I got my cruiser coils installed a week ago, cranked the tbars and installed some rancho 5009s and some 33x10.5 BFG MTs. So far I've got about 300 miles on them, including some crawling and snow wheeling.

Note the tires are aired down to 6psi in this pic.


Cranked Torsion Bars
Thanks to living in California, cranking the tbars was really easy. A little spritz of oil the night before and the bolts turned with only a slight groaning of resistance. I went from stock 14 inches to 15 inches from the top of the wheel to the fender lip. It took about 10 turns on the passenger side and 13 turns on the driver side.

I don’t know what everybody is talking about when they say the ride sucks after cranking the tbars. It seems fine to me, I haven’t notice any change in the ride (from the tbar crank). It makes me wonder if it’s just a placebo effect…people think they’re twisting the tbars more so their mind says the ride must be stiffer.

FZJ80 Cruiser Coils
I picked up some coils off of a 97 LX450. One of the coils was a good inch longer than the other and both were much longer than the Downey 1.5 HDs they were replacing. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in the amount of lift I got. I was expecting to be a couple inches higher than the front, even after cranking the tbars, but after everything was all said and done, I'm dead even with the front. However, there is a reason for this. When I was installing the coils I had removed my rear swing out tool box and hi-lift and also the spare tire. I figure that's probably a good 150-200 lbs of weight back there. With those removed, I had the expected amount of lift, probably 1-1.5 inches higher than the front after cranking the tbars. The cruiser coils are really soft. When my friend sat on the tailgate, the back end went down about 0.75". So, with my tool box, hilift and spare tire mounted, the rear ends up even with the front.

The install went smoothly enough. I didn't have any problems with the panhard bar or any of the links, like Bill did. Everything slipped right out. I didn't rent a spring compressor so my friend and I disconnected the sway bar, shocks, LSPV, the panhard and the drivers side upper link. Also, the little skid plates covering the bottom links at the frame were interfering with down travel so those were removed and clearanced.

With everything removed, the downey springs fell out and the cruiser coils fell in. One of the springs is 1” taller than the other and I put the taller one on the gas tank side. My reasoning was that if any side should be higher, it should be the gas tank side because it hangs down so low. It turns out, it’s even from side to side but I have no idea why.

How do they work on the trail? Very well indeed. They are very flexy, I can definitely feel the difference in capability. I’m not tippy anymore and I feel like I’m in more control.

Rancho 5009
These were almost as big of a pain in the butt to install as the coils themselves. Of course, I didn’t have the ideal tools either. The steel sleeve in the bottom of the shock needed to come out and all I had were hand tools, no pulley puller or vise. After much trial and tribulation I ended up threading a hacksaw blade into the sleeve and cutting it out. Then, I had to figure out a way to make the ¼” hole in the rubber into a ¾” hole. I finally had to borrow my friends big drill bits to do it.

The ride is definitely stiffer than the RS9000s I had set to the middle setting, but that is to be expected from a shock that was designed for a full size truck. I cranked up the front shocks to the 4/5 setting to match the rear; otherwise the front would bounce out of phase with the back.

Downey Panhard Drop Bracket
Not too much to write about, other than it sure looks shiny and purdy down there. The install was easy, although I had to widen a couple holes slightly with my new files from Costco. Like I said before, my panhard hardware wasn’t rusted so everything went smooth.

BFG MT, 33x10.5 and 33x9.5 AT (spare)
I didn’t want to mess with installing a body lift or the added expense so I just got the 10.5 inch wide tires. They do look a little out of proportion, that is, they look skinny, but they’re not too bad. I got to test them out on the club’s adopt-a-trail and then on a snow run on spicer rd near Slickrock trail in Norcal. There was about 3-6 feet of snow on the road and with my tcase cross member I was plowing the trail for everybody behind me. With the tires aired down to 6psi and mounted on my stock 7” wide wheels they did a fine job, never lost a bead, despite being thrown around by the ruts I was following. They are very smooth on the road and very quiet, although I hear that the noise goes up with age.

For better clearance under the bumper, I got a 33x9.5 spare tire. To fit it underneath, I had to let all the air out and bend the cradle slightly…but it does fit.

Tires aired down to 6psi.


Final Comments
The Cruiser coils are very soft and flexy. If you’re going to tow, I’d recommend something stiffer, like the downey HD coils. I towed a large Uhaul trailer recently with the downey coils and they hardly sagged at all. I’m pretty sure the cruiser coils would have sagged to the bumpstops. This does make me wonder if the lexus version is different from the Toyota version. I guess it’s time to search around at ih8mud.

The amount of space between the bumpstop and the axle is about the same amount as the remaining compression travel of the shocks. That means when I bottom out, I’ll hit the shocks at the same time as the bump stops. I assume this hasn’t been a problem for anybody since I haven’t heard anything about it and I’m pretty sure I bottomed out on the snow run numerous times.

If I can find some free spacers somewhere, I’d like to add about an inch to the rear. For now, I’ll live with it.

In preparation for these mods, I installed a marlin rear SS brake line.


Here's some flex pics:

 

Very good looking mods!

What gears do you have? You use to put 4.88 with 33's but diesels have lower ratios than gas, so if I'd do your same mods I'll have to put 4.56 instead of 4.88 to mantain my stock ratio.

David

 

Nice lookin 2nd Gen. Can't wait to see what you do next.

 

I guess white wagon wheels are in vogue now? Crazy Bay Area people...

Nice writeup Steve. Which trips were those pics from?

 

Robinhood--looks good. I am running the same size tire, and they are great. I thought you had BJ spacers up front?

Do your tires rub on the front valence? I ditched mine a while back.

 

looking good. Those RS5009 are pretty stiff. When I had to upgrade my shocks, I went in and trade my old RS9K for longer ones. I knew some sales guys ay 4WP... How's the droop on the gas tank side? I'd bend the tank lips some to get more droop out of it. I even cut into it so it would bend easier.

 

Blizzard -- Last year I installed 5.29s and arb lockers front and rear. 5.29s (auto tranny and 3.0) put me back to stock with 33s.

Tom -- Those are called snow beadlocks!
You may have found the thread already, but here's the link to the trip report: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f100/norcal-trail-clean-up-snow-run-58920/

Marc -- No BJ spacers for me, yet...I'm too cheap to buy them and 2 more shocks. Plus, if I had, I'd be higher in the front than the rear. No rubbing on the front valence, I don't think. I did cut off some sheetmetal from the rear part of the front fender though.

Anthony -- Yes, the links certainly do hit the gas tank, but the droop doesn't seem too bad. I was hesitant to cut into the gas tank because I didn't know how far in I could go. Bending sounds like a good solution.

 

Nice mod Robinhood.

There must be alot of different "Cruiser Coils" out there because the ones I installed gave me almost 2" more height in the back than the front and I do have B.J. spacers and stock t-bar adjustment. I bought the coils from Cebby so I have no idea what model/year cruiser they came off of. There was NO WAY the Cruiser Coils I installed were going to just "fall in" and I had to really crank them down with the spring compressor to get them in there. The only thing that would have made the coil install easier was to remove the upper links to get more droop out of the axle. The passenger side link bent part of the gas tank as it is.

My 4Runner started out its life in Cali but nine years of W. PA winters has taken its toll. Just found out I'm going to have to replace all the lower control arm bushings and adjustment cam bolts because the bolts are rusted in the sleeve and w/33s Toyota can't get the caster aligned correctly

Bill

 

Oh that's what I did, I disconnected the upper control arm on the gas tank side. I did a little searching around on the ih8mud and they said there's no difference between the lexus and toyota coils. I've got a lot of weight in the back with my hilift and toolbox so I think that's why I didn't get much lift. The only person I know of who has that much weight back there is Adrian.

Here's a comparison of the cruiser coils and the downey HDs:


I too found out I'll need to replace some things. With the front in the air I noticed I could move the passenger side tire side to side a couple inches. Time for a idler arm rebuild. Plus, the guys at les schwab said I need to repack the wheel bearings.

 

Steve - looks great. From what I've read, the LX springs aren't as stiff as the cruiser coils - maybe thats why you're seeing less load capacity.

 

Well, from this thread linked in the FAQ, at least a couple people said the LX shocks are softer, but the springs are the same.

Where'd you find your info, mud? Got any links?

 

I think it was on mud or maybe Slee's site (?) Let me see if I can find it.

 

Slee's guide says "softer suspension" for the LX450. I take that to mean springs and shocks.

http://www.sleeoffroad.com/newbie/newbie100.htm

 

Yeah, I saw that before. I think I'll post on mud.

 

I found some daystar 1.25" lift spacers for sale cheap so I got them and tried to install them on top of the FJ coils. Unfortunately, the FJ coils are a bit wider than the spacers so that didn't work. So just as an experiment I put the spacers on top of my old downey 1.5 HD coils to see how much lift I'd get. I gained about 1/4 inch over the cruiser coils.

Also, I tested the spring rate of the downey coils and they seem to be about the same as the cruiser coils. Basically, I stood on the bumper and it went down about an inch, the same as the cruisers. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some measurements and calculate the theoretical spring rates of each.

So in the end, I'd still like more lift so I'll probably end up shaving the daystar spacers to fit the cruiser coils or figure something else out.

 

Steve - did you ever find out with any certainty that the LX coils are the same or different than the LC coils?

 

This guy on mud seems to have found some info on the different types of springs available for the Cruisers and the LX's.

The thread made me a little dizzy, so I quit trying to make sense of it. I'm feeling like crap today, so I'm not into thinking or really even reading. Just thought it might give you more info.

Stock Springs

Doug

 

Hey Steve,

Man-a-fre has 10mm and 25mm trim packers for the LC and LX coils. I just bought a set for my 80 series. Should give me another inch of lift.

Slee also has some, but I think only in 10mm.

Doug

 

Cebby, no I haven't gotten enough spring measurements to be statistically reliable...All the info I have is in the mud thread and the other thread here where I asked for measurements. If the part numbers can be used as a reliable indicator of spring differences, then there is a difference, but honestly nobody knows what exactly the difference is.

O2runner, thanks for the thread, I posted a link over there to another thread I had going about the springs. Hopefully it'll help him and me out too. Also, thanks for the link to the spacers, I just might get them.

I have a question about them though, are they grooved on one side to cradle the coil or are they just blocks of plastic with flat surfaces?

 

I can't tell you about the spacers, as to whether they're lipped or not. They should be arriving by UPS on Tuesday the 14th.

I'll take some pics of before / after and link it up here if you like.