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Anyone running spring under on a "hardcore" rig?

YotaAtieToo

YotaAtieToo

Thick skull
Joined
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After seeing Fred do a few rigs spring under that seem to work well, I've been curious about trying it. I have a little Sami on 32s that I put back to spua when I got it, but that's not what I'm curious about.

I'm curious if anyone is running it on shit with big tires and gets wheeled?

Obvious downside is clearance, not just directly under the axle but the mounts on each end need to be that much lower to achieve the same ride height. I made some high clearance spring plates to help as much as possible.

Biggest upside is axle wrap, I'm hoping it will be minimal and I won't have to run a wrap bar.

Rig is a 99 suzuki vitara (sidekick/tracker) getting 60s and 42s. I got some hand me down 4" trail gear toyota rear leafs, which have some decent arch, so I figured why not spua it to keep it low.

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Lots of desert rigs run spring under.

On something as small as a sami you could probably run 57" Ford springs with the long end forward and get decent geometry.
 
Buddy ran f150s on a Toyota, some kinda monster truck springs, sprung under. They worked great, other than he half assed the build and left the leaf bolts pointed down.
 
There was a guy on the old forums that competed in a SUA Zuk. Dutch guy I think. Worked great. My best year bar none of wheeling was a stock(ish) Samurai on 32s with gears and a locker. I beat the ever living shit out of it, and never broke a single part.
 
I don’t know know about hardcore, but I set up my s10 sua with a waggy 44. Old pic, some things have changed.

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arse_sidewards said:
Lots of desert rigs run spring under.

On something as small as a sami you could probably run 57" Ford springs with the long end forward and get decent geometry.
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Dude, 47" YJ's are tough to fit under a Sami, 57s would probably be touching each other. :flipoff2:

mobil1syn said:
go to a 44" tire and youll have the same ground clearance
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I'm mocking up with 42 mtr/k's which are a true 42" so probably 2" taller than a 44 tsl :laughing:
 
Everything Fred and Dave have is spring under except the Cummins Tug truck. It has an antiwrap bar. Fred hates SOA because of axlewrap from big tires.

Anymore only the old builds of my friends have SOA.
 
Beat95yj said:
Everything Fred and Dave have is spring under except the Cummins Tug truck. It has an antiwrap bar. Fred hates SOA because of axlewrap from big tires.

Anymore only the old builds of my friends have SOA.
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I never thought my 4runner had *that* bad of axle wrap, with good aftermarket springs. I wasn't doing a ton of climbing though.

I am kinda excited to see how this works really. I was going to do a triangulated 4 link rear, but I got these springs and some nice 2x14 resi foxes for cheap, so why not. I like leafs. Won't need a sway bar, and should carry all my junk better when its loaded down for a few day trip.
 
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Fwiw Clampy has almost zero sprung weight in back and has 6” lift 63’s in back iirc. It flexes well enough for fred to destroy it every couple of years.
 
CJ7 with stock Waggy leafs on 35's , I like the spring plates from ruff stuff- still in mock up don't give me shit about the long U bolts

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Beat95yj said:
Fwiw Clampy has almost zero sprung weight in back and has 6” lift 63’s in back iirc. It flexes well enough for fred to destroy it every couple of years.
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Huh, I really thought they were Deaver or similar from when it had the total chaos stuff in the front.

What's he destroy?

ponylake said:
CJ7 with stock Waggy leafs on 35's , I like the spring plates from ruff stuff- still in mock up don't give me shit about the long U bolts
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Those are ruffstuff?!? :laughing:I looked all over for actual spua plate with no luck.
 
On his last trip to Oregon wheeling with the sketchy boys out of bend he broke the crank or something ridiculous on the 3RZ. Marlin just put a new motor in it. I asked him to confirm.

dave used those spring under plates in his mazda build.
 
X2 on the ruffstuff sping under plates. I am running alcan leafs with orbit eyes spring under in the rear of my 84 toyota pickup.
 
Orbit eye, that a blast from the past name.

I feel like I remember a cat yellow 2nd gen Xtra cab with a bagillion flex pics. :laughing:
 
I always liked the stability feeling of spring under front, and then links in the back.
 
Interested in this as well. Now that I am linking the front because I didn't like how tall the leafs were gonna be, the rear I think is going to be way to tall. :lmao:

Might do a desert style SPUA and copy those spring plates you made.
 
welndmn said:
I always liked the stability feeling of spring under front, and then links in the back.
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I'm going with the opposite, well see how it works.

azdirt3.0 said:
Interested in this as well. Now that I am linking the front because I didn't like how tall the leafs were gonna be, the rear I think is going to be way to tall. :lmao:

Might do a desert style SPUA and copy those spring plates you made.
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Do it! But don't waste half a day making plates, when Ruff stuff has nicer ones for $60:homer:
 
My first shackle hangers I ever made, I used Jonny joints, thinking I'd be pimp. Didn't seem to do shit to help with flex, but it sure made the shackles never sit straight :homer:​​​​​​

Funny how leaf spring "tech" has gone full circle back to spua, front shackle and more rigid shackle hangers being best.

I do miss me some buggy leaf entertainment on the trail though :laughing: my buddy ran them forever, I think he had broke his shock mounts off in the rear, so no shocks. He goes to hit his climb, of course it's hopping like crazy, so he backs off. His rear tires we in a little hole, so they stayed in place and truck moved back like 4-5 feet before he noticed :lmao: I don't know how it didn't explode everything.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Now I found them :homer: I was even there last week to pick up some parts.
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I have a set of Toyota spring under perches and u bolts from ruffstuff. I do not think I’ll be using them. I might be willing to part with them if you are interested.
 
azdirt3.0 said:
Well hotdog ain't that sweet :grinpimp: fabrimacating is easy when someone else does the work :lmao:
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Little shit like that eats up so much time, I like building stuff from scratch too, but sometimes it's not really worth it.

Aisin said:
I have a set of Toyota spring under perches and u bolts from ruffstuff. I do not think I’ll be using them. I might be willing to part with them if you are interested.
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OK, I might be interested for the Sami, I don't need them right now though.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Little shit like that eats up so much time, I like building stuff from scratch too, but sometimes it's not really worth it.



OK, I might be interested for the Sami, I don't need them right now though.
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Cool. They are in a box at my buddies house. I can’t use them with FZJ axles.
 
Aisin said:
Cool. They are in a box at my buddies house. I can’t use them with FZJ axles.
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I've done 2 FJ80 fronts with leafs. First one I set with toyota pin spacing and was a huge pain. Second one I did Chevy 60 pin spacing and was a little easier, then when I went to a 60 it bolted in.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Little shit like that eats up so much time, I like building stuff from scratch too, but sometimes it's not really worth it.
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Worst when you spend a couple hours and than find the same parts for not much more than the material and time cost you.
 
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