Performance suspension for the street

[chrism]

I was thinking about this this weekend. I am a truck guy...have not had a car in over 20 years. I know very little about what makes a good performing street suspension system on a truck. I'm mostly interested in what kind of ideas everyone has and just some discussion on what you would do to make a good performing 4wd FSJ daily driver.

My current FSJ is a street only daily driver which sees occasional light towing duty during boating season. It is 100% stock as far as suspension and tires go. It came with a LT1/700r4/NP241 from a PO. It is still in pretty good shape after about another year or so of DDing I plan to do a little resto on it. Probably move to a LS engine and get going on the body/paint work. Its still going to be a DD so stock height with stock size wheels and tires. It sees plenty of snow so IFS 2wd conversions would be out (but feel free to discuss).

So throw out whatever you have...mild to wild.

[JeepinPete]

Going all out, I would link it front and rear, sway bars front and rear, swap in a AWD transfer case, and fit the widest tires that would fit under the body. Lower it a couple inches too while I was at it. I gave some thought to going this was with my Cherokee. The extra width would have to help the road holding ability of the truck.

[Towtruck]

I'd look at grafting on the entire suspension, drive train and electronics from a wrecked 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee or Dodge Durango. State of the art and decent towing capacity. Nice street manners. Forget farm implement era transfer cases, axles and transmissions.

[chrism]

Originally Posted by Towtruck

I'd look at grafting on the entire suspension, drive train and electronics from a wrecked 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee or Dodge Durango. State of the art and decent towing capacity. Nice street manners. Forget farm implement era transfer cases, axles and transmissions.

That would probably be awesome. I have never looked at any of the new grand cherokees are they are unibodies like the older generations?

What about parallel 4-links and coil springs like the ZJ/WJ's? I think I need to keep my solid axles.

BTW towtruck I really like your Jtruck. Some day when I don't need room for the kids I want to build one of those.

[Towtruck]

That's what JeepinPete recommended. It would sure be better behaved than the leaf springs, but unsprung weight is still huge. The new Cherokees are unibody....suspension virtually the same as the ML Mercedes. Depends what you want to spend, as always.

By the way, my pickup sticks extremely well with big wide tires...until the back end hits even a small bump....when it jumps sideways about a foot. And of course it rides like a 50's-60's vintage truck....which it is.