Rear Suspension Woe's

Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Location: South Australia

Had the Tough Dog 2" lift 'comfort' spec coils fitted a couple of years back, along with their 41mm foam cell shocks.
Car rode nice and comfy with good flex at first, but since adding the rear drawer system and now the long range tank, it feel very spongy and soggy.
There seams to be reduced stability when changing direction quickly and increased vertical movement over say speed humps.
I pulled the springs out and replaced them with std GU Patrol rears (they both measure up about the same on wire dia, but Patrols are about 30mm longer), but all that has done is lift the rear a bit more and stopped the bottoming on the bump stops.
I checked the shocks at the same time and one was particularly easy to compress, with the other having a little bit more resistance but not much. Both shocks were very hard to extend.
The shocks are a push / pull type, so dont extend themselves once compressed, like a normal gas shock.

I think I may have 2 problems :
1. Springs are not rated highly enough for the extra weight that is now in the rear (rear axle weigh bridge weight is 1340 kg with 1/4 tank of juice. front axle 1030kg).

2. The shocks are knackered ??

The car is basicall 300kg heavier than std (2370 over 2 axles).

I may stick the original shocks back on and see how they ride, just for the comparison.

Any thoughts ?

cookie monster

Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Location: Perth, Western Australia

Hi cookie,

I have just fitted a new set of 2" Lovell HD coils to the rear of mine. The only complaint I have so far is bottoming out over large bumps with a fully laden vehicle. I'm interested to hear what responses you get as I will probably have to correct this sooner or later.

Cheers,
Jayden

Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Location: Gold Coast

Hi Cookie
I have GU springs (around 85mm of lift) and oztec shocks (lifetime warranty pulled the bottom out of one during a comp with rear sway bar removed and they replaced it not a problem) fitted to the back of mine, I also have the bump stop from inside the springs removed (had air bags once). My car weighs the same as yours and ride is not too bad for a raised 4wd. You could fit air bags to the rear springs to adjust the ride on the road and less air off road. I have EFS shocks in the front (ball joint flip and bars wound up to suit rear) and I am happy with them.
Regards Glenn

Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Location: Melburn!

glenn_c - Sorry for the off topic, but have you had any issues with your ball joint flip?
I am getting some pretty bad jarring over large bumps mainly to do with down travel. Can even get it over speed humps.

Joined: 16 Feb 2005 Location: Gold Coast

I have been running with the ball joint flip for nearly two years.
I drilled them out to 10mm and use double nuts top one nylon.
Handling is great I have broken three left hand CV's during that time, one was my orginal (300,000klms) one was an after market (NEVER AGAIN SHATTERED AS SOON AS PLACED IN 4WD) and last one broke at the spine into the diff (not related to CV joint angle). Still have good done travel and heaps of up travel (see latest pics in pics of your rig p18)
Regards Glenn

Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Location: Melburn!

glenn_c wrote:

I have been running with the ball joint flip for nearly two years.

Snip!

Thanks for that, I think you have sealed the deal for me, been reading up on it for awhile and everyone has mixed opinions, but for me its a non-daily driver and the lack of droop is causing me grief. Do you run a swaybar disconnect up front or any swaybar mods in the front?

Cookie monster - Have you had a look at you rear arms, mine are pretty flogged out and I believe that is causing my rolly polly behaviour. I also thing that the difference in travel between the front and the back cant be good for handling.

Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Location: New Zealand

Dexter - just do the BJ flip! And get some shims for the top arm location. Make sure you check those bolts you udo to get those shims in regularily as they tend to come loose.

If it is just an offroad, leave ya swaybar off and drive slowly around the corners..... Very Happy

Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Location: Melburn!

NJV6 wrote:

Dexter - just do the BJ flip! And get some shims for the top arm location. Make sure you check those bolts you udo to get those shims in regularily as they tend to come loose.

If it is just an offroad, leave ya swaybar off and drive slowly around the corners..... Very Happy

Haha from what I have read removing the front swaybar shows you what roll really is.

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

Dexter wrote:

I also thing that the difference in travel between the front and the back cant be good for handling.

If your suspension is hitting its stops during cornering you have bigger problems to worry about than "handling." Unless you've massively modified your geometry, handling is about spring rates and shock absorber damping.

I have pretty good rear travel Smile

and bugger-all front Crying or Very sad

When I had my Paj engineered the rear sway bar was sitting on the ground beside the race track (ready to be re-installed if there were handling problems.) The engineer was impressed with the handling - much better than he expected. That's with heavy duty OME springs in the rear, OME shocks all round and front droop stops trimmed by 10mm. (I also had alternative (thinner) droop stops ready to be installed if required - but they weren't needed.)

If mismatched front/rear travel was going to create handling problems, I would have had them.