[simon vincent]

I have just purchased a stock standard coil sprung 1996 Sierra. Drove our local sand beach on Sunday and the steering was all over the place.
I am going to get mudders and do lifts etc in time but should I be getting a RTC damper also? If so - what will fit my vehicle? Do I just buy the damper or do I need a full kit? Do they come with fitting directions? Are the ones that are fitted to Sierras with leaf springs differ to coils? Lots of questions but limited budget so want to do things right.
If someone has a picture of their fitted damper - that would be great thanks.

[Ausuki]

define all over the place, and was this onl the seand or the drive to and from the beach?
I would make sure the wheel alignment is correct and the king pins and steering linkages are in good nick,
if your caster and wheel alignment are correct you wont need a rtc dampener

[simon vincent]

Sorry - just on the sand. I have seen many older Suki's with a damper but nothing in the 1996 range

[Ausuki]

Gwagensteve explains it better than i could here

http://auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=41733&hilit=rtc

[christover1]

Sand driving can be like that, depends on the sand.
Dropping tyre pressures is a good idea on sand, that will help with control.
Newer models weren't fitted with dampers,
and if everything in steering is in good condition, they are not needed.
Be a good idea to get whole car safety checked anyway, if you not had it long.

[Bazuka]

If it is only happening on the sand surly that tells you that the steering is fine, it is the effect of sand on the steering? I would expect with small areas of softer and harder sand, more water logged and dry sand, compact and loose sand, ruts etc that steering would be a bit all over the place... My advice would be slow down then it wont worry you... Or stay off the beach, it only gives zuks cancer anyway.

[simon vincent]

Fair call, it's dry loose deep sand with dropped tyre pressure too. Thanks for the head up on newer models not having the need for a damper, allows me to put money elsewhere.

[simon vincent]

Hi all - after some advice on a suspension lift for my standard 96 Sierra.............what should I get when it comes to value for money when raising the suspension? Should I lift the body too? Will lifting the suspension cause any steering issues with castor or camber and if so - what else do I have to purchase to combat that. Cheers, Simon.

[Gwagensteve]

There are very few options to lift a coil sprung sierra. I think there is an Ultima kit for 2" of lift available on line. There is very little else.
Offset caster bushes are available to correct caster, but I don't recommend them- they increase roll stiffness, already a problem with the coil sierra, and lead to broken mounts.

A body lift is easy to fit and cheap, but does a completely different job - a body lift is used to help with the fitment of larger tyres. That's it's only purpose.

Steve.

[Ausuki]

only lift it as high as required to fit the size tyres you want to run

[simon vincent]

Ok, if I got a 2" body lift, what size tyre would that allow me to fit?

[Gwagensteve]

A 31" tyre will clear with a 2" body lift and some minor guard work (just hammering seams etc)

HOWEVER

You will have to address the gearing, generally this involves replacing the chain drive transfer case with a gear driven transfer case from a leaf sprung sierra, and replacing the gears with a lower ratio gearset like 4.1 gears.

The car really won't be pleasant to drive with 31's and stock gearing.

Steve.

[greenzook89]

I run the king springs/ultima shock combo on mine, cost 500 bucks, and gives approximately 40mm lift. I didn't worry about castor bushes. I don't get any steering wobble at all. The steering dampner off a leafy won't fit a coily as there are no mounts, however tough dog do a kit in normal or rtc. Hit up ebay and have a look. I think they are around 200 bucks, my mate put one in his jimny and was easy to fit and worked well.

I run 235 muddies on mine and the afore mentioned lift and its great for my needs. (and outwheels my mates jeeps :armsup: ) you could lift it with a body lift but i personally don't like them. remember low is the new high when it comes to lift.

To be honest any more than that get a leafy, as most coily upgrades end there and anything else will be custom.

[christover1]

Coil spacers could exist for these, worth a look into.

[greenzook89]

Yeah Im pretty sure they do.

[Gwagensteve]

greenzook89 wrote:

I run 235 muddies on mine and the afore mentioned lift and its great for my needs. (and outwheels my mates jeeps :armsup: ) you could lift it with a body lift but i personally don't like them. remember low is the new high when it comes to lift.

This is true, however, a car with stock suspenion and a 50mm body lift will have a lower COG than a car with a 40mm suspension lift, so whilst low is the new lift, that's because a low COG is better than a high COG, and BL's raise COG less than a equivalent height suspension lift.... and the car with stock suspension with a 50mm BL will be able to fit a bigger tyre than the car with a 50mm suspension lift, which, in theory, can't fit any bigger tyre than a car with stock suspension.

greenzook89 wrote:

To be honest any more than that get a leafy, as most coily upgrades end there and anything else will be custom.

True this too.

Steve.

[greenzook89]

Yeah good point, i have just always gone for a suspension lift as it lifts everything up out of the way a bit more, and anymore than a 30 inch tyre in a ungeared Zook is a drama in my experience.

Just my 2 cents.

[Gwagensteve]

Fair call - I consider tyres doing that job, and body lift, bumpstop spacing and guard work all support the tyre size required to get the clearance needed.

In my book, suspension lift is there to provide room for bumpstop spacing, or to provide compression travel for travel at speed. In my opinion, suspension lift doesn't do much at all to assist capability. Neither do coil spacers in my book - in short, I think that suspension lift is greatly overrated.

Steve.

[greenzook89]

Probably because most people want their car to look like a monster truck and aren't concerned with capability. Some of the most capable Suzukis I've seen have not been massively lifted.

[Ausuki]

but if you need to replace shagged out 20yo suspension, a bit of lift can be very tempting

[Gwagensteve]

Absolutely, and I'm not claiming that some amount of lift isn't desirable, on balance, however, more lift always entails more compromise in vehicle behaviour, on and off road.

Steve.