Sparman

Ok, here's my question: I keep hearing that a SAS/Leaf conversion up front is the way to go for articulation, flex, and strength.

I can only imagine that you would lose a lot in driveability if you ran leaves up front.

I had a Jeep CJ7 for years before my 4R and the leaves were hell on my joints on long road trips.

But, I do know that there are a lot of kits out there now for coil conversions for the CJs and leaf-sprung Wranglers. These give the supple ride, but still offer gobs of flex + solid front axle.

SO, why not go coil/SAS for the 4Runner?

Has this been researched and found to be impractical or what?

I guess this post is geared for guys like 44Runner, but I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts.

I'm just curious.

Thanks,

Curt

Robinhood150

Coils are a lot more complicated and expensive to make it work right. Plus, SASing with leaf springs is pretty much standard so most of the research has already been done. You can pretty much follow a recipe and get it right.

But coils are definitally cool and there are some out there.

Steve

RTdawgs

leaf sprung SASs are a proven design for IFS trucks and 4Runners. there have been dozens completed, thus more info, more instruction, and more parts.

there are coil-sprung SASs completed, but they required more fabrication and tons more R&D.

thats about all i can offer on this subject, anything more would be speculation on my part.

IFS rules

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Some do go with coils up front when they SAS.
I saw a 1st gen last week that was SAS'd with coils.
I just looked for it, but could not find it

I believe I can find some 3rd gen or Taco pics, hang on.....



Found 'em.
That is Yogi's 4 door Tacoma.
Notice the coils up front.
No reason the same setup would not work on a 3rd gen 4Runner.

Here are a ton of pics.
http://www.auburn.edu/~blackc1/Tacoma/
The one above came from the SAS folder.

beachtaco

correction: that's supersized (shawn's) 4 door taco with a coil-overed sas. yogi has leafs in the front.

the only people i know who have done coiled sas is supersized in FL, casey in alaska, a guy who had a shop do one in CO, brian nelson in UT (?), another guy in AR, and another guy has one on e-bay. sorry, i don't have any pictures since my hd ate it.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Beach, I saw another red pic that said Yogi, and I thought it was the same rig.

I wish I had bookmarked that 1st gen I saw.
I know it's in my cache here, but I'm not browsing though 200 mb or more of stuff.

44Runner

Hmmmm, why leaves? Lots of different reasons...

-Cheaper
-Easier
-Faster (nobody laugh)


This being my first big project, I didn't need to get into anything too over my head. From the first piece of metal cut for the front hangers, until the axle was hanging under the truck was done in the blink of an eye relatively. Now if I hadn't had to wait 2 months for that metal on the front end of the project, and hadn't run into all these other little problems, the truck would be SO done by now. Over a month to get a crawler in, 2 months to get a drag link (Thanks to Shaker for fixing other's ˟˟˟˟˟ ups on that one), coil spacers that don't fit, waiting MONTHS for the locker to show up. What a nightmare, damn you karma...

Flygtenstein

[speculation] In the same way that leaf sprung solid axles are common on stock mini's of the early 80's, coil sprung solid axles are common on '80's until the mid 90's. A lot should cross over, but not as many have done it because of the relative ease of leaf springs.

I am not real inspired by the strength argument. IFS or stock Birf's with 35's get's squirrelly with the right driver.

To me, it is the ease of lift for truly large tires.

Articulation is a product of this lift, but I would like one person here to tell me a situation where the problem they encountered was purely do to IFS.

I have IFS, I drive the truck daily. I like it for now. I dream of a low lift, wristed radius arm swap with coilovers.[/speculation]

44Runner

I don't have birfs, i have 5-760x's

stronger than a stock birf.

not to mention i have the option of Warn alloy shafts and CTMs if I break this setup too much. What do you do if you keep blowing CVs? No one makes ready made HD CVs....

justinh

the guy that owns trailcarnage.com has a coil sprung sas on a tacoma using a custom built radius arm set up

Flygtenstein

You are an anomoly

Swapping to a Toy axle and assorted Longfields, alloy inners and outers, should get you good to 38's

If you tweak a lot of CV's, then you could run Newfields as Marmot does, or start jonsing for some new stuff. Now that the RD90 exists, I am not sure that is as big a deal.

Don't run 35's on stock IFS, and I bet you can blow u-joints, birfields and CV's if you drive 35's hard, or even soft on stock stuff.

I am not saying it is better, I just think that wheeling what you have while you can makes good sense. Lockers are more easily attainable and make a large difference, yet I rarely see threads here about people trying to get lockers. Maybe it is because those darn 3rd gens already have them

44Runner

Like no one has called me that and much worse already!

I didn't tweak any CVs, but then I babied my old setup because i knew how much a new CV from the dealer was. I crawled stuff, but keep the full throttle action to a minimum. Some would say my minimum isn't as minimum as others. I have bounce of the rev limiter while off road, but hey, sometimes you gotta go balls out and hope for the best. I guess when it comes down to it, I was just lucky...

Everything can be broken, yes. I feel better about ripping a 44 to pieces than my old IFS. Less costly and WAY easier to fix. I can completely dismantle a 44 in under 15 minutes. I couldn't get my IFS to pieces in under an hour...

I am a firm believer in "run what you brung"

joshik

i was going to go with SAS on my 91 yota pickup, but then i decided instead of dropping approx $3000 into my truck... why not spend more and get 2! keep my 91 and get a 70s TLC fj40!


straight axles dont ride that bad. my buddy has a 80 yota it rides great. my other friend has an 85 ... and again it rides nice. just get some NICE shocks... like bilsteins or what not.