4WD Suspension

[IanF]

Hi All

We are planning our first serious camping trip next year through the territory for a couple of months ;D. Previously it has only been short camping holidays or weekends for us. We have a dual cab Hilux (2002 model) and are looking at putting a hard canopy on it (Looking at ARB at the moment - would appreciate any advice) which will give us a lot of room to carry our gear and the ability to lock it up. Anyway talking to a 4x4 mob they reckon we will need to upgrade the standard Toyota suspension to cope with carrying the weight of our gear and some of the rough rounds we are likely to encounter (not that we will be extreme offroading). The heavy items will be 2 adults, 2nd spare tyre, food, fridge, gas bottles, clothes, and I guess just general camping gear. We would love to hear your thoughts on suspension requirements and if we need to upgrade what kind of thing should we be looking at (and god forbid a roungh dolar estimate!)

Thanks in adavance fellow campers!

Ian

[Daintreeboy]

If your going to get an ARB canopy, have a look at their old man emu suspension too. Doing both plus some other recovery gear etc they will probably discount you. I have Nitrocharger shocks on my GU Patrol ute and they are fantastic. Coupled with the heavy duty leaf rear and coil front, I can carry all the weight I want. In fact, the more I have the better the ride. The current fitted price for a set of 4 Nitrocharger shocks for your vehicle is $638 fitted.
Better to see them yourself about what sort of spring upgrade you might need if indeed you do.
Another option if you have coils (rear) is to fit airbags between the springs (I think you can do this with leaf also in fact). You can alter the pressure to suit the load you are carrying so you can adjust the ride softness as the need arises.
Hope this helps.

http://www.arb.com.au