Cheers, Will be looking for OE heavy duty replacement spring/sockers. I like the idea of keeping it all simple!

Robert,

It's not the piston pushing on the oil that increases the boiling point of the oil per say, it's the 200+psi of gas pressure on top of the oil. Boiling is just the process of changing from liquid to gas phase. The gas pressure on the oil means that the oil has to absorb a lot more energy before being able to boil. And that raises the boiling point of the oil. Just like a pressure cooker. Works very well.

And to those who may not know, the Baja 1000, is, more than anything else, about reliability and survival. The cars may be light, but the speeds they hit bumps at are enough to offset much of the payload you may be talking about. Try hitting a one meter jump at 100+ MPH in anything and it will cause stress. (But hell, it is really fun!!)

That all said, I will reiterate what I hoped was my main point above: don't modify your suspension unless you know what you are doing and are using a product that has been well tested. Otherwise, you risk doing what I did -- getting your truck welded back together at various points around the Sahara.

cheers

Graham
www.africaoverland.org

Keep it simple:
OE Heavy Duty Springs and Shocks, Wolf Bushes,

On a 25,000km across West Africa and back trip -
Good ride, good articulation, no problems at all
And I saved a good few hundred pounds over an 'uprated' set up.
- And actually in the case of LR the suspension (HD) IS set up to overland straight off the production line - have you seen how they test them ? - CONCRETE corrogations all day - for weeks on end up at Gaydon....AND field testing...Im sure other manufactors do the same.
Save yourself some money and put it towards a roof tent.

------------------
Ex RAF Regt, Ex Dragoman, LRE Instructor,
LR 90 300 Tdi Overlander
Suzuki DR650 Overlander
..and Bloody Nice Bloke!

Graham,

That's what I thought was the Idea, but then, if you have just oil in a close environment, with no gas presurized cylinder to compensate for expansion, the presure must raise much quicker, and as such the boiling temp must increase even more. Or not?

BTW, you should have lowered your bumpstops (just bolt a piece of wood or so between the bumpstops and the chassis). By the time I read your suspension was giving you trouble you where relaxing in Namibia already



[This message has been edited by Robbert (edited 22 February 2005).]

Our Defender 110 did 65.000 km thru africa with LR heavy duty springs and the original shocks. Only when we had a few thousand km left did one of the front shocks begin to get a small leak. Nothing big enough to bother with even, and we left it as it was till the car was shipped home. Granted, both the springs and shocks were pretty worn out then and thus had to be replaced. But that's not too bad IMO considering where we drove etc.

I do think that driving style has a lot to do with it. If you drive like a maniac, you won't get very far in africa no matter what you use...

Erik

------------------

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the rear springs were Defender 130 HD with the inside "helper springs"!


[This message has been edited by Erik D. (edited 03 March 2005).]

Robbert,

Actually, oil doesn't expand very much when it goes into the gas phase. As the oil boils you will get an increase in pressure and hense a corresponding increase in boiling point. But going from 1 atm to 2 atm in the headspace above the oil is a doubling of pressure which takes a lot of boiled oil, and only corresponds to about 30psi in increased pressure. The 200 +psi that you can put on top of the oil in a gas shock has a dramatically larger effect!

We did end up lowering the bump stops, but by strapping some pieces of old tyre tread onto the axle. Worked pretty well. It got us from Gabon into Namibia, so wasn't too bad!

Cheers

Graham
www.africaoverland.org

Gipper, You mention using wolf bushes. Thats not a modification ive heard of before. How do they differ from standard bushes?

Cheers Aaron

Hi Aaron
Wolf Bushes - used on Wolf military Land Rovers.
They are just a bit firmer - the compound of the mixture used - which when loaded for overland means they are about right.
Its popular to use polyurethane bushes these days, but I find the stiff ones dont have enough give in them for articulation - and the ones that let you articulate wear out quickly.

Cheers
Grif

Gypper - where would you get Wolf bushes? Craddocks?

Runner - I managed to get a set in relation to a previous Job.....say no more...
Try Craddocks or any Independant.
Grif

------------------
Ex RAF Regt, Ex Dragoman, LRE Instructor,
LR 90 300 Tdi Overlander
Suzuki DR650 Overlander
..and Bloody Nice Bloke!

On my 110, I have Land Rover's own brand 130 HD springs on front, and 130 HD springs on rear, with the second, inner spring as well.

Has now done London-Sydney, 5 months in Australian outback, UK-Ivory Coast-UK, UK-Algeria-UK and Belgium-Mauritania-Belgium.

All grossly overladen (once we even had 700kgs of water on the roof, crossing the dunes of the Simpson!!) - have never had a shock fail, or a spring break. Thought I should replace them now because of time - but there is no sign of them needing to be replaced and I'm Scottish by birth - another little trip will be fine, I'm sure!

Sam.

Sam, what shockers do you run - OE ?
Keep on Truckin
Grif

Theres an easy way to sort out shock problems - just buy a landrover 101 - you have no choices - just the standard landrover shock - but they work very very well and you can't get spares easily so they'd better keep working

Now not knowing much, I put this down to them being big with plenty of oil in them so they disipate heat better (they are dramatically bigger in diameter than a 110 damper)

Any comments welcome

As for the OME comments I know of 1 supplier of them who stopped selling them because they would not honour the warranty so he had to ship out shocks to customers at his cost and comments from my overland truck driving friend who has seen alot of defenders with suspension troubles and the trouble was OME

Just cos lots of people use it doesn't mean its good Roman - after all look at MS Windows :-)



------------------
Rich
LR101 300Tdi Ambi 'Tiggurr'

yup, OE

Sam.