130 rear springs.

[130man]

Hi All. I have recently removed the service body from my Ex-Telstra extra cab 130 and have replaced it with an aluminium tray. The body was rather heavier than I expected, given it was made from aluminium and now the ride with the much lighter tray is truly awful. It bounces like a buckboard. I will probably go to air springs but in the short term, will removing the inner coil spring make a worthwhile difference to the ride? I have twin rear shocks which were necessary with the box body but I have removed the second shock from each side. That has improved the ride noticeably but it is still very stiff. I don't want to start carrying bags of sand etc to improve the ride if I can avoid it.Should I drop the tyre pressures and , if so, to what? All opinions, especialy based on experience, will be appreciated. Cheers, 130man.

[Landy110]

No first hand experience but it is my understanding that there is a lower load varient of the 130 that does not have the second springs so take them out and make sure the shocks aren't hard. When I bought my 110 wagon it had hard shocks in it and it wouldn't flex and was awful. take the shocks out and it was as soft as, so I went back to standard shocks and it was beautiful. Try it!
As for tyre pressures I run 34psi all round, that would be a good starting point, the tyres would have much higher pressure than that given the load it has been carrying.

Steve

[130man]

Hi Steve, thanks for the fast reply and the good suggestions. I will try them tomorrow. Cheers, 130man.

[roverrescue]

Definitely remove the inner spring - you could replace it with polyairs unless you are sure you will go full air, if so it will be a wasted expense...

For whatever irrational reason I have found that polys in the main stock spring (no inner spring) with an ally tray and Bilsteins rides like a dream compared with the twin spring set up. And funnily enough, when you do load up it actually sags less than with the twin coils?

Air pressures depends on what you are doing...
My 130 with has 235/85 Bridgy MT and generally >75% on dirt roads;
If my load is light the front will have about 28psi and the rear maybe 30-32psi.
If heavy loaded Ill bump the rears up towards 38psi

On the black stuff if I have to do km Ill put them all up a fair bit.

Ive flogged a heap of different fourbies along dirt roads, despite the gutless engine a 130 with a well balanced suspension is amazingly quick - the wheelbase just soaks up the bigger ruts and rumbles that others are slowing for.

Steve

[rick130]

Ross, you've seen how loaded up mine is, it grosses at 3000kg without the driver fully loaded for work (doesn't at the mo though) and I removed the inners years ago.

Do it, it makes a difference, but you may have to remove one pair of your twin damper setup.
Experiment with the duals first, then remove one pair.

[danialan]

I took the inner springs out of my 130. Improved the ride but still very firm with only an alloy tray. Unloaded I run 32 psi front, 25 rear as there is bugger all weight back there. (45 front, and 55 back with the camper on 3.3t). Measuring the tyre tread lengths on a flat surface will give you an idea of the pressure to run.

I put in 2nd hand GU Patrol polyair bags in the back for when we are loaded up - cost $50 and work great.

Alan

[uninformed]

Un related, but any chance this ex Telstra 130 has a modified rear diff housing, ie braced/strengthend? If so, some pics would be great.

Not sure of the spring rate on the outer main coil, could be 320lb, same as 110 CC, but I changed mine to 250lb. Ok when towing or loaded, but is still like to go softer.

[rick130]

Un related, but any chance this ex Telstra 130 has a modified rear diff housing, ie braced/strengthend? If so, some pics would be great.

Not sure of the spring rate on the outer main coil, could be 320lb, same as 110 CC, but I changed mine to 250lb. Ok when towing or loaded, but is still like to go softer.

Ross's diff housing is extensively braced, it looks like an off road race axle housing.

I hear what you're saying re spring rate, I contemplated some custom wound 220-250lb coils to give me the ride height I wanted and at that rate and length they also wouldn't unseat at full droop, but I'm going to go air bags.

[spudboy]

I've got an ex-telstra 130 too. I kept the alloy body, which is very heavy. I estimate it is between 500 to 600Kg given the flex it puts on my tractor forks when I lift it off.

They have extensive diff/axle strengthening, and run a military Wolf diff in the rear. Telstra had a lot of trouble with the standard diffs and LR got these fitted for them to try and sort out their problems. Front diff is standard.

Mine does not have twin shocks - would be interested to see a photo of how that works.

Cheers
David

[130man]

Hi Everybody, thanks for the very useful suggestions. I didn't manage to get to the suspension today as other things came up. Perhaps tomorrow. I will see if I can manage to up load some photos soon The rear diff is definitely not a Salisbury, which it should have been in a 2000 MY Defender, so David is probably right about it being a Wolf modification. The twin shockers were installed by me using a standard upper shock mount behind the axle and at the same angle rearwards as the original ones were forwards. I have some local expert fabricators who are very helpful and they made custom rear-of- axle lower brackets. It made a big difference to the ride with the box body in place. As David says, it is startlingly heavy but very well made. We have purchased a Trayon Camper , thus the need to instal a tray. Given how much weight Rick carries, I reckon there is no need for the inner spring at all and I will play with tyre pressures. I will keep you posted as I get things done. Cheers, 130man.