Southern Style Speed Slimline Hybrid Bumper and Engo e9000s suspension help!
 

As this forum has been a wealth of information, I wanted to share my latest upgrade to the Ghost-Runner. I recently purchased a SSS Slimline Hybrid Bumper and an Engo 9000 synthetic rope winch during a Black Friday sale weekend through two separate vendors. Both arrived around the same time and the work began.

I purchased the bumper in a raw steel finish to save money and painted it myself. Two coats of POR 15, since I run my rig on the salty coast of Corpus Christi, and 3 light coats of Rustoleom semi gloss black perfected the look. Product fitment, hardware and directions where superb. I was able to install it myself using a jack and some patience.

Engo winch with synthetic rope was a great deal that I couldn't pass up so I pulled the trigger. During installation I had some issues remounting the solenoid box, however thanks to @Jeff614 I was able to come up with a solution as pictured below by purchasing some sheet metal and a few bolts from Lowes.

Bottom line, an Engo 9000 winch fits in a SSS slimline Hybrid bumper with a soinoid mounted on a grill support with a piece of sheet metal bent around the box attached to a grill support. Now my problem....

I believe the weight of the winch and solenoid added approximately 140 pounds to the front suspension and I definitely see and feel the sagging. Those of using a similar setup, what suspension upgrades did you use to combat the problem and why? Thanks in advance.

I was already running Bilstein 5100's set at 1.75" on the front. After the addition of the winch and bumper I noticed about a 3/4" drop in the front. I reset the 5100's to 0" and bought a pair of OME 885 front springs, and added a pair of Toytec Superflex rear springs. These gave me an even 2" lift on all 4 corners and restored the front ride close to factory.

Hey again Brian,

3wbdriver also gave a great option on going with replacement coils.

For me Toytec was great to deal with, listened to my situation and gave suggestions. In the end I knew down the road I'd want coilovers so I bit the bullet (aka credit card) and went that route and did the back when I put on the wheels/tires.

I do recall reading that some owners of the icons, while great stuff, experienced some squeaking after the installs.

There's 2 similarly titled threads regarding the bumper with each having posts regarding different solutions to addressing the added front end weight.

Best of luck on your decision!

Happy New Year,
- Jeff

I have adjustable coilovers. I just turned the collar until it sat where I wanted it. That's one reason I prefer adjustable coilovers if it's in the budget to do so. You can just adjust height with the spanner wrench without much effort.

Otherwise you could probably add a 1/4" spacer on top of the OEM coilovers and get your height back.

Both great ideas. I went out to measure how high I needed to lift it and noticed that the front drivers side measured 34 3/8 and the front passengers side measured 34 7/8. Has anyone encountered this before? I was leaning towards OME Springs, but based off the measurements I will probably go the coilover route for finite adjustability to even out both sides of the front end. Im now debating between Icon and Radflo, but just want to make sure that 650 pound rated spring will accomplish what I'm looking for.

And the passenger side

As requested, here is a picture of the bracket without the solenoid.

It's not unusual for one side (usually driver) to be slightly lower than the other with these. And that 34 1/2" to the fender lip is actually about the factory height on most of the 4Runners I have measured. Here is a link to the various OME springs at Toytec. I chose the 885 because it wouldn't be too much of a weight increase against the ~150lbs on my combo. I didn't want any more increased spring stiffness than necessary. My question still is, is that 110 per spring or 110 overall on the 885's?

Front OME Lift Coils

Here's how mine now sits empty.

I went crazy with a ruler when I first got my coilovers put on. It was most likely uneven before that though. Even after some tweaking after a few thousand miles to get them broken in it's still not 100% even on both sides and the tech that did the work is one of the best when it comes to these trucks.

Mine was off about 1.5"-2" from side to side at first but between settling and High-Tech working some magic they got it pretty even. In retrospect I was really the only one who noticed lol. Not a jab at you at all, after putting so much time and money into a project you want things to turn out perfect so I feel where your coming from.

Sounds like your leaning towards the coilovers :thumb: . If so I think you'll be happy. Mine really improved the ride. It still does nose dive a little, nature of the vehicle I guess, but much less and is the perfect balance of mushy/firm ride. Plus it puts you in a good position for future mods

Curious to see how it turns out and what you end up choosing. I was in the exact same conundrum myself about this time last year.

- Jeff

That's a great stance 3wbdriver, looks very sharp. After days of scouring the Internet, deciding on a budget and what I plan to eventually accomplish with my rig I've decided on an Icon Stage 2 suspension system. Unfortunately I'm a few days late to save 20% from their sale, so I'm going to sit on the sideline and wait until the coilovers go on sale again (Presidents Day???). Hopefully in the meantime nothing crazy happens to the stock suspension. Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate the help.