Re: TOY: Fiberglass Springs

["Woodruff, Jason P" <Jason.Woodruff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm going to use some fiberglass springs on my road racing truck.  But right
not with nearly flat pack of steel springs I get side to side axle movement
of about 3 inches.  So I figure I can't use the monoleaf fiberglass springs
until I build some sort of panhard rod to hold the axle in place.

This side to side movement would be even worse on a 4x4 because the spring
will have a big arch to give sideways force some leverage.  I'd look into a
panhard rod or something similar before swapping to fiberglass.

I hear there's a place here in Southern Cal that's pretty cheap.  Then
there's another one on the east coast that's not so cheap.

Jay W


-----Original Message-----

Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 09:41:02 -0800
From: "Tony Bartlett" <offroadr@redrock.net>
Subject: Re: TOY: Fiberglass Springs

I think this is the same company from back in the late 80's that I tried to
get information from.  I mailed them some questions and never did get a
reply back (or maybe I would have some on my truck)

Thom mentioned the biggest problem, bashing the springs on rocks.  Back when
I first heard about them they did not have any type of protection for the
springs for hitting rocks and chipping, cracking the springs.
I would say it was over 10 years ago when I first heard of them.  Maybe by
now they have some type of metal plate to put on the bottom of them to help
with this.

Toyota Tony

>I came across this on the web:
>http://members.carol.net/spring/info1.htm

>I have not any talks about fiberglass springs on a Toyota.
>Fiberglass springs are used on Corvettes. It has much longer life than
>steel. It will flex millions of cycles while similar steel break at
>500,000 cycles. Hey, no more sagging. Maybe a softer spring can be used
>for more flex without worries about overloading. They weight 8 lbs each.
>The picture shows only a single leaf used instead of the familiar pack.
>This is the way it is run on the Corvette too as I understand. Suppose
>there should be less friction with only one leaf. Is there a way this
>can be used on a Toyota? Whatcha think?