Thread: Terrible handling issue

The maximum lift you can do without castor correction is 2" With a 4" lift you need to remove the swivel housings and slot the bolt holes to repair the castor setting. Add one extra bolt to stop it slipping.

I'd be willing to bet that your steering geometry is completely **** eyed...

You should be able to get an RR, even with a 4" lift to have reasonable manners. As beeutey said, castor correction is where to start, as well as making sure all the bushes, including the a-frame ball joint are in good nick. A bad wheel alignment can also make them very spooky to drive!

As to hitting the bump stops frequently, how far have the bump stops been extended?

Cheers
Will

Yep, slot the swivels. Plenty of threads about this....... do a search.

Don't get tempted to use 'caster correction' bushes.

DL

Originally Posted by MR LR

I'd be willing to bet that your steering geometry is completely **** eyed...

You should be able to get an RR, even with a 4" lift to have reasonable manners. As beeutey said, castor correction is where to start, as well as making sure all the bushes, including the a-frame ball joint are in good nick. A bad wheel alignment can also make them very spooky to drive!

As to hitting the bump stops frequently, how far have the bump stops been extended?

Cheers
Will

Tyres were hitting the mudguards!

Originally Posted by MR LR

I'd be willing to bet that your steering geometry is completely **** eyed...

You should be able to get an RR, even with a 4" lift to have reasonable manners. As beeutey said, castor correction is where to start, as well as making sure all the bushes, including the a-frame ball joint are in good nick. A bad wheel alignment can also make them very spooky to drive!

As to hitting the bump stops frequently, how far have the bump stops been extended?

Cheers
Will

I'm thinking its time to take it somewhere! steering geometry is out of my league I think. Still wouldn't stop the floating though?

Originally Posted by snowbound

So, I have a RRC that was once a hi-line, but has a 4" lift running 31 AT tyres. I previously had an issue with it bottoming out when I hit bumps heavy off road, this I have solved by replacing the rear springs with heavy duty ones. I had another issue and this remains which is atrocious road holding manners. It is very floaty and it can be a struggle to keep it on the road when cornering particularly in the wet.(hoped HD rear springs would solve it) The shocks seem to be OK, but I'm no expert. What can I do to improve this situation? There appears to be nothing resembling anti roll bars fitted, and I'm assuming that these cant be fitted with the lift? Anybody got any ideas where I should start to fix the issue before I take it to a specialist who will inevitably want to screw what they can from me as usual! It's not my daily driver and it's purpose in life is to transport me to fishing once in a while, however this involves a lot of highway driving. I realize that the centre of balance is changed with the mods, its never going to be as good as an original, but surely I should be able to feel safe not hang on for grim death at each bend Thanks! for any advice.

You have a caster problem. I put in t 2 inch suspension lift and my caster went from standard, which i think is 6 degrees, to 0 degrees. It made my car handle exactly like you describe. I fitted caster correction bushes last weekend and it made a huge difference.

Range Rover 1 86 4 95 Super PRO Caster Correction Bush KIT | eBay

The Supapro bushes came with a template that made fitting the bushes to the control arms. You will need different ones then the link. These are form a 2 inch lift. They would improve your handling but not by enough. You'll probably benefit more from having your swivel ball housings elongated to correct your caster. It cost approx. $300 to get them machined but you'll need seals on oil some maybe something like $400.

Or maybe caster correction arms.
Land Rover Caster Corrected Radius Arms Defender Discovery Range Rover 6 Degree | eBay

Standard caster is 3 degrees and you lose 1.5 for every inch of lift. Zero is shopping trolley stuff.

Remedial bushes and or radius arms will correct the caster issue, but don't solve the wrong front diff pinion angle relative to the TC caused by the lift.

Rotating the swivels ticks all the boxes, LRA can do it.

cheers, DL

Once you've got the steering geometry sorted, you've got the rear suspension and shocks to look at.

Lifting these that far drops the rear axis roll-centre more than it drops the front (in relation to the body). The result is they want to over-steer and can get quite snappy at the limit of traction.

Floating and bottoming out is a symptom of the shocks having lost their ability to damp out movements. How old are they?