question about coilovers and custom long arms

could some explain exactly what coilovers are compared to normal sprngs and shocks..

i decided to go a whole new route with building my xj up and now im not going to be installin a lift for a couple months but i want to start planning exactly what im going to do..

I was looking a jeeps wiht coilovers and the articulation you get is insane..i couldnt find much information aobut what exatly they are or what mods need to be done to a jeep if they are installed

I was thinking about going with around 6inches of lift and 33s or 35s

im also very interested in fabricating my own long arm links but couldnt find and really good write ups on building them on a budget but i know it can be done..

thanks

James

Think of coilovers as a shock and spring contained in one package.
Not exactly a "bolt-on" mod for XJs.
Read here:

• BillaVista's Coil Over Bible Part 1
• BillaVista's Coil Over Bible Part 2

That should answer most if not all of your coilover questions.
Building links on a budget is hard, you have to know where to cut corners and where you can't. I severly underestimated the cost of mine. I budgeted $500 for the rear links and blew that out of the water one joints and tube adapters alone. I've still got to by some 2.0" 0.375" wall tubing for my lowers and 1.75" 0.25" wall for my uppers, that ain't gonna be cheap either.

Do some searching and you'll find a TON of information out there. Custom fab doesn't have to be XJ specific for you to get ideas and learn about it, heck thats why it is custom.

first off, you should checkout pirate4x4s tech section for custom link fabrication
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/

second, about coilovers... its basically a coil spring and shock absorber combined into one...
heres an insanely long, detailed and math oriented tech article,
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/coilovers/Part_1/
cant read it all the way through in one sitting i bet!
theres even a part 2!
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/coilovers/Part_2/
edit: its soo good, you wanna post it twice!

lookie! new pirate tech article, and it showcases a coilover!
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Ballistic_Shocks/

xcm said:

lookie! new pirate tech article, and it showcases a coilover!
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Ballistic_Shocks/

Click to expand...

Not to get to far off topic but...
The Ballistic Fab shocks are nice with two major (to me anyway) issues. First, the odd body diameter means odd sliders that won't work with others, still use 2.5" ID coils though. Second only one (well two if you count the real manufacture of them, ADS Machine) place to get parts.
If it wasn't for those two things I'd probably have a pair of them sitting on my self rather than the SAWs I've got now. I just couldn't get over those two things and ended up going with something well known with a wide variety of places to get parts.

i couldnt find an article on custom link fabrication..just lots of product reviews..

RCman said:

Building links on a budget is hard, you have to know where to cut corners and where you can't. I severly underestimated the cost of mine. I budgeted $500 for the rear links and blew that out of the water one joints and tube adapters alone. I've still got to by some 2.0" 0.375" wall tubing for my lowers and 1.75" 0.25" wall for my uppers, that ain't gonna be cheap either.

Do some searching and you'll find a TON of information out there. Custom fab doesn't have to be XJ specific for you to get ideas and learn about it, heck thats why it is custom.

Click to expand...

I dont think im going to do anything to the rear right away..i definetly want to go with a custom long arm link setup in the front, looks like most people go with 3 link set ups, and if possible i was thinking coilovers but i dont know about that yet, i need to do more reading figure out all the added costs and work needed for them.

blazinjames said:

i couldnt find an article on custom link fabrication..just lots of product reviews..

Click to expand...

What exactly do you need to know? The gabrication of the links themselves isn't really all that hard. The placement of them is where the challenge is.

Look here if you are confused on tubing: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]BillaVista's Tube Strength & Link Construction

[/FONT] The above link also talks a little about the different flex joints or rod ends your got to choose from. The information is a little dated though, lots more options now. Mine are coming from Summit Machine if they ever ship out...

blazinjames said:

I dont think im going to do anything to the rear right away..i definetly want to go with a custom long arm link setup in the front, looks like most people go with 3 link set ups, and if possible i was thinking coilovers but i dont know about that yet, i need to do more reading figure out all the added costs and work needed for them.

Click to expand...

Well a lot of the tech for the rear applies for the front.
Check out these calculators for 3 and 4 link setups, it should help you understand link placements:
3 Link: http://mysite.verizon.net/triaged/files/3LinkV1.0bBETA.zip
4 Link: http://mysite.verizon.net/triaged/files/4BarLinkV3.1d.zip

i dont know much..this weekend i plan on doing alot of reading and figuring out more..

i know i want to have some very nice articulation and smooth on road driving. im on a budget and want to do this right, figure out the cheapest way to get great results.

blazinjames said:

i dont know much..this weekend i plan on doing alot of reading and figuring out more..

i know i want to have some very nice articulation and smooth on road driving. im on a budget and want to do this right, figure out the cheapest way to get great results.

Click to expand...

In all honesty you'll probably get very good results with the correct 3 link / 4link / radius arm setup regardless if you are on coils and shocks or coilovers.
Reading is the best bet at this point for you, IMO. I can't begin to tell you how much reading I've done on the topic. However at some point you gotta hit the garage and go dig in, thats the funnest part anyhow.

well i think im going to wait untill january to actually start with the lift. right now im just going to work on fixing up everything on the jeep, cutting and relocating the fenders, cut out all the rust from the floors patch it, pull all the carpet out and hurciliner the whole inside, fix all the windows, replace the balljoints, just fix everything i can in the next two months..i will probably add bumpstops and cut the fenders so i can fit 32s on there while im working on it..