Originally Posted by
rick130
No, I'm 100% correct.
Spring rate is an easy fix, coils, air, torsion bars, it doesn't matter a rats, if you want to carry more mass up the spring rate, but you can't fix an under engineered chassis easily.
Sure bags are the way to go for varying loads, it was a mod I was going to do on the Deefer and relatively easy with the right Firestone truck bag, but the coils worked well once I pulled the înner 140lb coils, and I was taring at 3000kg sans driver in working trim.
It only varied a couple of hundred kg lighter.
And the old girl flexed a lot, lot better than the D5 above, had good ride characteristics and I could travel on a typical roughish dirt track at much higher speeds than I can with the D2 or the ex's GU as I had well over 100mm to the front bump stops and over 130mm at the rear.
Those that have never driven a Deefer think the springing is harsh, but I had front and rear axle pads polished from using up every bit of that wheel travel, and that was just from secondary bitumen roads!
I just didn't need to slow down running through causeways, whoop dee doos, etc.
The suspension was sorted.
Try driving those roads in most cases with typically 20-40mm bump travel (particularly with IS) and you are either constantly on the brakes or crashing hard through onto the bump stops with the subsequent stress transmitting through the chassis and ultimately leading to premature fatigue cracking.
