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Rear leaf spring far too soft!

Bet you don't hear that too often?

I've nearly finished my trailer to tow behind the Landy, and I've gone for a series 3 axle and springs (don't need to carry another spare). I've taken out the diff and halfshafts, and fitted new shockers, but the spring were in a terrible state, solid with rust.

So i cleaned them, split the leaf's, de-rusted, and greased them, then put it back together with 3 leafs missing. Bad move, the springs were far toooooooo soft, so i put the 3 back in and it's still too soft, I can get it to hit the bump stops by just me bouncing on it.

Thoughts?

Cheers

Gary

Reply to
Gary Harrison
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I've still got some rusty ones on the drive if it's any help....

I guess you could source some 1-ton springs? Don't suppose there is room for another set of springs alongside the current ones - would need some innovative welding I guess.

But it just doesn't sound right. How heavy is this trailer? If you bounce up and down in the back of a standard S3 it hardly moves. Could it be that you need more weight to 'preload' the springs, plus longer shackles or something to compensate for the pre-strain?

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

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Reply to
Tim Hobbs

On or around Sun, 21 Sep 2003 21:31:30 +0000 (UTC), Gary Harrison enlightened us thusly:

have you got the mounting dimensions the same as they were on the back of the land rover?

of course, by cleaning and greasing the springs, they actually *work* - most of 'em on vehicles don't, properly, unless you've done the same to them. They actually have quite a long travel, are your bump-stops set too low? Check out the mounting and bump stop positions on your landrover, and compare.

how heavy are you? :-)

bear in mind that the payload of a standard LR is not actually all that much, and the springs may genuinely not be strong enough, depending on how much weight you want the trailer to carry and how much the trailer itself weighs. The army rated the LR to carry a quarter of a ton, but then they're notorious for under-rating stuff. But the 110, for example, is only actually rated to carry about 600 KG or so, unless it's a high capacity one.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

The trailer weighs 135KG, and i weigh 13 stone (notice the simple way i convert to the most usefull system?).

The dimentions for the mountings were lifted stright from the chassis measurements in the manual.

To me it doesn't make sense, just me jumping up and down, can get it onto the bump stops, well i say bump stops, there not fitted yet, so i mean the casing hitting the chassis rail.

maybe i need to de grease the leaf's!

Gary

Gary Harris> Bet you don't hear that too often?

Reply to
Gary Harrison

How much travel are we talking about? How much travel does the weight of the trailer cause?

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

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Reply to
Tim Hobbs

Can we see some pictures?! What size is the trailer - you jumping at the back of a looong trailer will be significant leverage - I take it's single axle?

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
William MacLeod

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