Perch Collars v. Eibach Coilovers. Questions

[mpeugeot]

I appreciate your input. Have followed many of your posts and insight.
So you put the eibachs on a nonsasquatch obx? Did you do UCA also? I don’t have more than 150# in the back plus a 33” spare tire. It definitely sits lower. That’s what is like to address.
My novice seat of the pants evaluation tells me it’s stiff over speed bumps and washboard trails. Not hitting the bump stops but feels like it if that make sense.
If the eibachs soften that while adding 2” and limiting brake dive I’m all in. After these 285/75 BFG I’m considering 35’s in a narrow width. Keeping the BD steelies

thanks

So I had a non-sasquatch OBX to start with, but I installed a non-sasquatch Badlands suspension on the Bronco at about 20k miles. At 101k miles, I pulled the non-sasquatch Badlands suspension and I installed the Eibach Pro Truck 2.0 suspension and a set of Zone upper control arms.

The Badlands Non-Sasquatch Bilstein's were definitely stiffer than the Hitachi's and the Eibach's. Brake dive was greatest with the Hitachi's and least with the Bilstein's, the Eibach Pro Truck 2.0 suspension is somewhere in the middle. On-road, the Bilstein's were the best of the 3 suspensions all around but stiff over speed bumps. Off-road the Eibach's were the best suspension. The Hitachi's were softer everywhere and a great highway suspension unless you got on the brakes hard, then it wanted to dive and get squirrelly.

Hope that answers your questions.

I think that 285/75 is a great option.

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[Ford2201]

Thanks Mark.
Are the control arms a necessity? Been trying to read up on this. Eibach says not needed if under 2.5”. Others have said I need them. Not trying to cheap out but not looking to spend a lot and still not be happy. Like I said above. Looking.l to eliminate the rear sag

 

[mpeugeot]

Thanks Mark.
Are the control arms a necessity? Been trying to read up on this. Eibach says not needed if under 2.5”. Others have said I need them. Not trying to cheap out but not looking to spend a lot and still not be happy. Like I said above. Looking.l to eliminate the rear sag

Well, inexpensive UCAs can be had for under $150.

PRO COMP Front Upper Control Arms https://a.co/d/9zpoyBc

So, I would probably spend the extra coin. I have a spare set of these right now and they look pretty nice. I really would have preferred to have spent $150 on these instead of spending the money on the Zone UCAs (which were the cheapest I found at the time).

I don't think that they were necessary, but now I don't have to worry about it if I lift my Bronco higher. Also, remember, the Eibach out of the box is a 2" lift over Sasquatch.

 

[Ford2201]

Great points. Thanks. More to consider

 

[Dover157]

nice rig. What tires did you go with? You ended up with approximately what 1-1/2” - 1-3/4” lift over stock

needed UCA to get the alignment dialed in?

Will need

nice rig. What tires did you go with? You ended up with approximately what 1-1/2” - 1-3/4” lift over stock

needed UCA to get the alignment dialed in?

Running the Mickey Thompson Baja boss at in 255/85R17 fit with crash bars installed before lift. They were able to get the alignment in spec but right at the edge with the factory UCA’s front end floated more than I like at first but got much better when I lowered them 1/4”. Definitely recommend getting UCA’s with them and will be getting mine changed out soon. Haven’t measured it yet as work has kept me too busy but I like the height it ended up with.

 

[bucketdad]

I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this but part of the stiffness you feel is the load rated E tires. Broncos come with something like a load rated C tire. Your E tires are a lot stiffer than factory. Add that to the pre-loaded spring and its going to feel stiff.

 

[Ford2201]

I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned this but part of the stiffness you feel is the load rated E tires. Broncos come with something like a load rated C tire. Your E tires are a lot stiffer than factory. Add that to the pre-loaded spring and its going to feel stiff.

Yea I was aware of that as well. I’ve been working on a happy medium for tire pressure to soften that up some. Settled on 35 that’s eases the stiffness. Also based on what feedback I got here I’m holding off for now. But in the future there will be an upgrade. Thanks for the feedback. All in all I’m happy with the ride as is. For stock hitachi. We shall see

 

[gbub]

Perch collars add stiffness, you have the ride idea. The reason being, like you mentioned, is they preload the spring, which in turn will require more force to compress the spring further, resulting in a stiffer ride.

For example, a loose example but it should get the point across. Take a 250lb/in spring. It takes 250 lbs to compress the spring 1 inch. To compress it 2 inches, it takes 500lbs. So it’s kind of like you have 500lbs of load on the springs already which means you would need even more (750lbs) to compress the spring another inch when, say, you go over a speed bump, etc. It’s important to note that this is different than an increased spring rate, as that is more about the stiffness of the spring itself rather than how much preload is applied. Preload doesn’t change the spring rate, it just shifts the range where the spring starts working, which can make the suspension feel stiffer without changing the spring’s fundamental characteristics.

The eibachs, and other coilovers that are height adjustable, work the same way. You increase preload to gain ride height. This will make the ride stiffer, but typically perch collars add a good bit of preload and usually have a stiffer ride than coilovers with increased preload. The good thing about adjustable height, is that you see now that your rear end is sagging, so you don’t have to buy a different lift or springs, you can just adjust accordingly. If your preload matches the weight you have, it shouldn’t ride too stiff. It’s hard to nail it the first time. Keep in mind springs do settle after a while and you can lose a bit of ride height, which is probably why your rear started to sag. Same thing happened to me after a while when I had perch collars.

Where did you come up with this preload information. I have the Eibach Pro 2.0 coil over suspension kit and the only preload I see is with the shock at full extension. That preload goes away when you put the load of the vehicle on it. The spring height stays the same with the vehicle weight on it regardless of the preload that it has at full shock extension. The preload at shock full extension cannot be added to the weight the vehicle forces on the spring.

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