The 510 Realm

Hi all,

Been a while.

I moved from CA where I had my 510 setup fairly low and softish with Suspension techniques springs in front and cut front roadster springs in back over Tokico Blue's, stock front sway bar, no sway bar in back, front camber -1 with stock spring hats and old school camber plates, rear camber and toe corrected with Datsport rear crossmember kit.

Now I'm back in CO after 14 years away. There's great gravel roads all over the place! There's killer light duty offroading on doubletrack. Stock ride height or Safari ride height is called for.

I'm thinking the Tokico's will do the damping job just fine. What I'm hoping for is some spring recs for something Safari like that will go in stock 10.5" front struts with stock hats and rear springs that will fit the stock locations there.

Any recs for a set of 4 or where to pair a set up if buying fronts and rears separately?

I would run dodge d50 fronts in the rear and sentra fastback rears in the front.

Will you be doing a tire change too? I ask because I am in the same boat. My car is way too low for Vermont dirt roads which are half of the roads around here. What do you think the narrowest tire you can run on a 14" x 6" ARE Libre?

Thanks for the spring recs.

I hadn't gotten as far as shopping for the tires yet but I was probably gonna do a 185/60/14 or 185/70/14 snow tire or maybe an all season radial on my VTO (Futofab) Libre replicas, which are 14x6. If you wanted narrower than that, I'd guess you could fit a 175/70 on there pretty easily, maybe even a 165.

for reference from an earlier post by RMS:

f your looking for a stock ride height 88-92 nissan sentra rear springs work good in the front I think they were 123lbs/143for the fastback and work well with dodge d50s fronts in the rear. also subaru loyal gl dl front springs work well (subaru guys upgrade to ford tempo variable rate fronts something I want to try) you can also try napa 277-3180 @128 or 277-3185 @137(Excel, champ,colt). 80s accord @ 148 napa 277-3129..............and the list goes on
for the rear most 80s American dual A arm cars/trucks have a spring that will work once the pig tail is cut.

and when you've found a rate you like the stock oil filled struts can be tuned to match by changing the weight of the strut oil

From my rally experience, and depending on driving style and speed - a 175 to 200 lbs spring rate would be good if you ever plan to be airbourne. Just saying from experience that bottoming out is really hard on things and this is when parts get broken. If you simply crushing the well groomed gravel back roads at speed, the recommendation above I'm sure is fine.

The trick is finding the right shock that will keep it all under control. Gravel roads really work the shocks, and they need to be high quality to not only survive, but to be able to operate under sustained high frequency use without loosing their ability to work when heated up.
Today I really have no suggestions for which brand or application to use - especially up front. Hopefully someone can chime in on this topic.

Byron

Welcome back to Colorado!! What part of town are you located in? There are a few of us 510'rs here in Colorado, but not many. I would be interested in the areas you plan on exploring in the 510. My Xterra is due for some offroad exploration.

Just noticed you are in Durango....great part of the state. We like to visit there periodically and are due for another visit.

Yes, Durango. Its been a good move. I keep encountering great looking dirt all over the place; its pretty vast in this part of the state. Whenever I'm with my wife in the 510 now, she's like "lets put the 510 back up where your 510 was in college. Set it up for CO!" That was 1990 and we drove that blue 4 door all over the west, off road and on, blizzards and deserts, always drifting. Major offroading in Moab back when it was a free for all out there and major offroading in the mtns near Nederland.

Thanks for the tips guys. I don't think I'll be airing too much, and I get it about the hard bottom outs doing damage.

when thinking about rubber don't forget about the 8.50R14s

I was looking at those General's...the others look good too, but they look loud.