Any know anything about the Downey "Long Travel" suspension system for the front of Gen II 4 Runners ?
Mainly does it provide any lift due to the 2" longer control arms, or is it just the "standard" height, but allowing more articulation, possibly more down travel ?



Thanks,
Fred

 

Yeah, I'm saving some dough for the same on my 93 4x4 pickup. They said it will give me 3 inches of lift and 13 inches of travel. Those numbers sound good to me. Though the kit is a bit pricey.

 

how much is that kit going for?

 

Click Me!

That is a link to the downey website. One thing is for sure, it ain't cheap...

 

Atleast they took a hint and put better axles in the system, I hate my old downy slip yokes. I wonder if there are still major pains with alignment and hight like with the old rancho arms. The price for the arms, shock tabs, and ball joints isn't so bad but the axle cost put it over the top.

 

The arms alone are like 1300.. I figure it's going to be @ 3k for the front and back. @ 2k for the front.

 

sheesh...
I like jd fab stuff personally.

 

A lot of money for an IFS setup. Old Man Emu works weel for your application. Check out our complete Gen2 steup in the vendor advertising section.

 

I bet you could do a SAS for cheaper if you had any fabrication skills....but that kit looks awsome if you are set on keeping the IFS.

 

Sounds to me like you could get a Total Chaos suspension for about the same price... and the TC (or JD Fab) kits are 3" wider each side, not just 1.5"

 

The option 1 that yields 3" ~ 4" of suspension lift, I assume that's gaining the additional lift in the front (over the 1 1/2" or so that the BJ spacers provide) to bring it up to 3" ~ 4" is by cranking up the torsion bars ?




Thanks,
Fred

 

Because ???

Do you have a website link ?




Fred

 

Having been poking around some, on the web, on some of the other sites, etc., it appears that the TC arms, since they are so long, produce a LOT of stress on the torsion bars and mounts.
The TC kit(s) appear to be more for pre-running rather than rock crawling, which is what I do out here.

Some of the "hard core" boards speaking highly of the 930 Porsche CV joints.



Fred

 

Actually Deathrunner has the jd fab LT IFS. I prefer it over the TC or Downey for that matter for a couple of reasons... 1. The lower control arm is constructed with plate instead of tube (seems sturdier) 2. I think their kit can use your torsion bars until you get enough cash saved up for coil-overs I'm pretty sure their kit can use the torsions... Someone correct me...

JD Fab

 

Hmmm, I think it's the other way arond (the TC Caddy kit can use torsions, JD Fab's T1 can't), I don't see anything on JD Fab's site about using Torsions... EDIT: upon closer inspection, it looks like the JD Fab kit might have a place to bolt the stock torsion bar mount... not sure.

Nevertheless, I was referring to the Total Chaos Gen II Caddy kit, which is coil over. One hell of a kit... (DROOL)

 

Dude, if you do all rock crawling, you should just do a SAS... A long travel IFS is for Baja-style prerunning, going fast, and jumping. Not rocks.

 

The JD Fab kit you can run either torsions or coilovers. Deathrunner ran torsions on his kit first then switched to coilovers.

I run the Gen II caddy kit. You have to use coilovers on this kit. You can get the Gen I kit if you want to run torsion bars.

I was looking at getting the JD Fab kit, its $$$, but I found a real good deal on my Gen II caddy kit.

 

I would personally get a chaos or JD kit for the money you'll be putting into the Downey setup.

In my eyes they have always proven themselves to be behind the curve with suspension kits and allowing something as troublesome as the slip yoke driveshaft is proof.

I think the Downey upper arm looks kinda weak. Granted 13" of travel is nice, but imagine what those Porsche cv axles would allow for on a JD or Chaos kit. I bet we could pull 15" with those joints.

 

I want to see my truck 4 ft. in the air..... No maybe not. looks expensive. To build and to fix when it breaks....

 

Fred, you are correct. I personally don't recommend doing this setup if you are actually going to wheel it but we do have some customers that want the lift and don't care about the CV angles because they use it for show and not for real wheeling.