I'll swap you my passenger seat for your FJC passenger seat. Then barb could pretend we had an FJC!
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
I'll swap you my passenger seat for your FJC passenger seat. Then barb could pretend we had an FJC!
___________
Chris in Florida
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
IFS= go fast, SAS= Rock crawl.
Having said that, I manage to off road my IFS 92 K3500 with no lift and 35" tires with good results. I had to do some trimming to get the tires to fit well but it looks pretty good and there is no rubbing. I will be stuffing 37" tires on it this week with an obscene amount of fender trimming. The front articulation sucks but I think this will work well for things like snow bashing & firewood runs.
I will be putting a D60 under the front of my IFS K2500 burb sometime soon. It will be a little bit of work but it will cost less than an IFS lift and be much stronger.
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
First off, IFS can be good or bad on and off road, as can solid axles stuff. Solid Axle does not instantly equate to bad handling and rough ride onroad. Its all relative, and you can make anything behave well in any environment. When people talk about Solid Axle rigs not handling well, its almost always a rig that was designed to be a hardcore offroader. This means they decided that they would sacrifice highway and daily driving to be able to cope with offroading better. This doesn't mean it has to be that way. My dad had a IFS Suburban, and it handled just like a big truck is expected to. Its never going to be a sports car.
For a big truck, I think solid axles and leaf springs are much better, stronger, and simpler to work on then anything IFS. Lots less to break, and if you go GM, parts are super easy to find. Like people have said before, its inherantly stronger too, mostly because of the diff housing.
I've also thought about this, and at this point, the only time I'd want an Independent suspension setup is if I did alot of high speed desert running. Then again, there is nothing cheap about the long travel suspension stuff, and its a lot harder to do good "home brew" fabrication for it then it is for Solid Axle stuff. This leads me to believe that for what you want to do, a Solid Axle would provide more potential for Colorado offroading, unless you really wanted to do be able to do the Baja 1000 as well. The main factor you are going to have to worry about is beefyness, with a rig the size of the Suburban. So yeah, don't just assume that a Solid Axled vehicle will instantly be worse for daily use.
JH
oh, and JeffX, we've aleady tried to talk him into something other then a Full Size GM vehicle, but he seems dead set on something huge. Seems to think that since he can't fit everything in the Forester, he needs a rig twice the size. Then again, Karla called my Toyota a "tiny truck", so I guess that says something
. Sure doesn't look or feel tiny to me, and certainly isn't the easiest to get into either. Then again, I came from a Samurai, so the probabaly skews what I call "tiny"....
my head was level with the rocker panel when I stood next to it here.....BTW
-jh
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Thanks guys, doesn't seem to be a real agreement here on if I should run the IFS, but seems like I could.
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
I know what I meant, and what I figure others are saying, is go with the best deal you can find for what your needs are. Sounds like both IFS and Solid Axle applications will work for you, so don't count either of them out. My point was only that Solid Axle does not instantly mean bad handling, nor does IFS instantly mean it will handle well. In general, the IFS will do better on roads and long distance, but won't have as much potential offroad, and the lifts and such are nearly always more expensive and more complicated (for the big lift kits at least, doing small 2-3 inch lifts seems reasonably easy with IFS, by adjusting a torsion bar, using coil spacers, etc). Should you definitely go IFS, not necessarily. Will it work for your stated goals, for sure. Will you regret getting something with IFS in future, possibly, if you want to go for the harder trails or a big lift. Big tires and such don't get along with the IFS stuff as well, and the aftermarket support for stronger components isn't as readily available, nor as cheap.
JH
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
He was DQ'd? Why?
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
I don't understand the controversy. It's a competition. Unless they were willing to stop the clock, he did what he had to do.
EDIT: What happens when a NASCAR driver causes $100K in damage to a competitor's vehicle?
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Yeah if someone just stopped in the middle for no reason....?
Okay if he ran the PERSON over that's different. But yeah if he was already DQ'd....I dunno. If I was running it and was DQ'd I'd probably run the rest of it too just because I wanted to finish what I started - even if I couldn't win.
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Thanks guys. Chewing this around.
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Also remember that if you need more room to store stuff - you can always pull a little trailer. Then you wouldn't have such a huge rig on the trail. I'd never be happy with a burban or fullsize rig on the trails, but that's just me. Get what ya want
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Someone's gotta keep everyone on their toes around here! :lol:
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
Re: Just chatting - IFS lift
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