Offroad-Express

curious about this. some guys here say 80 series crusier springs fit the rear on a 130 surf for a 50mm lift. are these rear or fronts from the cruiser? and did you mod the spring housing? or are they same as 130? is the spring rate harder than stndard on the surf?
currently run 35mm lifted springs in rear. but wouldnt mind 50mm.

micahb wrote:curious about this. some guys here say 80 series crusier springs fit the rear on a 130 surf for a 50mm lift. are these rear or fronts from the cruiser? and did you mod the spring housing? or are they same as 130? is the spring rate harder than stndard on the surf?
currently run 35mm lifted springs in rear. but wouldnt mind 50mm.

Its the front 80 series springs that fit the rear of the 130 surf and depending on the weight of your surf they could lift it as much as 60-70mm but you normally get a good 50mm over the sagged old surf coils, you want factory 80 series one's and not aftermarket stiffer ones as they will be way to firm unless youve got a shite load of weight in the back and tow heavy trailers etc

Why fronts? i put standard 80 rears in my 130 gave it a 80mm lift with no mods to anything except the panhard rod that had to be extended by 30mm , i also put the stock 80 series shocks in and the rear is quite solid now has less body roll than it did with the 130 suspension in.

i put rear fj80 springs in my ln130, gave it at least a 3" lift, put longer shocks in. had to change panhard rod mount and rh handbrake cable gets a bit tight, just changed the mount for it a bit and its all sweet.

so did you guys need to mod where spring seats?

nah springs fit straight in, diameter of the coil wire is thicker and overall spring diameter is a few mm bigger but fit no problem. quite tight to get in though as they are quite a bit taller. i also modified the right hand mount for panhard rod, otherwise your tires end up sticking out the rh side of the guards more than the left!

Hey guys also looking at doing this myself.

Should i go for front or rears?

Do i need to replace my surf shocks with 80 series also?

I can get my hands on factory front or rear standard height aftermarket springs (yellow, kings?) and either standard shocks or rancho rs9000 5 speed.

Whats the best combo for a lift and if it lifts 75-80mm do i need to mod the steering or anything apart from the panhard rod?

Once you have a lift the shocks out of the front of a 60 series cruiser will give you a bit more travel in the rear. If you can get adjustable ones it wouldn't be a bad idea or even good 2nd hand ones. They are a good length but are designed for more weight and combined with the 80 series springs the back could be a bit harsh on the road.

Cheers,
Pete

Cheers Pete, I will look into that.

If its harsh on the road will that mean its more likely to roll offroad?

My understanding is if its harder on the road it will be harder to flex offroad therefore putting the centre of gravity way off?

Cheers
Caleb

Na the hashness i was talking about comes from the shocks and the speed with which they react.

A shock from a heavier truck will not allow the same speed of movement. whereas a stiff spring will not allow the same movement at all.

I haven't had 80 springs in a surf but it sounds like they aren't too stiff so will still allow good suspension movement. Off road you are going slow enough over bumps that the shocks will be able to react fast enough to not limit the suspension movement.

Cheers,
Pete

Oh sweet as thats mint

Will I be able to lift the truck with the fj80 springs and use the standard surf shocks temporarily til i find what i need?

Cheers

Caleb

yup you should, i put standard 80 series rear prings in the rear of my 130 surf, just running sum shocks that are like 20mm longer than factory surf ones, standards should be fine till you get new ones, instead of lengthening my panhard rod i weded in a adjustable thread with rose joint (bought some trademe china nissan silvia caster arms for the threads and rose joint perfect size bolt hole for factory surf panhard bolt and put sum put either side to stop rose joint from sliding side to side)

this gave me around 80mm lift over factory sagged springs,

heres some pics, mind you this is with a set of rear drawers full of tools and recovery gear (about 80-100kg) and 3/4 tank

bad pics as cant see the sitting height but you kinda get the idea

vinceparts wrote:yup you should, i put standard 80 series rear prings in the rear of my 130 surf, just running sum shocks that are like 20mm longer than factory surf ones, standards should be fine till you get new ones, instead of lengthening my panhard rod i weded in a adjustable thread with rose joint (bought some trademe china nissan silvia caster arms for the threads and rose joint perfect size bolt hole for factory surf panhard bolt and put sum put either side to stop rose joint from sliding side to side)

this gave me around 80mm lift over factory sagged springs,

Sweet dude shot for the info sounds like a good idea. I will look into it.

got some factory 80 series springs on weekend. put them in this morning, got about 50mm more than the 35mm lift springs i had in there. this is with empty boot and half tank. almost need brake line extension. will need longer shocks now. mine are not up to it. some random ones i got for 20 off trade me, only 15mm more travel tan standard. what shocks you guys recommend? cheap!

one more thing i forgot to mention was the brake bias valve, the stupid long thing connected to the panhard rod and to the chassis , looks like a a bit of small rod, you should idealy drop that down an inch or two and that controls your rear brake percentage, i droped myne 40mm , two bolts used sum tube and longer bolts and the 3 bolt i used a piece of z shaped folded flat bar as u cant just use pipe as the whole becomes to far off centre

vinceparts wrote:one more thing i forgot to mention was the brake bias valve, the stupid long thing connected to the panhard rod and to the chassis , looks like a a bit of small rod, you should idealy drop that down an inch or two and that controls your rear brake percentage, i droped myne 40mm , two bolts used sum tube and longer bolts and the 3 bolt i used a piece of z shaped folded flat bar as u cant just use pipe as the whole becomes to far off centre

also a longer brake hose from the proportioning valve as when you flex it pulls on it. i ran factory standard 80 series front springs in the back on my surf after i beamed it, i got ATLEAST 3" of lift, it made a huge difference and they flex very well.

yes longer rear brake hose is a good idea, mine didnt get as much lift as urs would as i have atleast 100kg of recovery anddrawer set in the back of my truck