Stiffening up suspension with little/no drop

[randeez]

free travel mod was not fun at all , started with grinder being neat after about an hour that got old quick. sawzall eats it up quick and went back with grinder to smooth out the cuts, careful around the fuel tank.

thats the stock size for 20s

the spherical bearings are for the front coil over mounts to the brackets, could probably get away with using a poly mount on one end but then youre introducing "mush" into the suspension, probably wouldnt even be noticeable with old bushing on the a-arms anyway they also help with a slight bit of misalignment

theyre qa-1 ds401 use a 9 or 10" spring 2.5"id, what do you have up front now for suspension? youre about 2" lower than i am now

 

[992dr]

Hahaha, I gotcha. I used a cut off wheel to cut the outside and reached through with the sawzall to cut the inside. Yeah, hit the tank too. Thankfully it only scratched it.

Oh ok, cool. PPVs came with 28" tall tires. I went up a size.

I'll check them out.
Bell Tech 2" Spindles
Pedders 2.30" drop coils
MOOG uppers with alignment bushings
Bell Tech adjustable struts set too low.

I don't mind it being so low but, the roads around here have been surprising me lately and has been reeking havoc on my lower valance. Some speed bumps have been hitting too. I'm going to bring it back up to roughly a 4" drop and be done with it. Then I'll start working/figuring out the coil over and rear link situation as well. It's tough when its my daily, wish I had another vehicle to daily and park the Hoe to work on. I'm hoping to be able to do that by next summer.

 

[randeez]

They would prob put you too low then. Where I had them set i was tucking (my) tire so a little less than 16 fender to center.

 

[992dr]

What if I put the stock spindles back on?

 

[randeez]

That could work
Would need heavier spring, or an inch or so of preload on the 900lbs.
To give you an idea The ones I have now compress the 900lb spring about 2.5"-3"so ~2200lbs each (the shocks I have are longer)
the ds401s have about 4" of travel on them, to keep them in the middle of travel you need to support that weight in 2".

 

[992dr]

Gotcha. Hmm, may need to look into another set. I'll certainly keep you in mind when the time comes. Well, if you don't sell them before hand.

 

[randeez]

They other shocks are ds403 (11" compressed 15" extended, not 401 the specs on the 401s didn't seem correct . Had to 2x check

 

[67RS427]

They other shocks are ds403 (11" compressed 15" extended, not 401 the specs on the 401s didn't seem correct . Had to 2x check

So what's the verdict here on coil springs & shock for the drop spindles? I'm currently on the Belltech drop strut and Silverado 2" - 3" drop spindles. The drop spindle helps with ball joint angle and caster adjustment... I want to drop my struts some more but would have to take it all apart just to remove a spacer and reinstall and repeat till I get it right. Adjustable coil overs are to best option obviously... Tony (NorcalSS) doesn't have his kit ready so I was actually looking at doing the same thing as you. I'm still on OEM springs that are 10yrs and 160k miles old.

QA1 DD502 (DD502 is Poly instead of DD501 with solid bearing) and a 12"/2.5" 800LB Spring? (Hyperco 1812B0800 or Eibach 1200.250.0800S) ?? Thoughts based on what you've tested so far? I'm on a 285/45/22 Nitto 420S - Nitto says 32.09" but probably closer to 31" at my pressure.

 

[randeez]

yea i think the 501/2 is prob the best for 1-2" of drop, whether its with drop spindles or not. Im on stock size 420s 275 55 20 (nitto says 31.9). i do rub slightly on the driverside front wheel liner every once and awhile. 800lb if you want to get a little lower than where im at, could probably even get away with 750 and run the jam nut up if needed. you can set up the coil overs with as little preload as possible thats pretty much your max drop, if you want to raise it up some then tighten up the jam nut on the spring.
atomic on pt.net sells the mounts, he can also set you up with complete package also using viking shocks(also very nice) and probably come out cheaper
i dont know if you can get away with using only the poly ends with these coil over mounts, it just uses a thru bolt on top and bottom and i dont think they are perfectly aligned - I planned on using it on one side (bottom) and keep the spherical on the top where it may not be subject to so much dirt/dust and may keep quiet. they make a they full metal spherical bearings you will have to order separately, the "plastic/poly" bearings supplied with the shock wont hold up anyway

also to note, since change out the spherical bearings a few weeks ago they've been quiet. i moved the first set over from the original shocks i used (still very little drive time) but maybe just had a bad pair