Safari Mods-Point me in a diection

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DieselBoy
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Re: Safari Mods-Point me in a diection

Post by DieselBoy »

Well thats the thing. Tyres.

The most important part of any truck is the tyres, as they provide both ground clearence and traction.

On a Safari, these days you struggle with anyting less than 35"s

So if that what you are gong to run, then you lift thetruck the bare minimm to sneak those tyres under it.

A 40mm body lift and 50mm spring lift will get you there with minimum expense.

For the Nth Island, where we don't have huge braided river beds that pound the shit out of everything, a 40mm body lift will be just fine i would have thought.

As i said earlier, I personaly, in my opinion, for me myself and what i like to do, i would put coil spacers on top of the standard springs, BUT, you end up with a soft riding truck.

As Darin pointed out, if you get the right rt lifted springs, then its best of both worlds :D

DaveM needs to chip in here on the battle he had with finding a spring rate that suited what he liked :D :D
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DaveM
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Re: Safari Mods-Point me in a diection

Post by DaveM »

DieselBoy wrote:DaveM needs to chip in here on the battle he had with finding a spring rate that suited what he liked :D :D


Don't remind me! The best results I had were from 3" Dobinsons (I asked for the softest possible), and also the EFS, which were a 4" rear, and 5" fronts, which sat almost dead level with a PTO winch up front.

What I have struggled with is being sold shocks that "suit 2-4 inch lift", which in my own experience is a load of bollocks.
If you buy a genuine 4" lift, a 2" shock will destroy itself, so the best thing you can do IMO is find coils that suit, then measure what size you can fit to get the most articulation from those coils, or buy a complete kit which SHOULD have shocks matched to it.
My 3" dobinsons run 4" OME shocks, and still stay captive at full flex, where the TJM shocks I was sold to suit, felt strange on the road. I soon discovered there was a whole 25mm extension left in them, so they were topping out all the time, luckily it was noticed before the did any damage.

As Darin says, drive it, and then modify, the only thing I found is I went from a 2 to 3 to 4" lift in the space of 9mths, so it got rather expensive. I would now go straight to a 3-4" with or without body lift, as I personally felt 2" good for general use, but I was always needing that bit of extra height/flex until I went 4"
The rest of the mods would be up to the driver as to what is more suited, but I would start with a lift to fit 33's minimum (I still run 33's at the moment, as the club I'm about to join has a 33" limit), then decide whether you want a winch/difflock/beadlockers.

If you can find someone nearby with a swb modded safari, its also good to drive, or even follow them, to see exactly what each mod can do for you. Although I would like another difflock in the new GQ, I will go for a winch first.

Sorry for the long winded post again :oops:
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TK Sparky
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Re: Safari Mods-Point me in a diection

Post by TK Sparky »

Thanks again DAVEM, always good to hear the advice.
Thats how im plannin to do it, guna see a guy this weekend about 3-4" lift and am goin to run 33's until I can get a turbo and run 35's comfortably.
I know someone that runs 3" lift and 35's on an N/A safari SWB, and seems to go well.
As people have said, im just guna drive it and modify it accordingly.
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