Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloke
Yes, is the problem. Our market is flooded with product catering for the majority with no consideration for any other options. Most people when surveyed, whether they prefer a luxurious ride of a Fairlane or a sporty firm ride of an XR6. Their answer is XR6. Therefor the manufacturers make to suit marketing results with a "one size fits all approach". The 10% of people wanting a nice ride, suffer. All 2" lifted springs are designed to lift the weight of the vehicle + support 20% extra loading.
So for the people out there just wanting a pure 4x4 performance suspension lift and a better ride, there's nothing available. Plenty of rigs on the road who never carry anything and are set up for pure 4x4 (not touring with bars, bottles, boxes and 100 bits of equipment hanging off their rigs weighing them down).
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That might factor into it re; coils and lift kits, but it's really/mostly an engineering vs cost issue.
Making the stock gear (control arms, steering, etc.) "taller" without increasing the spring rate means making the coils physically longer. But to be long-enough to get say 50mm lift at rest, means increasing the unloaded length significantly.
So you end up with (and need.) more travel in both directions, but there isn't much extra available with stock arms and steering before you start stressing balljoints, CVs, tierods, etc.
A cheap and sometimes appropriate solution is to use extended bumpstops and/or straps to limit drop, to stop the longer coils from slamming everything to full-extension whenever the suspension is unloaded. Fine for a rally car or comp-truck, but not too comfortable for touring with a family.
Progressive rate coils help, but then have their own nuances.
Plus there's limits of how much travel you can get from shocks and struts that will fit in the stock mounts, without bottoming out of over-extending.
Obviously there are some clever solutions, but they add to the cost.
With new coils and shocks you can only really raise the resting point of the car higher up the available travel. Higher you go, the less rebound you have left, eventually making for a harsh ride.
It was a lot easier with front and rear leaf springs... albeit a lot wobblier too
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That said, I've had the same experience with EFS shocks in a couple of other cars. Way too stiff.
2006 Jeep WH Grand Cherokee
Sargent Gutsy
SOLD 06 Limited G/C QuadraDrive II Lovells 2"Lift +30 rims 265/70/17 Imported Saguaro Bar Stedi
