Thread: Discovery 2 Lift limiting factors

Hey guys, I'm looking to start lifting my discovery 2 with SLS in the rear and was looking for some advice on what you recommend, and where you will run in to bottlenecks that will limit articulation etc

I was looking to go to 3" TF shocks with their dislocation cones, and then a 2 inch lift spring on the front, and 2" lifted airbags on the back. I've got them manually set to height at the moment so I was going to play around from there and set a good ride height between the front and rear once lifted. I was hoping some smart individuals here would know where I would start being limited, or what else I would also need to touch to allow everything to work smoothly

Cheers

Even the ARB OME 2" lift (specifically) needs a Xmember spacer - I think it might be a part of the kit, its just a shim. I would assume it also pushes the limits of the brake lines.

Over 2" your limiting factors are:

Front:
ACE ram clearance on the panhard chassis mount - longer links when over about 60mm longer open shock length for clearance
Xmember clearance
Castor over about 4" lift - you do not need castor correction
front springs scragging solid on full compression
front spring rub on the chassis
bumpstop heights to suit fully compressed springs or shock closed lengths
I would also up the front prop to a 1310 set of unis because of the type of driving - you don't need wide angle unis.
Adjustable Panhard - I don't think it is needed.
You will need longer brake lines, you can just unclip and pull through the ABS lines.

Rear:
Watts linkage - I'm an totally unimpressed with bent steering and suspension links - clearance the watts linkage mount before considering bent links. You can do up to 4" lift on straight links
Brake lines need extending
ABS lines need extending - run front ABS senors into your rear hubs for the longer lead
If you have a bit of lift, the vehicle can become twitchy on the road due to roll steer. It will vary on what sector of a corner youre in. To correct this, you can run front sway bar links in the rear which relevels the ACE ram. To do this you need to have bumpstop extensions so the ram doesnt crash the Xmember and the links don't crash into the floor.
You can still run the rubber tailshaft coupling, lift doesn't affect it on the Disco2 like it does with other LandRovers. There are stronger options there also to maintain vibration damping before going to uni-uni tailshafts.

For tyre size, people will tell you that you can run tyre sizes over 265/75-16 on a 2" lift no problems. All they're really telling you is that their suspension flexs like piece of ****. If your suspension works well then 265/75-16 is your limit with 2", and even with a soft 2" setup it will still rub on the rear doors. for bigger tyres you will need to lift more (its actually the resulting increased bumpstops which allows the clearance rather than the acutal lift) and cut guards/rear doors. Note that the inner guards are still your limiting factor when cutting guards, most notably over and behind the front wheels where the wheels can still rub. Rear door mount can be modified to take up to a 33" tyre, after than you will need to buy a mount designed for bigger tyres than that. 33's is still the limit of your guard apatures with greater than 2" lifts (33s should still rub in the front above and behind the tyre, and in the rear above the tyre and on the doors).

The above is all with regards to suspension travel. In relation to articulation your limitations are:
front and rear are radius arm design suspension. In the Disco2 setup, it can give you some pretty good articulation, but not more than that. To get crazy articulation you've really got to look to 5 link, 3 link designs, holy bushes etc. Some have done A-frame 3 link rears which work well, with parts from older coil LandRovers.
ACE ram will flex well, much like a swaybar disconnect setup, until it limits are reached which is at about 10" travel in the shocks.