Disco 2 Air suspension.......

Ok, my fellow D2 owners........

When I bought my D2, it had already had the rear air suspension removed and replaced with springs. It's always served me well enough, but having chatted with another chap that also has a D2 and does a little green laning (admittedly, not as much as I'd normally be doing), we had a little debate as to which system was better. He figured that having air gave better comfort, both on and off road, plus the advantage of extra body clearance off road ( i did remind him that it's axle clearance that's most important), but he did say he found it helped a little in terms of clearance on high departure angles.
Originally, I had planned on giving my truck a suspension lift at some point in order to fit a larger diameter tyre to give better dif clearance, but more recently thinking that i'll stick with the tyre size I have (mrs is selling her car and we'll be using the D2 for family holidays more).

So I'm wondering, should I stick with the springs, or put it back to air? Do any of you use your D2 with air to green lane, and how do you find it?
Am I right in thinking there are potential issues regarding towing when on springs (I read somewhere that there may be issues with insurance if towing if you've replaced air with springs)?

Interested on hearing your thoughts guys (and gals of course).

There may be problems with construction and use if you have replaced air with springs anyway, as the vehicles with 7 seats were type approved for air suspension. Ones with 5 seats were type approved for springs. But others may well come on here and argue about this and I do not know if anyone is absolutely sure but this is what I read in the Discovery owners mag "Discourse" and others may not approve of this either!
And if anything can be proved to be dodgy if you have an accident then insurance companies just love it.
So although I personally prefer springs, I am biased, others will say "put it back to air" for all sorts of reasons, most to do with comfort, control, ride quality etc, but from my point of view I'd be like my granny and say "put it back to air to be on the safe side." Just my personal 4 pennorth.

You need to inform your insurance company if switching to springs. Mine did not charge any extra. The problem might come if you don't inform them. There was no detriment to the ride quality when switching to springs as the dampers have more to do with that. You do lose the ability to raise the back end by two inches and I can live with that. The self -levelling is lost as well. I am happy with springs.

Well there you go. I didn't dare to hope that this could be the case.
Very happy to see that it is. Might depend on insurance company. We have to go with SAGA as we go to France for 180 days a year and they won't look at non-standard usually.
Totally +1 about the ride on springs, and let's face it they are a heck of a lot more maintenance free and unlikely to let you down at an awkward time and place. One member lost an airbag offroad in the south of France this summer, I was personally involved in three way phone conversations tween him and the garage, as I speakadalingo. It wasn't cheap, especially the recovery. Wouldn't have happened with springs.

I replaced my air-springs with coils in a car-park when on holiday in France. I was fortunate that a friend was joining me and he could fly out with the springs. I was surprised that my wife actually noticed an improvement in the ride quality as she’s normally totally oblivious to this sort of thing. The springs were normal height LR specification and although the car was a seven seater; I’d taken the rearmost seats out to create more room in the boot area.
I’d told the insurance company about the seat removal and coils and it made mo difference to the policy cost. As long as you let them know, they can’t wriggle out of payment in the event of making a claim.

Stanleysteamer said:

There may be problems with construction and use if you have replaced air with springs anyway, as the vehicles with 7 seats were type approved for air suspension. Ones with 5 seats were type approved for springs. But others may well come on here and argue about this and I do not know if anyone is absolutely sure but this is what I read in the Discovery owners mag "Discourse" and others may not approve of this either!
And if anything can be proved to be dodgy if you have an accident then insurance companies just love it.
So although I personally prefer springs, I am biased, others will say "put it back to air" for all sorts of reasons, most to do with comfort, control, ride quality etc, but from my point of view I'd be like my granny and say "put it back to air to be on the safe side." Just my personal 4 pennorth.

Click to expand...

brianconwy said:

You need to inform your insurance company if switching to springs. Mine did not charge any extra. The problem might come if you don't inform them. There was no detriment to the ride quality when switching to springs as the dampers have more to do with that. You do lose the ability to raise the back end by two inches and I can live with that. The self -levelling is lost as well. I am happy with springs.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think in the thread or article I read, along with towing, it did mention the seven seats. As it happens, I removed the 6th and 7th seat as I saw it as extra weight I didn't really need. I have been meaning to get it reclassified as a 5 seater.
On the off chance the Mrs and i decide to get a caravan (jeez....I'm turning into my Dad.....although he has Freelander 2 now), plus of course if there's any issue with insurance, I may opt to revert back to air. My insurance company is aware it's on springs though, and any other mods, and they're also aware that it's now a 5 seater and due to be reclassified with DVLA.

Stanleysteamer said:

Well there you go. I didn't dare to hope that this could be the case.
Very happy to see that it is. Might depend on insurance company. We have to go with SAGA as we go to France for 180 days a year and they won't look at non-standard usually.
Totally +1 about the ride on springs, and let's face it they are a heck of a lot more maintenance free and unlikely to let you down at an awkward time and place. One member lost an airbag offroad in the south of France this summer, I was personally involved in three way phone conversations tween him and the garage, as I speakadalingo. It wasn't cheap, especially the recovery. Wouldn't have happened with springs.

Click to expand...

Salisburylander said:

I replaced my air-springs with coils in a car-park when on holiday in France. I was fortunate that a friend was joining me and he could fly out with the springs. I was surprised that my wife actually noticed an improvement in the ride quality as she’s normally totally oblivious to this sort of thing. The springs were normal height LR specification and although the car was a seven seater; I’d taken the rearmost seats out to create more room in the boot area.
I’d told the insurance company about the seat removal and coils and it made mo difference to the policy cost. As long as you let them know, they can’t wriggle out of payment in the event of making a claim.

Click to expand...

I have been happy enough with the coil springs, and have never had any issues. I've seen the usual stories on line where people have had the air bags or sensors fail, and whilst it's not so much an issue at home, I wouldn't want any of it failing whilst out with the family with me.
From what you're both saying, it may be better to just stick with the springs.

Grim said:

Yeah, I think in the thread or article I read, along with towing, it did mention the seven seats. As it happens, I removed the 6th and 7th seat as I saw it as extra weight I didn't really need. I have been meaning to get it reclassified as a 5 seater.
On the off chance the Mrs and i decide to get a caravan (jeez....I'm turning into my Dad.....although he has Freelander 2 now), plus of course if there's any issue with insurance, I may opt to revert back to air. My insurance company is aware it's on springs though, and any other mods, and they're also aware that it's now a 5 seater and due to be reclassified with DVLA.

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If you've done all that, you shouldn't have a problem. As soon as I realised I was going to be doing a lot of high speed long distance towing with my Disco 1 I replaced the rears with heavy duty springs, never regretted it.
If you have taken the back seats out of your TD5 then you have removed a bit of weight, not sure how much, I assume you replaced the springs with ones for a standard 5 seater. They should be fine. That is what I tow with all the time with my Disco 2 TD5, no probs. Although my trailer is a twin axle, so nose weight, although important, is a bit less of an issue. Anyway this is not the thread to discuss the finer points of towing!

Stanleysteamer said:

If you've done all that, you shouldn't have a problem. As soon as I realised I was going to be doing a lot of high speed long distance towing with my Disco 1 I replaced the rears with heavy duty springs, never regretted it.
If you have taken the back seats out of your TD5 then you have removed a bit of weight, not sure how much, I assume you replaced the springs with ones for a standard 5 seater. They should be fine. That is what I tow with all the time with my Disco 2 TD5, no probs. Although my trailer is a twin axle, so nose weight, although important, is a bit less of an issue. Anyway this is not the thread to discuss the finer points of towing!

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In all honesty, I'm not sure which springs were used for the initial swap, but when I bought it, it did still have the rear seats in. I didn't notice much of a difference in ride height once the 'boot' seats were removed, so may be heavy duty springs.

Heavy duty springs once fitted to an otherwise normal vehicle can definitely give your truck a lift. The ones fitted to the Disco 1 gave it a 2 " lift. Not requested, just happened.

Ive got replacement springs, instead of air. This was done by the PO, so I cant say if theres much of a difference. You must inform your insurance though, as they cant wiggle out of a third party claim, they may refuse, or reduce any money paid out to you. Mine just said it was a standard conversion done by many LR owners, and it made no difference in the cost. I've considered changing back to stock air, but feel the spring setup works well.

tilly2 said:

Ive got replacement springs, instead of air. This was done by the PO, so I cant say if theres much of a difference. You must inform your insurance though, as they cant wiggle out of a third party claim, they may refuse, or reduce any money paid out to you. Mine just said it was a standard conversion done by many LR owners, and it made no difference in the cost. I've considered changing back to stock air, but feel the spring setup works well.

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You're in the same boat as me then, my springs were fitted by previous owner.
thankfully, I have specialist insurance for modded 4x4's, so yes, they're aware of every mod. Thankfully, with my line of work, I know any kind of change like that, you need to tell your insurance company. You'd be surprised how many people will replace runflat tyres with 'non runflat'/normal tyres and feel they don't need to inform their insurance company.