| Author | Message | ||
     John Abrams (Jabra2) New Member Username: Jabra2 Post Number: 9 Registered: 02-2003 |
Does anybody have any experience with front spring spacers? Expeditionexchange.com says "front spring spacers are also not desirable on most Land Rover vehicles because the spacers are incompatible with the stud-mounted front shocks. The front shocks reside inside the front springs on most Land Rovers and are mounted with stud mounts. This presents all sorts of problems when front spacers are fitted. Some spacers have a simple hole in the center to accommodate the shock's lower mounting stud. At full articulation, these spacers will bend and eventually break the lower shock stud. Other spacer designs feature a hollow center or relocate the lower shock mount to a point above the spacer, but these spacer designs still interfere with the shock's body or mounting stud at full articulation." The spacer set at http://mku.dhs.org/discovery/ looks pretty good, but even with the shock mount relocation kit, would I still run the potential of messing up a front shock? What about the RoverTym kit? Thanks! | ||
| Ron Ward (Ronward) Senior Member Username: Ronward Post Number: 286 Registered: 02-2002 |
John at Rovertym's got this down cold, Ace. Check with him on his spacers, or go with a taller spring and skip the spacer alltogether. Ron Ward | ||
| Al (Discoal) New Member Username: Discoal Post Number: 8 Registered: 02-2002 |
I have Mike's front spacer and can't say anything bad about them. Had them on over a year and tested them good enough not to worry about them. If you follow instructions, can't see how you could mess up. I agree with Ron about next time going to taller springs. Doing rovertym 2" body lift now, Hum??? where does this end??? | ||
| John Abrams (Jabra2) New Member Username: Jabra2 Post Number: 11 Registered: 02-2003 |
I thought about getting new springs like RTE's, but I just had some of the extra heavy duty OME springs put on all 4 corners a few months ago and don't really want to go with some new ones considering how new mine still are. I have a really heavy ARB bar and Warn HS9500 winch, and my front is sagging a little bit because of these. I may end up getting 2" front spacers and 1" rears to kinda level things out and give me a little more height (and maybe end up needing a front CV driveshaft because of it...?). Thanks for the input guys...everyone keep it comin!  | ||
| Greg Davis (Gregdavis) Senior Member Username: Gregdavis Post Number: 648 Registered: 08-2002 |
Just so fellow D-Webbers know, the above doesn't apply to DII's because of the different shock mounts. | ||
| Rob Davison (Nosivad_bor) Senior member Username: Nosivad_bor Post Number: 32 Registered: 02-2003 |
i had the set up you are talking about OME HD in the front with RTE 2" front spacers. OME SHD springs in the rear & 1" RTE spacers ARB bumper and warn M12000 , AB skid plates and sliders. i had about 2.5" lift with all that strapped to it and i think it was level. the front didn't flex well partly because of the front sway bar and partly because of an issue shown below. i went with the spacers because my springs sagged and with the spacers it was good again and it was my observation that the all these OME springs sag to a certain point and then stay there. i figured if i got taller springs (non OME) i would be gambling on what the lift would be after 6 months. one of the issues i had with the FRONT RTE spacers is because the shock mount is elevated a bit from stock it exagerates the Castor issue you have when lifting, which is the axel rotates counter clock wise when looking at the driver side front tire. this caused the spring to bend. see this illustration to help explain, also the shock is no longer perpendicular to the ground. this also impeedes flexablity just something to think about. rd | ||
| Rob Davison (Nosivad_bor) Senior member Username: Nosivad_bor Post Number: 35 Registered: 02-2003 |
okay thanks to ho , see here: http://www.discoweb.org/thewindow/springspacer.jpg | ||
| John Abrams (Jabra2) New Member Username: Jabra2 Post Number: 13 Registered: 02-2003 |
Yikes...I don't really like the looks of that. Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding you, but is it solely the shock and shock mount that's causing the geometry problem? If I bought Mike's spacers off of http://mku.dhs.org/discovery/ with the shock mount relocation hardware, do you think that this would fix the problem? Thanks very much for your great information! | ||
| Rob Davison (Nosivad_bor) Senior member Username: Nosivad_bor Post Number: 37 Registered: 02-2003 |
the reloction kit of 1" does not help the issue. the problem is whenever you raise the vehicle your axel begins to rotate because the mounting point for the radius arms is static. you end up with a missalignment and the taller the spacer the more exaggerated this is. this phenominon can be corrected by RTE http://www.rovertym.com/ccorrection.htm once this is done the radius arm length will most likely need to be extended. rob | ||
| Steve Cooper (Scrover) Member Username: Scrover Post Number: 198 Registered: 09-2002 |
What REALLY helps is having a RR LWB with external front shocks  | ||
| Rob Davison (Nosivad_bor) Senior member Username: Nosivad_bor Post Number: 38 Registered: 02-2003 |
damn, steve i didn't know you were stylin' in a LWB. i dont care what anyone says about offorad ability lost, i wish i had a LWB version of my '89. the D-110 seems to do fine with that wheel base rd | ||
| Steve Cooper (Scrover) Member Username: Scrover Post Number: 199 Registered: 09-2002 |
Yup, 2" spacers up front, external N73s, and room for an Engle behind the front seats! (Don't have one yet though) | ||
| Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Senior Member Username: Pmatusov Post Number: 485 Registered: 09-2002 |
Rob, a LWB is very high on my list of vehicles to buy. It is actually on top of this list, which causes some family argument every time this subject gets brought up. | ||
| Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Senior Member Username: Brianfriend Post Number: 427 Registered: 09-2002 |
Ok correct me if I am wrong but looking at that diagram it would seem that the only time you have misalignment is a FULL downward articulation correct? If that is the case it seems to me that would be of minor concern because of the percentage that a vehicle is actually at full downward articulation. Has anyone actually had the problem with the shock after using the spacers or is just a potential problem? | ||
| Rob Davison (Nosivad_bor) Senior member Username: Nosivad_bor Post Number: 40 Registered: 02-2003 |
it depends on how high the spacer is. for the most part that is NOT and exageration and that is under level conditions. it will get wosre as it flexes upward. the weird part is , my truck still drove fine, with no onroad issues and for the most part worked fine off road. it just didn't have the best flex. having a loose back may have contributed to the front not needing to flex. don't get me wrong, it flex but it loved to lift a tire out west. i've sold the truck and am working on a range rover now. my conclusions after owning the last truck. i went with 3" big blues, i want a light weight stock looking winch bumper and a ramsey RE12k winch with plasma rope. this should keep the weight factor reasonable compared to the old set. my hope once i have all this stuff is i have about a 2"-3" lift without the use of spacers anywhere. rd |
