By Only 29% of the Earth’s surface is dry land. Of course, not all of it is dry land, but it’s land nonetheless. Dirt, mud, rubble, sand, spontaneous hellfire, doesn’t matter. If it’s not the 71% of Earth covered by oceans, it is the domain of the Toyota Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser is designed to go anywhere, carrying anything, under any circumstances.
The FJ80 and FZJ80 (model year 1990-97) are the most-loved iteration of the landcruiser, packing the four wheel drive system, solid axles, and fix-it-with-a-hammer suspension of the FJ40 with the electronic fuel injection, power windows, and third-row seating of the FJ100. The J80 Land Cruiser and its platform mate, the Lexus LX, may seem like perfect vehicles, but like everything else, there’s an aftermarket! The Land Cruiser’s off-road and utilitarian features are improved with a few simple suspension upgrades.
The Basics
Your suspension system has a few major jobs. Firstly, it needs to maximize the amount of contact that your wheel makes with the ground. Your tires can’t do their thing if they’re cambered at some ridiculous angle. This is also important offroad: if you don’t have enough travel, you might end up hanging on three wheels, or bottoming out on some rocks! Secondly, suspension needs to provide stability. If you’re cruising on the freeway at 65 miles an hour and hit a bump, you want to feel the bump, but not get bumped off the road out of control! Last, it needs to ensure your comfort. Because if we didn’t want to ride in style, we would still be going everywhere in covered wagons.
Leveling/Air Lift
If you’ve ever towed something, you’re probably familiar with the sag and sway that comes from loading the tail end of a vehicle. When you’re adding an extra few hundred (or few thousand) pounds onto the back of your vehicle, whether you’re on stock suspension or the most badass remote-reservoir coilover setup out there, the back of your car isn’t going to handle the same.
Air lift suspension makes towing and loading your vehicle safer and more comfortable. These adjustable air bags fit inside the coil springs of your vehicle in place of the stock bump stops. They can be inflated or deflated to the necessary stiffness to help level the rear of your vehicle while towing a trailer or carrying a heavy load. They inflate with just a standard air compressor connection, just like inflating tires! On a lifted vehicle, the pressure hoses for the air bags can be routed through the center of the rear suspension crossmember. Now, instead of smacking the bump stops every time you go over rocks and uneven surfaces with a heavy load, you can ride in comfort and safety!
Springs
Springs absorb the energy created when your vehicle hits a bump. When you’re driving along the highway or crawling over rocks, the springs in your suspension compress to let the wheels move up into the body without creating body roll or upsetting the balance of the car. Upgraded springs use different tensile strength loads and length to change the way your vehicle rides. Shorter springs let your vehicle sit lower, which increases stability while cornering. Longer springs lift your vehicle up, allowing for more suspension travel and ground clearance. Higher loaded springs will stiffen the ride quality and make your vehicle more responsive, while looser springs will soften bumps better and make things more comfortable at the cost of some body roll.
Springs are the key to a good lift on your Land Cruiser. If you’re looking for more ground clearance, Old Man Emu has plenty of options for ride height increases. A safe upgrade on stock shock lengths is 2-2.5”, and a heavy-duty spring rate will help keep you planted whether you’re crawling through a lakebed or carrying the whole family plus rations and sleeping gear in the back. OME also produces light- and medium-duty springs if you’re looking for a softer ride, or not planning to carry too much junk in the trunk.
Shocks
Springs are great at absorbing energy, but bad at dispersing it. Shock absorbers, also called dampers, absorb energy from bumps and convert it to heat. When a shock absorber is compressed, a piston moves down into a tube full of hydraulic fluid, softening the blow from compression and then responding with like rebound (thanks to the magic of vacuums). Shocks determine the amount of travel– how far up and down your wheel can go on the suspension– as well as how the suspension responds to both compression and rebound. Tighter valved shocks will be slower to compress, leading to a firmer ride and flatter cornering; loosely valved shocks will compress faster, making things smoother but a little more wallowy. Upgraded suspension usually offers more travel and different valving, which changes the way your vehicle handles over bumps and uneven surfaces. High end shock absorbers sometimes have remote reservoirs for hydraulic fluid, or trade fluid-filled shocks for gas ones. Both of these systems can end up saving you unsprung weight.
For the 80 series Land Cruiser, there are tons of different shocks available. ARB’s Old Man Emu suspension tends to be the most popular, but classic brands like Fox suspension and others offer super long travel options to get you the height and style you want for your truck. Struts are a worthwhile thing to check out even if you’re not planning on a ride height change, as over the years your truck has been around they’ve definitely seen some wear.
Sway Bars and Disconnects
Sway bars (aka anti-sway bars, anti-roll bars) work as a lateral brace between the left and right side of a car. The front and rear swaybars attach with links to the wheel hubs, and use torsional stiffness to keep the vehicle as close to level over its axles as possible. This allows the outside wheels to force the body and the inside wheels back down towards the ground. Aftermarket sway bars are usually both thicker and lighter than the OEM parts. Sway bar disconnects do exactly what you might think: they disconnect your sway bars. On the road, sway bars keep the vehicle planted around corners, making sure there isn’t too much flex between the left and right wheels. Off-road, you want as much flex as possible so your wheels can be on the ground more of the time. Disconnecting the sway bars frees your suspension to move up and down as far as it physically can, offering completely independent motion between the left and right sides of the car. A sway bar disconnect is a connection that allows you to quickly release or replace the sway bar, so you can get to your off-roading destination safely and then have all of the suspension flex you need to go anywhere.
These modifications are a little iffy on FJ80 Land Cruisers; there are a few options out there for aftermarket sway bars, for example this kit from Whiteline. They can keep your vehicle steadier if it spends long drives on flat trails and backroads, but may hamper your offroad performance a little. Meanwhile, sway bar disconnects are available, but tough to come by, as many are home-built designs. Additionally, they are a risky mod without some pretty significant suspension lift! Land Cruiser bodies aren’t quite as rigid as you might think when one wheel is propped up 14 inches higher than the other one.
So where can I get all of this cool stuff?
If you’re looking for suspension upgrades for your J80 Land Cruiser, check out the Motoroso Marketplace! There are tons of high-quality springs, dampers, and full suspension kits for Land Cruisers and whatever other vehicle you need to set up for the road, track, or dirt. If you’re looking for some help putting things together or need some inspiration, take a look at the Motoroso YouTube channel. There, we’re upgrading tons of install guides, must-have-mod lists, and build showcases to help you figure out exactly what you want to do with your vehicle.
