Surrey Off-Road Specialists Limited

The next area that needed addressing was the gearing that has now been raised considerably by the larger diameter tyre We lowered the ratios of each axle initially to 4.11:1.(lowest ratios available at the time) and later lower still to 4.56:1 This lowered the gearing back to a sensible level, slightly lower than the gearing had been with the standard tyres. We have also fitted a different speedo drive gear to correct the speedo. To give the TJ the best possible traction we fitted ARB Airlocker cross axle difflocks to both axles.

The next step was to select a suitable suspension system that would deal with the following points: 1) A sufficient lift to enable the suspension to fully articulate without the tyres fouling the body. 2) Sufficiently strong springs to handle the weight of the vehicle well both on road and off. (always a compromise) 3) The kit should be comprehensive and contain all the parts necessary to do a complete job. At this point we already knew what sort of weight was going to be involved as we already had a finished vehicle specification planned. This is very important. For example; there is no point putting light springs on and then strap a winch on later that will overpower the springs with the extra weight. If you know that you are going to add a winch later it pays to go for the heavier springs at the outset.

At the time of building the "Rubicon" there were only a couple of suspension kits on the market for the TJ. These kits are American and designed for left-hand drive vehicles only. We opted for a system called Teraflex. This is a complete package that has been well sorted and is very comprehensive. It also has some very unique features such as Flexarms. These are radius arms that can rotate along their length to reduce resistance from the bushes during axle articulation as well as having an adjustable length to allow you to correct the caster angle once you have raised the vehicle. We opted for the 3.5" lift kit. The actual lift ended up at approx 3" due to the extra weight of this vehicle.

As mentioned earlier, the kits on sale at the time were designed for left-hand drive vehicles. These kits are not suitable to bolt straight on to a right hand drive vehicle. We had to fabricate our own mounting brackets to ensure the correct geometry for the panhard rods. This is a very important area that can cause severe handling problems if it is incorrect. Other critical adjustments include; caster angle (if this is incorrect the vehicles steering will be vague and require constant attention over every slight bump or seam on the road) and propshaft angles which if wrong can cause bad transmission vibrations ultimately causing failures of joints and bearings.

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