Long travel rear on the cheap

[wfo9]

Sorry lol.. I meant an adjustable panhard bar of course we all have one lol

I had no need to adjust... The static ride height was center. Pretty sure there is a natural arc at high articulation.... Related... I just found out the vertical travel is typically longer on the side where the panhard is attached to the frame.

 

[wfo9]

quick question???

On all those pics are you running a rear sway bar?? thanks

Just an FYI, I put the rear sway back on today. I added some bushing to help extend the links a bit longer. Drive is so much better on the road... There is still plenty of flex. I think it only lost about 1-2". I snapped a quick pic outside my house.

I think this is a great balanced setup. LT rear, no swaybar in front, swar bar in rear with extended links. I'll still probably remove the rear swaybar for off-road weekends.....

 

[RG79]

Just an FYI, I put the rear sway back on today. I added some bushing to help extend the links a bit longer. Drive is so much better on the road... There is still plenty of flex. I think it only lost about 1-2". I snapped a quick pic outside my house.

I think this is a great balanced setup. LT rear, no swaybar in front, swar bar in rear with extended links. I'll still probably remove the rear swaybar for off-road weekends.....

Looking good! That is a lot of flex with the sway bar, impressive.

I just ordered some ext. links from [MENTION=18304]pearlj10[/MENTION] I am hoping that gives me a bit more flex as I think my limiting factor is my sway bar and not my shock. I am not sure how much more droop my shock will allow tho. Can't find specs and don't really feel like pulling them off to measure

What limits ur travel when the sway bar isnt on? your shock I assume?

 

[wfo9]

What limits ur travel when the sway bar isnt on? your shock I assume?

Nope, its actually the control arms. The shocks are sized to max out what the suspension can do.

Travel is a little nebulous on these trucks. From a pure vertical travel standpoint, the MT Icon shocks (which will extend to 28.5" - stock is like 22) will only max out on the passenger side in vertical travel. The drivers side will not fully extended because of the panhard/track bar holding it back. In fully, articulated travel both shocks will max out, but that is at the limits of all the control arms. You could actually get a little more articulated travel than what the MT ICONs provide if more up travel was allowed (the shocks only go to 17 compressed compared to 14.5 stock). The max compressed length is the reason for the 3" bump stop extensions. It ends up being a mute point if you were going to run 34s anyway, since they would start to rub with that much articulation. If you read back and see the details of my "on the cheap" setup. I actually got a little more articulated travel with it than I do with the MT setup, but that travel was not very usable since my bumper would drag... The MT setup is 2x more useful on the trail. One other thing, the stock control arms just start to contact the axle housing at about the travel the LT kit provides. so the MT offset lower links allow for more clearance.

MT had designed a 3 link setup that allowed for more down travel by freeing up the link binding. My understanding is that they had it on their FJ plus one other and it was going to be sold as an extreme LT kit, but both of those trucks ended up with bent axles. Apparently the axle housings on our trucks (both 120 and 150 platforms) use very thin metal. It has to be trussed to handle anything but the 4-link it has. I think they basically gave up on the extreme long travel setup once the weakness of the axle housing was discovered. A truss for the axle would obviously make installation very complicated and expensive.

 

[RG79]

Nope, its actually the control arms. The shocks are sized to max out what the suspension can do.

Travel is a little nebulous on these trucks. From a pure vertical travel standpoint, the MT Icon shocks (which will extend to 28.5" - stock is like 22) will only max out on the passenger side in vertical travel. The drivers side will not fully extended because of the panhard/track bar holding it back. In fully, articulated travel both shocks will max out, but that is at the limits of all the control arms. You could actually get a little more articulated travel than what the MT ICONs provide if more up travel was allowed (the shocks only go to 17 compressed compared to 14.5 stock). The max compressed length is the reason for the 3" bump stop extensions. It ends up being a mute point if you were going to run 34s anyway, since they would start to rub with that much articulation. If you read back and see the details of my "on the cheap" setup. I actually got a little more articulated travel with it than I do with the MT setup, but that travel was not very usable since my bumper would drag... The MT setup is 2x more useful on the trail. One other thing, the stock control arms just start to contact the axle housing at about the travel the LT kit provides. so the MT offset lower links allow for more clearance.

MT had designed a 3 link setup that allowed for more down travel by freeing up the link binding. My understanding is that they had it on their FJ plus one other and it was going to be sold as an extreme LT kit, but both of those trucks ended up with bent axles. Apparently the axle housings on our trucks (both 120 and 150 platforms) use very thin metal. It has to be trussed to handle anything but the 4-link it has. I think they basically gave up on the extreme long travel setup once the weakness of the axle housing was discovered. A truss for the axle would obviously make installation very complicated and expensive.

Cool, once I get those s. bar links in, I will check to see if I am contacting the axle. If so I will be in the market for some mt lower links. I should prolly just get em anyway just because they're super strong. thanks for the info

 

[wfo9]

Cool, once I get those s. bar links in, I will check to see if I am contacting the axle. If so I will be in the market for some mt lower links. I should prolly just get em anyway just because they're super strong. thanks for the info

Seriously doubt you will have axle contact issues. Easy to find out just take off your sway-bar.... Most springs won't go that far... you pretty much need LT springs to get there....

One bad thing about the MT lower links. They use Johnny joints on the frame side. Not a big deal but they are much larger than stock and will not clear most lower link bracket skids. If you wheel in rock ledges like I do, the lower link bracket skids are a must.

I had RCI bracket skids which were a very nice smooth transition design. They almost cleared the MT joints, but I ended up going with the MT bracket skids for clearance of the joint, Not near as nice as the RCIs but they work.

Bottom line, not sure I would do the MT links if I did not plan on LT. I want as much clearance there as possible.... Stock are weak as crap, but several people make DOM ones.

 

[dot_tom]

Has it been confirmed these Bilstein 5160s will work?

Bilstein 5160 Series Reservoir Shock Absorber - 25-177435 | 4wheelparts.com



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[Beans]

I know this is reaching because its an old thread but curious what you had to do to get the cheapo shocks to fit?

 

[tenguns]

Thought I would post up about my long travel rear on the cheap setup.

I got most of my motivation and info for it from a great thread on the FJ cruiser forum

superflexy on the cheap, or more expensive if you're into that :bigthumb: - Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum

Here is what I ended up with.

Springs:MT med long travel
Free length:19.25 Supported shock range length: 15.5 - 29.5

Extended Brake lines:MT

Shocks:
ProComp es9000 #926514 Full length:26.79 Compresssed:15.56 Travel:11.23
MT Icon LT (for comparison purposes) Full length 28.5 Compressed:17
Travel:11.5

What I did is probably not an ideal setup for someone who does not like to experiment and doing their own wrenching... The Procomp shocks are cheap (as in$80 for the pair) and the quality is very questionable. With that said, they offer nearly the perfect length and travel for a nice LT trail setup on a 5th gen. No bump stop extensions are required (like the 3" extensions required for the Icons). so you lose no up travel and gain some decent down.

Also, shocks are probably the easiest thing to change on these trucks, so I figured I would try this out before dropping major cash on the ICONs. I think I have ~300 total in this setup so far. Since the procomps were a whopping $80 shipped, I did not care if I ended up throwing them away.

So far, it actually drives pretty nice on the road. and the flex is downright amazing. I had planned to wheel it today, but I ended up having problems with my rear diff coupler hitting my gas tank skid under heavy flex. I got that mostly resolved, but need to notch the skid a bit.

I'll probably eventually go with the MT Icons, but I think this may be the best value. I hope to have some off road impressions next weekend.

There were a few tricks to the install of the shocks (they are not exactly drop in on a 5th gen), so if anyone wants to do this I can provide pics and more details. The same info is basically in the Fj thread.

___________________________________________

Did this last night as a temp fix with Superflex HD's that had broke off Bilsteins on over extension. Quick and inexpensive - and given their structure - not sure how long they'll last but the ride with the HD coils is actually pretty sweet. Of course, at that price, I could install 8-10 pairs before I'd get to the $$$ of what I'd originally intended. If when pressured, they give too much, I'll add the new airbag kit I have in the rafters, but for now - great mod. Thanks for doing the tough stuff. Installed on 2009 Limited hunting beater with JBA, Radflo CO up front... now have time to save for more important mods.
:bravo:

 

[DEO runner]

also check out jeep jk front shocks. you can rock a adjustable 2.5 with internal bypass
FACTORY RACE SERIES 2.5 INTERNAL BYPASS RESERVOIR SHOCK (PAIR) | Truck Shocks | FOX