leaf springs with ifs?

[archemitis]

so i was thinkin, since morganm has a stock samurai now, i gott a be able to keep up with him. what if i welded up some brackets to bolt leafe springs on to my unibody, then mounted the independent suspension under that? you could do it in the front and rear, and get tons of travel. if you take the 6-10 inches that the leaf springs would have, then added the 3-4 inches that the subaru has, that makes for alot of flex!_!

of course id need the divorced xfercase, and some telescopic drive shafts, since my diff would not be in the same spot all the time, like stock...

hopefully i can post some pics tomorrow. woot!

[Jerry DeMoss]

Thats a really cool idea.The telescoping drive shaft would be cool.Wonder how hard it would be to put a suby engine in a sammy?May not be worth it though.

[mcbrat]

that was actually an idea submitted in one of the off-road mags a year or 2 ago.

 

comments were about how high it would be, and the custom axles needed to handle all the movement that would be possible...

 

sure you wouldn't just rather have my toy solid axles and t-case ?

[oddcomp]

heh i had the idea to box in the ifs setup

quite a while a go and then do a multilink suspension on teh ifs boxes

front and rear those that know me can verify my idea hehe

 

actualy i refined it

so the ifs suspension was on and offroad

and the multilink that connectected it to to the frame was pinned some how

so it was solid and did not add body roll ect until you pulled out the lock pins

so you could have a street and off road suby

[Shadyirishmen]

Telescopic drive shafts! We have looked into building them. To have four built with 65 degree angle shafts (yes they are available). Costs about $1000-$1200, we can have them made and sell them to you for $1300!

[Numbchux]

Do it! I know you've got the skills!

[offroadsubaruguy]

my buddy and i actually thought about getting a samuri rolling chassis and swapping over all the necessary subie stuff, engine, hatch body, d/r tranny... we figured that it would fit pretty well since they are avout the same length and all..... never actually got around to doing it though...

[Mike W]

Somewhere on that Icelandic offroad website there are pics of a SubaZuki, ZukaRu or whatever you'd call an EA81 powered Suzuki. Wasn't much to look at....more like a farm vehicle than a trail rig.

I also pondered various versions of IFS and IRS connected by multilinks, long coilovers, leafs, etc. But then I couldn't see any real advantage over plain solid axles, Unimog, tractor axles, or whatever. But hey maybe someone can dream up something that works and make it happen. I'm surprised no one is selling a long travel IFS kit for Soob trail rigs. Sooner or later I bet that'll happen.

[bushbasher]

Theres an advantage to ifs/irs in diff clearance (usually) and it handles better at high speeds off-road because of lower unsprung mass. This is why hummers have IFS/IRS, since they need to be fast and stable in off-road combat.

 

This leafsprung boxed ifs multilink etc etc is just adding complication to drivetrain thats already seeing the limits of its durability. For all the effort you still get a rear end with weak stubs and tiny CVs. If you are going to put in leafsprings (ech), might as well just stick a solid axle under too, since the car is going to ride like crap anyway.

[dentedfender]

i dont think you can run leaf springs with a irs ifs drive train you would have to inboard the leafs in the rear and then make up a braket to connect the leafs to the housing. and up front you cant do it because the axle shafts go into the the tranny so you would have to have a real t case and solid axles front and rear. you can make a telescoping front drive shaft for 25 bucks out of square tubing. i made mine for my 4runner with 9 inches of slip and is smooth as a real shaft on the road. i would never pay 400 for a shaft again when you can make it for 25.