[pig mad]

Ok seems silly to me but my mate asked me to look into it for him.
He has a siera 94 model hard top for pig shooting at the moment it has 5.5 inch lifted suspension on it but my mate winges its to ruff so he convinced me to pull 2 smallest leafs out of the back and he snapped a spring on the weekend cause he will go flat through the ruff stuff chasing pigs.
I tell him he already has the best and nothing is going to work how he wants it but thought id join your forum and ask for advice.
is there a magical cure for this mad man hahaha???

[jonno_racing]

Not 5.5 inches. why does he need it so tall?

[henno]

Tell him to buy a Can-Am.

[alien]

sounds like his driving style needs adjusting to me...

[pezz]

You say he has heaps of cash, ultra4 time!

[pig mad]

I told him to get a quad but he likes being enclosed so doesn't get cooked from the sun or eat bulldust and likes to be able to take his boy with him.
I know the driving style needs changing but its not gonna happen.
He trashed all his bushes in about 10 hunts. He is a terrible driver.

what is ultra4?

He went 5.5 inch on someone elses advice.

[shep]

What size tyres does he have/want?

[pig mad]

Im not sure on the tyres but just googled ultra 4 and that is what he needs suspension like that. Would a coil conversion be better than leaves?

[henno]

Here we go...

[pig mad]

The wheels only look same size as my cruiser wheels so not to big but he did ask if his Wheels will fit if he gos to 2 inch ruf setup as was sugested on other post about same thing I didnt mean to start 2 just thought first was not aloud for some reason

[pig mad]

31 inch wheels

[Chester]

He better go SPOA and get a Commodore V6 too

[pig mad]

Whats spoa ? He doesnt want to change the engine just wants suspension that doesnt throw you at the roof when your chasing pigs over the ruff shit.
Dont think you need to be funny cunts I drive a v8 cruiser with 2 in lift wrangler muddys front and rear diff locks 300 litres of fuel tanks 70 litre water tank with switch operated pump and a decent navigation/stereo system I just dont own a suzuki so thought id ask for an honest opinion from suzuki fanatics like your selves.
Any help appreciated and I dont mind jokes I can understand but carry on like kids and ill tell you get fucked pretty quick...

[henno]

No need to get so easily offended; the jokes really aren't at your expense. It's just that the same questions pop up a lot regarding huge amounts of lift, huge tyres, coil conversions, and all manner of "bigger is better" ideas that don't always add capability or driveability... particularly with zooks.

[henno]

SPOA = Spring Over Axle, by the way.

[pig mad]

Yeah right thanks for the explanation I use to regular pig hunting forums and pit bull forums im use to arguing with fools that think your full of shit and I do understand how same questions pop up often which is why I left the hunting forums but my mate doesnt have time to look for options and I offered to do it for him I found the options samuri coil conversion, spring over axle (which I think I might do with my scat to fit the 16 inch split rims I searched and suggested the ruf conversion as was suggested to me but I still am curious about the coil conversion especially after seeing the ultra 4 cars on you tube.

[alien]

With a sierra, you'll get way more comfort out of dropping your tyre pressures than most suspensions mods.... this however would affect how fast you go, and opens you up to staking sidewalls etc.

IMO:
Run some slightly larger tyres so you can air down a bit without losing clearance.
Invest in decent seats.
Buy some airplane lap belts (Ebay) to install to keep your asses in the seats.
Install progressive bump stops so its less jolting when you hit them.

Anything else you do is going to seriously compromise the reliability of the car if its being driven as hard as it sounds it is.

[pig mad]

Thankyou. It is being flogged id say he would not have spent 20 days hunting in it since he got the 5 inch lift kit and all the bushes are gone.

[shep]

pig mad wrote:

Dont think you need to be funny cunts I drive a v8 cruiser with 2 in lift wrangler muddys front and rear diff locks 300 litres of fuel tanks 70 litre water tank with switch operated pump and a decent navigation/...

Sounds like my work car except I have another 100ltr of fuel, UHF, 2x VHF, HF, sat phone 600ltr water tank with a Honda motor and twin impeller Davy pump plus red/blue flashing lights and a siren.

It's a piece of shit, my jimny is massively better in the bush and is a crap load more cumfy.

[pig mad]

At the moment it is road registered but said he is happy to do anything to make it better he has a very good welder fabricator working for him full time so any conversion kits will be easy to put in.

[Gwagensteve]

pig mad, You're going to have to do some searching, and some research of your own before you keep asking questions that can't really be answered. If you put the time in to researching this stuff, you'll realise how you're coming across in these threads you've started.

Firstly, It might be that your mate isn't being realistic with his needs or expectations. A suzuki isn't a race car, and it's not a side by side either. Principally, a sierra with largish tyres on it has a high unsprung weight compared to sprung weight. That generally means it's hard to make the suspension plush because the weight of the axles and tyres influences the rest of the car too much.

To get a soft ride you need a low spring rate. that's a challenge because you need body control as well, and unlike a cruiser or something heavy, a sierra doesn't have enough wheel travel and weight to sit deeply into its suspension stroke - end result is that the car tends to either top or bottom out quite easily. This is a problem with both leaves and coils.

It's possible to build a coil conversion that has reasonable compression travel and total wheel travel, but it's complex and very time consuming. It's also pretty easy to screw it up and have a car that handles very poorly. You could start with a conversion kit like a trail slayer, (search for trail tough trail slayer) but this kit is predominantly designed for crawling and won't ride well at speed in melon hole country- that's not what it's designed for. It also adds even more unsprung weight with the use of hilux axles, which aren't relevant for your application.

Looking at the suspension performance of an ultra4 car and trying to replicate it with a sierra is pretty much impossible. Personally, I don't rate the suspension performance of ultra4 cars at speed - for the same reason that Sierra's don't ride all that well - high unsprung weight. It's why there's a push for IFS ultra4 cars, to improve suspension performance at speed.

In truth, it sounds like your mate needs a side by side (or UTV) like a Polaris. It will soak up the hits much better than a sierra ever could. (assuming you're not using it on public roads) they are about the same size, and would be ideal to shoot out of.

If he's adamant he wants to stay with the Sierra, then throw out that calmini rubbish. Build a RUF (Rear springs Up Front)and maybe run some air bumps. The key is slowing the axle down as it approaches full compression and preventing it rebounding too fast, so soft springs, high rebound damping, and air bumps will help no end. RUF is important as the longer leaves have a slower resonant frequency. That means that the ride isn't as choppy, even if the spring rate is the same as a front spring.

Ruthless should be able to add more specific information - he's probably done more to tune Sierra leaves for speed work than anyone. I can't find the build thread for his LWB right now, but he's currently building a race patrol with a sierra cab on it with some pretty trick suspension parts, but that's a patrol, not a sierra, so it's not strictly relevant for this thread. His LWB was pretty close to what you need IMHO, if mate wants to stick with the sierra.

Whilst I'm not holding up my car as an example of something that works well at speed, have a look at my build thread for the work involved in a coil conversion.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13839

My car is set up with limited compression travel due to its use and tyre size, but with the front radius arms flipped under the axle (as they normally are) and smaller tyres, would have maybe 4-5" of compression travel in the front which would be ideal, it's an epic amount of work though, all up, and whilst there are plenty of advantages to using coils, ride isn't really one of them - my car doesn't really ride that much better than a well set up leaf sprung car.

[Gwagensteve]

Oh, as evidence that the coil conversions available aren't designed for your application, I'm yet to see one that properly addresses bumpstops/compression travel. The trail slayer, for example, uses the shocks as bumpstops, and many of the others run short springs run under the chassis These "conversions" are primarily intended for crawling type use, not high speed work.

SPOA will not improve the ride. A SPOA car has to run a higher spring rate than a standard suspension configuration, so the ride won't be as good. Total wheel travel isn't increased over standard either - all it is lift - not good. To check out whats required to build SPOA properly (and it's NOT a kit out of the US) check Aliens thread.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22354

[Mike57]

Take a look at some of the pig shooting vehicles in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1931&start=630

[pig mad]

Have seen plenty of hiluxs out here with spoa jobs I was thinking id do it to mine cause I dont have money to buy fancy suspension and if I can keep it cheap I wont get up set when I kill it.
That little tray back of yours would be awesome I love it do you want to sell it?
Like I say he has coin he will pay someone else to put it in.

[alien]

Hilux's come factory SPOA =)

Like Steve said - SPOA just adds lift, it does not soften the ride. I did that in mine by running massive leaves dead flat.

[pig mad]

He wants to do up the sierra he has his mind set on it I tried to convunce him to go atv or side by side but he wants what he wants.
Tell me how to post pics (fast dont want to wait ages to upload) and ill show you pigs hahaha and my rigs.

[pig mad]

Yrah with my scat I just want to put 16 inch splits I hunt with dogs I dont need to go fast and as I say my scat cost 300 I will push it on the flinders and walk home when it dies hahaha

[pig mad]

Heres an average load

[pig mad]

Few pigs and 1 of my old contraptions the shredder swb cruiser wiring and cooling became an issue and to heavy to tow around.

[pig mad]

And those wheels on the shredder they are the 1s in the shed I want to put on my scat which is why I want to change the stud pattern and do a spoa.