Suspension question

[Jimbo]

My 110 has the factory-fitted 'heavy duty' option (vented front discs, twin rear coils etc).

Now, I noticed yesterday that when sitting on level ground, the rear shock top bushes seem to be being compressed upwards - it's as if the springs are pushing the chassis away from the axle, and the shocks are not long enough to cope. But, if I push upwards on the roof (rock the body), there's plenty more suspension travel, and the shocks extend ok.

So, are the bushes knacked ? (trucks done 12k miles), are the shocks knacked - or are both on the way out ?

In it's previous life, the 110 was a Leccy board vehicle and was fairly heavily loaded all the time - it now sits unloaded most of the time.

[Budgie]

As the bushes are the cheapest things to change and least effort then I'd start there TBH.  
It could be that the rubber has gone soft, if you try & rotate the top of the shocker, is there any movement in the bush?

[Jimbo]

There's not much movement on the top bush, but the bottom end of the shock can be rotated - is this normal ?

Whilst having a look, I noticed that the rear radius arm front bush seems to have a similar problem - it looks like the vehicle has been heavily loaded (I suspect it was) for a long time, and the bush has been compressed and once the weight was removed the bush retained the compressed shape. It's a bit hard to describe, and I don't have a digital camera...............so here go's in words:

Looking at the rear offside radius arm front bush from the offside of the truck, there is a gap at the top of the bush facing the radius arm - in other words, it appears that the axle end of the radius arm is now sitting lower (or the chassis is sitting higher), which does seem to tie in with the weight issue I mentioned earlier.

Do I need to think about new bushes all round ?

[Budgie]

Yes, you can sometimes rotate the bottom section of a shocker, I don't think that's anything to worry about.

It maybe worth a new set of bushes, at least the rears.
If the vehicle is now mostly unloaded and you don't really need the H/D rear springs then you could also go back to the standard ones. This may reduce the height of the rear end and give a you a better ride.  

[Jimbo]

Going back to standard rear springs had crossed my mind - is it just a case of changing the springs, or is anything else involved - as the ride is quite hard, and the rear has a tendency to bounce around a bit.

[Budgie]

Not 100% sure but I can't see there being too many problems with just swapping the springs over.
Best check the I/D & O/D of your springs with standards springs to be sure though.  

[Xtremeteam]

is it a heavy duty outer spring with a smaller internal spring inside?
if so its easy to swap the springs to softer ones as the plates will just fall out & the diameters o the springs are all the same on the 110 rears

[Budgie]

That's what I thought it would be Mikee, but not really had a good look at the H/D twin set-up on the 110's.  

[Jimbo]

is it a heavy duty outer spring with a smaller internal spring inside?
if so its easy to swap the springs to softer ones as the plates will just fall out & the diameters o the springs are all the same on the 110 rears

Yes, it is - 'normal' sized outer spring, with a smaller diameter one inside it........so is it just a case of removing and binning both springs, and replacing the outer with something softer ? - any suggestions for spring types/ratings ?

[Wolfie]

Could it be that the larger spring is that same as for standard suspension and the inner is a helper that uprated it to heavy duty? Would seem logical for LR to have done it that way rather than specifying two different springs for HD suspension.

Might be worth trying to find out as it would be a pain to buy a set of standard 110 springs only to find that they are the same as the ones you've taken off.

Regards

Wolfie

[Jimbo]

Wolfie, good point. I'll have a look on RAVE and see if there's any info.

[Jimbo]

Good call Wolfie !!

It appears (from the info on the RAVE CD) that a standard 110 has NRC6904 (red/green) rear springs, these are also fitted to the heavy duty 110 but with additional RRC3266 or RRC3226 helper springs (no colour codes).

So, I'm guessing that I can just remove the helper springs - and return the rear suspension to 'normal' ?

Front springs seem to vary from standard to heavy duty, depending on the GVW - I'll see how it sits once the rears are sorted.

[Wolfie]

Heather sits on standard rears and heavy duty fronts (which just happen to be 90 rears). She does have a slight nose up attitude but withe tha ARB bumper and winch I think it's probably the best set up I could have using "standard" parts. As you have quite a substantial bumper I'd guess that keeping the HD fronts would be best.

Hmmmmmmm, I wonder what H would be like with HD rear helpers? She does quite often  carry a decent amount of weight and has Mathilda following closely behind. Might give them a go sometime.

Regards

Wolfie