Friday, November 20, 2015

After one year of ownership & my current set up.

As of 11-4-2015 I have had my Lexi one year.

This was my build year & I am looking forward to a lot more seat time as far as camping & wheeling. I have put to much thought & energy into this suspension flex business & need to move on with my build other than getting more inches of articulation.

So what I did was just gave up trying to get huge gains in suspension travel, I threw in the towel & put some shorter L shocks on. I'll quote some veterans by saying these 80s are not rock donkeys & use them for expo rigs rather than rocks crawlers.

By putting the front L shocks on it limits the travel to prevent the tie rod hitting the control arms & also allows disconnecting the sway bar. By just putting them on lifted my front almost 1" & also gives me the firm stability that I have been looking for.

I will also play with putting back in the OEM bushings along with narrowing the front control arms to reduce axle bracket bind with the control arms. The new goal is freedom of movement rather than more flex.

This is my current set up as of now:

I currently have the OME Old Man Emu 851/860 medium spring combo with a 25mm/ 1" spring spacer in front for a more level stance.

For shocks Lexi now has the longer OME L shocks front & rear. 

To keep the drive line from contacting the sway bar at full drop, there is 1.25" front sway bar spacers. 

To keep the rear L shock & 315 tires at bay there is a 1.25" block spacer at the frame bump stop to keep the rear L shock from over compression with 1" of up travel left for full compression & to keep the 35"/315 tire from rubbing in the fender well.

In front is the stock bump stops, the L shock up there is fine with 1.5" left of shock travel to compress for full bump compression. Also to note I added washers to front Ls to make them .5" longer. They now measure 15.75" to 27" from the 15.25" to 26.5"... 


To add length to the brake lines I lowered the stock mounts.

 
To correct caster & add 2" more drop travel Lexi has 2" MAF front control arm brackets with the yellow 2° CC bushings. (Soon coming back out for more flexible OEM bushings).


The wheels have 1" spacers with 3.5" of back spacing to prevent rubbing inside rear fender & to give a wider stance for stability.


To allow unrestricted travel a 1" body lift was added, also to help with airflow over engine compartment & passenger side floorboard cooling.

Lexi does have light armor front & rear with some slider nerf type protection. The spare tire is inside with a modest unfinished storage system.

The transfer case did receive lower gearing from a set of Marlin Crawler reduction gears.
That's about it... Below are some pics.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Disconnected front sway bar with OME L shocks works for me

I was on my way to the grocery store but I had the urge to test out the new L shocks at my local playground with a dico'd front sway bar. The new Ls make it firm & stable enough to wheel it this way. I don't know why people complain about these being harsh or jarring... maybe compaired to a stock shock...

I just wanted to add that a 26.5" L shock won't drop out my 850 or 851+25mm like in my video. Mine did fit snug that way.

I wanted more drop so I added the 2" MAF drop brackets that add 2" more drop, also diconnected sway plus added a .5" of washers to the shock to make it longer to ext. 27" this drops the coil out by 1".

Monday, November 9, 2015

We had a blast at Turf N Surf 2015

We had a blast at Turf N Surf 2015

The family went to Turf N Surf 2015. It would be safe to say my family caught the wheelin fever this weekend. This will be a annual event for us from now on. The people where great to be around & the event was well organized. The 2 days wasn't enough time to visit & meet up with  everyone. I was having such a great time I forgot to take pictures, but here are some I did get.

 
This guy did a great video.  

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

New shocks for Lexi

I put these shocks on today & my 1st impression was it lifted up Lexi about .5" crazy... It feels like a sports car now, firm & stable. Some say that OME shocks are harsh & some even say jarring. I can see how that could be if comparing them to a stock shock, but I welcome these L shocks compaired to the sloshy unsafe shocks I had. These shocks are valved for the 80 & the OME springs. I havent seen a $100 price range shock that works this good so far. Some have been happy with the Fox 2.0 non reservoir at approx. $130 each.
Here are the specs & my actual measurements
Rear 60071L
Comp. 387mm/15.23"
Ext. 673mm/26.49"
My measurement was 15.25" to 26.5"
OME L shocks specs
Front 60070L
Comp. 381mm/15"
Ext. 667mm/26.26"
My measurement .25" more than spec 15.25" to 26.5" I didn't take pictures, sorry.
I did add some extra washers to make them long 26.9" just shy of 27"