Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Kirbster
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by Kirbster »

So here is the (final?) update now that I have completed the installation of the suspension upgrade. There was bit of a delay fitting the Terrain Tamer (TT) bushes into the front sway bar arms and removing the polyurethane caster correction bushes, but that has now been done so I can give a more complete feedback report.

I'm extremely happy with the change that they TT suspension has brought to my vehicle and the change to drop boxes with the TT bushes has really made such an improvement to the drive quality. The entire package is like driving a new car off the show room floor. On my previous setup I would have the rear airbags permanently inflated at about 2.0bar and the vehicle would still have a slight lean when going through corners. Changing to the 500KG TT coils (from 300KG EFS coils) has allowed me to not depend on the airbags to keep the vehicle level and I don't have the lean going through the corners. Fitting the drop boxes made a noticeable difference in the feedback in the steering wheel in that the vehicle doesn't feel as "twitchy" anymore. I fitted the TT bushes to the front swing arms a few weeks after the major suspension fitment and also had to replace the bushes where the swing arm connects to the chassis, because they were found to be torn, and that change too made a noticeable difference to the drive quality. "How?", you may ask. Well, the feedback from the front wheels through the steering wheel is so much softer. With the polyurethane caster correction bushes you can almost feel every little bump on the road and that is most noticeable in corrugated roads and is very noticeable when driving with mud terrain tires on the blacktop, which is my situation. Having fitted the bushes I barely feel any of those bumps coming through the steering wheel.

I typically drive around town and on the highway with the Pro Shocks set at 8 on the rear and 6 in the front, where 1 is the softest and 8 is the hardest. I find that this setup is best for urban driving because you get less of the roll associated with a heavy lifted vehicle like mine. Initially I drove the vehicle set at 4 in the rear and 2 in the front and I could easily hit a speedbump at 60km/h and not even notice it. With this soft setting I did a test drive on a local farm road with a bit of corrugation and it felt like there was no corrugation at all and this was while I still had the poly' caster correction bushes, so I expect if I were to now repeat that exercise with the TT bushes fitted that the experience would be even better.

An aspect of the Pro Shocks that I really like is that it is easy to adjust the shock. Unlike the ARB BP-51 setup I don't need a special tool to make the adjustment to the Pro Shocks and the knob to make the adjustment is easily accessible, whereas the BP51 adjustment dials are located inside the coil on the front shocks and that will be challenging to change with a loaded vehicle compressing the rings of the coil close together. With the minimal space that I have in the rear due to the Brown Davis main tank that I have fitted I dont see how I would have been able to adjust the rear shock of a BP51 using the special tool.

There were some minor challenges during the fitment process such as:
  • The rear stone guards fitted to the Pro Shocks had to be removed. The Pro Shocks are actually designed for the Toyota Land Cruiser, but also fit the Patrol, with the exception that the rear stone guards need to be removed as there is not enough space for them to remain fitted without getting in the way of the vertical movement of the shock. Marinus from Terrain Tamer provided me with Steering Racks Boots that were easily cut and fitted to protect the stanchion, so remember to include this if you order the Pro Shocks.
  • I have a 63mm freeflow exhaust from Powerflow and the exhaust pipe was very close to the passenger side rear shock and was causing it to heat-up due to the radiant heat from the pipe. It was easily resolved by taking it to Powerflow who fitted a new section to the rear and rerouted it so that it was further away from the shock.
  • I have a Brown Davis long range tank fitted and it makes maximum use of the available space, which meant that the space for the fitment of the shocks was tighter than it would be if you had a OEM main fuel tank. The minimal space meant that we had to be very diligent in making sure that the braded hoses that connect the shock to the external reservoir would not get pinched by the coil. The hoses are connected to the sock and reservoir y means of threaded elbow joints and Marinus from TT confirmed that they could be loosed slightly and then rotated, which allowed us to route the hoses in such a way that they would not be pinched by the coils. What was interesting is that with the initial setup it looked like the hoses were safe until I parked the Troll on my driveway, which has a slight incline, and got under the car and noticed that the vehicle "floats" slightly backwards on the coils and this then meant that the braded hoses were coming into contact with the coils.
Below are the stats of my suspension lift. I have included the loaded and unloaded heights of the TT Pro Shocks, the stock Patrol height, and then the height on my previous EFS setup. Keep in mind that the Fully Loaded setup means that my vehicle weighs in at just below 4T and here you can see that I've got a 40mm lift in the front and a 25mm lift in the back and this is without having to inflate the airbags to keep the vehicle level. To add to this I have 35" Maxxis Razors fitted and I still have enough wheel travel, even though I dont have a crazy lift like I originally thought I needed.

TT (Fully Loaded)/TT Unloaded/Stock/EFS (Airbags @ 1bar):
Front Right: 610/615/570/590
Front Left: 610/605/570/590
Rear Right: 580/585/554/565
Rear Left: 580/590/554/565

One further comment on the 500KG coils from TT. We found that that were physically shorter than the 300KG EFS coils that I had and we were initially concerned that I would lose lift height, but as you can see this was not the case and I in fact gained 15mm height on all 4 corners of the vehicle and this is because the 500KG coils are better at keeping my heavier vehicle up.

In closing 2 comments on fitting the Drop Boxes:
  • The 4 inch drop boxes do not stick out below the body of the vehicle as much as you would think when you see the unfitted boxes. They maybe have a 2 inch profile that sticks out, but they are not the lowest part of the chassis and there would have to be very specific situations where they could fowl you up on an obstacle. If this is a concern then you could always opt for 3 or 4 inch sway bar setup.
  • When you fit the boxes you will also need to extend your sway bar links or buy adjustable sway bar links. You need to do this to keep your anti-roll bar in the correct orientation after fitting the boxes because the height of the sway bars drop away from the chassis to make them more horizontal, which is what you want, but this has an impact on the sway bar links.
In closing I'm extremely happy with the suspension upgrade that I have done and I would recommend it to anybody at anytime.
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- Previous 4x4: 2014 Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 dCI AT. ARB Suspension and ARB Rear Locker.
- Currently Towing: 2017 Conqueror Comfort Trailer with factory mounted bush awning.
- YouTube: "Simple Life Overlanding"
Kirbster
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by Kirbster »

A final, final update....

Today I had a 30mm and 20mm coil spacer from Terrain Tamer fitted to the rear and front respectively. I did this to give my vehicle a full 2 inch lift and to level it out after I took the measurements to determine the final lift after the suspension fitment and saw that I was short a few millimetres and not running level.

The TT spacers fitted in perfectly. I was worried that I would have a problem fitting them with the existing Boss Coil Tower Braces, but that proved to not be a problem.

Cheers
Hugh
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- Previous 4x4: 2014 Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 dCI AT. ARB Suspension and ARB Rear Locker.
- Currently Towing: 2017 Conqueror Comfort Trailer with factory mounted bush awning.
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graham1
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by graham1 »

Very interesting, and something I'll maybe look at, as mine is also a little higher in the front than the back with my new setup. :thumbup:
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Tinus lotz
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by Tinus lotz »

We have from 5 to 35mm spacers avaliable for that .
Looking good there dude
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by NoPressure »

I would like to know what wheel offsets are needed so that 35s don't rub on full flex with a 3inch lift? Are there any beadlock rims available that you would recommend?
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by hugejp »

I had 16" 8j Mickley Thompson rims fitted with 35" Coopers on my 4.8 & I currently have 35" Mickey Thompson Baja Claws fitted on std 16" wagon steelies(I think they are 8j) on my TD42...

On both I adjusted the steering full lock & no more issues, both have 3" suspensions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Kirbster
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Re: Upgrade to 3" lift on series 4 GU 4.8 Station Wagon. What do I need?

Post by Kirbster »

As per request from Kyle Reeves, I have updated the lift spec's after having added the spacers

TT (Fully Loaded)/TT Unloaded/Stock/EFS (Airbags @ 1bar)/spacers:
Front Right: 610/615/570/590/635
Front Left: 610/605/570/590/630
Rear Right: 580/585/554/565/615
Rear Left: 580/590/554/565/600

On average, I now have about a 2.5" lift back and front after having added the spacers. as expected the right rides a bit higher to cater for the driver sitting on the right.
- Previous 4x4: 2014 Nissan Pathfinder 2.5 dCI AT. ARB Suspension and ARB Rear Locker.
- Currently Towing: 2017 Conqueror Comfort Trailer with factory mounted bush awning.
- YouTube: "Simple Life Overlanding"
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