Thread: thick and thin

Originally Posted by wannalandy

Have been looking at a few land rovers in the last few weeks and have noticed that some have thick leaf springs and others have thin leaf springs . my 2a has the thinner leafs and my donor 2a has a thicker leaf . Is one a heavy duty set or is it just a stand thing . Or was the thicker leaf fitted to a later model 2a ?

The original Landy springs all had the thinner leaves later on the Australian 109s had thicker leaves, this possibly relates to the Australian content and the steel stock produced in Aus, the thick leaves could also be after market replacements. The thick leaves are stronger but give a harder ride - the military springs are also of the thicker material.

Diana

Your a champ Diana . Was almost sure you would come up with the answer first Thanks mate

didnt the diesels+ 6's also have the thicker springs at the front?

or was that just an extra leaf?

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

didnt the diesels+ 6's also have the thicker springs at the front?

or was that just an extra leaf?

According to my workshop manual the front springs on the 88 have TWO more leaves in the diesel (11 vs 9) but the same number of leaves in the 109. The parts book lists the a different front spring for the 88 petrol and diesel, but for the 109 the same spring for petrol, diesel and six, which is the same one as the 88 diesel.

But I think Diana is right - Landrovers have mostly had thinner leaves than most other leaf spring vehicles, but this thickness is not available in Australia, and thicker leaves will be local manufacture either Australian content or replacement ones.

Note that given the specified rate and dimensions for a leaf spring, this can be achieved using a variety of leaf thicknesses by changing the number and length of the leaves. The advantage of the thinner leaves is that they tend to be more durable, as the material is deformed less for a given deflection of the spring. The drawbacks are that the interleaf friction is greater due to more leaves or longer secondary leaves or both, and that wear between leaves is more significant as a bigger proportion of the thickness is removed for the same amount of wear.

John