Our 4WD Suspension Setup Fulcrum Formula 4×4
In this post we take you through our 4WD suspension setup in our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser, the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore suspension setup. We take a look at the pricing we received from other brands, why we decided to go with Fulcrum in our 4WD setup, and how well the suspension has been almost 12 months on.
Header photo by Richard Eckert | @richiecrichsa (Instagram).
4WD Suspension Upgrade Decisions
As we were planning the build for our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser, suspension was one of the key modifications and upgrades that we wanted to do sooner rather than later. Upgrading our suspension would provide us better ride comfort as well as far greater clearance when driving off-road. Through our build planning process, we setup a list of modifications we were going to do as well as a budget range for each depending on what gear we would end up using. The budget we setup in a spreadsheet so that we had a total cost for the build allowing us to play around with different options to stay within this budget.
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- Photo by Richard Eckert | @richierichsa (Instagram)
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- Photo by Richard Eckert | @richierichsa (Instagram)
With suspension we were initially stuck on which way to go. Our initial thoughts were to go with top of the range suspension gear and budgeted accordingly. We made many phone calls and spoke with lots of different companies trying to determine what would be the best suspension setup for our 4WD. As we progressed through the build and changed our minds many times, we completely changed our thoughts on suspension and stayed well clear of the expensive remote reservoir gear. The reason we decided this was for what we plan to do to our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser in a few years, we will not be giving this away right now, but we did not want to be wasting our money for something that could be changing in the future.
As a result, we stopped looking at expensive gear and refocused our attention on more affordable brands that still have a good reputation. We also had many an online chat with other 4WD Adventurers about their experiences with their suspension setups on similar 4WDs. Here we were trying to get an honest opinion on certain gear. But be aware, most people have brand bias and it it sometimes hard to actually find out how well gear actually works. We chose to stay well clear of remote reservoir adjustable shocks as we do not really see the point in spending this sort of money for shocks that are probably not going to be that big a difference when it comes to ride comfort, especially in the 70 Series Land Cruisers. With adjustable shocks, the people we did speak to that run these types of shocks hardly ever adjust them. So, we did not quite see the point here, although many people will be screaming at the screen right now as they will completely disagree, and that is absolutely fine.
Legal 4WD Suspension Lift
Of course, the main reason for upgrading our suspension from stock was to get a legal two-inch lift for better clearance. We had already gained close to an inch lift with upgrading to 33-inch tyres which is the maximum legal tyre size we could increase to. A two-inch suspension lift would give us a total of three inches which is legal across Australia. Anything higher and you run the risk of fines and forfeiting your insurance. The only option to go any higher is to have an engineer approve your modifications which can be a costly exercise if the setup has not gone through the approval process already such as the JMACX and Marks 4WD engineered conversions.
As a result, we were looking for a two-inch legal lift. On top of this we wanted to add air bags for minor ride height adjustments when loaded in the rear or towing our camper trailer DOT373. If you decide to go any higher than a two-inch lift, remembering that this is not legal, be prepared to spend a lot more money. It will cost you at least another $1,000 or more for each inch higher as you will need to do several other upgrades as you lift your 4WD body even higher. Look, we know a four inch lift on a 4WD looks tough as, but we do not want to be driving an illegal 4WD. We just do not see the point with all the hassles you will receive from the cops as well as the risks you face in the event something goes wrong.
Constant Load Considerations
Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is your constant loads in the front and rear. The load weights will affect what spring rates you need to go to, to ensure you get the desired lift as well as continue to have ride comfort.
All decent suspension suppliers should be asking you these sorts of questions to ensure you get the correct coil and or leaf springs. For example, we have both a bull bar and winch on the front of our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser and as a result have front coil springs that suit that weight up front. When it comes to constant loads in the rear, here you need to be careful with what you chose to do. Remembering that we are talking about “constant” load weight, not fully loaded weight. If you are constantly fully loaded as you have a ute and use it for work your rear springs will be different to someone that day to day does not carry much of a load but loads up every couple of weeks for a weekend of camping.
If you go for rear springs that are for a heavier constant load you will notice the ride difference when you are not loaded, especially in 4WDs with leaf springs. You will have an uncomfortable hard ride when you are not loaded. If your load fluctuates all the time, then you are better off going with lower rated rear springs and adding air bags for those odd occasions when you have more weight than usual in the rear. Determining your constant load weight is simple. It is just a matter of calculating the total weight of the gear you carry in the rear of your 4WD. For us this is just under 300 kgs when we add up the total weight of our rear bar, larger spare wheel and tyre, sound deadening, rear drawers, AGM battery and electrical gear, 12V fridge and the gear in our drawers. As a result, we went with 350 kg rear leaf springs as the 250 kg rated springs were not enough in our opinion. We will talk about the ride comfort further on in this post.
The Quotes We Received for Different Suspension Setups
Once we knew loads, lift height and that we wanted air bags it was a matter of doing our own research and speaking to several different companies to get pricing. Here is a list of some of the quotes we received, all include fitting and wheel alignment. The pricing below also includes castor bushes for castor correction; they cost around $200. We have separated the air bag costs as these were all similar in price at around $1,000 fitted for Airbag Man airbags. We have also not included any costs for steering dampers either; these are around $150 to $250 depending on the brand.
- ARB Old Man Emu Nitro Shock Kit – $3,350
- ARB Old Man Emu BP51 Remote Res Shock Kit – $5,350
- Bilstein B6 Kit supplied and fitted by Superior Engineering – $3,350
- Superior Engineering Remote Res Shock Kit – $4,350
- EFS XTR Shock Kit – $3,150
- Ironman Foam Cell Shock Kit – $3,250
- Tough Dog Adjustable 45MM Shock Kit – $3,450
- Tough Dog 53MM Big Bore Shock Kit – $3,450
- Outback Armour – $3,500
- Oz Tech – $3,600
- Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore Kit with King Spring Coils – $2,550
From the above pricing you can see that most two-inch suspension lift kits are around the $3,500 figure fitted with a wheel alignment. Add another $1,000 for air bags and another $200 for a steering damper. The remote reservoir shock setups are far more expensive starting at $4,350 for the Superior Engineering shocks to $5,350 for the ARB BP51s. If you wanted a GVM increase, the suspension setup will be well over $5,500 depending on the brand. All the pricing listed is full retail without any discounts to give you an idea. There are many other brands as well that we have not included here, this is just a summary of some in the market.
Our 4WD Suspension Setup
As we mentioned earlier, we do plan on making some big upgrades to our Land Cruiser build in the future which will involve suspension changes. We therefore decided to not spend a crazy amount of money here and made a bit of a gamble and decided to go with the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore suspension setup in our 4WD. Unfortunately, we could not find anyone else driving a 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser that had this setup so we did go into this not really knowing what the outcome would be. We do know that some of the guys from 4WD Action run with Fulcrum suspension and do not seem to have any problems. Of course, their feedback is coming from a sponsored position so we could not fully rely on their opinions. Either way we decided to test out the Fulcrum Formula 4X4 Big Bore suspension setup in our 4WD and saved ourselves some money.
When we decided to do our suspension lift it was just as Covid-19 hit. As a result, many businesses were worried about huge drops in sales so there were some crazy discounts on offer. We had originally haggled quite a bit with Fulcrum and received a decent discount, but with Covid-19 sales we were able to get this pricing down even further. We will go through the costs further below.
Fulcrum Formula 4x4 Big Bore Suspension Setup
The total price we paid for our Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore suspension setup in our 4WD, with air bags, steering damper and fitting was $2,900. Without any discounts this total setup would have cost around $3,600. This is what was included in our Fulcrum 4WD suspension setup:
- 4 x Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore 66mm shocks
- 2 x King Spring yellow coils
- 2 x Fulcrum Formula 4×4 350 kg constant load leaf springs
- 2 x greaseable shackles
- 4 x U bolts
- SuperPro spring and shackle bush kit
- SuperPro radius arm offset bushes
- 2 x greaseable pins
- Airbag Man Ride-Rite airbag kit
- Raw 4×4 steering damper
- Labour to fit all the above suspension components
- 3 Year / 60,000 km warranty
- SuperPro bushes have a lifetime warranty
The Formula 4×4 Big Bore shocks are massive, they are low pressure nitrogen shocks made from high grade carbon steel. The shocks are 66mm wide with 58mm struts. These are definitely one of the biggest shocks you can buy at 66mm. Internally they have a 40mm Teflon coated piston. The larger size of the shocks allows a higher volume of oil resulting in greater heat dispersion. Fulcrum use Fuchs high temperature oils within these shocks as well as high temperature seals. These Big Bore shocks also come with SuperPro bushings already fitted to them.
On top of that Fulcrum use SuperPro bushes in the rest of their suspension kit, which all come with a lifetime warranty and are Australian made. SuperPro bushes are made from poly not rubber. Poly is longer lasting and assists in reducing any suspension noise due to reduced vibrations compared to rubber bushes. Another added benefit of the Fulcrum suspension setup is it comes with offset radius arm bushes as standard. This ensures you get the correct alignment once you raise the 4WD body 50mm. The offset radius arm bushes help correct your castor as they allow for an extra four degrees in castor increase. The Fulcrum suspension setup uses King Spring coils which have a good reputation in the Australian market. Fulcrum do not have their own branded steering dampers but they do sell Raw 4×4 suspension products. As a result we upgraded our stock steering damper to a Raw 4×4 steering damper.
Overall the kit we received is pretty damn good for the price tag. The Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore shocks are massive at 66mm. This was one of the reasons we decided to go with these shocks as we hoped that this would help with better head dissipation. We really liked that all bushes across all suspension components came with SuperPro bushes as these are quality Australian made suspension products with a lifetime warranty. The Formula 4×4 warranty is comparable to others at 3-years however a lot more competitors offer 100,000 km warranty compared to the 60,000 kms by Fulcrum.
12 Months On
How well has the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore suspension setup gone in our 4WD almost 12 months later?
So far, we have been extremely impressed with the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore suspension setup in our 4WD setup, 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser. Overall ride comfort has improved dramatically. The ride is a hell of a lot softer compared to the stock suspension setup. We have found that cornering feels a lot better with less roll even though we are sitting 50mm higher. Since fitting the Fulcrum suspension we have driven in all sort of different conditions. Throughout our Simpson Desert trip, we had no issues, and the ride was extremely comfortable even through some of those extremely bumpy tracks up sand dunes. Through thousands of kilometres of corrugated roads, the suspension handled extremely well. Driving 4WD tracks in the Glass House Mountains and Imbil State Forest have been fantastic. Washouts on the beach have been far better than the stock suspension setup. Day to day driving is extremely comfortable.
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- Photo by Richard Eckert | @richierichsa (Instagram)
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- Photo by Richard Eckert | @richierichsa (Instagram)
We have noticed that all the paint has gone from the bottom of the rear shocks after driving many gravel roads which is expected. A bit of touch paint will sort them out. When it comes to the rear springs, it would have been great if Fulcrum had a 300 kg constant load setup rather than going from 250 to 350 kgs. Here we can notice a far more uncomfortable ride if our rear drawers are empty with the 350 kg constant load springs. We probably would have been better off having the 250 kg rear springs as we do have air bags. We have been in a couple of 70 Series Land Cruisers with EFS XTR suspension setups and find that the Fulcrum suspension is a far softer ride than the EFS setup. If you get your rear spring rates correct, then this suspension setup will be extremely comfortable in any 4WD. Unfortunately, we have not been in any Cruisers with say a BP51 or Kings suspension setup as it would be great to compare the ride quality of some of the most expensive setups to the Fulcrum setup which costs a fraction of these. Once we do, we will update this post and let you know our thoughts.
Flex
When it comes to flex, there is definitely an improvement to the Toyota stock suspension setup which you would definitely expect. With the suspension components we chose to fit with this kit we were not expecting a great deal of flex. However we have seen some improvements giving us slightly better traction on 4WD tracks. If you were after a serious amount of suspension flex then you would definitely need to look at a few additional suspension components to achieve this. You could look at upgraded radius arms, drop box mounts to lower your radius arms, upgraded sway bar and (or) sway bar disconnects. Our suspension setup is a basic lift kit without any of these additional suspension components. We also didn’t see the point in replacing the stock 70 Series Land Cruiser radius arms as they are heavy duty and you don’t ever hear of many of these failing. But if serious flex is one of your requirements, you will definitely need to look at a number of different upgraded suspension components.
Overall Good Value for Money
Overall, for what our complete suspension setup cost we really have nothing bad to say about the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 Big Bore kit. Fulcrum were a pleasure to deal with and organised a local fitter to do all the work for us. Although initially we chose Fulcrum due to cost as we are going to make some changes in the future, it ended up being a good decision and saved as quite a bit of money compared to other setups. To see the exact Fulcrum suspension kit that we have used in our 4WD setup, check it out here. Here is the Raw 4×4 steering damper that we added to our Fulcrum suspension setup in our 4WD.
We hope you have enjoyed reading about our 4WD Fulcrum suspension setup in our 76 (70) Series Toyota Land Cruiser. If you would like to read more posts on our 4WD build then check them out here. To keep up to date on future posts and become apart of the 4WD Adventurer community, join up here.
Thanks for reading legends.
The Thoughts of Peter.
21/12/2023 @ 7:41 AM
Hey mate,
Did you find that you needed to fit spacers to the front sway bar mounts?
Was there any contact between the front sway bar and front tail shaft??
22/12/2023 @ 2:03 PM
G’day Jake
No need to fit any spacers with their 2” lift kit. Had no issues with contact anywhere.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Peter
28/10/2023 @ 5:19 PM
Hi Peter,
I’m really enjoying reading through the reviews of the 4×4 mods you have made to your 76 series. I am looking at upgrading my suspension as my 78 series is starting to run lowish with the current mods on stock suspension; bullbar + winch, rear bar, roof platform, rear drawers and sound deadening. I appreciate your review of the Fulcrum Formula 4×4 shocks and the increased constant load leaf springs fitted. I notice from your pages where you fitted the 4″ exhaust and LRA aux tank, you now have BP-51’s installed.
I’m interested to hear your experiences with the changes you have made. I am planning on addressing the track correction at a later date, probably the JMACX kit or Superior, but for now am weighing up what to do in terms of suspension lift vs GVM upgrade. For suspension, I have heard good things about Terrain Tamer parabolic leaf springs and their variable rate coils. TT also offer a GVM upgrade kit with their TGS shocks. Not sure what the TT TGS shocks are like in terms or ride/durability compared to others included in specific GVM/lift kits. I don’t plan to load the truck up to the brim, however I will be installing the LRA 90L water tank and carry extra water/fuel/tyres when needed. I am thinking of getting the TT parabolics and coils, airbags and maybe going with a different brand of shocks. Like you, I would prefer a less-firm ride as well as being able to adjust rear height a little as needed.
Just wondering your thoughts on the change to BP-51s and whether you think overall, they/remote res shocks in general are worth the extra money? Would you have still run the Fulcrum shocks for some time longer if you didn’t upgrade the GVM?
Sorry to bombard you with questions, I just feel your opinion is practical and unbiased (based on reading through your website), unlike many seemingly sponsored reviews or from people with no real concern about cost and are happy to go all out with rig mods.
Thanks and happy overlanding.
Robert
03/09/2021 @ 10:26 PM
I’m really finding your site very helpful.
I also have a 76 series and recently installed Terrain Tamer smart coils and 500-700kg Terrain Tamer parabolic leaf springs. Love the parabolic leaf springs. Far more comfortable and more flex than standard leaf springs. Shocks are 3 way adjustable Remote Reservoir Dobinsons MRA shocks. Gotta say the set up is excellent.
There is a massive amount of adjustment with both Rebound and compression.
I intend having three settings.
Blacktop, offroading and touring fully loaded.
I am waiting for my drifta drawers and I intend removing the rear seats and installing a floor.
I intend doing a similar storage upgrade like you did and really appreciate all the effort you have put into this site. All very helpful.
Thanks for your help
Mick
07/09/2021 @ 8:48 AM
G’day Mick,
Thanks for the message mate, appreciate the feedback and glad you have found our posts helpful.
Good to know what other suspension setups people are running on the 76. I have always been interested to know how the parabolic leaf springs go on the 76 and now I know. Have heard they make a big difference comfort wise.
So it looks like we will be changing our suspension setup to get a GVM upgrade. As you might have read in our other posts, we had planned on fitting a JMACX rear diff which at the time you could get a 10% GVM increase due to the increased axle load with engineering sign off. But unfortunately we took too long to do the upgrade and the week we organised it to get done QLD changed their laws. So we have not fitted the diff but will instead need to go down the GVM suspension upgrade. I didn’t really want to do this as we don’t need that much more payload but anyway. We will go ARB for the GVM upgrade so just need to work out if we do standard OME shocks or drop the big bucks on OME BP-51 remote res adjustable shocks. It is about a $2k difference between the two setups. Fortunately you can go with 400kg rated springs in the 76 with the GVM upgrade so it won’t be a big change from our current 350kg setup.
Hopefully we will get our post up in the next few months regarding our rear seat conversion.
Cheers,
Peter