As of lately I have been trying to maximize & get the most of what my LX suspension can give me. Learning the capabilities & limitations of my suspension has been a huge learning curve for me. I have realized I really can't go to far "outside the box" on what works & has already been done by the many 80 owners that ave been there & done that years before me. I now know that OME did a good job with the L shock for the reason is the front suspension doesn't want to drop out much past the L shock extended length of 26.5" measured at the shock collars. Anything more than that will start releasing coils & hitting tie rod to control arm on full flex.
I did try the sway bar & hitch pin mods & on my set up it started having problems around the 27" drop out mark. This is with OME yellow CC bushings.
Getting 11.3" of travel out of a shock that compresses to 15.25" is also a big deal. The only negative I have herd is they are very stiff... this is why I have stayed away from getting them. (EDITED LATER: I now have these shocks. They are firm & stable). As far as the OME 1.5" coils, they flex very well to that certain point. The coil springs offer a ride that a leaf spring will never offer, but In my opinion the front suspension can't even compare to the leaf spring over full axle fj40 I use to have. It's a tradeoff, ride or flex.
I did try the sway bar & hitch pin mods & on my set up it started having problems around the 27" drop out mark. This is with OME yellow CC bushings.
Getting 11.3" of travel out of a shock that compresses to 15.25" is also a big deal. The only negative I have herd is they are very stiff... this is why I have stayed away from getting them. (EDITED LATER: I now have these shocks. They are firm & stable). As far as the OME 1.5" coils, they flex very well to that certain point. The coil springs offer a ride that a leaf spring will never offer, but In my opinion the front suspension can't even compare to the leaf spring over full axle fj40 I use to have. It's a tradeoff, ride or flex.
At this time I am very happy with my LX450 & what it can do.
My R&D phase is complete. There are only a couple things I can do later to increase flexibility. One is to do a body lift & go back to the stock bumps stops,(Edited later: I did do this & it works very well) this would allow more room for up travel. The reason is the hitch pin & sway bar disconnected mods want to offer more up travel than down. A body lift will give the extra fender clearance needed for more front tuck.
The 1st pic here has a pulled hitch pin, sway bar connected & stock bump stops. See how the driver tire is stuffed more compared to the 2nd pic which has the 1.5" bump stops.
I also just wanted to add that I'm looking forward to getting the LX out on the trail this summer & getting some seat time, I'm long over due.
No comments:
Post a Comment