Thread: Defender Rear Trailing Arms - STD vs Cranked?

you are lucky getting 57,000 kms out of the trailing arm bushes. i get about an hour with the OEM rubber bush and a day out of superpro. i run patrol bush super engineering arms (discontinued).

if you don't have a big lift and you haven't bent an arm, there is no need to swap to cranked arms. 57,000 kms isn't bad life out of a bush if it sees low range and dirt tracks. if you have money in your pocket burning a hole, go with single crank arms. the diff end bush does give 2 hoots what degree the arm is thus there is no correction at the diff end.

rear trailing arm bush_1.jpg

The genuine rubber bushes can last as long as the Defender. This can be true for all Land Rovers of that suspension design (Range Rover classic style).
I get the odd Defender where the bushes flog out and I replace them with either genuine or Terrafirma red poly bushes which I think are the hardest ones.
Having a harder poly bush on a Defender really wont effect the ride quality, but poly bushes in general are crap on a Disco 3 or 4.

I've fitted a few cranked arms on fairly high lifted Defenders, but in general keep it all fairly stock.

keep in mind: now days OEM can be a big con. OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer, so yes the genuine part is made by the same company, but lets say the genuine part is made in Germany yet the listed OEM part is made in their other factory in the back blocks of vaniswally land, technically its OEM.

That's exactly what has happen to mine as well... Mine's not heavily modified... I was looking at trialling the rubber ones to see how they go...

Originally Posted by MLD

you are lucky getting 57,000 kms out of the trailing arm bushes. i get about an hour with the OEM rubber bush and a day out of superpro. i run patrol bush super engineering arms (discontinued).

if you don't have a big lift and you haven't bent an arm, there is no need to swap to cranked arms. 57,000 kms isn't bad life out of a bush if it sees low range and dirt tracks. if you have money in your pocket burning a hole, go with single crank arms. the diff end bush does give 2 hoots what degree the arm is thus there is no correction at the diff end.

rear trailing arm bush_1.jpg

I was thinking about trialling rubber ones this time around... will ring the local LR mechanic and get a price from them & work out which way to to go...

BTW: I have another question - I think the answer will be no but I'll ask it anyhow... On my recent trip I had the shocky top nut fall off the RHS rear shock which resulted me completing my trip with 3 shocks. The ride wasn't too bad considering but it was also the RHS rear Trailing arm bush that failed as well - would there be any relation between having the RHS shock removed and the failure of the RHS trailing arm bush? I did have to climb up some seriously difficult rocky hillclimbs to get where I was going to... I'm assuming NO?

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

The genuine rubber bushes can last as long as the Defender. This can be true for all Land Rovers of that suspension design (Range Rover classic style).
I get the odd Defender where the bushes flog out and I replace them with either genuine or Terrafirma red poly bushes which I think are the hardest ones.
Having a harder poly bush on a Defender really wont effect the ride quality, but poly bushes in general are crap on a Disco 3 or 4.

I've fitted a few cranked arms on fairly high lifted Defenders, but in general keep it all fairly stock.

keep in mind: now days OEM can be a big con. OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer, so yes the genuine part is made by the same company, but lets say the genuine part is made in Germany yet the listed OEM part is made in their other factory in the back blocks of vaniswally land, technically its OEM.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

I was thinking about trialling rubber ones this time around... will ring the local LR mechanic and get a price from them & work out which way to to go...

BTW: I have another question - I think the answer will be no but I'll ask it anyhow... On my recent trip I had the shocky top nut fall off the RHS rear shock which resulted me completing my trip with 3 shocks. The ride wasn't too bad considering but it was also the RHS rear Trailing arm bush that failed as well - would there be any relation between having the RHS shock removed and the failure of the RHS trailing arm bush? I did have to climb up some seriously difficult rocky hillclimbs to get where I was going to... I'm assuming NO?

On a defender, the shocks are what limit the travel of the suspension, so if you are driving on surfaces that require articulation, not having the shock could damage the bush pictured for sure.

You could also have things that have been over extended.

From all that I've seen offroad.

HD links - absolutely yes!

Cranked links - you're always asking for trouble. I would avoid them like the plague because a bent link always wants to fold up when they cop a knock unless they are obscenely overengineered (like on a rock buggy). I've seen suspension links fold up into a banana and similarly cranked panhards snap the ball joint thread due to bending forces. Many do, but I'd never go there.