FG comfort

[whatcharterboat]

A straight forward calculation of needed surface area to maintain a given fluid temp may be all that's needed.

Hi Don. Yep. Keeping the temps down is everything. The guy who makes these shocks built his own shock dyno and at full power they last about 50 hours and run at around 100c. The shocks I always considered the benchmark in the past will last 1/2 an hour and run about 180 to 200c on the same setting before they give up the ghost. All the cheaper units last 3 to 5 minutes and burn the paint off. That's the difference.

Hey. You've got to ask yourself, how good do they need to be though? If you're only doing slow country roads and beach work do you need them to be that good? On our corrugations maybe you do.

I just like how heavy duty they are. I've seen one guy who popped a coil out on the inland tracks on Fraser (along story) and he drove back to Inskip on the compressed shock and the truck was fully loaded with gear. We pulled the shock down and found no damage. Just put it back together and it's still on there now.

BTW I came in late on this thread but IMO the best shocks in the world (aeons, bags , etc too) don't mean a thing if you have no travel in the suspension and I bet that's why this thread is here in the first place.

 

[DontPanic42]

My solution until something better comes along. <$US 10.00.

 

[PKDreamers]

Hi Peter. Looks like you've got the hang of posting pics now. Well done. The last couple of campsite pics look great. Thx for posting.

Thanks John but that is all Kells work i am not too good with the computer.
We do have more pics slowly working though them i think we took about 2500 on this trip, i just hope we are putting the pics in the right spot.

 

[westyss]

Well I couldn't wait any longer, after driving my wife to a back surgeon I felt I needed to get my suspension done now! Or I will be going on my trips solo, so after looking and talking to some folks I ended up going to a shop close to my home and the result is just what the doctor ordered. I just came back from a spirited ride in my 07 FG and took it to some roads that I drive often for some comparison and I am just giddy about the change.

A new main leaf with more arch and several other new leaves and using 2(?) original leaves together with re-arch and new shocks, BDS, I have never heard of them (any one??) but come with a life time "no hassle" warranty, so time will tell for those. Between each leaf he placed a spacer to have the ends of the leaf as the contact point.

The truck sits 2.5 inches higher (noticeable).
I made some comments about the over load leaf pack being removed from the rear, but he said it was better to leave it as it will act like a sway bar.
I believe this guy nailed what I was looking for, more travel, with a true damping shock, original shocks were done, and just a great ride, gets me motivated to get this rig done.

here is another bad phone pic of the front.

Lesson learned: get a suspension upgrade first, then go with AONS, or a suspension seat, the shocks and suspension upgrade ended up costing the same as my air seats and Aons, that didn't do the job, helped alot but just was not good enough.

 

[kerry]

That is very interesting. Where do you live and what shop did the work? Do you mind telling us how much it cost? How much have you driven it and how would you compare the ride now with the original ride?

Let's be more precise on the comparison scale: Cadillac Seville--100 in comfort. Average 4wd half ton pickup truck--70. Fuso FG OE suspension--40. Where does the new suspension fit on that scale?

 

[westyss]

That is very interesting. Where do you live and what shop did the work? Do you mind telling us how much it cost? How much have you driven it and how would you compare the ride now with the original ride?

Let's be more precise on the comparison scale: Cadillac Seville--100 in comfort. Average 4wd half ton pickup truck--70. Fuso FG OE suspension--40. Where does the new suspension fit on that scale?

Kerry, I would say it would fall into the half ton area, probably not as good but close, a comparison for me might be like my brother inlaws F350, but with that said, I would classify the original FG as closer to a 20 or 30 on your scale,if that, maybe thats why it feels like such a huge difference, going from almost no suspension to some is a big leap, when I took my truck out right after the install I was so happy that I am sure I lost my subjectivity, but after another day of driving it I would say the improvement is substancial. My take on it is the truck needs more travel on the suspension, and some absorbsion and dampening, these were both addressed by using more arch on the leafs and some actual shock absorbers, original shock do nothing, as noted by you when you talked about that road in Newfoundland, that pitching -rebound bounce thing that my truck used to do was brutal, that has improved most noticeably as that was one of my big concerns.
Back to your scale: if I can add my Westy on there some where it would be at around 75, just a little better than a half ton.
I live in Abbotsford BC Canada, and the place that did the work is called Carrier Spring, cost $2000.

 

[kerry]

That's good news. I agree that the biggest problem is lack of travel. I haven't measured but my front suspension probably has a 1 1/2" of travel before it hits the stop. How much does your FG currently weigh? Mine's just over 11k I think. That 40 number was optimistic.

 

[westyss]

My truck is around 10,000 lb's, I am going to re weigh it now that most of the interior is removed just to get an accurate weight of the camper unit. The travel available before the upgrade was almost 0, I installed Aons and had maybe 3/4" so almost no travel, that was one of the items the fellow that did the upgrade said, it has no where to go, but the distance that it did travel was limited, and then there was the rebound, which compounded the problem, I believe better shocks would improve the ride with Aons, but as it was, the rebound just made it all that much worse. The ride has improved in other ways too, before mod, I would get jostled about sideways too, and now that has pretty much gone too, overall a nicer ride , more floaty (is that a word?) Like my parents Mercury Meteor from the 70's that would float down the road, I guess like the caddy. Prior to the mod, one of the guys that work at the suspension place jumped onto the truck and it didnt move, now I can push down on it and it moves!