Removing load leveller

[timbocruiser]

can the load levelling shock absorber looking thing be removed out of the rear of a 1986 rangie?? is it really needed for something with 2 inch spring lift.

or does it help to keep the car stable??
cheers in advance!!

[abaddonxi]

Depends on the rate of the springs that are in there. If it's a standard set up the springs are significantly softer than springs without the load leveller.

Cheers
Simon

[POD]

It can be removed, you may find the rear end a bit saggy without it as it carries some portion of the load. With a 2" spring lift, some say the boge unit does not do much as it is there to push the rear end up to standard height when a load is in the back. It enables the rangie to have softer coils than would otherwise be required, thus is largely responsible for the very supple articulation of the range rover in standard form.
Some will say that articulation is improved without the boge unit; this is probably true if the suspension has been lifted. Others will say that a pair of airbags inside the coils (can't recall the name of those things even though I have them in my old rangie!) will carry the load just as well, but obviously these will not give the same benefits as the boge does in the standard setup.
I had a 40mm shaft extension made for my boge unit so that it works at the 2" lifted height, trouble with this is that it causes the boge to bottom out before the bump-stops reach full compression.
Another thing to consider of course is that the boge unit is probably shot by now and a stiffer set of coils are much cheaper than a replacement boge unit.

[big_waity]

A mate of mine with an 86 asked the same thing and didn't get a definate response. He has a 3" lift. Due to a lack of definate answer, he removed it to see how it handles. 2 years later, he hasn't put it back. I asked him about it just the other day and he said it hasn't made a great deal of difference. He said he would probably have left it on but wasn't enough of a difference to warrant puting it back.

[2_door]

I have a 3 inch coil lift as well and mine isnt fitted. I dont carry heavy loads but I dont think I am worse off because it isnt fitted ;) my 2c worth

[timbocruiser]

well i might try it out once i have my new tyres and other bits fitted soon. i wont be carrying any loads in the rear so it isnt really needed! everything is coming out! weight saving measures!! ;)

[2_door]

well i might try it out once i have my new tyres and other bits fitted soon. i wont be carrying any loads in the rear so it isnt really needed! everything is coming out! weight saving measures!! ;)

cool, then you can come out and play :p

[abaddonxi]

No shortage of good information on springs here -
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/good-oil/67409-springs-everything-springs-rates-length-size-load-lifts-part-numbers.html#post853488

Simon

[Ferret]

In most cases with a RR of that vintage they are knackered anyway so not doing anything regardless of whether it is removed or not.

[Waxenwane]

As has been stated the load leveler allows you to run softer springing, it does'nt interfer with articulation until the lift is over 2". It does come with a lot of inbuilt damping.
I have only recently removed mine, only because I like soft springing and the rear was sagging with any sort of load. I replaced it with an Airbag, the original Boge mounts are used and it screws in with only minor mods. So far it is in the experimental stage but the results so far are good. Now with the system deflated the rear sits low. By adding pressure I can now raise the rear suspension 100mm from the drivers seat to compensate for any load.

[POD]

Interesting, I experimented with an airbag in place of my load-leveller a couple of years ago but found that I could not fit an airbag of sufficiently large diameter to do the job, in between the arms of the centre a-frame. With a 4" diameter airbag, it was a tight fit, and it required enormous pressure to have any real effect. Do you have any pics of your setup? Apologies if this is considered a hijacking.

[timbocruiser]

feel free to show your setups!! i wouldnt mind seeing it for myself!:D

[Waxenwane]

Ok here are a couple of pics of my unit on the bench and installed. This was on the day and since then a heat shield has been added.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/1056.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/1057.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/1058.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/1059.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/1060.jpg
I have only had it in the car for a week or so. it has required a major revision of my onboard air system. The air system was pressure limited via an ARB pressure switch that did not give me enough air pressure, so........I converted an old compressor cutout switch and set it to 150 psi, that is enough pressure to lift the Rangie 100mm with a Fridge and 3 boxes of gear onboard. The bag is not even at it's limits at this setting. So an air tank of higher pressure rating is on it's way:twisted:
The clearance on the A arm is tight at about 3 mm but more importantly it has not rubbed. If a problem develops in this area I will relieve a spare A arm to give more room. It was decided that heat from the exhaust would become an issue so a heat shield has been added that is highly effective.
The end game in all of this is to somehow get hold of some longer travel shocks, be able to use all of the travel and have a load compensator that is completely adjustable for all situations.

[POD]

Looks like the same bag that I tried this with, very tight clearance of the A-frame, pity it's not wide enough to get the next size bag in as then the pressure required would be markedly reduced. I was not able to get enough pressure into it to do what I wanted, did not think of changing the cutout pressure on the ARB compressor, think i would want to investigate it's limits before doing that. Adjustable load compensation plus articulation- very nice.

[Waxenwane]

Yeah the pressure does seem high, but it is well within the bag limits. I'm currently looking at moving the bottom mount a little more to the vertical as a way to give it more clearance. I'm surprised that you couldn't get high enough pressure as I could get 85 mm lift with just 90 psi.

[POD]

I think my airbag might even be a shade smaller than yours- yours looks like a RR EAS bag? It was a while ago that I was mucking about with this but I didn't think anything bigger would fit between the A-frame arms, obviously a small difference in diameter makes a big difference in cross-sectional area thus needs a lot less pressure for the same result. Unfortunately the further forward you move the bottom of the airbag, the greater the mechanical disadvantage as the axle gets greater leverage over the airbag. I wonder how much body lift you would need to get a bellows type bag right on top of the diff? If I had a tray conversion that's what I'd be doing.
I was also thinking that an air-over-hydraulic arrangement would do the job, a large airbag driving a small-diameter hydraulic ram connected like a master cylinder to a larger ram at the load-leveller location. would be fun to experiment with but trial and error with this sort of thing gets expensive.

Now I think I have REALLY hijacked this thread!

[Waxenwane]

As you say Air over hydraulic would be fun to experiment with, but that's very close to what a Boge is anyway. Not to forget the expense and who has that sort of stuff lying around to tinker wth anyway?
The bag is D2 rear and is literally the biggest thing that will fit.
The whole trayback thing is something Stirling and I have talked of for his Ute project. It will be so light that any airbag will work.
Yeah I guess I had better apologise for the hijack as well

[POD]

With air over hydraulic the air & master cylinder component coyuld be remotely located and a slaved ram fitted in place of the boge unit, with different bore sizes the air pressure could be multiplied to any amount of pressure in the lift ram, also adjustable on demand via air pressure. The boge unit is a very complex bit of gear, but it has a set target height that is not user-adjustable.