2scoops

Now I am more confused than before My front shocks are single rate. Rears are dual. Will changing compression change ride height? I was under the impression that spring rate and preload determined ride height. Basically my problem is a stiff ride in the front and a good ride in the rear but not enough ground clearance. Does this change anything you said Lenny? Please excuse my ignorance.

What is the stock clearance on a Trooper with 27" tires? I would guess it is around 11-12 inches. So, obviously you are too low in back and too high in front. I would simply gets ligher springs in front and heavier in the rear. I would try a 150lb in front and 500 over 500 in the rear. If that is still not enough in the rear, go to a 550 or 600 lb primary. One other option is to move your rear shock mount back. This will reduce the leverage on it and support the rear end more; however, you will lose some travel (like an inch or two).

I have 1800 hard miles on the stock bearings. I have one with a little play on the side I bent the steering fork on due to a hard impact. Unless it is enough play that I would consider dangerous I am not changing the bearings until they start to make noise.

Thanks for the generosity guys. I will take the one from Jose since I expect to be ordering from him soon anyway. I needed my Trooper for this weekend, so I cut a relief on one side of the bent section, pounded it straight, and welded the relief closed. Should work around the local trails, but I wouldn't trust it for Moab.

I would think that 1/2" would be too small. I'm thinking more like 5/8" or 3/4" but that is just a gut feel without doing some research and running some numbers. My first thought is that stiffgness will go up by the square root of the diameter. Thus a 1/2" compared to 5/8" would be .5 squared or .25 and .625 squared or .39. Then take .39 and devide it by .25 and you get the 5/8" bar is 1.56 times stiffer then the 1/2" bar. This isn'rt for sure but I think I'm right. I would call a sway bar manufacture and discuss it with them based on the weight of the Trooper. Getting a bar with multiple holes in the ends would allow some adjustability. I will probably add a sway bar at some point . I will probably just buy some spring steel rod and make it from scratch. I'll make it as adjustable as possible. Interested in seeing what you come up with.

Lenny

I was hoping you would chime in with recommendations. Yes, the sway bar arms I ordered are blanks so I can drill multiple holes. I thought about calling, but most sway bar applications are for ARCA and NASCAR applications. I am not sure how good of support they would have for off road. However, there are graphs I can look at to try and determine which one to go with. I would like to mount it on the lower radiator brackets and have the torsion bar run just in front of the radiator. The only thing in my way is the lower radiator line and the intake tubing. Both of which I can work around, which leaves me with one more question--will it clear the swing arms? If not, I will have to mount it behind the radiator somewhere.

Agreed, it will hinder my travel in rock crawling situations. I plan to add a quick disconnect to it. I figure nobody has tried it yet, so I could be the test dummy & give some results whether or not it is worth the investment. Mine leans, but has never felt tippy due to the wide stance. I have even had it on two wheels before at speed and never felt it was going to tip. This was witnessed by my buddy in his RZR S giving chase in the sand on Fins & Things.

I ordered sway bar arms from Shroeder. I am shopping for sway bars on Ebay. I am going to piece this thing together slowly so it works the first time. Also, if I bought everything at retail it would be about $350 to put together. By shopping around I should be able to put it together for around $200. It is an off road type set up (like a Currie Antirock) so it should allow for good articulation with out disconnecting. The big question is which diameter sway bar to go with. This all depends on weight of vehicle, suspension travel, and arm length. I am thinking a 1/2" diameter would be a good starting place.

Took it for a test drive...can you say too soft!!! I have got to add a swaybar to this thing. It is gonna be great in the slow rocky stuff, but too much lean in turns. All the RZR's & Wildcats have swaybars at least in the rear. I need to find a good adjustable torsion bar swaybar set up. It is the only way to run a dual rate shock that is soft in the whoops but doesn't lean too much. I still have 13 inches of clearance under the rear end, so its not sagging in the rear. I will post what I find.

Well, the reason why I left for Moab so unprepared (no snap ring pliers!) was because I decided to fix the soft suspension. I fabbed new upper shock brackets which moved the upper mounts back about 1 1/4". This firmed up my suspension back to normal and left me with 13.5 inches of ground clearance in the rear. The front is at 14 inches. Lesson learned, I recommend to anyone trying to squeeze the most out of their suspension travel to remove the inner CV boots, clean them up, and cycle the suspension to make sure the inner CV bearing doesn't bottom out internally or against the outer retaining ring.

I called Joyner USA to see if I could get a steering box fork (left side). They said I would have to order the whole box. Silverbullet didn't have one either. Does anyone have one they could part with?

60-80 degrees I would guess. Maybe even lower in the middle of the night. Ironically, Sunday there was no wind and it was sunny and it was the coolest day I was there. it was around 65-75 degrees.

I met Kinarfi (Jeff) and his wife for the first time on the way to Moab. I dropped off a parking brake master cylinder and talked Troopers for about 45 min. Jeff and Linda later met me down at Moab and literally made my day because I desperately needed a pair of snap ring pliers as I layed under my trooper's rear CV shaft. I heard a vehicle pull up...and there was Jeff! They are a remarkable couple and we really had a great time with them out on the trails.

I found out at Kanes Creek (before Jeff had arrived in Moab) that I had lowered my diff about an inch too much. At full droop it was popping the retaining clip out and dislocating. Of course this happened at the very bottom of Kanes Creek and I had to ascent two difficult climbs in 3 wheel drive. I will not confirm or deny that I had to be pulled a couple of times by a RZR 4...I will note, that just before my CV pulled out my buddy in his RZR 4 was complaining about powerloss and engine surge when he drove through the water. I legged my trooper back to the trailer and repaired it at camp. If it weren't for us having a front locker I would have been in serious trouble. I beat the ever-living hell out of both the front & rear ends making 5000 plus RPM's through some of the obsticals--they held strong. I think this is when I bent my front steering box fork, but I didn't notice it until I returned home.

So, after repairing the CV I met Jeff & Linda at Poison Spyder. I popped my CV out in the sand but with Jeff's help was able to get it back in quickly. I did several steep walls with ease while large Jeeps stood by and watched. One wall a Jeep attempted and backed away, one of the other walls a fully locked Jeep rolled over on trying to attemp (that is the attached picture). Neither of those were the steepest wall I climbed. The steepest wall I actually had the front wheels in the air as I crested the top. That one scared me a bit. Jeffs Trooper ran solid the whole trail; however, his body did have a few spyder bites afterwards. His suffered from a little less ground clearance, but he was able to power through everything.

The last day we chose an easier & more scenic ride. We did 7 Mile Rim. It was a great way to end the trip for me, but Jeff & Linda stayed a day or two longer. I can't wait to hear the rest of his trip report.

Agreed, it will hinder my travel in rock crawling situations. I plan to add a quick disconnect to it. I figure nobody has tried it yet, so I could be the test dummy & give some results whether or not it is worth the investment. Mine leans, but has never felt tippy due to the wide stance. I have even had it on two wheels before at speed and never felt it was going to tip. This was witnessed by my buddy in his RZR S giving chase in the sand on Fins & Things.

^{Bought a Duralast 51-DL--exact same size as original! Thanks guys. Is this listed in the pinned parts section of this forum...I did not see it.}

Took it for a test drive...can you say too soft!!! I have got to add a swaybar to this thing. It is gonna be great in the slow rocky stuff, but too much lean in turns. All the RZR's & Wildcats have swaybars at least in the rear. I need to find a good adjustable torsion bar swaybar set up. It is the only way to run a dual rate shock that is soft in the whoops but doesn't lean too much. I still have 13 inches of clearance under the rear end, so its not sagging in the rear. I will post what I find.

The shocks are not as quality as RZR's & others. My first recommendation is to get rid of the stock tires and go with a good ATV tire. Something that recommends a low PSI (4-10lbs). I think the stock Trooper tires are around 30 psi. Of course if you run on the road alot this would not be a good tire for that.

There are tons of posts that get further into suspension on this forum. Just do some searching. There are some updrade bolt-on shocks out there (try silverbullet). If you really want the best set up you will have to do some moding/fabrication work.

I have been running a 1/4" aluminum skidplate in the rear. It is dented from bottoming out. By lifting the rear end, I am hoping to not bottom out as easily as I do now. I am also going to adjust my shock collars down so it gets into the primary spring quicker. I will definately be keeping an eye on everything. I will check everything if I find myself doing the "just bottomed out hard cringe".

Alright, everything is painted and I will be reassembling tonight. What I did:

Lowered rear diff--the drain plug sits about 1/4" from the bottom of frame

Reinforced front diff mount by overlaying 1 3/4" chromoly tube over stock tube & fully welding--this should be thick enough material to keep it from tearing away again. I may drill out holes & diff mount to fit 1/2" bolt.

Cut out upper mount tube and replaced with 1 1/2" chromoly tubing. Overlayed 1 3/4" tube & welded on stock frame then welded the new tube to it. Used 1/4" chromoly for the new mounting tabs and gusseted with triangulated chromoly tabs. Drilled mount holes & diff to accept 1/2" bolt.

Moved trailing arm shock mounts about 1 1/2" forward and about an 1 1/4" out. I used the original shock mount. I just cut the welds and chiseled the it off. The outer ear hangs about 1/4" off the side of the trailing arm. I added a tab underneath it for support and welded into the side of the trailing arm. The shock is now inline when looking from aft end of buggy.

Last I added a 1/4" chromoly tab on the inside trailing arm mount underneath. This is where a few have failed. I had 1000 ideas on how to beef this part up ranging from duck tape to NASA engineering, but I opted for the easiest & quickest solution which I also believe will hold forever.

One more thing...I took off the arms cleaned all of the bushings & bolts, lubed and re-torqued. All of the side play is GONE!!! I did not see any hole elongation. I do need to add some grease fitting however.

Trooper rear swingarm.bmp

Love it. Loud & proud.

A good way to strtengthen the swing arms is to box them with 16 ga. steel continiously welded. Once reinforced, you must also strengthen the swing arm pivot ends or they will eventually crack. When I strengthened my swing arms for no flex, the stress then consentrated at the ends and they broke. Also gusset the horizontial tube the pivot point tabs mount to or they too will break away from the other frame members. Finally, thicken the tabs that hold the swing arm pivot ends and change the bolt to a bolt with a solid shank long enough to go thru both tabs. The stock setup will elongate the holes in the tabs especially the one that has the stock bolt threads being used to support the bolt in the tab area. Good work onthe suspension mods.

this picture shows how i did my upper shock mounts. This gives me some adjustability in setup.

http://good-times.we...host=good-times

This is wat can happen if you don't gusset the horizontial bar.

http://good-times.we...host=good-times

This is my suspension setup.

Lenny

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I would like to eventually do most of what you said. I was up at Sandworks in Ogden recently looking at the suspension designs of a few of their cars. I was originally wanting to do a set up like on the new RZR XP's, but after looking at the nice trailing arm set ups they had, I think when properly executed, it is a better design. The problem is the side-loads we put on our Troopers when racing around corners & hitting rocks on trails. Sand cars don't see those types of loads usually, but the arms they were making looked much stronger than our Troopers.

I am going to gusset the lower side on the inside arm where it has been cracking on other Troopers. I would like to improve the pivot joints eventually as well. Mine have have some side play. They need a good/strong bushing or bearing.

No, our shocks will not bolt directly into those brackets.

Great...thanks guys. Right now I am busy moding the rear end (lowering) and suspension travel (lengthening). My right rear arm travel is 14.5" and the left is 15". Gotta love hand built chinese machines. I have moved my swing arm shock brackets forward and out towards the wheel. At the same time I am looking to integrify the inside swing arm where they are fracturing.

I know I have read it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. Someone posted they got a direct replacement battery for a T2 from a local parts store on the forum. I was wondering if anyone knows that part number and where I might find one. I really don't want to have to ship a battery to Utah. I also don't have time to modify my battery tray & bracketry right now.

Thanks,

Paul

Jeff, I may have an extra if you are interested. I needed just new e-brake calipers, but it came as a complete assembly. It would be my takeoff, but it actually worked better than the new one.

Nice! Do you have a youtube account? I would love to see some video of the turbo spooling up, what rpm/psi, speedo excelleration...you know just a good dash cam video. It appears you used a pretty small turbo, so I would imagine is spins pretty early. Did you say you were using an FMU?

Roc,

Is the front 4x4 slide engaging unit you have the replacement for the electrical box?? Does it allow you to use a cable instead--like the 2011/2012's? If it is, I want one! Also interested in the one intake and one exhaust gasket. Not sure if I can afford you, but PM me some prices on those please.

One of these UTV's is not like the other...

I was messing around on youtube and found someone who looks familiar:

I just wish they showed you tearing it up chop.

I am going to put in my pitch for a weight saving pinned thread again. I just received some Lightforce 140 Lance headlights I ordered. They are about 1/3rd the weight of the factory headlights.

Lenny has saved some significant weight by removing the front driveshaft donut.

I could post up the numbers that I have written down for the rear cage & spare tire.

I could post the weight of the factory shocks. Airshocks could save you tons of weight. Even my fox shocks are lighter than the factory shocks by a few pounds.

If you remove the factory lightbar (I do very little night riding), there is 15-25 lbs. Or, if you build a light bar like Kinarfi you would save alot of weight.