Rear suspension boost on classic rangie

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captainbeaky

Active Member
Posts
292
Hi all.

I took the self levelling unit out of my rangie when I rebuilt the back suspension, as it had stopped working altogether.

Fitted "Heavy Duty" springs - all is OK on the road, but when loaded up - it sags at the back quite heavily.

I'm looking for a solution that will be cheaper than the £300 ish bogue self levelling unit...

I've seen these red "airbags" that go inside the rear springs - by Simmonites I think - has something similar on my sierra in years gone by - they were very effective when carrying heavy loads. Any good?


Ta,

Mike
 
I have no idea about air bags. But being has HD springs make the vehicle sit higher, this may cause the levelling unit to be too far extended without extra weight in the car. I know mine drops when I put heavy stuff in the back. But it doesn't tend to drop lower than the original ride height did.
 
On the advice of Tim Fry Landrovers in Cheltenham, I've put yellow Britpart springs and shocks on the Rangie.

She's not running a rear self-leveller, remember...

Put the backs on first - yup, it was rather nose-down, but very good otherwise - road manners much improved.
Then did the fronts - even tighter in the corners, but there is now no give in the suspension at all, and the front is 5mm high (looks like 1" mind) when unladen.

Took it back to Tim Fry - he asked me to drive it for a bit - see how it goes.

Done 300 miles now - it's the same.
Worse still, when laden, it's still pointing nose skywards....

On inspection, the Britpart kit has the same spring length front to rear (which I have now learned is the norm for 90's and 110's) - but the rangie needs a 30mm shorter spring on the front - which is born out by every other manufacturer's spring lengths.

Well - that's it - it's all going back. Tim Fry LR has gone down in my estimation. The Britpart springs are clearly not fit for purpose. What a pain in the......

Back to the original question....

Classic Rangie, no self-leveller - what springs do I use on the back?

Ta,

Mike.
 
Have you looked at HD or police spec springs?
I brought a set of HD from MM-4x4. Bearmach I do believe made them. Came with GAZ shocks. Bloody thing is rock solid on bumps. But I do have load leveller attached
 
Sorry, missed this post a few weeks ago. For what its worth or anyone else thinking about this, the airbags are a great job. I had them on my 1992 RRC, best mod I did on it.
 
captainbeaky said:
Hi all.


Fitted "Heavy Duty" springs - all is OK on the road, but when loaded up - it sags at the back quite heavily.

I'm looking for a solution that will be cheaper than the £300 ish bogue self levelling unit...



Ta,



Mike
Click to expand...

why not but a second hand unit from a breaker, martin toole or docky 57 on ebay
 
Yup - I tried those. I had the Police spec on the rears, with standards on the fronts.

Was OK ish to start with, but softened really badly, and in the end lolloped all over the place.

I've done some research into this now - looking at the list of landrover springs used.

The rangie needs 30mm shorter springs on the front, as opposed to the 90/110 that needs them the same length. Britpart sells only one spring kit for the lot - both the same length.

The Rangie, when fitted with a V8, has 20% lighter springs at the front (the V8 lump being a lot lighter than the diesel. Britpart makes no such decision

So, with a rangie V8, it's at comparatively 20% too heavy, and 30mm to high (in comparison with a 90/110)

I'll be contacting Britpart later today and having a discussion wth their suspension engineer.

Long term, I think I'll be cutting my losses and returning the springs to Tim Fry as not suitable for the application - as (in my opinion) no allowances have been made for the differences in vehicle weight and stance...

What a waste of time...
 
I think that's it then - Air bags it'll be....

Done some more reading, and the suggestion has been to fit standard RRC V8 rear progressive springs to the front (120 to 178 lb loadings), and RRC diesel springs on the rear (same rate, but 40mm longer). This sounds more like what I want - with the airbags...
 
rattys just fitted helper springs in his one ten ask him bout it.I wouldnt put britpart anything on my motor
 
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