Springs and weight

So out of curiosity, is it best to choose heavier springs up front if you are going to add a stealth bumper and winch at some point in the future, or add the weight first and then upgrade your suspension at some point in the future?

Doing both at the same time would be a bridge way too far.

With regards to the rear, does the weight up front enter into the equation, or do you only consider the potential for a bumper and skid plates? Or keep things at a rate closer to stock?

Not sure my wife would be happy with things getting much firmer in the rear when unloaded, and most of the time we’re unloaded on crappy midwestern roads.

 

I added an LFD "hybrid" bumper (a center-only section like a Victory "Blitz", C4 "Lo Pro", or CBI "Covert") with a winch for a few months before adding a lift with upgraded springs. The front end was a little low but OK on the roads. Off-road performance was not very good.

Ideally, I would do both at the same time. Otherwise, have the vehicle at weight before setting up the suspension. I would not upgrade the suspension before adding significant weight unless I was prepared to do it twice.

Each axle has its own weight. Front bumper and winch are forward of the front axle so that's where the load goes. Passengers, roof rack, cargo, skids (especially a fuel tank skid), and rear bumper all add to the rear. The rear axle has the variable weight so that's why it is usually set up to ride a little higher when unloaded.

 

I would add that weight first
I have a similar setup, SSO slimline bumper with 8k Warn winch
I use Eibach coils/ shocks (not heavy,just taller,though I think they are a little stiffer than stock) set to 1.75 , they settled to 1.5 with the weight and I’m very happy with the ride and performance (I still have good down travel)
I have matching shocks in the rear with 1” Cornfed spacers (the shocks will allow the extra)
I over sprung my previous truck, a 2nd gen Taco, and was very careful not to do that again.

 

I’m not sure how much it matters the order. Assuming you plan a final weight, You’ll either be over-sprung until you put the weight on, or under sprung until you finalize the suspension.

In my case I did a little of both. First sliders, then my IMS suspension anticipating additional front weight, then bumper and winch. Dobinsons has good options to figure out the springs you need for your planned weight, and in my case, it turned out real good.

Now, I just added obscenely heavy armor, and I’m thinking it’s time to get slightly heavier rate springs for the rear.

 

I think having a complete plan and vision is more important than the order of execution. At least in this case with the information you provided.

it could be more complicated (meaning order could be a factor) depending on what your final build goals are.

Cheers
Mike

 

I believe my final vision is for something that can still fit in my garage, and functions well as a daily driver…but maximizes off road ability without violating those two important details.

Lift wise, I’m probably going no more than two inches. I’ll be using stock tire sizes until I lift, but will likely go with pizza cutters when I do (unless I change my mind).

I like having steps, but want more protection, so slider steps are going to be part of it at some point.

I’ll likely add more protection underneath - aluminum, because I’m in the road salt belt.

I plan to go with a winch to maximize my ability to self recover. I will go with a stealth bumper to minimize impact to all the forward facing tech.

 

I knew before hand that I was going to go with a C4 Lo Pro bumper with the high clearance additions and a Warn winch so I had my shocks replaced with Elka 2.5's and went with spring rates higher than stock to account for the added weight. The suspension work was done in February and I got the front bumper and winch done in July and the nice thing is I do not feel any difference in ride quality at all. The only time I notice the weight is under breaking which is more a result of the breaks dealing with the extra weight not the suspension. I also went with stiffer springs in the back as I'm hoping next year to get a rear bumper done with tire swing out so I'll be adding more weight to the back.

 

Question on the Elka's but same question exists for anyone with remote reservoir adjustable shocks. Would increasing firmness/restricting oil flow accomplish same thing when adding weight?

I have the Elka's and am adding a bumper. For rear weight this is what I do when loading up all my gear for trips. I didn't want to go heavy springs having rougher ride when not loaded down.

 

I have a 2021 TRD Off Road and my mods were done in a couple of steps to get it to its current state that includes:
- lift
- sliders
- skids
- hybrid bumper
- winch
- expedition rack

My first update was to firm up the ride and reduce nose dive. I accomplished this by installing Bilstein 5100’s set at the .85” setting. The result was a 1” front lift (leveled) and a more controlled, firmer ride with the nose dive greatly reduced.

Next came a full set of RCI aluminum skids including a gas tank skid along with CaliRaised steel sliders. With these added mods adding about 200lbs of weight down low, I didn’t notice any handling change using stock springs with the Bilstein 5100’s.

For my next update, I added a SSO hybrid bumper and Warn 10k winch with plans to update the suspension shortly after the install. The extra weight of the bumper and winch (about 120lbs) dropped the front about 1/2” and made a small but noticeable handling impact. Some of the nose dive and the side to side movement of the pre-Bilstein setup returned. It was clear that the OEM springs were not happy with the extra weight.

About 2 weeks after the install of the hybrid bumper and winch, I updated the suspension as follows:
- Dobinson springs (2” lift for front with higher weight rating - 1” lift for rear with stock weight rating)
- JBA upper control arms
The result of the spring and UCA updates was a 2” lift all around and a restoration of the firm handling I enjoyed before the bumper and winch install.

My experience was that the extra weight of a hybrid bumper and winch without updating the weight capacity of the springs resulted in a drop in front end ride height and a decrease in handling. I recommend updating front springs to match the weight you add. Adding sliders and skids impact the handling very little since the weight is down low and spread to both front and rear springs.

Cheers,
Bob

 

adjusting the damping will help fine tune the compression and rebound characteristics when you change weight, but the shocks don’t carry the weight…so you’ll get sag/reduced ride height.

Proper springs rates will restore desired ride height. I would also guess that a proper spring rates will reduce the work load on the shocks as far as having to work harder to control suspension motion.

 

Yep so far I have accepted reducing lift height with adding dynamic height. One of the reasons I went with 2.5" of lift. Time will tell if I need to go heavy springs. So far I like having good ride loaded or unloaded.

The Elka remote reservoir are way more shock than I really need so am not worried about stressing them.

If I get a rear swing out bumper that will be the point I have to go heavy springs.