mtnwkr

Did a Zuk mod on the back of my 91 ex cab last night with great results. Used the 14x100lb springs. Back end now sits at 15" rim to fender, front at 13.5. I have BJ spacers to put on that should raise the front 2-2.5 inches, but then the front will be a little high.
Option A is to put my shackles back on the rear that I took off when doing the Zuks. This should get me another inch or so in the rear leaving me with about a 1/2" rake to the front.
Option B is to relax the T-bars after I put on the BJ spacers. I know just about nothing about Tbars and want to know how this will affect ride quality.
I'm leaning towards option B as it's mostly a DD with some forest service road/snow/mud on the weekends and don't need anymore lift. This all started as a way to fix the saggy rear end and improve ride quality, which it has.

What do you all suggest in this situation? Thanks.

Before... With shackles and flat rear springs, and a horrible ride.



After, without shackles, and leafs not sitting flat on the overloads... Driveway slopes up, making it look level but it does have a bit of a rake which I'm not a fan of.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Put the spacers on first and go from there.

:wabbit2:

xxxtreme22r

nothing wrong with adding bj spacers and relaxing the t-bars. That's what they were originally meant for, not to lift the truck. I think alot of people forget that.

vermontoyota

Nice Rig! Nice dog too - birddog?

+2 on what those guys said. That's my plan as soon as I get my wabfab bj spacers which should be any day now.

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

If you upgrade your tbars... it will ride soooo much better..

92 TOY

oh, hey bro.....

what do you mean by "upgrade the t-bars"?

and I would go with OPTION B

NicCantDecide

Get thicker torsion bars. I upgraded to Old Man Emu torsion bars (part# 303003), they're 24mm thick which is quite a bit thicker than stock. It rides a lot better than stock, but I also have a Blazeland Long Travel kit installed so I kind of needed it (stock torsions wouldn't have been able to hold it up).

What is pretty common for the stock torsion bars after so many miles/years is that they get soft and bouncy. People will crank them up to get their stock ride height back but that only lasts a little while and usually the ride gets worse. Upgrading the t-bars and relaxing them (since they'll have more spring than stock) will usually give a better ride but it may be bouncier if you don't have additional weight on the truck since they are a higher spring rate.

Numbchux

just remember, with the coil springs added there, the leaf springs aren't supporting the weight of the truck as much. Which means that the longer shackles will not lift it as much as they did before.

Also, as they begin to transfer more load to the leafs from the coils, it will stiffen the suspension.



My vote is BJ spacers, and relax the torsion bars until the ride height is where you want it.

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

I see that you have an 'insight' that most don't with the relationship between the coils and leafs. You are the grass-hopper

Numbchux

thank you, master.


I'm fascinated by suspension geometry. I mostly know independent setups (rally cars, mostly), but I'm getting the hang of solid axles, too.