Thread: Discovery 3 S Offroad

Hi Declan,
I bow to GGHaggis' greater experience, but to give you my experience:

I did a 4wd course with the standard springs in my 2005 D3 S model. It suffered a dented fuel tank, dented tail pipes and chassis scrapes.

I subsequently fitted the King Spring 2" + lift and have suffered NO further problems. On the other hand, I'm sure that I don't test my D3 to the limits that GGHaggis does.

I still have the original shocks, but I see that Koni are now marketing replacement shocks. When the time comes, I'll almost certainly be moving in that direction.

Best Wishes,
Peter

Is the D3 S really that bad on sand as i have been reading, that it keeps getting bogged.
it good to here some people are happy with there new 2inch spring lift.
Reason i am asking is I have seen a nice D3 s and i was going to buy it and put springs on it to give it extra lift hopefully making it the same height as the D3 SE.

Thanks for the replies Declan

Originally Posted by gghaggis

With respect to the longer coils:

Initially, Kings did a 40mm and a 60(?) mm lift. But they may have dropped the longer spring from the range due to the shockie problems? Several owners in the US bought the longer ones, as well as a couple of owners here in WA - I think they were actually marketed as 50mm, but gave closer to 60mm of lift.

That'd be the standard "we'll tell you it's 50mm officially so that's what you tell your insurance officially, but wink wink nudge nudge she'll be right as it settles a bit know what I mean"

Originally Posted by Tote

Or an S optioned with the Air suspension which is the only way to get a manual with air suspension in OZ.
Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by rmp

A note for anyone reading this thread; not all S models are coils. But, no coilers are anything but S models. This thread refers to the coil S models, ie those without air suspension and thus Terrain Response.

Originally Posted by Declan

......is I have seen a nice D3 s and i was going to buy it and put springs on it to give it extra lift hopefully making it the same height as the D3 SE.

Just look for a 's' with air suspension - problem solved.

Picked up my coiler from routine service this morning and professional advice is that there can be (and have been) considerable alignment issues with a 40-50mm spring lift. ie scrubbing tyres etc despite re-alignments on fitting. This is inconsistent with what I have read on this forum elsewhere. Bushwanderer, trust yours are wearing OK? Am still keen to get mine done.

Declan.

We spent 2 weeks camped at
Flinders beach North Straddie at Easter with the coiler D3 and although I have indicated problems with clearence we never actually got bogged, but in saying that every one that followed us though the soft rutted sand onto and off the beach's loved the gradeing work we did.

As I said I am about to fit front raised springs to match the rear that has already been lifted. If the measurements are as King Springs have indicated this will give me 230mm under the front which will make a difference. (still trying to decide on standard raised or heavy duty, both give the same lift)

One thing that I did notice while running through soft dry sand was that because the D3s under belly being so flat, maintaining momentem sort of skated you across the worst ruts. (the bash plate was quite polished by the time we got home) Not ideal but we managed to keep out of trouble. If the tracks to the beach were too deep I just staddled them. All beach work was done with DSC off and 25PSI in the quite worn 235/70R 17 Cooper ATR tyres.


Howard

Rover1952

When I purchased my D3 coiler it had had the rear spring raise to compensate an issue that the previous owner had towing a heavy off road camper, the mod also got the nod from the LR dealer, I spoke to them at length about it to ensure I was fully covered by the remaining factory warrenty.

Now to your query. I had a full front and rear alignment done before I picked up the vehicle, I have now done close to 10,000ks and there is no sign of abnormal wear. I rotated the tyres 5,000ks after the alignment and will swap them around again in the next week or so, actually I am getting more out of these tyres than what I expected, I hope they wear out soon as I am keen to put on some new boots.


Howard

I had Ssangyong Rexton and it had no problem on sand it would not have had the height of the D3 this was it problem it got caught on it side most , I know the D3 is a fair bit heaver but it should have the power to go thru the sand no problem and with a spring lift it should make it a lot easier as long as the tyre pressure has been lowered to correct PSI.

Declan