Longer front spring?

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rovermaxx

New Member
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6
hey guys,

Thinking of swapping two rear spring packs (longer) to the front of my SIII 88" to improve the horrible ride! Planning to keep the spring center at the stock position and fabricate new front and rear anchors.

Has anybody done this before?

This has been done in land cruiser BJs, any reasons this might fail misarably??:doh:
 
Interesting idea, but Land Rovers have been around for over 60 years, I'm sure someone must have thought of this already, and if it worked, we'd know about it.
 
rovermaxx said:
hey guys,

Thinking of swapping two rear spring packs (longer) to the front of my SIII 88" to improve the horrible ride! Planning to keep the spring center at the stock position and fabricate new front and rear anchors.

Has anybody done this before?

This has been done in land cruiser BJs, any reasons this might fail misarably??:doh:
Click to expand...

just get the original front ones reset at blacksmiths, as I can't see you improving ride with putting the rears onto front.
 
Come on... For argument sake wouldnt longer leaves give a better spring rate / better articulation. I know it would give the axel a lot more movement.
The only disadvantage i could thinkof is a slight reduction in the approach angle due to the spring anchors moving forwards. Can anyone other reasons why it wont work?
 
Hi,

Increase length of spring, and shackles will swivel back. That means the bottom sring eye will go UP, and end of spring will rub on chassis.

So fit longer shackles? rear of spring will go down, increase the castor angle, so make steering heavier .... truck will demand to go in straight line.

Problem is, rear upper spring eye goes THRU the chassis ..... and is a sod to change -easier to buy a new chassis.

At one time, I understand it was fashionable to fit Ford Transit springs .... but I know no more than that.

602
 
w3526602 said:
Hi,

Increase length of spring, and shackles will swivel back. That means the bottom sring eye will go UP, and end of spring will rub on chassis.

So fit longer shackles? rear of spring will go down, increase the castor angle, so make steering heavier .... truck will demand to go in straight line.

Problem is, rear upper spring eye goes THRU the chassis ..... and is a sod to change -easier to buy a new chassis.

At one time, I understand it was fashionable to fit Ford Transit springs .... but I know no more than that.

602
Click to expand...

this will also make the rear of the diff go down giving you clearnece problems on the u/j's
 
I think it's a bad idea to do this because the approach angle will be reduced and the vehicle will look odd with the bumper several inches further forward. If it's the spring rate you want to change, then this could be done by removing a few leaves. That might reduce the ride height which could be corrected by having the remaining leaves reset and tempered with more of a camber. Leaf springs have a built in anti roll bar effect because if one wheel on an axle goes up and the other down relative to the body then the springs are twisted. Longer springs will have less of an anti roll effect which will be bad for road handling. You could argue that this would be of benefit off road, but you'd be giving with one hand and taking with the other because of the reduced approach angle. Some people say Parabolics give a better ride.
 
Hi,

My 1965 LWB Safari had rock hard suspension ... it literally felt like my skull was being hammered down my spine, serious pain after a long drive on tarmac. I suspect that what was really needed was a set of new springs. Brand new springs are reputed to be neary as good as parabolics.

I fitted new (cheapo) parabolics to my 2286 petrol S1 Bitza. Still had a very harsh ride. But my S2TD has parabolics too, but of a much more convincing appearance (£££?) and that has a smooth ride. despite being a SWB.

I had an incident in a S1 (reg 51AA51) at RAF Sharjah (near Dubai). This truck also had harsh suspension. After the incident, it had a bent front axle and teeth marks in the steering wheel, but I was able to drop a gear, and keep going. Four front teeth did not survive.

Fitting quality front springs should solve your problem.

602
 
a solution to the hard rideing 88 is to sandwich 0.5mm sheets of teflon between each spring blade,you wont believe the ride differance,and you wont have to remove any blades.seperate the blades and clean each with a wire brush on a grinder,try to polish the surface as smooth as posible.cut the teflon sheet into strips and lay 1 between each blade.coat each blade with a thin layer of penetrating oil before assembly,this will stop any paint seeping in and drying between the layers
 
pig iron said:
a solution to the hard rideing 88 is to sandwich 0.5mm sheets of teflon between each spring blade,you wont believe the ride differance,and you wont have to remove any blades.seperate the blades and clean each with a wire brush on a grinder,try to polish the surface as smooth as posible.cut the teflon sheet into strips and lay 1 between each blade.coat each blade with a thin layer of penetrating oil before assembly,this will stop any paint seeping in and drying between the layers
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. How long do the sheets last?
 
i havent split my springs again to see how mutch wear has taken place.ive had the teflon in for about 6 years and driven about 20 000kms mostly on gravel roads(speedo in my s2 does not work so im estimating)the ride still feels alot smoother than a budys s3 r6.got the idea from petersons 4x4 mag about 8 years ago,the yanks have been useing teflon in leaf springs for some time.dont use the nylon shackel bushes,they are long lasting,but give a harder ride
 
I've heard of using teflon and UHDpolymer works. After seeing ur post definitely got to try it!
I dont think redusing the number of leaves is safe as this causes the spring to be stressed more at a particular point (depending on which leaf was removed) and causes broken leaves. The spring pack is designed so that at any particular diflection, the ammount of stress along the spring is the same. Removing the last leaf would overstress the pack at a point nearest to the ubolt. As everyone knows it works for sometime for sometime as these are always made with a safety margin.
 
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