compromise

[lambert]

in all things there is a compromise such is the nature of things.

in terms of suspension which is better to have more of, compression or droop? i know it depends on lots of variables but in general terms?

[Rich_P]

Whatever is required to keep the wheels in good contact of the ground.  :P

[Range Rover Blues]

I'm not quite sure what you are driving at.  Compression will be limited by the weight of your truck and the stiffness of your springs, I don't think it's ideal to intentionally have the axle hitting the bump stops on articulation.

Droop is probably the easiest to increase though, with longer shocks, even if it means the coil has left the axle and very little weight is still on the wheel in question.  If the wheel is on the floor you will have some grip and the descent is better controlled as the shock is involved all the time, better than having a wheel drop to earth form a foot or more up I think.

On balance though you will get the same amount of comression on one side as you get rebound on the other, up until your springs dislocate, assuming a constant spring rate.  At that point the compressed wheel will stay still and the drooping one will continue until the shock is fully extended, so you need to ensure there is a balance between the 2

[Drift]

Is this for IFS or a live axle?

[lambert]

right. at the moment i have oversized tyres and a nominal 2inch lift on the back end which is live. the dampers just about keep some tension in the springs on full droop, however when compressed the tyres contact the inner arches with about 3 inch of air between the bump stops. on the front ifs the torsion bars have been tightened to level the body. there is a bit of droop left but not masses, there is pplentty of compression but not enough for tyre contact.
in the not too distant future i''m looking to open out the bottoms of the arches to fit 35" tyres on the same spring height(possibly with some variation of xsprings) but at the same time re fab the rear bump mounts and lengthen the dampers to allow the rear to droop more. with the front being ifs as long as i can still steer and have some articulation i'm not so worried.

so from what has been said intentionally touching bump stops is not good?

[Drift]

On the rear depending on the shocks you may need to increase the size of your bump stops this will also stop the wheels hitting the arches.

On my IFS Ive cranked up the torsion bars and flipped the upper ball joints to get the camber back and trimmed the upper bump stop to gain more down travel that was lost after turning up the torsion bars, I have +2" shocks on the front as well as the rear.

The main limiting factor on the front is the angles of the CV joints after a lift, this can be avoided though with a Diff drop, relocating the mounting for the front diff to lessen the angles on the CV joints.
No sure what the Maverick but it works for the Frontera.

[lambert]

not wishing to sound dense but flipping the top ball joints, how does that work?

[Mudlark]

Flipping in this sense is American and simply means moving the ball joint from seating on the top of the upper wishbone arm to seating on the bottom of it


The same term is used in many American mods — our rear axle spring over on leaf springs would be called flipping the axle in America

[lambert]

ah i was beginig to think it was rude, in a similar way to flipping avians! [-X

[Drift]

 :shock: :lol: :lol:

It gives you some camber back when you crank up the torsion bars and as a bonus you get about 10mm more down travel on the front, quite a few fronteras have that mod, you can also purchase ball joint spacers to move it further down but these are only available from the USA,  though I know a couple who make their own.

Adding the ball joint spacer you may need to re index the torsion bars to gain even more lift, buts as the thread title says its all a compromise with IFS.

[Range Rover Blues]

Is the IFS "axle" separate from the chassis? (like, dare I say ot, the Cortina).  In which case you could drop the whole subframe away from the chassis.  Yes I know that won't increase the diff clearance any but it will increase breakover angle, aproach angle and wheelarch clearance.

If not I'd suggest at some point a body lift might be in order, there must surely come a point when cranking up the front IFS any further just becomes daft :?

As for bump stops, well as the man said above they should prevent the wheels getting to the arches for sure, but as I said before if you regularly hit the bump stops then your springs are too soft, as soon axle axle meets rubber you loose flexibilty which ultimately can effect grip :oops: