Great information once again, always learn from these sessions. So glad you mentioned the sway bars, made such a big difference to handling on my 105 and missus 120 prado .. if you hate body roll when driving a range with tight corners like we have to, decent sway bars improve handling so much, I believe they are worth every cent and so often get over looked.
This vid gave me good validation that im also on the right track, having played with rear leafs in my RUF lux for ages and got them to a point they hold the weight up just right; while being super soft and flexxy. Doesnt even feel like im on leaf springs. 🤙 great video!
Replace 'corregated roads ' with 'New South Wales and Victoria roads' just for the sake of accuracey.😅 Great explanation of a complex topic. The only question I have would be about through chasis sway bars and why they aren't as popular here vs the states. Have absolutely loved the series so far with well thoughtout explanations.
Haha yeah you’re not wrong hey. I guess the level of customisation isn’t there like in the states where every second house has a car with a set of one tons under their jeep or pickup haha. So a lot of standard stuff still works for us
Totally agree Matty! And this is good info for those new to suspension and tuning of said suspension. Have literally found all the same things you mentioned, thru my own trial and error over the years. Good validation I'm on the right track haha
Couple of topics for when you are at the shock shop. Target spring frequency for say rock crawler, weekend warrior, tough tourer, desert racer. How and why rebound is more important than compression. Any reason to not use a torsion bar from an ifs car as a swaybar. Ive got a mazda bravo torsion bar in the front of my patrol. Cost $50 and has way better flex than superiors superflex bar. And just as stiff.
Hey Matt, loving the build, I’m still catching up on your series atm. Could you please touch on the process/any tips with engineering approval as you go through them? Keep up the good work!
Loving the content mate. Great to see a no bullshit information video that isn't biased due to sponsorship. I have a question in regards to swag bar links. What the best way to work the length? Just take it for a drive and see what length works best or there a particular way to work it out?
Cheers mate! I was abit unsure about this one cause it’s a pretty dry topic unless your into it. This is could have been a lot longer but I thought no one would stick around haha. If it’s in a standard setup, usually I just go full bump and full droop and see if there’s something that will limit the bar, like on a patrol rear, short links make the bar roll back and hit the centre on droop, but long links make it roll forward on uptravel and hit the snout of the centre, so you really need to find the length that works in the full range. Ideally your aswaybar arms would be pretty much level at half travel, but that doesn’t always work in a standard car setup
@@mattkinsela thanks for the reply mate. Yeah that makes sense. In my particular case i have an 80 that use to have big lift but I've taken it back down to 2 inch but because I'm still getting familiar with the 80 I've been unsure if it was ever changed from factory length (being that it was 4 inch i would assume it would be different). But I'll be checking that today. Thanks again mate keep the awesome content coming.
Loved this video mate. It’s interesting for me coming from a Downhill bike background and having that understanding of high level suspension tuning and sprung/ unsprung weight, and seeing how that converts to Cars where things like Beam axles and sway bars exist. I found your comments on Hydro bumps really interesting. I remember watching the Skid Factory where they installed them for a Patrol/ 6BT conversion purely for the additional engine weight on compression and wonder if that was necessary or if correct spring rate/ shock valving was the appropriate answer.
Yeah me too man, I reckon it’s a lot more noticeable and easy to change on a bike so more guys play with it and work it out hey. Haven’t seen it, so not sure!
Great vid, I have two questions, What is a recommended service interval for a good set of remote reservoir shocks that do a lot of offroad corrugated tracks? How to properly shim/adjust rebound dampening on a shock? cheers matt
Great vid, with awsome info. How many sets of coils would you plan to go through until you land on the right one? Had the car weighed and sent the weights off to dobinsons with the intention of landing on 3"-3.5". Got the springs and the front sat at 2" and the rear sat at 3.5". Secondly, how do uou calculate how much up travel to maintain vs how much down travel? Just got new 12" shocks and have maintained 5ish" up teavel in the front. Or would it have been a better idea to loose 1" of up teavel to gain an extra 1" down travel? Was also finding that with the 12.5" or 13" shocks the drag link was binding.
I’ll usually get it right first go, but it’s pretty easy with coilovers. Working with normal springs sucks when you’ve got to send the info off to another company and hope they do the right thing and pay them before you find out. It’s a bit of a compromise with ride height vs uptravel, something has to give, if you want it low there’s no room for uptravel, 6” might make it a monster truck but in some cases you can make it work at a good ride height
Would be good to hear the advantages and disadvantages of changing the amount of wraps or loops a spring has, so if you can have a 20in tall spring with 5 loops or 15 loops what differences would you expect for a same rate compression spring like a 125lb per in spring
Apart from a very different fully compressed height of the spring, the springs would work the same I would think being the same rate? I would think the spring guys have worked out the best sort of angle to wind springs at. 5 wraps at 20” long probably doesn’t work very good as a spring
@mattkinsela reason I ask is one theory I've been told is having more wraps makes the spring longer so even with the same spring rate it gives a softer feeling spring as the compression and extension are over a longer distance. Kinda like longer leaf springs or torsion bars. Because if there is no difference you would want to have a spring with the least amount of wraps possible for the gain you would get from reducing the unsprung weight. As you can't cheat the springs unsprung weight like you can a shocker by running the shocker body off the chassis as the body tends to be the heaviest part of the shock.
@@Bigcountry_littlelegs I can’t see that being right, the same spring rate would be the same spring rate. Winds per inch, diameter and bar thickness determine the spring rate of a coil, so if we remove wraps in a spring, we would need to make the material thicker to compensate. Dunno haha
Some useful info here Matt. What's your opinion on front vs rear sway bars on a coil front lead rear setup? Either removing or upgrading one or the other in order to get the leafs to move more? Or is this viewed more as a rear spring rate issue?
It depends on the suspension and what you want vs what the springs are, I used to run a sway bar in the rear of my coil front leaf rear Hilux as that’s where I felt it needed it. But not all will be the same. Most leaf setups are pretty good at resisting roll already lol
Very useful info. Been thinking of changing my setup a bit and reminded me that i did up the compression to help with body roll a bit. And thinking maybe i can bit better ride on the road by softening them after adding a sway bar. Would you recommend upgrading the front or rear sway bar first? Was thinking the rear? For reference i have an 80 with 2 inch lift, rooftop, rear bar, full drawer with water tank, so a bit of weight. Does have 500kg springs in the rear. Bought them as the 250kg ones were sagging.
