Camil Suspension to front of 1999 IFS Double Cab

[ChrisS]

In 2004 I bought a 1999 IFS petrol Hilux Double Cab SRX. It came with many extras, one of which being Camil coil springs and shocks to the front suspension. (the vehicle was originally set up for regular safari/offroad work and the heavy loads it would carry most of the time) The rear has Gabriel Safari shocks. Most of my driving is daily to work and back with offroad driving, unfortunately, being in the minority. The ride is very bumpy and is starting to get to me now and I would like to get a more comfortable ride. I am prepared to compromise offroad capability since this is in the minority. I have been advised to replace the Camil suspension with gas shocks all round. Is the Camil suspension the primary cause for such a bumpy ride? Would changing to gas shocks improve the ride vastly? I have read the blurb on the Camil website and it all looks very good, but for my purposes may not be best suited. I am not sure whether the rear leaf springs have been uprated, I would think they have been but need to get this checked by a spring company here in Cape Town.

Can anyone offer some advice please?

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

What tyres are you using and what is the tyre pressure

[ChrisS]

Cooper S/T at front and Good Year Wrangler rear at 2.1 bar.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Drop your pressures front and rear to 1.8 bars and let me know what you feel.

[BenHur]

Hi ChrisS

1st of all where are you from. Please update your members profile to show your location as that would help us to refer you somewhere if needed.

Do not believe the myth that gas riders will give you a smoother ride then oil shocks. The difference between oil shocks and gas shocks are that even though both primarily uses hydraulic oil to produce damping but in gas shocks the air have been replaced by nitrogen, similar to what you do if you go to Tiger wheel and tyre to replace the air in your tyres with nitrogen.

What that means is that as your shock heats up from working the nitrogen does not
"boil" and expand like air do with the latter forming air bubbles in the hydraulic oil which cause the oil shocks to fade away quicker than gas shocks when hot.

Lets say you start your vehicle when it is cold in the morning and drive around the block, and your ride is bumpy on oil shocks (which is still in working order), gas shocks will not improve that. But if you drive 50kms at high speed over a corrugated surface (typically like when overlanding or some of the highways in South Africa ) then the oils heat up will fade away much quicker then a gas shock.

But obviously if your oil (or gas shock for that matter) does not provide good damping the ride will be bumpy. Let us consider your problem, which might not be shock related, but rather spring related. If the total spring resistance provided between the Camils and the torsion bars on the front suspension is too stiff, for the amount of weight it carries, then the ride will be harsh as the suspension is to ridged to give in when needed.

The same can hold true for the rear spring pack. If the previous owner added extra blades, or replaced a blade with a thicker one, to enable the vehicle to carry more load, the unloaded ride will be harsh.

I have heard some people complaining about Camil shocks and then where happy when they replaced with a full OME setup (shocks and springs), and I have friends that are still very happy with their Camil setup. The only “negative” thing I know about Camil shocks are than because the use standard shock lengths they will limit downward travel on the suspension if compared to other setups, which use longer travel shocks. But this is more on leave blade suspensions with solid axles like your rear. Your downward travel up front may in any case be limited by a bump stop or something, I am not sure. As I do not know the IFS Hilux’ suspension up front too well

I personally would not simply go for the full replacement route if only refinement is needed. Replacing everything with OME simply because the current setup is (lets call it) “out of tune” is like replacing your car’s engine when the ignition timing is out. It is then not a fair comparison between the capabilities of Camil as you are comparing apples with oranges. :roll:

If you are in the Gauteng area, contact the owner of Camil and ask him to look at your vehicle and provide advice. Most probably all that is needed up front is to adjust the torsion bars to make it less stiff. On IFS suspensions, they adjust the torsion bars to provide more lift up front but wit the added Camils this might not be necessary. Otherwise if you are in a different part of the country find out who your Camil dealer in the area is. Most probably if you take it to any Non Camil dealer they will convince you to get rid of the Camil setup in favour of their products. In the rear you may only need to remove one blade to get it softer, but try fixing the front first before you tackle the rear.

BTW if your Gabriel Safaris in the rear are not too old chances are that they are Gas filled in any case since Gabriel stopped making "oil" based Safari shocks a while back already.

[ChrisS]

Thank you for the advice. I should have been more specific, I agree that it is probably the additional coil springs (not the shocks) at the front that are causing the bumpy ride. My question is probably, should I de-spec the suspension back to factory specs to reduce the bumpy ride. I am in Cape Town. I will also try reducing tyre pressures but am concerned about incorrect wear.

[BenHur]

ChrisS

Speak to an alignment place and let them turn down the torsion bars as if to lower the suspension up front. this will cause the suspension to be less stiff and may just solve your problem. Alternatively is the springs on the Camil shocks not adjustable themselves? Adjusting them down if they are may also soften the ride. The idea is to see if you can not fix the current setup before you have to fork out money unnecessary on new stuff.