Comments on leafsprings vs. Coil

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Heavy Grease/oil its like wide tyres vs skinny tyres no right answer they both do the job.

I don't want to cover the springs up as the scruteneers will want to check they are legal spec at each event and grease not wrapped is just messy oil/petrol mix can be sprayed as and when
 
some running about to do next week and a comp Sunday so I should get the new bushes hopefully in Saturday pending work. Next try and fit a salisbury to the 80! Just got to shorten the weeny rear propshaft!
 
We did similar to an 88 inch in 1988 the springs were all srtipped bacl to clean metal and oiled. Some leaves removed and it articulated well showed up alot of then new 90/110's while out laning in Wales. They lasted many years and never broke any of them.
 
i believe Sean to be soncerned thatgrit or dirt getting between the leaves will reduce life of the spring. This does not concern me at all. On 3 counts.

1, my springs are for a trialler and not for an everyday vehicle. This said if by oiling them and removing leaves on an everyday drive I gain a better ride losing 5 years from an item that can genuinly have a 25 year life span of everyday use towing and hauling fences about i'm happy to spend another 30 quid each to get another 25 years.

2. My springs are new they do not have any gaps in between the leaves for any crap to get in. Obviously you will never stop contamination completly but these are not a set of old fooked springs attacked with oil to get them back.

3, we have done it previously and we believe we can get better suited springs for offroad use than the cheap parabolics that have been designed for x ammount of weight while the offroader weight overaxle in alot less which would stop parabolics and or straight new springs from working the way i want them to. Hence why i'm selling them to Spyderman for which they will be fine being a hardtop diesel the weight is there to make the springs work.


I do not really care for the reason sean has its possible i have overlooked something i'm human but I know these will work fine for my intended purpose tried and tested many years many trials vehicles.
 
most people dismiss std springs because they have never driven a land rover with fully working good springs. Simple answer is to say parabolics are great but std can be good not nessasarily better but quite good also. Most landys are on 25 or 40 year old rusted chunks of rusty splayed springs that do not move? hence the bad rep and reason for changing them.
 
jai_landrover said:
i believe Sean to be soncerned thatgrit or dirt getting between the leaves will reduce life of the spring.
Click to expand...

it's got absolutely nothing at all to do with dirt/grit

:doh:

a few years ago I might have been minded to spend the time explaining, but now I prefer to spend the nights sat in the field looking at the northern lights

I hope they work well for you Jai, just keep some spares handy ;)
 
jai_landrover said:
most people dismiss std springs because they have never driven a land rover with fully working good springs. Simple answer is to say parabolics are great but std can be good not nessasarily better but quite good also. Most landys are on 25 or 40 year old rusted chunks of rusty splayed springs that do not move? hence the bad rep and reason for changing them.
Click to expand...

Spot on
 
Standard shocks and springs on mine.. No articulation problems that I can see!
 

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one of the problems i have is that never having driven a landrover with any other than years old springs is should i just try to refurb the old ones (which would give a better ride than previous - along with bush changes etc) or just go the full hog and replace with new ones (not para, would only be using for normal road and maybe some greenlaning).
i am trying to go down the cheapest route possible on my full rebuild but think waiting a little bit longer to buy new or really good 2nd parts is the better way to go in the long run, but the down side is it will be a lot longer build before i would get any benefit.
 
General rules is, springs are better on road, leaves better off road, but give a harsher ride.. The technicalities move around, but that is the general rule. Parabolics sit in the middle ground, where they are less rigid, and give a smoother on road ride with too much loss off road.

Main reasons are for axle twisters - a spring can only push a wheel down so far as it is independent of the other wheels, and dependent on how strong the spring is - a leaf spring will push down much harder, as it is pivoting from the other wheel going up in the arch - which can give you grip! More leaf articulation can be gained be extending shackles for height, and fitting longer travel shocks.

At the end of the day, it is down to preference and use. Only the owner knows what they want to do with it, how they want to use it.
 
Hi all, :5bseeya: new to the forum and have come across this post in my own personal search for information on the coil vs leaf spring subject.

The main part of this thread has been an eye opener and provided great and usefull information. However, I am very perplexed as to the negative comments of one contributor regarding the use of a light / medium oil to keep the leaves clean and free of corrosion. I was thinking of using something like motorcycle chain lube for exactly the same reasons but I have racked my brains as to why this would be a bad thing.

Would someone be kind enough to explain why you shouldn't use a lube agent that will double as a protective coating on the springs?
 
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