hilux suspension

[shawry82]

I want to lift my 02 hilux 2", anyone have any suggestions on what kit will be best?

[paw55h]

What you need is a 15" lift

[TDog]

Pretty open question mate.

It will all depend upon what kind of suspension you currently have, what kind of use the vehicle will get (IE extreme offroad, family tourer), what accessories you currently have mounted up front and what you plan to bolt on and what kind of load you regularly carry.

I have 03 Dual Cab with IFS with TJM steel bar, winch, UHF aerial and spotties up front. I went with a 2" EFS kit front and rear with the 300kg leaf's in the rear. I currently run an empty alloy tray but seems to ride ok. I plan to install a canopy etc so thats why i went this way. I also replaced the torsion bars because I had purchased the vehicle 2nd hand so I had no history on how it was treated.

One tip. Get a respectable 4x4 mechanic to do it for you. The amount of trouble they had in a vehicle of that age I simply would not have had the gear or time to sort it out. Be prepared for the cost to be higher than quoted as they find bits siezed up etc.

[shawry82]

thanks for the reply, I will be mainly towing a 5 metre boat with camping gear on board, the standard suspension I have on at the moment is sagged about 50 mm from standard when not loaded, the previous owner used to carry a heavy tool box in the back. I will do a little off road driving, but nothing to serious. My mate has just put ironman suspension on his hilux, he rates it, does anyone know much about ironman, I wont be towing all the time, I still need a comfortable ride for normal day to day driving, do I get foam cell or gas shocks?

[D4D luxy]

Seaaaaaaarch!!

[Noidea]

What you need is a 15" lift

With 47 Inch tyres




Mate do a SEARCH. This topic has been done to death a million times.

We even made the button red to stand out

[ultimate]

There isn't too much info on here regarding pre 05 Hiluxs. You will probably find more info on a generic forum like 4wdaction. Tdog pretty much has it all summed up though. Brand does play a big part but you need to find a suspension kit which suits your vehicle and application. Don't just copy what other people have done as it will not always work for your vehicle.

I recommend running a gas pressurised shock (either monotube or twin tube design) on Torsion bar vehicles. The gas pressure provides a faster reaction time which is needed to control the torsion bar properly. Foam cells are great on larger, heavier vehicles (e.g. Patrols) but don't provide anywhere near the same amount of control on an IFS Hilux.

Seized bits can be a bit of a problem with the older vehicles. We never actually work on a torsion bar Hilux or 4Runner without having a set of genuine adjuster bolts in stock. These are notorious for snapping especially if the torsion bars have been wound up by a previous owner. Talk to your local front end specialists and see what they recommend.

[9W6VX]

Brendan's right.

We have lots of info on post 2005 Hilux but not much info for pre 2005 models.

Sorry we can't be of much help. start with Brendan's recommendations.

[shawry82]

thanks for the info guys, people have different opinions, talked to a guy this afternoon at illawarra springs, he said he wouldnt touch the front ride height at all, he didnt think it was a good idea to adjust the torsion bars, he said adjusting the distance between bump stops can make it dangerous to drive, he seemed to know his stuff. so now I really dont know how im going to go about it.

[TDog]

thanks for the info guys, people have different opinions, talked to a guy this afternoon at illawarra springs, he said he wouldnt touch the front ride height at all, he didnt think it was a good idea to adjust the torsion bars, he said adjusting the distance between bump stops can make it dangerous to drive, he seemed to know his stuff. so now I really dont know how im going to go about it.

He is no doubt talking about the "easy" way some guys get a front lift. Basically, jump underneath with a big ass shifter or spanner and wind up the adjusting bolts on the Torsion bars. Easy enough to do. Just gives more tension on them which in turn lifts the front.

Trouble is, the Torsion bars aren't really designed to take that extra load, especially factory ones. Have heard of bars letting go with a bang and actually coming up through the floor into the cab! This is why when I did my 2" lift, I replaced the Torsion bars with new.
Not sure on his thinking with not touching the front suspension at all? Why lift the back to get better clearance if you don't get any better clearance on the front? Might as well just replace the leafs in the back with stock to save money and not lift it at all. The other reason to lift is to run bigger tyres. 2" lift will let you run 31"s easy and with the right rim offset, 33"s. Can't do that with no lift.

[ultimate]

thanks for the info guys, people have different opinions, talked to a guy this afternoon at illawarra springs, he said he wouldnt touch the front ride height at all, he didnt think it was a good idea to adjust the torsion bars, he said adjusting the distance between bump stops can make it dangerous to drive, he seemed to know his stuff. so now I really dont know how im going to go about it.

Did he see the vehicle is person? If the vehicle has already been adjusted, he is dead right. We often see vehicles which have already had a lift kit fitted or somebody has wound up the torsion bars. On these vehicles, you can't always get more height and a lot of the times we have to drop the height to get the right bump stop clearance. The general rule is a finger's gap to the top bump stop. This will provide adequate travel keeping the vehicle safe and stable both on and off road.

If he hasn't seen the vehicle and it is still standard height (and suspension), I can guarantee you that a good aftermarket kit will dramatically improve the safety and handling.

[shawry82]

he did see the vehicle, it is still standard, I think he was against compremising the handling of the car

[ultimate]

If the suspension is set up properly; you will not compromise the handling with a lift a kit. The improvement in handling is huge. I know this is based on the later model hilux, but have a look at the video below. We compared our hilux running 33" muddies to a standard hilux with all terrain tyres. The aftermarket suspension easily out handles the standard suspension even though it is much higher. Obviously a 2" kit isn't as extreme as this, but the principle is the same. Genuine suspension is built to a compromise and aftermarket gear will outperform it both on and off road.