Who knows about coilovers? Truck related only please

Jared

Jared

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Feb 8, 2012
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North Dallas
Well, getting the ball rolling on bagging has been tough for me to commit 100%. I'm just not really feeling the cost since I have zero fab skills. I have to do something with this suspension, and I'm considering a coilover swap.

I need to know how to get the correct spring weight etc. There isn't much on the forums that I have found that it very solid. Link me if you can, or post it here for others to use as well.

I know FTC has them, and there is a guy on pt.net, but he wasn't really all that helpful.
 
I spent a lot of time and money trying to fine tune my height, have decent ride quality, and tolerable bumpsteer, with various methods. Im getting too old to have my daily ride like shit. Started off with DJM 4" arms got the drop i wanted but the bumpsteer was retarded and i had to use offset bushings and longer cams to get camber in check. then i switched to mcg 16+ and cut 2" stock springs which was great, no bumpsteer, easy alignment, but it wasn't low enough. So I cut the springs more to 3" which ended up being too low for my liking. With the coilovers it takes care of it all in one unit(adjustable shocks) and no guess work with height and you can have whatever ride quality you want. With all I spent trying to get what I wanted, I could have probably bought 2 sets of coilovers, and height adjustments are a snap, don't have to disassemble the front suspension to change heights. They are not cheap but they are definitely worth it, I will never use any fixed valved shocks again front or back. I got them from DB rods I think the owners name is Matt very helpful, they were I believe 750 shipped to hawaii. And the ones I have are made for DB rods by ridetech for silverados (the owner works closely with ridetech)
 
Jared there's a thread on ls1 truck from dbrods about their kits, and he offers a discount. Check it out. I've personally handled ride tech coilovers on my neighbors 68 and they're nice, quality equipment. They use fox shocks, and we've all seem dbrods work as well.
 
What Austin said. Jon at DBRods does amazing quality work. He's got a coilover kit out for NBS 2wd trucks that uses Ridetech coilovers with Fox shocks and Hyperco springs. They use a nut on the top perch and a t-bar on the bottom (have to drill out to a bigger hole size). They work with stock or drop spindles. Here's some pics:

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And a link here.
 
Jared said:
Well, getting the ball rolling on bagging has been tough for me to commit 100%. I'm just not really feeling the cost since I have zero fab skills. I have to do something with this suspension, and I'm considering a coilover swap.

I need to know how to get the correct spring weight etc. There isn't much on the forums that I have found that it very solid. Link me if you can, or post it here for others to use as well.

I know FTC has them, and there is a guy on pt.net, but he wasn't really all that helpful.
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Wish you had an OBS man. I've got about 50 pages of info and part numbers for the coilover setup I will be doing. I'm trying to go for a "Pro Touring" vibe with my suspension. With everything else I'm doing to the truck I want it to fly through corners just as good as a stock car at the LEAST. I'm using QA1 components because they are reasonably priced with great ride quality and adjustability.

Just to throw some of my ideas though:
I'm using a coilover with spring in the front, the spring seats in the top spring pocket and the bottom sits on a perch that is on the coilover itself. The top and bottom of the coilover mount just like a stock shock from what I understand. The front will automatically yield a 3" drop with the springs I'm going with, 550# is the spring rate for the front of my truck, some people use a lighter spring in the front but with my motor swap I will go on the stiffer side of things. With that and my spindles I will be 5" before adjusting any lower. Could go down to 8" give or take. (Which then other things would stop that from happening.) I will be fully tubbing the front of course, to keep it driveable being 6-7" in the front.

Now for the rear, I haven't fully decided what QA1 I'm using in the back, but I know of a few the OBS guys are running and have been liking. I found a basic 4-link kit on eBay that I am going to try and use. I'm getting rid of anything leaf spring related and mounting the tank higher than stock. I'm just not sure the detail on how I'm going to do that yet. The 4-link kit off eBay is less than $300, but seems to be pretty good quality. I will of course be doing a full notch as well. I plan to make multiple mounting points for the rear coilovers for the top mount. This gives me tons more adjustability for the rear ride height. I want it LOW LOW (cruising about 7/10-11) when I'm just cruising but if I go to the strip I want to raise it to clear some wide drag radials (Probably a 15x10 wheel for drags). Bed floor is something I'm still undecided about too because I want the cut up bed covered but I will need access to the coilovers easily as well.

I'll search and see what info I can find for your NBS while I'm searching.
 
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Thanks guys, I think I am going this route for now, maybe bag later on when money isn't such an issue. I'm trying to mod the house more to my liking too, and vacation more!
 
Fuck, would be sexy on coilovers. Would you do a shock relocate for the rear to get you better angles? Would need a bracket and tabs welded on (I have some), but would still be pretty easy and would be more adjustable.
 
For now, I am more concerned with the fronts. After that, I may do some sort of link and coilovers to be fancy, or I may just get something fabbed up and be done . The truck will be fixed soon, and painted, so I want to get the coilovers and get back on the road after I get back from vacation. Waiting on my paint guy to shoot me a number for everything I wanted done, plus the extra shit. If I can find an HD hood soon I'll have that done too.

I emailed the guy, waiting for him to get me more info on this setup. I'm tired of this shit ride, and these shit shocks, and now, it has been proven they suck, fucking t-bar broke! I also may be contacting Brett for heims, and looking into uniballs if these balljoints are toast. Fucking done replacing shit all the time.
 
I've got everything picked for my coilover swap just trying to get up the nerve to spend $1800 on everything and then decide on what brand coilovers I want because the ART button adjustables are nice but $475 ea. and $125 for controller with one extra button.....


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Im riding on belltech coilovers. They are awesome. Supprised they dont make them for the silverado/sierras.
Qa1 coilovers a really nice, especially for custom setups
 
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Jared said:
So with drop spindles and coilovers 5" is max? I'd like to hear more about the ride. What spring rate did you say you have? Any links to trucks with the swap? How long did you have them installed? Ride quality? Answering all this in the thread would be best.
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I'm not certain cause I haven't gone all the way down on the collars but without spindles and only coilovers I'm fairly certain you could get 5+" of drop. With spindles you could get easily 7" which is more than you could reasonably drive with. I've had them for about 6 months. Spring rate is 800lb/in which seems perfect to me. The ride quality is awesome cause you can set it to whatever you want. I personally like a softer ride(hence going to bags) and I'm about a little over the half way point on the adjustment (15 of 24).



Reubencanyon said:
Im riding on belltech coilovers. They are awesome. Supprised they dont make them for the silverado/sierras.
Qa1 coilovers a really nice, especially for custom setups
Click to expand...

I'm thinking belltech doesn't go that route cause it would be a "conversion" cause they aren't setup like that from factory. Whereas colorados, trailblazers etc are McPherson style struts from factory.
 
Thanks for all the info so far. Just waiting on Jon...I registered up at ls1trucks so I could reach him, fucking pm inbox is full. I leave saturday for vacation, I wanted to have everything ready to order by then, so that when I return, I can knock this shit out.


ETA: I just got an email from Jon, he was on vacation. So tomorrow he will get busy working out the details
 
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So will you be at the same height in the front or will you be lower? When should you get them?
 
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