Good question. What influenced my thinking was maintenance, reliability and durability. My intended use for the vehicle is driving long distances to get to a wheeling destination for overland travel of generally not more than 2 weeks duration, so I want comfortable highway manners and ride but with the ability to handle challenging terrain beyond what my IFS could provide.
I considered leafs, radial arms, 3-link, and even 4-link. All present advantages and disadvantages. I ended up selecting radius arms with a panhard bar mainly because it met my above criteria on more points than the other options. Many modern SFA vehicles use the same sort of suspension - the 70 and 80-series Land Cruiser and Jeeps are examples. These control arms really don't require a lot of maintenance and these in particular are made of some serious steel - not the thin wall stuff you see on OEM vehicles. There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaf packs whatsoever; this is just the route I decided upon to meet my needs.
Now, you can make a good case for front leaf packs on an expo vehicle, but seriously, I'm really not going to take my Tacoma across equatroial Africa where I might have to scavenge for replacement parts from ancient vehicles abondoned in the jungle; and when armageddon happens the EMP will have fried my Tacoma ECM (and I'll be annoyed that I didn't get that FJ62) and the zombies have set off the last of the Claymore's, I'll just call in the FPF on my AO and call it a day. There. Deflected that possible thread hi-jack.
OBTW, if you just read this entire thread then you are probably AWOL - go report to your 1SG.
Stay safe and keep us posted on your vehicle plans.
Meh Top doesn't come down to my office, us warrant officers just piss him off. My armageddon plans include keeping things light and anything that can't move under its own power stays where its at.
My thoughts behind the TG kit is that everything is included in one purchase and that I wouldn't have to source any other parts, my only concern is the height of the vehicle after the conversion. I am trying to keep the frame level low as this still going to be my dd. If I was able to adjust the ride height with them that would put a mark in the c/o box, I am still sourcing parts and have a long time until she will go under the knife. I am just trying to get as much information before it happens
