Suspension upgrades for a 1993 Safari

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:53 pm

Having recently joined the ranks of Safari owners...

I was very interested to hear who had upgraded their suspension in their Safaris and as to what was tested and trialed to be good.

The upgrade I was looking at was the ARB/OME spring and shock upgrade (good/bad??)

Has anybody got the ARB kit fitted if so how is it?

If not whats good for a good price?

Any feed back welcome...

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 7:31 pm

How high do you want to go??

I have had experence with an OME 2" kit the shocks were good but the springs sagged after a wile. I since have replaced them with kings.

Alot of comp trucks tend to run koni or OME shocks, and take your pick with springs there are heaps of them out there, I have heard good things about king springs and personally have been happy with them since we put them in.

Anything over 3" you will need to do other modifications to make it work, adjustable panhard rods, some form of caster correction (drop boxes, caster plates or drop arms), extended brake lines and somthing to fix rear drive shaft vibration.

You should beable to get king springs for about $120-150 and shocks for $150-200 per courner. They are easy to fit yourself aswell.

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:00 pm

doddzee wrote:How high do you want to go??

I have had experence with an OME 2" kit the shocks were good but the springs sagged after a wile. I since have replaced them with kings.

Alot of comp trucks tend to run koni or OME shocks, and take your pick with springs there are heaps of them out there, I have heard good things about king springs and personally have been happy with them since we put them in.

Anything over 3" you will need to do other modifications to make it work, adjustable panhard rods, some form of caster correction (drop boxes, caster plates or drop arms), extended brake lines and somthing to fix rear drive shaft vibration.

You should beable to get king springs for about $120-150 and shocks for $150-200 per courner. They are easy to fit yourself aswell.

I want to get as high a lift as I can without going through all the mods you said were involved with going over 3''... :lol:

I will no doubt go higher eventually but my budget currently is very limited.

Do you have any idea who deals in Koni or King springs?

And they are easy to install?...whats the best way to remove the springs?,I have done the shocks before in my Hilux.

Are the Safaris Coilovers? so have the shock and coil as one piece?

Excuse my lack of knowledge...

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:16 pm

Wayne Emmerson from Aftershocks Ltd. 021 221 9322 is who i got my konis off, He does good deals on trademe, his trademe username is hooters2. Most suspension places will beable to sell you 2" King Springs. If you want to go 3" or any higher see G Guy Motors or go to http://www.4wdbits.co.nz Warren will beable to supply what you need in the EFS range.

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductsListPr ... egoryID=27

The springs are seperate from the shocks its just a matter of unbolting your shocks lifiting high enough to remove the springs (without streching your brake lines) and swaping the new gear into it.

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:25 pm

doddzee wrote:Wayne Emmerson from Aftershocks Ltd. 021 221 9322 is who i got my konis off, He does good deals on trademe, his trademe username is hooters2. Most suspension places will beable to sell you 2" King Springs. If you want to go 3" or any higher see G Guy Motors or go to http://www.4wdbits.co.nz Warren will beable to supply what you need in the EFS range.

http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductsListPr ... egoryID=27

The springs are seperate from the shocks its just a matter of unbolting your shocks lifiting high enough to remove the springs (without streching your brake lines) and swaping the new gear into it.

Awesome help...most appreciated...

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:33 pm

If you need any help just sing out. Post before and after pics to :wink:

mudchuka · Post by **mudchuka** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:16 pm

another option is 80 series landcruiser springs and shocks, i have tried 3 sets of springs and found them all too hard except for the 80 series springs, they give a 3 inch lift. with the matching shocks they should improve articulation.

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:55 pm

I'm running 50mm Tough dog coils front and rear with standard 80series shocks in the front and Tough Dog foam cells in the back.

Forcost effectivness, try the standard 80 series coils, should be some on trademe for bugger all.

A transfercase cross member spacer is easy enough to make up, and the adjustable radius arms are cheap as, so you won't have to spend to much extra by going to 30mm.

Then just wack a 50mm body lift in so you can run 35's. Its so easy and cheap i wish i had done it a year ago!!!!

Transfercase Cross Member spacers (10mm and a 20mm)

10mm Spacer in Place

Adjustable radius arms from Swages in Auckland

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:28 pm

Try fitting the springs and see if you have any driveshaft vibration before you go for the adjustable trailing arms, We have a 4 inch lift in the rear of annother safari and have only had to fit 10mm gearbox packers and there isnt any vibration.

3rnzir · Post by **3rnzir** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:18 pm

Mudchuka,would that 80 series option work for a LWB GQ?
3" lift sounds good to me.

mudchuka · Post by **mudchuka** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:42 pm

yep sure would, although lwb nissans are 30mm higher than swb so it would be a 2 inch lift.if you look on trade me there are sometimes 50 mm lift kits for 80 series cruisers that would make a big lift for a nissan, but you will need adjustable arms etc and change the caster angle . the best part of using cruiser springs especially standard ones, are that they are so soft , heaps better on the rough stuff. i use mine with adjustable tuff dog shocks, set them for hard for road and soft for real rough stuff and middle for general 4wding.

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:03 am

2" lift crusier springs give between a 4-5" lift but are a really good option if you want to go that bit higher. Ive been running 2" crusier king springs for a few years now and are very happy with them.

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:02 pm

Thanks for the insight into this guys,the truck goes into Grant Guys shop on Monday to get the kit fitted,it has the spacers,the replacement bushes,coils,shocks and raises it to just under 3"s...

Look forward to getting some decent tyres for the Safari soon too...whats the biggest tyres you can go on the Safari before you start breaking things?

I think I heard Grant say that 33's are as big as you want to go as any bigger and there will be breakages...

Deiselboy you say go 50mm lift to run 35's is that without major modifications?

Thanks again guys...

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:33 pm

4" lift weather it be a body or suspension or a combination of them both is usualy enough to run 35's you may get a bit of scrubbing on the guards.

Is yours turbo D1HARD? If not you may want to try a set of 35's on first and see if you are happy with the lack of power the n/a td42 will give you. If not stick with the 33's. Grant knows what he is talking about unless you want a hard yakka truck 33's will be fine.

We run 35's on our safari with a 350 chev pushing it and havent broken any of the driveline yet, the safari is definatly strong enough to handle 35's.

Didnt i see somewhere you had some 37" boggers for your surf? :wink:

Worthog has some 33's for sale if you want a second had set

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:52 pm

doddzee wrote:4" lift weather it be a body or suspension or a combination of them both is usualy enough to run 35's you may get a bit of scrubbing on the guards.

Is yours turbo D1HARD? If not you may want to try a set of 35's on first and see if you are happy with the lack of power the n/a td42 will give you. If not stick with the 33's. Grant knows what he is talking about unless you want a hard yakka truck 33's will be fine.

We run 35's on our safari with a 350 chev pushing it and havent broken any of the driveline yet, the safari is definatly strong enough to handle 35's.

Didnt i see somewhere you had some 37" boggers for your surf?

Worthog has some 33's for sale if you want a second had set

Yeah the 37's were for the truck at Wellington Autosalon just really for show... :lol:

Its the N/A engine so yeah my not be enough grunt to get the 35's roaring...??

Pretty keen on a second hand set of 33's is there a link or?
(EDIT: found them) :lol:

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:49 pm

Ok I had the work done today by Grant and had my set of 33's fitted to the Safari.

Grant also removed the Stabilizers bars front and rear to increase its articulation.

Heres the before and after:

Heres after:

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:48 pm

Looks good how high did it lift it? Looks a bit higher than a 2-3" lift.

D1HARD · Post by **D1HARD** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:27 pm

doddzee wrote:Looks good how high did it lift it? Looks a bit higher than a 2-3" lift.

Yeah Grant was happy with the lift its just a little over 3".... :lol:

And I took her for a bit of a blat round Red Rocks in the dark tonight and she just ploughs through it...

I am very happy with the results,the Safari/Patrols are really an awesome machine..

I have to work out a time to get those bits off you this week too if thats cool as well dude.

doddzee · Post by **doddzee** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:12 am

I have to work out a time to get those bits off you this week too if thats cool as well dude.

Yip no worries you can contact me on 0275763116

kiwipete · Post by **kiwipete** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:11 pm

I am very happy with the results,the Safari/Patrols are really an awesome machine..

Like the gold rims, sets it off, real smart looking