ok, i have thought about my lift and decided that its pretty good where its at. Now i want a Better "Off-Road" susp.
One that will be good for small (front wheels off ground) jumps.

Now people have said that when you crank the tortion bars you lose travel, so if i losen the bars will i gain travel?

I guess thats what will give better "Off-Road" more travel.
so what do i have to do to get that?
and what about shocks?

scottie

 

Losening the torsion bars won't help you any. What happens when you tighten the torsion bars is you lose droop, but would in theory gain compression. Losening will yield the exact opposite results. Losening the bars will also lower your front end down which is not something you want to do. The other thing to remember is IFS doesn't flex so this is a mute point. About the only way you'll get a 97+ F150 IFS to flex is to get rid of it. But when you do this you're looking at about $4000-$5000 or more to do this.

 

So what about the truck in the feb. 2003 of Four Wheeler?
Page - 28?

it is a Outrages Rock crawler with IFS in front and rear!
so how dose he do that???

scottie

 

I didn't think that it would be used for rockcrawling. But, i havent seen that issue yet. Most of the time they make the IRS for offroad racing trucks. Some of the radical jeeps support it though.

 

I don't read 4wheeler anymore so I haven't seen the picture. Post a picture of it and I'll try and explain the differences. The IFS that is on production trucks compared to that of baja trucks is totally different. The thing you have to remember is look at what all the rockcrawlers use. Solid Front Axles!!!! The stock IFS blows ***. It can't flex for crap and never will. One of the major hold-ups to it is the CV angles. Without some sort of slip yoke on it you are severly limited. Then after that you have to keep in mind the angles that the joints themselves have to operate at and even with a slip yoke style shaft gets too steep. There is a reason that the hardcore offroaders use solid axles like D44, D60, and 2.5 ton toploaders. They are capable of more flex, more punishment, and more horsepower. Oh yeah, the IRS is flat out a joke of a suspension on a truck. The only place it belongs is on a car or street only truck like a lightning.

 

I saw the same issue he is talking about. The buggy has IRS and IFS. In the front, one CV is at a 45 degree angle up and on the other side the CV is at a 45 degree level down. Now, obviously this is a highly modified vehicle, but it looks like it is working to me... Many off-road enthusiasts continually believe that a fully independantly sprung vehicle is the future of rockcrawling.

Later,
Abrams

 

Keep in mind that this rock crawling buggie had custom A arms that are much longer than what is on stock IFS vechicles. That thing was also powered by a 4 cylinder suzuki motor and weighs about 2000 lbs.
So here is the equations:

Long travel IFS/IRS + light weight + low speed = good rock crawler

Short travel IFS (7" opposed to 20 something)+ heavy truck (about 2 times heavier) + high speed jumping (about 30 mph opposed to 2 mph) = broken front end

Best thing for a bullet proof, do-anything-frontend is a nice old Dana 60 with leaf springs! In the end, everything is going cost a lot of money anyway.

 

ok, i was just tring to say that you can MOD IFS!

I want to know whats the best way to modify my IFS in my 2000 F-150!
I want to do little rock climbing, and trail riding!
the truck will be my Play Toy! i will be driving it on road from time to time but i'm not too worried about street driving.
I want a 75% - 90% trail truck.

I guess my post saing "I want to do a little jump" was miss leading!

So what do i need to modify what i have!?
I'm not doing a front axle swap. I feel thats overkill for a new ford truck! IFS is whats going to be in all the new trucks and thats whats the new thing thats going to be modified.

I'm not saing its the BEST but its what i have to start with.
the referance to the Buggy was to say "Hey, a IFS can be modified to work well!"

scottie

 

Good luck finding aftermarket parts for the 8.8 IFS.

Thats what my point was, the stock IFS blows and there ain't crap out there to build it up right now. If it was a 2wd you might have a couple options but with your 4x4 you're stuck. The biggest obstacle you'll have issues with is your CVs, if you can even find them for your application, they'll be extremely expensive. Flat out if you want a better suspension and you're going to run mainly trails its going to be a SAS. If you don't like the IFS get rid of it, you can't build them up very easy. Besides why do you think that I'm going to a SAS on my Ranger with the old TTB axle? First off the solid axle is waaaay flexier than that, then I don't have alignment issues, then factor in that they're easier to work on (at least D44 is, D30 isn't bad but not the greatest), then factor in that a SAS will be most likely be beefier than what you have in your F150. You're still limited to 36" tires but the thing is you can build a D44 up. Put a set of Warn alloy shafts and CTM joint in it and you'll handle 38s fairly easily. Those IFS setups you see might be good, but they're waay too spendy for most people, hence why you don't see them on many trucks as well as in many competitions.