Liftting a landy. what do I need?

[muddyjames]

I am wanting to look into a lift kit for my disco and need to see how much overtime I need to do.

I am baffled about what I actually need to lift my disco. I am thinking about a 1" lift as that should save me having to cut wheel arches and also a 2" lift will make the tow ball height stupidly high or a stupidly long drop plate which I dont fancy!

I guess I need +2" springs and shocks and extended brake lines. Anything else I need? Looking on the net some just come with a whole load of other stuff I dont even know existed let alone do or need.

Any advice would be good please.

[Porny]

Why do you need to lift your Discovery???

Bigger wheels???  Looks???

What do you mainly use the Discovery for... everyday, on road, off road, towing??

Any other extras - winch, roof rack etc??



Ian

[muddyjames]

I mainly use it for pottering around when I want a change from my other car, towing my caravan and other things, I put grizzley claws on the other day and it catches the front bumper when turning. I have trimmed the bumper down (chopped the bottom half off) and I need to pull the bumper out a bit as I think it has been pushed in somewhere along its life so needs tweeking back out, I want to do some off road as it is the main reason I bought it and also I would like to do some RTV trials. I have no winch yet but that will be a treat in about 5 years time the way I am saving at the moment, I have a roof rack but dont use it, wanting to get a quick detachable tow bar before lift kit but want to get ideas on how much the lift kit will cost.

I dont want to go much higher than 1" due to tow bar height.

Also on my list of wants is a steering gurad and winch bumper. I have just baught a snorkel. That was a must!

[Jake]

Mines 3" taller than standard and i have no problems towing my caravan.
 :D

[muddyjames]

I have a long van that has to loaded exactly the same each time with a nose weight of 50kg or it just doesnt want to follow in a straight line for some reason.

I havent tried towing yet with the disco but I am guessing the same will be needed when loading etc.

[Jake]

There are a lot of people on here and around the UK towing big caravans with lifted cars.
Its do-able

[snezza69]

Apart from the springs and dampers I have castor corrected radius arms from QT, adjusted rear trailing arms from Gwyn Lewis and you may need a panhard rod, I don't have one at the moment and have had no problems.  My lift was due to running a set of 900's and they were fouling on pretty much everything.  Brake hoses extended is another option as you say but once again I have'nt and again no problems.  On the tow bar side there are options which you can remove when not used.

Hope this helps.

[drmike]

I'm surprised that you haven't been off road and already you've decided that you need a lift. I'm amazed that you'll consider towing on grizzly claws. I run diamonds on the 90 and it's not all that keen on corners without towing anything.

I have taken my Disco off road on lanes and RTV trials and all I did was get some Macho style tyres on it which were only a tiny bit bigger than 205s and it was excellent.

Given your use I'd have said get 235 75 macho style tyres if anything and forget about a lift and indeed a snorkel as how deep will the water be? I've had water lapping over the bonnet and was fine.

I don't to be  a killjoy (although I'm very good at it) but I think you might end up with a Disco that won't do what you really want it to do which is tow well!

All IMHO of course!

Mike

[muddyjames]

The reason I have got a snorkel is because I am petrified that I will get water in the air intake as it happened in my rover 620 and it cost alot to get rebuilt. I know a rover 620 isnt designed to go through water but the flood i went through was deeper than told by the chap who just waded through and was walking on the bank! So since then I keep well clear of water over bonnet height.

The only reason I was thinking about towing on grizzleys is that matt_h who used to have towed car trailers sometimes on them and said he had no problems.

I have yet to experience the grip on road with them. If I can find some cheap / decent all terian tyres good enough to tow on I may buy them and seel the grizzleys on eblag as my road set of wheels are, lets say just legal on 2 of them!

[petergalileo]

I am sorry but I just can't resist this, and I did try really hard.

What do I need to lift my Disco

Standard bottle jack or
Set of Ramps or
super inflate the tyres with helium or
get a really large fan and lay it facing upwards under the car or
hire superman or

 :roll:

[muddyjames]

i was wondering how long that answer would come up!

[drmike]

It seems to me you'd have to work hard to drown a Disco, the intake on a 620 might be only a few inches above the ground and they are not designed to have water anywhere near the bonnet! I think you'll find Discos are hartdier beasts.

Yes I'd like two sets of tyres which is what I had for the Disco, road tyres and off road tyres. I need a set of road tyres for the 90 now just to preserve the diamonds.

Personally I'd have thought towing with grizzlies would be a nightmare but then I've never done it.

Mike

[Thrasher]

I tow with Piglet and he's between 3" and 4" higher than standard (very stiff uprated rear springs!). I added a longer drop plate and tow slightly nose down with no stabiliser. Never had any issues with the van.

With regards to the claws however - BEFORE you tow, find a nice bit of *wide* road and brake hard - then imagine this uncontrolable feeling with a van on the back.....

If your's is a diesel make sure you SEAL THE HOLE in the bottom of the airbox...sometimes the instructions don't point that one out! Having a snorkel and not doing this is about the same as using a chocolate fireguard ;-)

[iianorthants]

Mines 3" taller than standard and i have no problems towing my caravan.
 :D

 just remember if your car is newer then 1998 (i think) you need to get the towball height right ... so new drop plate or removable as will suffer off road.
 Being if the towball height isn't within the std you can say good bye to your van and have a big fine :(

[Damonski]

When I got my disco it has the 205 size wheels, Ive opted for the 235's on BFG All Terrains, vast improvement.

Ive also considered a 2" lift but after talking to people and reading up numerous posts on here Ive opted to stay clear.

Main reasons are costs.  Ive read so many stories that once you have your 2" lift kit and fitted it you then find that the front prop needs replacing with a td5 one with a flange or something or other because of vibration.  The whole thing just gets very expensive, especially then when you start talking about castor corrected goodies.

Putting the 235's on mine, did mean I had to trim the bumper and remove the lower valance on the front, must adjust my steering stop on left lock (whilst I remember)

Towing the trailer, folding camper and the caravan has presented no problems so I dont really want to play with the ride height any further and introduce problems.

[Thrasher]

Damo,

235/70 is the same rolling radius as the 205's .... hence LR shipped ES's with these wider tyres. Not sure why you had to trim your valence as the ES came with an ever bigger one!?!?!

Or are you saying you have 235/85 tyres? If so I'd assume you will have had to trim your rear ;-)

[muddyjames]

With regards to the claws however - BEFORE you tow, find a nice bit of *wide* road and brake hard - then imagine this uncontrolable feeling with a van on the back..... ;-)

I have tried this and the disco goes to the right big time. I towed a 2750kg box trailer over xmas but admitedly it was only loaded to about half that weight and even less to and from site but in the ice and snow it was ok but I was on road tyres then.

If your's is a diesel make sure you SEAL THE HOLE in the bottom of the airbox...sometimes the instructions don't point that one out! Having a snorkel and not doing this is about the same as using a chocolate fireguard ;-)

I am sure Matt_h will know about that hole but thanks for pointing it out to me.

[muddyjames]

It seems to me you'd have to work hard to drown a Disco, the intake on a 620 might be only a few inches above the ground and they are not designed to have water anywhere near the bonnet! I think you'll find Discos are hartdier beasts.

Mike

I know the 620 isnt designed to go swimming but it did to my peril.

I have seen the water over the bonnet extremely briefly once on the disco but I dont want to see how deep it will take to kill a disco. Matt and I saw a disco, well I fond it doing my postie round and that died and it had gone swimming to about 3 or 4 ft of water. I think it was 4 . Matt posted a topic on here with photos. I will try and find the link. So I know 4 ft is going into disco killing teratory!

[muddyjames]

Putting the 235's on mine, did mean I had to trim the bumper and remove the lower valance on the front, must adjust my steering stop on left lock (whilst I remember)

Towing the trailer, folding camper and the caravan has presented no problems so I dont really want to play with the ride height any further and introduce problems.

I have 235's on mine and just trimmed my bumper as well as the tyre just caught on the bottom of the bumper and so I trimmed it and it still just catches so I am going to pull the bumper out straight by half an inch but I still dont see it giving as much space as the off side front wheel. We shall see.

I dont want to play with my ride height for towing my van as it isnt a easy van to please with loading. If it isnt just so it throws its teddy out its pram and snakes everywhere. When I first picked the van up it snaked at 45mph and that was the van empty but luckily I had wheel clamps etc in the car and put them in the front locker and it was spot on until I put all my personal stuff in then it was a matter or fine tuning the weight again.