breakerfalls

I don't understand coil spacers. You have to remove the coils to put the spacers in right? Why do all that work and not just put in new heavy duty coils? I guess I can understand that the spacers are cheaper, but personally I would think if you are going to do all the work of taking em out and putting them back in you might as well put in a whole new set of coils.

I don't understand, is there more to it than that?

-Keith

Scofco

Heavy duty coils plus coil spacers = cheap lift.
As far as I know that is their only purpose is just to be a cheap, easy, effective way to get some more height.

breakerfalls

I hadn't considered using them together. I am so retarded sometimes...

Thanks,

-Keith

Robinhood150

Yeah, cheaper than new coils.

XtremeOff-Road

Spacers pre-load the springs...I sort of see spacers as a temp lift...Your springs are going to effectually sag...If you are looking to lift, then just get the springs. Now, if you are just looking to put some larger rubber under your rig and it will be used for just street driving, spacers will be just fine.

Mike

Robinhood150

Hey Mike, read this: http://robinhood4x4.com/suspension1.htm

Spacers do not add preload.

XtremeOff-Road

I would read it, however, I do not see a link to my site, so I will not.

You all know I am kidding, however, that page 2 makes a lot of sense...very nice my friend. Was that proven my any measurment of was it just assumed. Either way, it looks great!!

Mike

Robinhood150

Haha

The parts associated with figure 1 (preload) has to be true, there is no way around it. Some of the parts associated with figure 2 (ride stiffness) are, admittedly, assumed. However, I have not heard of a better explaination and would welcome any.

EWAYota

so coil spacers are not recommended for offroad use and just for added lift only?

MellamoPOUND

Now this is starting to get confusing. Steve has coil spacers on his runner (frankenstien) and it does great off-road.

Beachrunner

It seems that spacers allow you to gain lift by decreasing your strut travel. The only "preload" that I see is when the unit if off the vehicle. Once the weight is there, the preload is gone.

I know this has been talked about a bzillion times...

Hyperlite

In a 3rd gen the front coils are in a spring pack. adding a spacer to that definently preloads the the springs. The rear however are similar to the 2nd gens, which doesn't preload, cause they are added for hight
As for offroad duribility, these things are bullet proof given they are made with quality materials. Most hardcore trucks in 4wd magizines have coil conversions with spacers to fit 40"+ tires.

I have an old Man Emu lift in the front with 1.5" cornfed spacers. I got the spacers to compensate for the weight of my winch and bumper. I also got a winch rope and aluminum fairlead to do away with the heavy steel cable and fairlead. The ride is very smooth and the suspension is not stiff at all (I have no sway bar)

Hyperlite

Spacers have no effect on down travel of 3rd gen front. In the rear they will increase down travel. Spacers effect up travel, but to sometimes to fit bigger tires you need to limit the up travel.

That write up seems to not like spacers, I would hate to see his write up on Body Lifts

Beachrunner

Maybe I don't understand preload completely, but it seems that if you were to stand on a spring and measure the compression vs. placing a book between you and the spring, the spring would still have the same amount of compression.

The coils seem compressed, or preloaded, when off the truck because of the limit of travel in the shocks. When the weight of the truck is there, spacer or not, the coil is still compressed the same.

Am I misunderstanding this whole "preload" thing???

Robinhood150

Hyperlite, see figure 1 of my writeup, spacers do not change preload no matter what the design is. It doesn't matter whether it's the front or rear coils. The only way to add preload is to add weight.

I think spacers are a very viable option for lifting and I think there is nothing wrong with them. It's just most people do not understand the physics of how a suspension works and there are a lot of myths running around.

Beachrunner, you have it perfectly.

shawn

Spacers which go inside the coil-over (between upper spring seat and coil) do preload the coil because now the spring is compressed in a smaller area.
Spacers that mount on top of the of the whole coil-over like the "ALL-PRO" spacer doesn't preload the coil. It just lengthens the entire coil-over and forces the A-arms down which now limits down travel.
Please drive thru.

shawn

Don't forget we are talking about the front of 3rd gen 4runners.
This doesnt apply to rear spacers.

Robinhood150

Again, see figure 1. It applies to ANY coil suspension regardless of whether the spacer is in the pack or on top of the shock.

Beachrunner

But like I said, it's only seems preloaded prior to adding the weight of the vehicle. It's compressed more because the stut won't extend any further. I wouldn't consider that "preload".

Hyperlite

Inside the 3rd gen the coil pack is compressed. The reason is because I had to preload the spring berfore I could fit the spacer in. Shawn has the correct idea, think of a coil over. If you were to fit a spacer at the top of the spring inside the coilover and then reassemble it, the coil would be preloaded before it is even put back in the truck.

The Bilstine in the pic has a spacer in it. Notice how it is a complete coilover when assembled. In order to get the spacer in there, the spring needs to be compressed and the spacer slid under the top of the coil over. It is preloaded once it is reassembled