2-3" lift on a Series II

[Slunnie]

I haven't come across a lot of talk regarding lifted Series landys apart from the Mil spec chassis.

I'm looking to lift my civilian chassis ute by 2-3", and am wondering if anybody has done the same what they are like offroad with regards to axle tramp/wrap etc and likewise how they track on road and how stable under brakes.

[JDNSW]

From memory the lift on the military 2a is about 40mm. That much requires sculpture of the crossmember under the clutch housing, but does not seem to have any other serious problems. Any more than this would start to present serious U-joint angle problems, and the steering draglink would be getting to have an excessive angle. Worth noting that the track is narrower than coil sprung ones as well, although the military ones do not seem to suffer in stability to a noticeable degree.

I think some others here have tried large lifts, and maybe they can comment.

John

[Slunnie]

From memory the lift on the military 2a is about 40mm. That much requires sculpture of the crossmember under the clutch housing, but does not seem to have any other serious problems. Any more than this would start to present serious U-joint angle problems, and the steering draglink would be getting to have an excessive angle. Worth noting that the track is narrower than coil sprung ones as well, although the military ones do not seem to suffer in stability to a noticeable degree.

I think some others here have tried large lifts, and maybe they can comment.

John
Hi John, thanks for this info. The way the mil have done this seems to be a good way to approach it as the mounts were dropped rather than increasing the camber on the springs. That increase in camber which I would have to do is something that I'm unsure of, and how dramatic the changes will affect the way the suspension operates. The UJ and drag link are some good points. I have scalloped out the Xmember already and it sits on wider axles also, so hopefully stability will be ok

[JDNSW]

Hi John, thanks for this info. The way the mil have done this seems to be a good way to approach it as the mounts were dropped rather than increasing the camber on the springs. That increase in camber which I would have to do is something that I'm unsure of, and how dramatic the changes will affect the way the suspension operates. The UJ and drag link are some good points. I have scalloped out the Xmember already and it sits on wider axles also, so hopefully stability will be ok

The problem with increasing the camber of springs is that it increases the amount of both the shackle movement and axle movement for the same amount of spring deflection. In particular, it increases the amount of rotation on the bush at the shackle end of the spring, and it would be very easy to exceed the amount of rotation that any elastic bush can withstand without failure. Of course, you could always use a lubricated metal to metal bush, but there are good reasons why these disappeared from most vehicles over fifty years ago.

John

[isuzurover]

JD raises some good points.

However I have seen a few landies that have been lifted a couple of inches by an overzealous spring reset with no issues.

The biggest problem I can see is reduced wheel travel. Leaf springs work best when they are close to flat.

LandyAndy has a S3 project with a spring lift and a body lift.

The forest rover ran 53's with no spring lift...