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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



Trans Sahara Routes.

 
 
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Old 19 Nov 2002
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Some info to warm up the discussion.

Every vehicle has a carefully calculated castor angle. This is the angle of the steering pivot relative to the ground. On wishbone and leaf suspensions this angle stays relatively unchanged with suspension height. On primitive (sorry I couldn't resist) swingarm setups the higher the lift the closer the castor is to zero. At low speeds you won't notice the difference, but above about 20kmh the vehicle will wander even more than it originally did (anyone who's driven a series will know about wander, it's not only about play in the linkages); and the steeering will have less of that comforting return to centre feeling. Modified swingarms, excentric polybushes and offset chassis mounts exist to bring back the specified castor angle. Without it at worst the vehicle is more prone to rolling over, and long trips become even more tiring.

Anti roll bars: one of the principles of LR design is to keep all four wheels in contact, to keep the load carried by each wheel and its patch of ground as low as possible. The moment you wave a wheel, the other three take the extra weight. The good news is that in sand, which is always in movement under the tyres that doesn't matter, and with a bit of power you can often get away with having a wheel in the air.

LR have worked hard on their road dynamics; although there is body roll, some of this suppleness is there to keep load distribution as even as possible in curves. Slapping an anti roll bar underneath will certainly hold the body straight, bringing you closer to family saloon handling. BUT it will also ensure a greater mass transfer to the outside wheels, on high profile tyres (7.50 x 16) this causes squirm and scrub and excessive wear on the outside edge. by the same measure it also reduces your effective axle width on the side that counts, bringing the vehicle closer to falling over.

The running gear of a LR (and a Toy for that matter) resembles that of an underdimensioned lorry, if you only expect lorry handling you will be pleasantly surprised. Even after all the mods that exist, it will still be a live axle vehicle with all the handling disadvantages (and off road advantages) that come along with it.

Ultimately we learn to be happy with what we've just spent lots of money on.
Happy trails
Luke
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