[Neesmo31]

Hey all, basically my boss has asked me to do up his SJ50 SWB Sierra - now coming from a Patrol background a few things are new to me that I require a bit of guidance.

Basically I have an open palette with this car, so it will get some suspension, body, interior, wheel & driveline modifications. Going to give the G13A a onceover to ensure its mechanically reliable and focus on the handling/suspension to do the hard work.

Now, a few things in order of location -

Suspension:
- Front shock mounts, is it necessary to run extended shock towers to handle a bigger lift?
- Rear shock mounts, has anyone changed the design on these ie run to the diff or custom brackets on the body as there doesn't appear to be much room and the lower mount plate for the leafs looks weak to some degree.
- 2" extended shackles and 1-2" leafs be ideal? (looking to retain diff under springs)

Driveline:
- What ratios do people recommend for around a 30" tyre, and when they do a 'ratio swap' is that purely in the diffs or only a transfer case low range reduction?
- Will be ARB airlocked front...

Tyres:
- What rim offset are people having the most luck with on the Sierra's and will a 30-31" tyre not be too large for this car?

Sorry for the apparent noob questions but yeah this is the first time I have really had a good look over a Sierra and wanted to know a few ins and outs before I start heavily looking into this.

Appreciate the feedback guys and hopefully once this kicks off I will put up a bit of a build thread.

[J--A--C--K]

Re suspension , if your able to swap shock towers ect , have a search for RUF ,(rear leafs up front )
Involves chassis extension and relocating shocks and bump stops. But gives good benifet's
You can narrow the spring mounts at the same time to increase flex and turning radius.

Shackles are not really and ideal thing. There good to get the rear to match the RUF hight ect.
There are many gear options , generally transfer is best cause it will lowere lowrange a lot more.
Low range off road has most the sets, I run 4.9s with 30's it pretty much bring high range back to stock and gives a good amount of reduction in low range.
But there are others that like other things , 5.4/6.4/6.5 ect.
To large comes down to how much your prepared to do.
Any larger than 30's and you would want to look at cromo cvs
With a frot locker you may want to look at them anyway , cause if your spending the money on an arb , may as well by the cromos and then a rear locker for the from as the cromos will be 26 spline like the rear and the fronts are 22.

I hope this helps a bit.
Sorry if it's hard to read , I typed this on my phone.
And there are lots of people here that will know more.
Have a look through the rigs section there are plenty of great cars and right ups.

[jdk81]

Sorry, on my phone too

If you are locking the front, get double tough chromos etc in wide track diffs, busting cvs and making your friends wait because your too cheap for chromos gets old fast.
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/suzuki/s ... pline.html

Shackle lift will suck ass, extended shackles mess with handling and castor and are rarely needed.

You can modify the front and rear shock mounts.
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/suzuki/s ... 183-a.html

Where the shocks attach to the spring pads isn't a problem.

Gearing - you can swap diff gears or transfer gears. Sierra transfer gears change high and low.
6.5 transfer gears are the most loved, due to the lifetime warranty and deepness of gearing.
Oodles of gearing options and combos
diff gears - 3.7, 3.9, 4.3, 4.57, 4.625, 4.875, 5.12
xfer 1.3, 1.0l, 4.16, 4.9, 5.14, 6.4 and 6.5
http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/suzuki/s ... -case.html

Popular build style from a few years back
2" body lift
2" Suspension lift
15x7 -13mm offset and 31x10.5
And some form of gearing to suit.
it works, its reliable, but current thinking is its too high, too much lift and tyres arent the best performers. But It will work, it will work well. It will have its limits, and people always look for more.

Current thinking is taller skinnier tyres, guard cutting, rear spring up front, and longer leaf in rear, running no lift.

G16b engine is most preferred and gearbox choice for more built rigs is swinging towards auto.
The g13s are ok, but carbys are horrible.

A build for 30" tyres is very minimal/tame, basically building a daily/tourer.
Strength wise, stock sierra widetrack diffs hold up well with 31s, you can run 33s if gentle etc

It really depends on budget and what its going to be built for.

[jdk81]

A well built, well driven locked sierra on 30/31s will run rings around a lot of bigger rigs on 35s

[Neesmo31]

Hmm, thanks for the help straight up guys. Will continue to read a bit more.

So shackles are a no go then for on road manners?

Has anyone tried parabolic leafs for the sierras and to what conclusion did they reach?

I have been reading regarding the transfer gears, low + high reduction will help with the tyres (cheers lads)

Keep up the good info coming in guys appreciate it

[jdk81]

Have a play with gearing
http://www.lepayne.com/gears.html

Extended shackles only really have their place in conjunction with longer leaves being installed and is a crucial aspect of getting them to work correctly.
The castor needs to be accounted for.

Just slapping longer shackles in for lift is a simple cost effective hillbilly solution.
It's an obvious change, obviously illegal, and it creates a lot of problems most people who use them don't care about.

Benefit of a shackle extension is it adds lift, and pretty much everything else get's worse.

No parabolic leaves available, and I cant see it worth trying really.
Suzuki owners are cheap.

Rear springs up front (RUF) work very well, as they are long and when stripped down a bit are very soft.
You can do a RUF without adding lift, it really improves ride comfort, handling and flex.
There a few chassis mods required, depending on degrees of hackness you want to perform.
JrZook's stealth RUF works well, coupled with the ford shock mounts I linked would be a good solution to get the front working very well, and not looking ghetto/hill billy fab.
You may need longer shackles to make it work, but can be done with stock shackles (advised for better handling).
I used stock rear springs, with load leaf and few taken out, and a front mid leaf inserted.

In the rear people generally run aftermarket springs, some go for longer springs etc
I believe there is a mazda wagon spring that fits, feroza springs, and some opt for hilux springs in the rear (required hangers and few bits of trickery to get to work).
I used hilux IFS rear springs (using 3), they are very long, but work very well.
Car is much smoother than before, and it flexes very well.

Long flat springs make the vehicle much more pleasant to drive, you can configure the same up travel and a lot more down travel.

To get a longer shock in the rear, you can slant the shock over a little more.
This allows you to use a more readily available stiffer longer shock. (there's a commodore/hiace option people talk about, I cant recall which goes into the rear off the top of my head)

If you want to drastically improve handling, the addition of a panhard transforms the sierra.
A panhard is not required in a leaf sprung rig, but really improves steering finesse and road handling
A range rover panhard can be made to fit, I used one I made myself.

Retaining the factory swaybar (which you can disconnect prior to wheeling) will make your car a lot better on the road.
Im planning to get some sway bars back into mine.
JrZook uses his factory sway bar if im not mistaken.

It really depends what you plan to drive, how much you plan to mod, what your fab skills are like, and how deep your pockets are
hint: providing some info about the aforementioned would be to your benefit