Equipe 4x4 Stage 1 Suspension Kits Anyone Bought one?

[clive22]

Wondering if anyone has put a Equipe 4x4 Stage 1 susepnsion kit on their County or Defender. Seems like a good kit - am looking to improve articulation without raising ride height.
If so how does it perform in heavy rock, ruts, etc? Which is my preferred terrain

I am running Bilstein shocks - standard length with 15".9' fr and 17" rears springs on '85 County V8. Tyres: 33" Silverstone - Centipede rip offs.

I know articulation has been covered extensivley in this forum - with a 2" lift most often mentioned - but this kit would surely offer better droop and to me makes more sense.

Never seen the point of lifting body futher from the chassis further then necessary and without modifying shock location points can not really see what you gain in articulation - bar tyre clearance which with my current tyres is plenty - even on full lock in a ditch.


Am interested in other peoples opinions and contributions as to how to improve flex.

The kit is a lot of money but looks well thought through.

Clive

[rick130]

IMO these sort of kits are aimed at the person that just wants X and can spend Y to achieve it.
Nothing wrong with that at all and it's how the world works with 99% of things. It's called business.
The beauty of these sort of kits is that everything is there, you don't have to spend time stuffing around measuring, calculating and finding disparate bits like the brake lines or the HD trailing arms.

However, I personally don't believe in dropping the shock brackets and dislocating the springs. It's a real European approach to increasing droop and not one I'm comfortable with.
I've gone with raised towers in the front, longer travel dampers all round, (10" stroke) longer free length front springs and retained springs.
I haven't had to use longer bump stops to protect the dampers from going metal to metal so bump travel is retained, I've maximised droop with the longer stroke shocks and longer (standard rate) springs but the front anti-roll bar had to go and longer brake hoses were fitted. It really does flex more than stock with the front ride height raised marginally. Rake is actually better as it isn't so bum high, nose down, and it's still bum high with 5-600kg of load in the back.

If someone is mechanically inclined and can spend some time thinking and studying they can achieve the same results of the kits or better.

Bear in mind that most people that talk in inches of lift on forums don't have the foggiest about maximising travel, either droop or bump. They just want to stick an off the shelf spring in for a certain lift, regardless of how it's achieved. (usually a higher rate spring with around the same free length of the one it replaced)
You just have to sift through the chaff for the wheat, but sometimes there's a hell of a lot of chaff. :D

[Grimace]

To increase suspension flex at sdtandard ride hieght you need to do four things.

1. Raise the upper shock mounts an inch, preferably two
2. Fit much longer shocks (3-4 inch more travel)
3. Get dual rate style coils with tighter windings at the bottom.
4. Fit extended brake lines (+4")

All the above will cost approx a grand.
The standard links in any coiled county/defender will be good for 12" travel shocks all round at standard ride height and I guarantee that is more then you will need/want to satisfy, hence changing the links is a bit of a waste of time/money.
In the front you would be best off fitting Haultech Holey Bushes into the radius arms to fully utilise the amount of travel on offer and to even up the flex a touch more front to rear.

Retain the coils top and bottom for greater stability in 90% of crossed up situations and your done.

IMHO the kits on offer are too pricy and lowering shocks mounts is one thing I will never do to any of my rovers. If you do want to buy something from them then just get the spring retainers and some rear links cause a bit of crank in them may help to keep the chassis end bush alive longer.

EDIT: I just read ricks post above mine and couldn't agree more!

[T1ASLAV]

G'day

myself and a couple of mates serving over here in Afghan have been looking at the Equipe stuff for a while now.
I have purchased some of their underbody protection stuff and recieved that when I was home on leave recently, was very well made stuff and all fit on the Defender without dramas.
One of the boys here ordered the kit that you are looking at and will be installing it when it is his turn to get some leave in the next month or so.

I will let you know how that goes and his opinion on it as I am looking at the kit myself so any feedback would be good before outlaying the hard earned foldable stuff.

Regards

[def-90]

hey clive22, mate how much are you looking at spending on this kit? i can all but guarentee that myself and alot of others on this board can point you in a direction which will be far cheaper and far far far better at the end of the day.;)

equipe has great gear - bars, bash plates, etc (i have their winch bar) but as others have stated the last thing you want to do is lower your shock mounts!!