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Re: LIFTING MY FJ40
On 13 Jul 2005 02:36:02 -0400, Calicars
<UseLinkToEmail@AutoForumz.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>ok well i finally got my old landcruiser home!!! its gonna be my first
>CAR!!! YAA :D ok well to get to my main point of this post is LIFT
>KITS im looking along the lines of lifting it by extending my shackles
>by 3 inchs will this lift it? Also i am curious what body lifts are
>out there i had seen only a 2 inch lift by 4 plus listed on
>man-a-fre.com but im not sure if there are any bigger ones thanks for
>your help guys just wondering what my options are out there :D :?:
>also list what lift kits you guys are running or what you did to lift
>yours :?: thanks everyone :D[/color]
You must be thinking Jeep - you have to build the hell out of them
to go rock crawling. We must disabuse you of this notion... ;-P
With an FJ40 you have a very capable off road car even bone stock
right out of the box. So no matter how tempting it is to build the
hell out of it and jack it up to the sky, you really don't have to do
too much more than make sure everything works right. Good tires, a
bit of lift for clearance, maybe limited-slips in the axles, and you
are good to go.
Try that before you go mod crazy - it drives the Jeep guyz totally
nuts when they spend $30K on parts and mods only to get stuck halfway
up the hill, and you show them up by effortlessly motoring right by
them in a box stock Toyota. Been there, Done that... :-P
"It's a Jeep Thing"? Bull. Shit.
In other words, think it through before you do any lift kits, body
mods, engine swaps, etc. - don't fsck it up by chopping up the body to
the point it falls apart.
And learn what you can do GRADUALLY - don't let your mind write
checks the car can't cash, that way lies fatal rollovers. And I hate
to see people waste perfectly good FJ-40's like that.
Properly installed body lifts are okay, Properly engineered taller
springs are okay, fender flares are okay - but get rubber ones if you
can, fiberglass flares attract rocks and tree trunks. ;-)
Extended shackle lifts and lift blocks are BAD. They change the
lever points and put a LOT of stress on the U-bolts and other
suspension pieces, and if they're going to snap on you it won't be two
blocks from home - they'll do it at the worst possible place and time.
And either way, any time you do any lifting you raise the center of
gravity and increase the rollover hazard. At a bare minimum make sure
you have a solid roll bar in there, and if you plan to get even a
little crazy go for a full cage. (Get it installed by a pro, safety
gear is NOT welded up at home.) And beef up the seats and seatbelts.
A Smallblock Chevy 302/350 can be swapped in, but the F motor is
rather capable already - and depending on where you live you don't
have to hassle with the 'Smog Police' at the DMV. Don't be in a rush
to make more problems for yourself.
I'm running a box-stock FJ-62 with the 3F-E motor that effortlessly
goes just about anywhere I want to, including some I shouldn't have...
(You know, the kind of places where you get to the top of the hill,
stop and look back, and THEN you get scared.) But if I ever decide to
go vertical my first call is Specter Offroad - [url]www.sor.com[/url].
--<< Bruce >>--
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.
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