More Travel with leaf sprung

Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Location: Port Hedland WA

Im after a bit more travel on my 75 series. It has some fairly heavy springs on the back, but I'm not gonna be hauling any big loads so thats not needed. What are some good setups and is there anybody that does it in or around Cairns??

Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Location: Latrobe Valley Victoria

OME Dakar springs are good.

Joined: 06 May 2008 Location: Newcastle

pull some leaves out and whack in some drop shackles!

Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Location: Brisbane, Aspley

oldmate wrote:

pull some leaves out and whack in some drop shackles!

yeh ok. you sound like you no what your on about Rolling Eyes

ppl think drop and ext shackles fix everything. you cant just ''pull leaves'' and ''wack in droppies''. have you thought about everything else you have to do b4 you can even condemplate fitting them with the desired outcome. dead set. Confused

Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Location: launceston, Tasmania

I've recently put drop shackles on my suzuki ( i know its not a cruiser!!) I removed some leafs (the overload ones etc), and opened up the spring clamp's. I put the climax shackles in, and i have got a lot more flex, and alot softer ride. Some people hate them, they say they can open up while on scary angles etc.. i've NEVER had any bad/scary moments with them!! Liam Smile

Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Location: Western Brisbane

Bitumen Beast wrote:

Im after a bit more travel on my 75 series. It has some fairly heavy springs on the back, but I'm not gonna be hauling any big loads so thats not needed. What are some good setups and is there anybody that does it in or around Cairns??

Can you tell what is restricting the travel in the existing setup?
Shock absorbers too short?
Shackles at unusable angle?
Springs too stiff?

Find the problem to create a solution:
longer shockies, however this may require more work to fit correctly.
Fixing shackle angle is not easy, can move leaf mounts, or run different length springs.
Don't run springs any heavier than you require, requires experimenting to get correct for every vehicle.

Do some research on 70 series cruiser leaf lengths, I think you may find that different models had different length rears, and you may be able to get slightly longer ones off a newer model and fit them to yours to attain some increased travel.

Get it up there, thats not impressive flex for a Sierra with flop shackles, Seen better from Sierras with proper suspension.

Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Location: launceston, Tasmania

[/quote] Get it up there, thats not impressive flex for a Sierra with flop shackles, Seen better from Sierras with proper suspension.[/quote]
Oh, im sorry.. i didnt realise you were the judge for this "competition"?? I thought i was only trying to help "bitumen beast" out!! But sometimes i really dont know why i bother.. we try to be nice, but somebody always has to come along and discriminate what we've done. Thanks mate, you must be a fair dinkum aussie Wink

Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Location: Warwick

Try EFS on 07 3723 9500 ask for James.
They manufactured custom leafs on my 75. May cost you but at least you know you're getting a pro job. They can talk about set up you want and then give set up to local EFS installer. Depends on how many $$ u want to spend!

Joined: 24 Dec 2002 Location: South Australia

Get it up there, don't take it personally, it's just that most people on this board know that drop shackles are like a bandaid on a bulletwound (useless).

one problem with them is that the leafs locate the axle as well as suspend the vehicle. the less controll they have (by introducing more "free"/unsprung movement), the less effective they are at both jobs.

most drop shackle manufacturers suggest you use at least a trac bar with them due to this fact.

a well sorted leaf spring setup with regular shackles will flex well enough, and drive more stable than drop shackles.

Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Location: Western Brisbane

As loopy31 said EFS will also make custom springs, Their Brisbane store made custom fronts for my fathers Hilux at ~$230 each.

get it up there wrote:

Oh, im sorry.. i didnt realise you were the judge for this "competition"?? I thought i was only trying to help "bitumen beast" out!! But sometimes i really dont know why i bother.. we try to be nice, but somebody always has to come along and discriminate what we've done. Thanks mate, you must be a fair dinkum aussie Wink

I'm not the judge, not pretending to be. I did not intend to offend you in any way at all, I'm sorry for you that you took it that way. I was just saying that for drop shackles, there is not huge travel in that photo, and that more travel than that can be achieved without the use of drop shackles.

bad_religion_au wrote:

Get it up there, don't take it personally, it's just that most people on this board know that drop shackles are like a bandaid on a bulletwound (useless).

one problem with them is that the leafs locate the axle as well as suspend the vehicle. the less controll they have (by introducing more "free"/unsprung movement), the less effective they are at both jobs.

most drop shackle manufacturers suggest you use at least a trac bar with them due to this fact.

a well sorted leaf spring setup with regular shackles will flex well enough, and drive more stable than drop shackles.

This is what I roughly meant, Thankyou bad_religion_au. Sorry for the ambiguity in my foreign language, Australian made post.

Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Location: gold coast

hey mate, use to have a 75 ute too. i fitted 2i dobinson leefs and shocks with standard length greasable shackles to mine and it flexed as good as my 2i lifted 80 sereis at the back and better than it at the front. allthough my truck had no swaybars wich made a big diferance at the front.

I feel if i had of run xtended shackles both ends and removed the 2 load bearers from the back springs, along with longer shocks it would have had very impresive travel indeed. i sold the car before i tried it.
not all leaf springs are equal. i have efs in my 78 troopy atm with extended shcackles and felt that the shorter dobinsons had more flex in them.

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Location: Northern Territory

Has anybody tried taking all the load barers out, chamfering (spelling) the ends of a few remaining leafs and running air bags ?

The poly air kits are not very expensive at all and claim to give much better on and off road performance.

Im running a 4 inch lift (3 in the springs 1 in the shackle) and this is what im thinking of doing.

Any body tried or know of any results from this ?

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Location: Northern Territory

And i absolutely agree about the drop shackles. There awesome for ramp comps but after seeing what they did to a mates rig after a day ( basically fu!@#ed his leaf pack in its twisty weird way) im not a fan.

They only rely on the weight of the wheel to drop in the first place, so how is that ment to get you any where in a real time situation ?

Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: Australia

Hey mate, long springs is what you want!! See the 75 springs into middy thread thats going quickly,

All measurements are from front eye to pin to rear eye

Stock middy rears 565 645 =1210mm
IFS hilux rears 569 725 =1310mm
76 wagon rears 615 1400 =1400mm
79 ute rears 690 815 =1505mm