'EPIC TREK' suspension kit

[Rhinoman]

This is interesting - although probably too pricy for most UK SJ owners:

http://www.trailtough.com/index.php?pag ... &Itemid=53

[Ladaman]

If I was going to spend big money on suspension (YJ swap will be a few £ in the end), I'd go coil and ditch the leafs. Something like this.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.ph ... views.html

Expensive, but neat.

Maybe that's my next project after I've got the YJ's sorted.

[Anton]

Ladaman - the problem with going coils is that any chassis mods are likely to require an IVA test, which a bone stock vehicle would fail. Getting *any* SJ through an IVA test is going to be a hell of a job.

You can box in a 3 sided chassis rail (make it a 4 sided chassis rail) and you can add crossmembers, but you can't make the chassis wider, taller, longer etc unless anything you add bolts on, using existing bolt holes.

Now, that leaves a very interesting loophole:



Add the spring mounts using bolt-around plates like the ones for that panhard mount that sandwich the chassis, and you haven't broken the rules. If they had extended shock mounts integrated into them too, then you could make a bolt-on kit that breaks none of the rules.

If your trailing arms use the leaf spring mounts, or new mounts attached to a new crossmember between the chassis rails, then you're all legal. Technically you might need to get the DVLA to inspect it under the 8 point system, but you'd be legal.

Or so the rules I read (admittedly over a year ago) seemed to indicate...

[turbo-tom]

That dreaded word "sniggers"

IVA

[trotter]

Ladaman - the problem with going coils is that any chassis mods are likely to require an IVA test, which a bone stock vehicle would fail. Getting *any* SJ through an IVA test is going to be a hell of a job.

has anyone ever got a sj though one?

[Edweird]

Ladaman - the problem with going coils is that any chassis mods are likely to require an IVA test, which a bone stock vehicle would fail. Getting *any* SJ through an IVA test is going to be a hell of a job.

has anyone ever got a sj though one?

Probably, but I've yet to meet them. I should imagine it doesn't much look like an SJ any more either.

[Ladaman]

Ladaman - the problem with going coils is that any chassis mods are likely to require an IVA test, which a bone stock vehicle would fail. Getting *any* SJ through an IVA test is going to be a hell of a job.

But who makes the decision, or decides on if it's been altered? Is it the MOT man?
And if you know a friendly MOT man

[Rhinoman]

The decision is made by VOSA but I believe that the MOT man can now report it to VOSA. VOSA have also been known to do spot checks on vehicles leaving off-road sites.

[turbo-tom]

Vosa also have the right by law to retest the vehicle again.

[Anton]

Ladaman - the problem with going coils is that any chassis mods are likely to require an IVA test, which a bone stock vehicle would fail. Getting *any* SJ through an IVA test is going to be a hell of a job.

But who makes the decision, or decides on if it's been altered? Is it the MOT man?
And if you know a friendly MOT man

VOSA. Essentially, you are responsible for filling out the right forms (I think it's called a "declaration of significantly modified vehicle") if you mod your car or truck in any significant manner.

What "significant" means isn't defined in any of the documents I've read. You'd be ok driving around with a vehicle that hasn't been declared modded, and the MOT man won't care in most cases - unless a vehicle is blatantly not what it used to be (like the bloke who bought a mini body on an SJ410 chassis, then the MOT man wouldn't MOT it, because it said Suzuki SJ410 on the log book, but he was looking at what he thought was a jacked-up mini).

Where you're likely to get into trouble is if you get pulled by the police or VOSA for some reason, and they notice your vehicle is significantly altered. They might not know your suspension setup isn't stock. But in the event of an accident, an investigator can make all kinds of claims about your mods...?