skyjacker with a 3" body lift, and hes got a custom SAS setup on his Isuzu Trooper with yota diffs front and rear, leafs in the front (This is the truck that is giving me ideas for my Ex.. I love his Trooper.), not sure about a body lift, but it has somewhere around 9" of total lift and hes got 35s on it atm, but can stuff 38s pretty well (The 38 boggers from his yota fit nicely on the trooper).

So yeah, any ideas as to what I should do with the front end if I want to do a SAS with the D30, and how I can keep it as low as possible, while still doing an SOA in the rear to level it out. I would love it if I could get away with 3.5"-4" of lift from a SOA in the rear and in the front.. I've also got a set of Teraflex shackles that I would love to throw in the rear, and possibly the front if I added some limiting straps, if the front end were to be a leaf conversion, that is.

Thanks in advance. I'll try and get some pics of my truck, and his Trooper, and possibly the Teraflex shackles if nobody knows what Im talking about.

-Edit- I guess I should have at least explained what I was meaning by the shackles.. They extend to the let the axle drop more. Simple enuff, and Im sure most of you know that anyways o.o

 

[93liftedXLT]

Wildhorse 3.5 bronco coils, they flex pretty good, Here is a link that me and a buddy are doing a SAS on his explorer.

http://broncoii.org/fordforum/index.php?showtopic=5122

 

[Kinserin]

Just ran out to take a few pics of the ghetto square tubing body lift and front coil spacers.. I love my coil spacers lol
Sorry about the pic size, it isnt to bad, but then again, I dont run low resolutions on my computer.. If they're to big, I'll take'em down and resize.

Square Coil Spacer ftw!

The truck as it stands now, I love it, but I need to get the SOA done, and the SAS done, in hopes of keeping it roughly the same height after removing the BL lift.

More square tubing..

Gonna head to my brother in laws and take some pics of his trooper, and then maybe get him to find some flex pics hes got sitting around.. I love his truck, its what started me with this hobbie, even though I havent done much at all. Im poor

 

[slravene]

how big is the hole in the middle of that square tubing? that cant be a very safe idea. But whatever works i guess

 

[Kinserin]

It'll hold if I dont beat on the vehicle, its all 'permanent', aka, welded in place, and welded to the existing coil bucket for the front coils. I tell people who ask about it that we were drunk.. But really, that idea came from two sober minds, and we did it while sober.. Sadly enough. lol

-Edit-

Oh yeah, and heres some pics of my brother in laws Trooper, the truck that started it all for me. I think he was going for a WARN theme, its painted red with box liner from Armadillo Coatings here in town,a black hood with a huge WARN sticker on it, thats below the paint so its kinda embedded, if you will.

Heres his Trooper with part of the yota cab in the lower left, rebuilding it from the ground up.. Shortened everything as much as possible, it'll be a hawt truck once its done too.

And heres the shackles Ima grab for the back of my truck once I make up my mind..

 

[FROADER]

I'ts going to be hard to have your truck only 4" total lift after the SAS/SOA. The SOA in the rear will get minimum of 5".

Leafs or coils is a personal preference I think. With the Jeep axle it's probably easier to use the leafs since it's already set up like that. Like you said, it will be cheaper as well.

 

[Kinserin]

The jeep axle I have is from a Cherokee, which is coils up front, so it would be the same setup I have now, just with a solid front end. I kind of thought that I cant stay low with a SAS and SOA.. Guess I'll have to think of something else, or just suck it up and take the extra inch or so.. I just love how low it is, cops dont bother me even though technically what I have isnt 'legal', because I lack mud flaps, but since theres not a huge difference in wheel well space with the lift and 33s, its hard to tell at first glance so they stay away.

The SAS may be held off until further down the road, and I may just buy a 4-6" Skyjacker Stage 2 kit for the mean while, the 6" stage 2 seems to work well with my brother in laws Ex, I just hate how high his is, 6" suspension 3" body, and 33s.. eww.. He needs to get some 35s for it someday..

 

[FROADER]

you can fit 35s on the 6" lift

 

[Kinserin]

Another thing I just got curious about... The original shock mount locations for the rear diff, the little metal plate that holds the leafs on and such, so the lower mount.. Could you possibly remove that bracket, replace it with a piece of flat bar with holes for the U-Bolts, and then relocate the shock mount to the diff? My main reason for even wanting to do anything else to my truck, aside from getting rid of the ghetto-ness, is because on my very first wheeling trip (actually just 3 days after I got my license too lol, yay for me!) I got stuck on a a tiny ass tree stump.. The lower mount, is somewhat cupped, and it just fit perfectly over the stump. We had to use a jack-all and 4 guys to lift my truck and push it forward just so everyone else could continue on, and then I just overheated.. Which I still havent figured out why, which is a real piss off too..

But yeah, wouldnt moving the mount to being on the diff give me more travel as well? Or does it not work that way?

 

[FROADER]

This is how mine is. You can also mount the shock to the old sway bar location.

Do a search for SOA and you'll find a lot of threads covering any questions you might need.

 

[Kinserin]

Yeah, but what Im meaning for the shock mount, is keeping the spring in the stock location, ie sprung under the axle, rather than doing an SOA and raising it up. Im probably thinking about it to hard, Im tired, and figured I'd ask anyways.. I'll probably draw up some stuff this weekend and talk to my welder to see what he has to say about it, hes a Ford guy. Hes got a *****en old bronco that sits on 44s with soon-to-be coil overs front and rear, he makes a lot of different stuff.