IFS really that bad?

[Koots]

Travelling over a highway with a solid front axle vehicle vs. one with IFS...there is no comparison IMHO

IFS is the better choice for a daily driven, comfortable truck that will do some offroading.

Plus, if you wanted to throw on a plow to your truck (or a cummins swap ) all you gotta do is crank the torsion bars to compensate. With SFA and conventional springs, you would need helper springs, air-bags or some other method to fix it. It's not gonna be cheap.

If you really beat on the truck, then yeah, you could probably benefit from a SAS swap. I'd only do it if I broke the diff. I've broken everything but the actual diff on these yet. Just costs more in front end parts but i definitely prefer the ride of my 2500HD to my 83 K5.

[DarkCharisma]

Most everybody you talk to here hates on IFS, but hasn't actually had anything happen aside from regular maintenance on wear parts. I beat the ever-loving sh1t out of my '00 and only ate a hub and ball joint. That includes jumping it.

I wanted to pre-run, but didn't have the kind of IFS I needed.

[Underpowered]

internet gives many things a bad name, usually a worse name than what it deserves. according to the internet, your IFS will blow apart at the thought of big tires and off roading, the 10 bolt pukes just looking at 35's and the 4l60 will raise the white flag after 100k.

truth is, alot is a crap shoot. sure, i havee seen alot of IF brakage on the trails, but i have seen alot of sfa breakage as well.

IMO your IFS will be just fine with what you are doing with it. carry a few spare parts maybe. most commonly i have seen fail in person are cv's and tie rod ends, both of which are easily carried and changed on the trail so long as you have the proper tools with you. never seen a ball joint, pitman or idler fail on the trail that was not about ready to fail in the first place. carry spares and wheel on.

[whiplash473]

if its outside the ifs world i'm pretty much oblivious.....can someone explain to me without blowing this off topic what the difference is between sfa and sas?

[DarkCharisma]

if its outside the ifs world i'm pretty much oblivious.....can someone explain to me without blowing this off topic what the difference is between sfa and sas?

SFA = Solid Front Axle.
SAS = Solid Axle Swap.

The acronym "SAS" is thrown around a lot since these trucks go from IFS to SFA.

[whiplash473]

i knew what they stood for and thats actually what ended up confusing me i guess lol....forgive my damn big brain.....always getting me into trouble

[sparg93]

glad to see some ppl on here believe in IFS!!

[1998454]

ifs gets used some in real high hp pull trucks without issue.

[Koots]

i knew what they stood for and thats actually what ended up confusing me i guess lol....forgive my damn big brain.....always getting me into trouble

Overthinking things is what usually gets me into trouble...

glad to see some ppl on here believe in IFS!!

ifs gets used some in real high hp pull trucks without issue.

The IFS on my 2500HD is still going strong. I've pretty much replaced every damn part of this truck minus the front diff and the engine. The IFS took about 3 years to finally have all of the parts get replaced (bought it in fairly good used condition), but i've had one nearly catastrophic failure of the 14BFF, a burned up 4L80E and NVG-263 T-case die on me in that period of time.

It has no trouble blasting down dirt/snow/ice/gravel covered roads in 4HI, going about 60-70MPH over even some hard bumps, nearly catching air a few times and other such craziness that can be had on those kinds of surfaces

[RnuovZ71]

for what 95% of this forums wheelers do, IFS is just fine... Sure IFS can be weak if you can wheel without flooring it and steering hard in 4lo. I only had problem with IFS in technical spots and trails. but for mudding and most trail ridding IFS is just fine.

[OG 8 Lug]

.O rly?

We get it you hate IFS, period. My 84 burb saw more alignments than my 92 ever did.

Ever buy another truck?

Yeah I'm not a fan of t-bar IFS. I got stuck in a ditch once with my rear end in the mud and my front end on a paved road, I managed to get myself because of 4x4 but as soon as I was on my down the road I could tell my whole alignment got ****ed. I just got an alignment, and after that I could immediately tell it was pulling.

[BurbanAZ]

Overthinking things is what usually gets me into trouble...





The IFS on my 2500HD is still going strong. I've pretty much replaced every damn part of this truck minus the front diff and the engine. The IFS took about 3 years to finally have all of the parts get replaced (bought it in fairly good used condition), but i've had one nearly catastrophic failure of the 14BFF, a burned up 4L80E and NVG-263 T-case die on me in that period of time.

It has no trouble blasting down dirt/snow/ice/gravel covered roads in 4HI, going about 60-70MPH over even some hard bumps, nearly catching air a few times and other such craziness that can be had on those kinds of surfaces

what was the near catastrophic issue with ur 14bff? just out of curiosity i never even think about anything going wrong with my 14bff.

Yeah I'm not a fan of t-bar IFS. I got stuck in a ditch once with my rear end in the mud and my front end on a paved road, I managed to get myself because of 4x4 but as soon as I was on my down the road I could tell my whole alignment got ****ed. I just got an alignment, and after that I could immediately tell it was pulling.

ive had it in some really tough spots where i figured something would be broken after but never had an issue and never had an issue with alignment either, replaced and upgraded tie rods a while back and i think they helped keep everything aligned, my ball joints are trashed though along with my upper and lower control arm bushings which im not looking forward to doing here soon

[Koots]

what was the near catastrophic issue with ur 14bff? just out of curiosity i never even think about anything going wrong with my 14bff.

I already busted up the pinion bearing on the axle from an off-roading excursion. It only made noise a little, but i had to keep working with it, to make money to fix it (plus that's the only time i'd be able too). Anyway, i still had to keep using it for work.

Then i was 100kms from home, on a 150km drive on a dirt road into the hills. During that drive, the axle got hot enough that it started boiling out of the seals. This made the axle get drier and hotter. It never drained completely but it was down to the bottom of the axle tube...Anyway, this caused extreme wheel/hub bearing heat buildup as well.

Then almost simultaneously, the spider gears decided to break (making my axle a reluctantly random locker) and the wheel bearing race busted to pieces on the driver side. This caused parts of the bearing and race to actual become one with the spindle.

Took me and my coworker 6 hours of filing it down by hand (all we had access too) to fit a new bearing back on. The axle was deemed dead and we bought a used one from a junkyard.

Not exactly a design fault, but it rarely has time to get fixed

Until now that is

[Koots]

Thank ______ (insert deity or spiritual leader here)! that the axle is a full floater...or else i would have lost that whole axle/hub/brakes and tire.

[BurbanAZ]

I already busted up the pinion bearing on the axle from an off-roading excursion. It only made noise a little, but i had to keep working with it, to make money to fix it (plus that's the only time i'd be able too). Anyway, i still had to keep using it for work.

Then i was 100kms from home, on a 150km drive on a dirt road into the hills. During that drive, the axle got hot enough that it started boiling out of the seals. This made the axle get drier and hotter. It never drained completely but it was down to the bottom of the axle tube...Anyway, this caused extreme wheel/hub bearing heat buildup as well.

Then almost simultaneously, the spider gears decided to break (making my axle a reluctantly random locker) and the wheel bearing race busted to pieces on the driver side. This caused parts of the bearing and race to actual become one with the spindle.

Took me and my coworker 6 hours of filing it down by hand (all we had access too) to fit a new bearing back on. The axle was deemed dead and we bought a used one from a junkyard.

Not exactly a design fault, but it rarely has time to get fixed

Until now that is

wow what a crappy situation, seems like a bunch of bad things all seemed to happen at the same time lol

Thank ______ (insert deity or spiritual leader here)! that the axle is a full floater...or else i would have lost that whole axle/hub/brakes and tire.

yea definitely one of the benefits of a ff axle is that the wheel and whole assembly wont just fall off if an axle snaps

[Koots]

I don't think it would work well for you and your BBC, but on my 98 Sierra K1500 (4.3V6), taking the sway bar out made an actual difference in how it would handle offroad and on dirt roads. It wasn't any harder to drive on the road, just would have a bit more suspension movement.

[M.A.V.]

I thought about doing that myself, but I already have enough play in my steering on the road.

[Quyonmob]

I thought about doing that myself, but I already have enough play in my steering on the road.

Wouldn't create any play, will just lean more on off ramps. I had my 92 disconnected for years... Most 88 IFS trucks didn't even get a sway bar.

[Koots]

It definitely felt like it followed the road more than before, instead of fighting against it to keep the body straight.

It even felt better going over washboard bumps off-road and I had perfectly good set of poly bushings in my sway bar and whole front suspension.

[ChevyLs1z]

No problems with ifs...but is expensive to lift