Who should I buy my suspension from?

[knowitall]

I have a 1971 baja that has stock suspension. My plans up front are to go coil overs with 4x2 arms and a 6 inch wider beam. I have a donor link pin beam with beefed up spindles from my old sand rail.

Dans Performance parts and Bugzyla are the two companies I have been considering. Haven't heard to many good things about Appletree but I could be wrong. I would like to buy a package deal to save a little bit of money if possible. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Out back, I also want to go coil over suspension with 3x3's. The car will be driven on the street as well as offroad and I do not want any camber issues so I have been told not to go with Dans due to camber issues. Same thing with Appletree. How are Bugzyla's 3x3's? Any advice/opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[jsturtlebuggy]

The best place to buy parts from is the one that will help you when you have questions and can give you ideas on what need to be done to make it work.

Are you planning on pushing the front beam out from the frame head with the longer front arms? Not doing it may cause clearance problems with tires.
Does the Baja have a cage and front end support to beam already?
What kind of steering componets do you plan on using?
In the rear do you have the upper mounting points on the roll cage for the rear coil over shocks?
What you are wanting to do is just more than a bolt on setup, it is going to require fabrication work.
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Joseph
Fair Oaks/Orangevale, CA
Elrod Racing
Motion Tire Motorsports
Having fun with Dune Buggies since 1970
Into Volkswagens since 1960
Manx Across America, coming in October 2013

[2manybugs]

Check Avery's Aircooled out. Here is their site with a gallery of pictures of different arms they have done. http://www.averysaircooled.com/offroad/trailingarms2.cfm

They do kind of specialize in Baja bugs. They have a couple of Baja bugs that they race off road with.

[knowitall]

[knowitall]

[knowitall]

Anyone else want to chime in?

[sxuxrxf]

Why are you asking us? You're the "knowitall", right?
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Check out Tweeds for arms and spindles for the front.
Kustom 1 has great prices on RaceRunner coilover shocks (Sway-A-Way)
VeeDub Parts, now Pierside Parts, may still have the Beanie Boy 3x3 rear kit available.


For steering, check out my old school version here...
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1203...mp;start=0
Cheap and feels like power steering on the street.
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[It's a play thing]

My vote is for Mckenzies, very helpful staff. They were alot of help when we built our Thing.
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[It's a play thing]

The quality is remembered long after the price has been forgotten. Wow thats deep.
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It's not the size of your shop, it's what comes out of it that counts.

I've been playing with my thing ever since I got it...

[greg mgm]

[knowitall]

[knowitall]

[Get2TheRiver]

I like mckenzies. Rebuilt my front end two years ago using everything from mckenzies. They were really helpful and their tips made the install easier than it would have otherwise been. At that time I chose the knock off Chinese trailing arms - longer and wider tha stock. I saved a lot of money going that route.

But... They only lasted two years. Just got done replacing trailing arms with the Fodrill arms with the larger link pins. Everything i needed purchased at mckenzies. Cost a lot more than the Chinese ones, but maybe they will nw last me a "lifetime..."

[knowitall]

[2manybugs]

It is possible to get 10 plus inches out of stock size arms. We have a 5/1600 that has stock by one arms and we get an honest 13 inches out of it using race prepped 930s' with bus stub axles. The problem is that you really are putting a CV to the max and if you do not service and replace cv joints often at this level you will soon have one break and be stuck in the boonies somewhere. I would advise that you use arms as long as you can use with bus stub axles if you can. The bus stubs will add almost an inch length to your drive axle compared with a type 1 stub with the same wheel base. The longer your drive axle the less angle you will put into your CV at the same given travel. I am not sure which way you are measuring the 1x2 1/2 front arms. Do you mean 2 1/2 longer? If so the stock spring packs will not work well with that much extra leverage. You will have to go to coils at that point for it to work well. I had a pre run Baja with 1 1/4 longer front arms using spring packs and an ajustable arms, and although the car worked well, the front end sagged a little and I could not adjust it up like I wanted. Bump steer is when your steering box or rack and pinion location is not correct and when the front wheel goes up and down the geometry concerining the tie rod is not correct. If the geometry is not correct the distance between the holes that the tie rod goes into will change througout the travel and that will cause the tie rod to pull or push the steering arm on the spindle causing it to turn when you hit a bump. You have to be very careful building a front end to eliminate bump steer.

[knowitall]

[2manybugs]

It does get complicated to do it right. I did not mean to make it confusing about the 930 CV joints and the bus axles. I have conversion bus stub axles from Avery's that fit the 930's. The output flanges came from Avery's too. We use Sway A Way drive axles and don't remember the length. If I recall though they are very close to 18" long. Avery's built the arms with a lot of camber so that when the car is at ride height the wheels have zero camber. The arms they build are all custom so that you can pick what ride height you need for you car and have the correct camber built into the arms. You were talking about front control arms. I would suggest Woods Wheelworks in Phoenix for control arms. Very high quality and not inexpensive but reasonable for what you get. They have been used in off road races for years and have done very well.

[2manybugs]

I forgot to address your 930 axle size question. The 930 axles are larger in diameter and spline count than bus. If you are going to really use this car and want it to last I suggest you build it using 930 joints. If you are going to buy axles anyway you might as well get the larger 930 units. They do not cost much more than the bus axles. It is the same way with the 930 joints if you are going to buy new. The biggest bang for the buck though, if you don't need the toughest car you can build is to have a pair of 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 arms built with bus bearing houisings. You will be able to use the stubs, drive axles, boots, bolts and even the bearings (68 to 71 bus) out of a (if you really want to save money) wrecked bus. You can use bus drum brakes or Avery's has a disk brake kit that will fit the bus stubs.

[knowitall]