[Themad1]

Hi all. New to the forum. I am looking at getting the trail blazer coil kit. Trail slayer conversion for a wide track. I'm in Qld. Woundering if A , it's a decent kit .B, can it be mod plated. C, is it worth getting the Hilux axle kit to run 35" tyres as I will be going twin locked and chomo axles and cv's in front and rear. I will be getting a fab shop to install kit as I'm hopeless with a welder

[Red89]

How long have you owned your Suzuki, its different to a GU and requires a different way of thinking when modding them
What were you hoping to achieve with the kit ? and the diff conversion ?

[Themad1]

I've had a few zooks in the past. Currently only have a straight rust free body. I scored a chassis last night. I want to build a solid reliable off road rig. The gu is a bit much to work on by myself. I'm after a decent suspension setup for one

[2stroker]

There was a Sierra ute for sale last year at the Gold Coast, Qld registered, (individually constructed). It was a Sierra body bolted on a bundera chassis full coils pretty cool rig.

[Gwagensteve]

Themad1, there isn't anywhere near enough information in your post to answer whether it's the right kit for you.

Fristly, I'm not familiar with the "trail blazer" coil kit. Do you have a link to it?

As for the trial slayer kit, I would imagine it would be very difficult to make the trail slayer kit legal in any state of Australia. There are a large number of pre fabricated parts, the shocks appear to be used as bump stops, and the wheelbase is significantly extended. There are a couple of things to start with. You would need to discuss this kit with the relevant authorities where you live, rather than consult the internet.

I'm a bit confused about "worth getting the hilux axle kit" - The trail slayer kit requires the use of hilux axles, so if you run the trail slayer, it's not really a question of whether front & rear cromo suzuki axles will do the job.

Speaking of the trail slayer kit, Trail Tough parts are generally very good. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, however, the trail slayer kit is a much more involved conversion than fitting some random part. From what I've seen of them, they look to be very focussed on crawling type use - they run with very little compression travel. If you intend building a car that can travel at speed, or with significant payload (as in going camping etc) then I'm not sure it's ever really going to work very well.

Whilst I'm sure it's possible to find a workshop to fit this kit for you, It's going to get VERY expensive. I'd imagine by the time you buy a US$3700 kit, ship it, buy axles, lockers, gears, wheels, tyres, driveshafts, bodywork, then seek approval, you'll be looking at around $10K. That's a lot of money for a car that isn't going to be good for all that much.

Steve.

[Themad1]

I would like to do a coil setup.$ 10k is not to bad a price. I am going to talk to a fab shop when I get back from work and see what they can do I was hoping there were other kits to do it. Instead of trying to piece one together.
it would cost me nearly double that to build a decent gu with the same power to weight.

[Gwagensteve]

Ah, now I'm getting a better picture. Don't take offence at this reply, You're positing in the newbie section, and as you're not able to carry out this work yourself, my guess is you're fairly new/inexperienced with major fabrication

Go and talk to a fab shop. Most fab shops would much rather build their own suspension than start with a kit imported from overseas that nobody has local experience with. QLD laws are pretty restrictive though - you might find out a legal coil conversion is pretty difficult, or you are committed to using a factory configuration (such as radius arms etc) to gain approval.

However, all of this isn't really relevant.

I guess you are chasing outright offroad capability?

A Sierra with a rear locker and 31's will outperform 95% of GU patrols off road. Add a front locker and some cromo and you're not even on the same plane of capability. You don't need a 100" wheelbase, 35's or thousands of dollars spent at a fab shop to outperform a GU. In fact, you might find spending all that money makes your car worse in some situations. I have a 100" WB Coiled, 35" tyred sierra and it's not really all that much more capable than Tanshi's leaf sprung LJ50 two stroke. Really, it's not. My car can carry more, and that makes it heavy, which makes it less capable, and my car is more comfortable, but it's still pretty uncomfortable, cramped, and noisy compared to a GU.

So how can a Sierra with 35's, coils and all this wheelbase be worse than a stock car?

Because the more built it is, the less you drive it. Capability is a bigger concept than driving a certain piece of track. GU's are capable because they can run 35"+ tyres, whilst still being daily driven, carrying a payload, cruising on the highway, towing a boat, and mostly not breaking down or breaking parts. There's also heaps of support for them. A sierra with hilux diffs and link suspension isn't going to be driven very much at all. It's going to slow, wobbly and annoying, or it's going to be broken and being worked on. And with a trail slayer kit, you're not going to be putting anything in it or carrying anything more than an esky and recovery gear anywhere.

A Sierra on 31's or at a pinch, 33's can still be a reliable a trustworthy car, depending on your driving style and how much time you are willing to put into maintenance and trouble shooting, but the further you stray from standard, the more time you spend chasing issues. Last trip out I broke a 300M axles shaft and killed a shock - and I trailered my car for the highway section of the trip. I reckon my car is pretty sorted and I've spent eight years or something working on it to where it is now. It's been a really long journey.

If you want to build something more capable than a patrol off road, you don't need thousands of dollars of a fab shops time in the car.
If you want a capable car you don't need to spend thousands of dollars at a fab shop

Just some thoughts.

Steve.

[Red89]

Themad1 wrote:

I would like to do a coil setup.$ 10k is not to bad a price. I am going to talk to a fab shop when I get back from work and see what they can do I was hoping there were other kits to do it. Instead of trying to piece one together.
it would cost me nearly double that to build a decent gu with the same power to weight.

As Steve said simply putting coils under it and bigger diffs and tyres isnt neccessarily going to make it any more capable then a car built for half that price tag. For 10 grand you should be able to pay a workshop to do a rear up front with off the shelf parts, 1.6 EFI conversion, TC gears, Cromoly axles, F+R lockers and 31's. You will have a reliable car that can be road driven to the tracks and back and if driven properly will out wheel a 30 grand plus Patrol.

[monley]

Red89 wrote:

Themad1 wrote:

I would like to do a coil setup.$ 10k is not to bad a price. I am going to talk to a fab shop when I get back from work and see what they can do I was hopin here were othon kits do it. Instead of trying piece one together.
it would cost me nearly double that to build a decent gu with the power to weight.

As Steve said simply putting coils under it and bigger diffs and tyres isnt no nessarily going to make it any more capable then a car built for half that price tag. For 10 grand you should be able to pay a workshop to do a rear up front with off the shelf parts, 1.6 EFI conversion, TC gears, Cromoly axles, F+R lockers and 31's. You will have a reliable car that can be road driven to the tracks and back and if driven properly will out wheel a 30 grand plus Patrol.

This.
I have also built a lwb seirra with coil rear and coilover front. I have done 90% of the work my self and have easily spent over 10k so I don't think 10k would go far if your paying someone. Red89 is spot on for what makes good capable seirra that can still be used as a all rounder. Mine will properly only see 1-2 trips a month as I know it's going to be a slow, heavy and average handling sierra but I still have a near stock one for day to day use and Its still capable and reliable all for under 2k.

[BlueSuzy]

Gwagensteve wrote:

So how can a Sierra with 35's, coils and all this wheelbase be worse than a stock car?

Because the more built it is, the less you drive it. A sierra with hilux diffs and link suspension isn't going to be driven very much at all. It's going to slow, wobbly and annoying, or it's going to be broken and being worked on.

Steve.

What?

[Gwagensteve]

I'll stand by my comments - there are very few built sierras that drive properly enough to be used regularly. A car you can't or won't use because it's too big/loose/wobbly/illegal/unreliable isn't better than a stock car.

Steve.

[SierraDan]

Yeah ^, i cant drive down the street with no lift and 31's without a defect so my Sierra has been shoved into the corner of the backyard. I have no interest in driving it now.

[BlueSuzy]

Fair enough

too big/loose/wobbly/illegal/unreliable
Its a zook/wrongsetup/engineered/same reliable components as my last one

Mine was built to be daily driven. Tell me the most reliable thing on any stock sierra that is driven offroad.

[jimny_timmy]

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