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Spring Over Axle Conversions

When I worked at Outback Land Cruisers, even though I was not a mechanic, given the amount of spring over conversions we were doing and the amount of research I had done on spring overs, I knew that I could adequately spring over my truck.

One reason I was so cautious was because I had not only heard from Land Cruiser experts on the Land Cruiser Mailing List that along with Power Steering Conversions, Spring Over conversions were the most commonly botched, but that it should not be tried by someone who does not know what they are doing.

Some decisions I made, like choosing to not cut and turn and to use the stock perches that are designed to hold the U-bolts in place as axle pads (in case a future owner wanted to reuse the axles in a spring under configuation) have been considered "questionable" to some.  In fact, many arguements have arisen over these on the LCML..  However, I am aware of a few LCML listers who have had their axles sit on the stock pirches for over 5 years and they are still fine.  Mine appear to be great after 4 months, and the truck has seen some significant wheeling in the spring over setup.

Because it is a job that should not be attempted unless you have reasonable skiils with welding / fabricating and access to a shop that can do it, or without reasonable planning, I'm not going to spell out the directions. 

All parts included with shocks, it came to roughly $500 complete with a double steering arm from Aqualu Industries

Check out these picts of my HJ60 with the spring over to get a perspective on height.  I have significantly more to add to this page later but that will be done at a different time.

You might want to check out these two links for Spring Over Setups from http://www.Ih8mud.com :

Jim Brantley's FJ60 Setup
Jim Brink