Be Kind Please?

[shokenore]

Hi All
Anybody recently done a 2'' lift on their 2.4 ?
Roughly how much did you shell out? (lifting blocks new springs new shocks)
Just waying up the options between doing this and perhaps selling the surf and getting a range rover. l

[TonyN]

body lift or suspension lift?

Are you fitting it yourself or paying someone.

Body lifts are cheaper, (£60-100) suspension lifts are nicer, (£250 ish for rear coils and 4 shocks)

Labour is similar for either, can't speak for others but £150-200 is my normal rate.

How does a 2" lift alter whether a Strange Rover is needed or not? Either is still far better IMHO.

[Dara]

dont buy a range rover you'll regret it an want the surf back haha.
body lift or suspension lift are both easy...you should be able to manage either yourself with basic tools spanners sockets spring clamps trolley jack axle stands etc

[animal]

I've done 3 bodylifts now.
2" lift kit £69 annd 3hours work

2" suspension lift is about £80 for springs, £70 for a pair of extended shocks, and a few hours work fitting it

[shokenore]

Wow , thanks for the quick response .
The main reason for changing the shocks was that after nearly 20 years use I would guess that the original shocks are shall we say not exactly factory fresh . I believe the 'hard / soft' button still has some effect but how it originally was I would have no idea.

I was looking at finding and fitting air shocks/air bags but almost fell off my seat when I saw how much they would cost.Hence the strange rover route.

Now I fully understand the concept of lifting the body higher off the chassis , well apart from dropping the rad ?
But I would have to say that I am confused by the suspension lift? Surely if I was to fit a shock that was 2" longer wouldn't it just compress under the weight and be harder?

With fitting new shocks the main advantage that I that I would want would be a smoother ride.It is hardly what I would call comfortable I think jarring would be more descriptive. I so want to take the surf off road but as it stands I don't think I could afford the dentist bills
So I will defer to those of you that have the experience to advise me.

[Rustinho]

But I would have to say that I am confused by the suspension lift? Surely if I was to fit a shock that was 2" longer wouldn't it just compress under the weight and be harder?

With fitting new shocks the main advantage that I that I would want would be a smoother ride.It is hardly what I would call comfortable I think jarring would be more descriptive. I so want to take the surf off road but as it stands I don't think I could afford the dentist bills
So I will defer to those of you that have the experience to advise me.

Righto, my thoughts on suspension lifts having done only the one myself:

If you were to choose the Roughtrax +2" springs they have a similar spring rate to the original springs. I fitted them to my truck and it just felt a lot better than the tired old springs. Really comfortable. Firm but not overly so.

If you were to choose the +3" Landcruiser springs, the word seems to be that they are very firm indeed. (Search the forum for more info - there are tons of peoples experiences to read)

Personally I went for the Roughtrax springs because I didn't want an overly harsh ride.

Given that shock absorbers just damp the oscillations & absorb the energy in the truck bouncing up and down, as long as they're designed for the Surf/4runner there shouldn't really be a vast difference between them for on-road use.

Again, I went down the Roughtrax route & fitted the Monroe +2" shock absorbers.

In terms of the front of the truck the "springs" are the torsion bars (no coil springs up front on a 2nd gen Surf). If you just wind up the torsion bars to match the ride height at the rear it should be fine - no need to replace these usually (although I did pick up a cheap pair of new torsion bars off fleabay that I haven't got around to fitting yet! They were even still in their original packaging...)

Dropping the radiator is needed on a 2.4 Surf because the radiator cap needs to be higher than the top of the radiator. It'll make sense if you look in the engine bay and see that the radiator is bolted to the body and the engine is bolted to the chassis. Again, pretty easy to do. You can either make a set of 4 rad drop brackets (or get someone else on the forum to make some up for you) or you might be able to fit the radiator 2" lower without needing the brackets depending on what holes line up on your rad/truck.

If you hunt around the forum and the following few sites I reckon you should be able to find most info that you need and there are tons of helpful folks on the forum to answer any questions you might have (or even be willing to lend a hand if you're local-ish to them!)

http://toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/torsion_bars/

http://toyota.off-road.com/trucks-4x...ent-19258.html

http://daemon4x4.org/tech/hiluxsurf/

http://www.hiluxsurf.eu/

http://www.hiluxsurf.net/index1.htm

Good luck with the lifts & a Surf has got to be better than a Range Rover of similar vintage or price. I saw some proper dogs while I was looking at offroaders before I settled on my Surf.

[BioHazard]

We used to do tech weekends a while back but they dried up due to lack of interest.....


the suspension lift ain't too hard if you have the area to do it in

[shokenore]

That is exactly what I was after many thanks,
All the information I require and all the web links have been saved to my browser.

I will have a good look round the suspension today whilst doing the oil/filter change and charging the air con.

Once again many thanks.