How far does stock Rangie front suspension droop?

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

G'day all,

does anyone know how far the front suspneion on a Rangie will drop ? standard front radius arms and rubber bushes? so I can work out what free length spring I can get for my project. I want 2" lift but maximum droop and full compression

Joined: 21 Aug 2003 Location: Upper Hunter Valley NSW

OK, I can't give you an exact figure in mm, but my experience with a D130 may help.
It still uses stock radius arms and stock rubber bushes.Standard springs were 14.8" nearside, 15.2" off side free length, 225lb/in. I changed that for Rangie Spares purple springs, 17" free length,(actual length 17.2") 220lb/in , and had already fitted Koni 82-2385 Land Cruiser 100 series long travel shocks (617mm open vs 546mm Whitehead OEM ANR 6598 shock) With these shocks you have to use a thinner urethane bush on the inside of each pin to prevent the shock bottoming out before hitting the bump stop, and trim approx. 8mm off the lower pin to prevent it crashing into the diff tube on bump. You should also extend the brake lines
I get full droop out of the shock, with it still able to run up into the bump stops in full bump.
Actually, give Andrew at Rangie Spares a call, (03) 9464 4094, he'll ask for a few bump stop measurements and advise accordingly.
Hope this helps.

Rick

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

IMO you should just retain the springs top and bottom so that they carnt fall out. Seting the free spring length to your max droop doesent make sence to me.

You should just pick your spring rate and the ride height and this will determine the free length (not the other way round). Then pick your shock length (or max droop) and retain the springs top and bottom (to get max stability) and see how it feels. If you dont get enough droop travel (springs limit the travel before the shock or links do) and it feels nice and stable you could then experiment with letting the spring become unattached (I wouldnt do this - totally retained is much better in all cases in my experience)

Sam

Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Location: Central West NSW

Sam, how do you retain the springs? Also at 220lb do they stretch much when retained?

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

The reason behind this is I want max articulation out of the stock arms and bushes.

Joined: 03 Nov 2002 Location: Lake Macquarie NSW

DAS wrote:

The reason behind this is I want max articulation out of the stock arms and bushes.

Retain front and rear springs as Sam said. The radius arm bushes limit the max articulation.

Top of rear springs can be retained with flat bar similar to bottom. Top of fronts with a number of worm drive hose clamps.

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

Strange Rover wrote:

If you dont get enough droop travel (springs limit the travel before the shock or links do) and it feels nice and stable you could then experiment with letting the spring become unattached (I wouldnt do this - totally retained is much better in all cases in my experience)

Sam

I know the spring that gives me the correct spring rate and the ride height won't give me the amount of travel I want and letting the spring dislocate isn't an option, as far as I can see if the spring isn't connected at both ends then there would be no down pressure at all which would just cause the wheel to bounce.

I thought I would be able to get a pretty soft spring that would allow the front arms to drop as far as they can go (but limit it abit above max travel by the shock to stop damaging the bushes) yet not make the truck sit stupidly high and be around 2 - 3" above stock height.

I guess I was wrong??

does anyone have pics of thier front suspension maxed out with around a 2" lift on a Rangie or a Disco?

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

Slunnie wrote:

Sam, how do you retain the springs? Also at 220lb do they stretch much when retained?

Im a really rough bastid so I just bend up a small hook out of 25 x 5 mm flat steel ... loop it over the end coil (one at the top and one at the bottom) and weld the hook to the spring seat (in a place there you can get a grinder to if you have to pull the springs. Bush65's method is a lot neater but mine takes less time to do.

Its supprising how much they will stretch when the axle articulates cuase there is a fair bit of force leavering the drooped tyre down from the compressed wheel on the other side. I would guess 2-3 inches. A mate of mine has something similar to this (220 retained with stock tyres and axles on a bobtailed ute) so Ill see if I can pull a shock and measure how far it will stretch.

For a really quick way to see the effect of totally retained coils you can just use plastic zip ties to hold the rears in. If you put enough of them on (like 4 or 5 decent ones) they last supprisingly well although if you coil bind you will just cut them off.

Sam

Joined: 04 Jun 2003 Location: Just Near Fraser Island

Strange Rover wrote:

For a really quick way to see the effect of totally retained coils you can just use plastic zip ties to hold the rears in. If you put enough of them on (like 4 or 5 decent ones) they last supprisingly well although if you coil bind you will just cut them off.

Sam

Hose clamps work well too.

Here is a pic with 2" lift and 35's maxed

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

Strange Rover wrote:

Its supprising how much they will stretch when the axle articulates cuase there is a fair bit of force leavering the drooped tyre down from the compressed wheel on the other side. I would guess 2-3 inches. A mate of mine has something similar to this (220 retained with stock tyres and axles on a bobtailed ute) so Ill see if I can pull a shock and measure how far it will stretch.

Sam

So you get 2 - 3" more doop than the free length of the spring when they are retained top and bottom?

Can you get a pic?

DAS

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 3:20 pm

I have 2" spring and 2" body...

35x10.5 Peds

little bit of rubbin and the springs tend to dance a little at full art but so far have never spat a spring... Razz

Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Location: Brisbane

Quote:

I have 2" spring and 2" body...

35x10.5 Peds

Have you done any guard trimming mate, looks like you may have.
I'm intending to maybe put together a similar setup, yours looks nice Very Happy

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 3:32 pm

no guard triming myself..

the peds might have done a little themselfs Laughing

The sus is very std

Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Location: Brisbane

Pics???? What pics???? Why can't I see them Confused

Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Location: Brisbane

You couldn't see them either I'm guessin that's OK then Laughing

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

Couple of pics of my disco.

Sam

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

Couple more.

Sam

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

G'day Sam,

Your Disco have 2" retained? and what weight rating are they? Your disco a V8 or 300tdi?

Thanks

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

DAS wrote:

G'day Sam,

Your Disco have 2" retained? and what weight rating are they? Your disco a V8 or 300tdi?

Thanks

Its got stock springs and our prototype slotted bushes (and in those pics its got the shocks and antiroll bar removed) and at that amount of flex the springs only some loose in the buckets so they arnt retained. Its a 95 model and its got the V8 in it.

The one with the 2in lifted retained coils is my buisness partners brothers bobtailed rangie ute. Spoke to him the other day and hes blown a CV so he will probably bring it over to my place to fix it so I should be able to get some pics and measurements of it then.

Sam

Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Location: Sydney

G'day,

so what would be the best brand and weight rate spring for a 300tdi defender?

My project is 90" long, has a 300tdi motor and Series Landy panels, so a defender spring would be the best match I would say.

Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne

defender coils are larger in diameter than disco and rangie coils
so it depends what spring mounts you are using

Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Location: melbourne

aren't the defender front springs swapable dut the rears larger in total diameter??

Joined: 20 Oct 2002

modman wrote:

aren't the defender front springs swapable dut the rears larger in total diameter??

Yep - the defender fronts are the same as a rangie and the defender rears are bigger.

Sam

Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne

yep... sorry forgot to put in "rear".

Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Location: melbourne

cough up about these bushes sam Question

Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Location: Melbourne

yeah... whats happening with the bushes....

if they magically arrived in the mail, no one would be to blame if i rolled my car in the garden Laughing