New Lift - Stiff Ride Q's

[Hudson Bend]

I know this thread is now thee weeks old but I've been out of town. I too did the s10 bastard pack using practically new units, painted and with all pads intact and functioning. Put Sensatracs all around too as well as locating new OME front coils for $50. I found that my jeep rides pretty good as long as I have some weight in the back like my tools or such. Almost car-like. Without the weight, it just rides like a truck, which is what I have built in effect. My only downside is that I need to install drop brackets to remove that last element of harshness...that front clunk when hitting speed bumps and driveway entrances. I also fabbed up some shock extenders to use with my Monroes since they were stock sized. The extenders added two inches to them and work fine with the almost 4 inch lift I got(I did not use the overload leaf). I made extra extenders if that would be helpful to you. They would need some finish work and paint however but you can have them. (pm me for email address if interested) Good luck and good fun.

 

[mgonos]

update - I just got a pair of bilstein 5100 up front - found them used, $80 for the pair - the front is now great - better than new. The rear still is way to stiff and tends to "bounce" a lot. One road I drove down had the expansion joints just the right distance apart to where it felt like the rear of the jeep was litterally bouncing of the ground. My plan is to 1) rebuild my springpack again using a longer main spring (dodge van) to help correct shackle angle and maybe use more springs with less arch? Also use graphite paint on it all to reduce friction. Anyone who knows a lot about building springpacks speak up - because I'm pretty new to it... everything I know I learned here. Also going to replace the rear shocks with some quality units - looking for a deal on some bilstein, ome, or similar. Autozone shocks suck. I might try the monroe shocks if I can't find a good deal on the more expensive ones - I've heard good things and it's more within my price range-

As far as the drop brackets I got the rocky road and they're great, prices was just at $200 to my door - and they are well built. They are well worth the money... or course you'll need t get an alignment again, which turned out to be a huge ordeal for me. When I got the jeep back from the shop it wouldn't turn left, and they tried to give it back to me like that... that tech no longer has a job.

Once I get it all tuned in I will probably do a writeup of my buildup - also currently looking to do the 4 rear tj flares to get more room to stuff my tires, looking at various side armor options (trying to find most bang for the buck), and putting together a co2 setup. Hopefully Santa is good to me this year-

 

[Darky]

The t-bird springs are quite a bit softer than the F-150 springs... but I'll be keeping my eyes open for some new re 4.5 coils. How does the spacer preload the coil? Seems to me that the load on the coil is the weight of the vehicle... the coil dosn't know there's a spacer on it.

Are the s-10 bastard packs typically alot stiffer than stock springpacks (or aftermarket lift springpacks for that matter). I read pretty much about them and don't remember a whole lot of people saying they were objectionably stiffer.... but chime in if you've got experience to the contrary. I used the main leaf from the xj and the entire pack from the s-10 blazer (4 leafs).

I'm considering forking out cash for some ome or bilstein shocks, since I think that would help my ride alot... but damn those things are expensive-

It seems the S10 springs would be stiffer than ours anyways due to the fact that a pickup is designed to carry a much heavier load out back as compared to an XJs payload capacity.

Shocks make a big difference. When I was running extended stock shocks in mine with the 4.5 RE coils up front, it was fairly soft. When I put the RE shocks in with the lift, it stiffened up considerably.

 

[tomcat]

loosen up your shackle bolts, if they are way too tight, your rear won't flex at all, and will ride horribly. also, is your shackle hitting your rear bumper bolt? i had to cut mine to allow my aftermarket shackles get their full range of movement.

 

[mgonos]

Thanks, I'll double check the bolts... I'll be quite happy if it were that easy! I'll also double check the range of motion for the shackles, seems like something I would have caught when I put them on but I've missed more obvios things before... it was getting late in the day when I did the rear suspension.

 

[bcmaxx]

Drive down the road with 20 psi, it improves the ride a lot! (until you hit a corner) I did that on accident the other day for a good 30min drive.

(seriously, don't do it. Your on the right track, but bastard packs are known to be rough FTW)

~Scott

I run 20-23 on the street, 27 for long trips, makes a huge difference! 33x12.5x15