Corrugations and Land Rovers, which is best

[furianer]

Morning, sorry im not that active on this forum, just got back to Switzerland after traveling the western deserts of WA for 3 months.
Our transport is a trusty old 300tdi Disco, good dear old thing.
We have noticed, that over the last 25years, working and traveling in the bush, tracks are getting a lot more traffic then what there used to be, consequently tracks become more and more corrugated.
Maybe it is just me and getting on in live, used a SIII 109 for work and trips, it was a superb machine in the bush.
About 10 years ago i updated to a Discovery TDI what a experience, fuel economy comfort all greatly improved.
Now it feels like the Discovery is becoming a bouncy old truck on our long an remote trips.
Replaced the complete suspension, the ride did not improve that much. The run up on some of the dunes (canning stock for example) are getting quite choppy,
Why do people have to bring trailers, kitchen sinks and 400 horse power into this precious places.

What is your experience with Land Rovers and corrugations, wich model rides best and is still suitable for remote travels.
www.stolz-rostfrei.ch/travel

thanks, and all the best for 2015

Richard

[Tins]

What a great post. Thank you Richard. And what a great question. People 'need' to take this stuff because they can. I suppose in Switzerland the American style of advertising may have passed you by. I hope so. It's too late for us.
As for corrugations; well, coil springs are good, but driving on the wrong side of the road is the best answer I know.

Some great photos on your site! You get around.

[ADMIRAL]

In a D3-D4 with full air suspension, you will be treated to a limo ride by comparison to the coil and leaf sprung vehicles. The most obvious danger, is ignoring what is going on beneath, and pushing too hard. A case of no feeling , no sense. You should still be dropping your pressures though. If you drive on corrugated roads with blacktop pressures, you had better invest in a kidney belt. ( and some new shocks )

[Roverlord off road spares]

I reckon the Disco1 was the worst, go too fast over the corrigations and the inertia switch kept tripping

[furianer]

What a great post. Thank you Richard. And what a great question. People 'need' to take this stuff because they can. I suppose in Switzerland the American style of advertising may have passed you by. I hope so. It's too late for us.
As for corrugations; well, coil springs are good, but driving on the wrong side of the road is the best answer I know.

Thanks Johntins, not wrong had a look at the aussie 4by4 magazines, what is happening to the 4x4 movement in Australia?
I reckon it is going to result in more and more restricted areas, summer closures, closed of areas like the calvert ranges. Sad really.

As to coil springs, i agree they are a big improvement over leafs, but the biggest drawback of the Disco is the relatively short wheelbase.
Any of the Disco I users, driven a Defender 110 on heavy corrugation and chopped up sanddunes, do they ride any better?

[blackbuttdisco]

Too short a wheelbase, relative to what? A bus? A series LR 88 is 11.9" shorter, a 109 is 9.1" longer, so its somewhere in between? Speed is the key, especially the lack of it.

[Road Stone]

Most of the roads here in PNG are in a poor state so most of the driving is off road or semi off road.




In the D2 V8, I find 85klms/hr the ideal speed and best for comfort over corrugations, The issue is looking ahead far enough to slow down when required.


Cheers, Jerry

[snowbound]

Muski go isi, kisim 60! :p

[81V8]

In answer to the OP's original question.

Landrovers are best - corregations suck! :D:D:D:D

Ian.

[furianer]

In answer to the OP's original question.

Landrovers are best - corregations suck! :D:D:D:D

Ian.

Plan is to stick to Land Rovers, used LC for work in central australia, back when they had leafs front and rear, short wheel base cruiser was a bitch to drive on bush tracks, Hzj, reliable trucks, never stopped, but spiderweb cracks all over diff housings chassis, body panels, we had one break the chassis between cab and tray, bit of welding sorted all this, short term. Never had engine or gearbox problem, shocks and springs had to be replaced about once a year.
Guess we gave them to much of a hard time, speed was definitely up ;)

Any one driven the rudall river np access track in a land rover lately, this is the sort of stuff I'm talking about.

Richard
www.stolz-rostfrei.ch/travel

[Tins]

In answer to the OP's original question.

Landrovers are best - corregations suck! :D:D:D:D

Ian.

Well, a Peugot 4 or 504 might change your mind there. Apart from the other French classic, the DS19, it's hard to think of a regular car that handles corrugations as well as a Pug. Gelignite Jack Murray was famous for driving one. He also did things in a Mimi and a LandCrab ( Austin 1800 ) that would make a lot of 4WD owners shudder, 60 years ago when the roads were worse than most of our tracks. That said, I have an old RRC that is awesome on the corry. Dampers are stuffed, that's what does it.:lol2:

[isuzurover]

I converted the rear of my 110 to air springs before i did the canning. In the middle of the track with the worst corrugations we did a comparison with a mates 110 that was almost identical apart from having coils all round. Mine rode a lot better.

[furianer]

I converted the rear of my 110 to air springs before i did the canning. In the middle of the track with the worst corrugations we did a comparison with a mates 110 that was almost identical apart from having coils all round. Mine rode a lot better.

thanks a lot, can i ask what kind of air spring system you're using.

anyone tried a dual shock setup on the rear axle ?

Richard

[slug_burner]

The D1 certainly pitches more than the 110 Defender on roads with undulations, performance on corrugations I don't think will affected by wheelbase.

There are a few threads on this forum on airbag conversions, isuzurover's thread has lost most of the links to the photos which make it less informative than when it had its photos so I did not link to it.

[isuzurover]

The D1 certainly pitches more than the 110 Defender on roads with undulations, performance on corrugations I don't think will affected by wheelbase.

There are a few threads on this forum on airbag conversions, isuzurover's thread has lost most of the links to the photos which make it less informative than when it had its photos so I did not link to it.

Ah will have to put them back up...

[edddo]

I have a D1 so possibly biased - but I have driven a fair bit of corrugated road over the years ( Cape York, Melville NP, Gulf, Simpson and surrounds ) often with my Landcruiser mate in tow. In my experience the quality of the suspension setup will be the big factor in how the D1 handles things. If well setup for the road and load it is pretty good, if a little prone to pitching from time to time. Also in my experience the D1 on 31's is nicer to be in on the same roads than my mates 79 series ute on 32's - unless the shocks are not up to the job. I am not confident that std billies are sufficient for me for expedition type loads so will look to get some Koni Raids ( or something else tbc ) for the rear next trip. I think the shocks need excellent rebound damping on the rear in particular to keep the car suitably controlled.

[furianer]

thanks to all of you

Never would have thought about airbag springs without you lot.

To keep it simple i would like to use the Disco II System, without the controls, just tire valves to pump the bags up to the needed level.
As for shocks, ill try to fit another set facing the rear end, same angle as the standard ones.

Any one running this setup on a disco I.

Isuzurover do you have any footage of your airbaged 110 going up chopped up sand dune tracks?;)

Richard

[isuzurover]

thanks to all of you

Never would have thought about airbag springs without you lot.

To keep it simple i would like to use the Disco II System, without the controls, just tire valves to pump the bags up to the needed level.
As for shocks, ill try to fit another set facing the rear end, same angle as the standard ones.

Any one running this setup on a disco I.

Isuzurover do you have any footage of your airbaged 110 going up chopped up sand dune tracks?;)

Richard

I would opt for firestone air springs. They are heavier duty than the d2 items but a lot cheaper.
You will need to have a compressor and valve connected to them. That is the setup i have.

I have a couple of videos from the csr and gclro trips. Will see what i can dig out.

[furianer]

thanks, looking forward to the clips.

we don't get much of chance to see how our Disco performs compare to others.
We are most of the time on our own, not much traffic at time and places we like to go to.

Thanks for the tip with the firestones, would the ones you used on the 110 fit the smaller diameter top spring bracket on the Disco.
What you reckon about the dual shock setup.





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