Lowering Suspension

[FFFRacing]

G'day,

I need to lower the rear end of a Defender Extreme by 10 mm to make it fit under the house.

Can I cut down the rear coils springs? Any other ideas?

Cheers

[rick130]

G'day,
<snip>
Can I cut down the rear coils springs? Any other ideas?

Cheers

No.
Apart from it increasing the spring rate, you have closed and ground ends, so it won't work.

Stick a bag of cement in the back, or just get the springs reset. Any competent spring maker can do it.

A long, long time ago, the cheap skates way when racing in production classes where you couldn't change the springs was just to stick your coils in the oven at some bloody hot temp for a few hours so it annealed them, but they will continue to sag thereafter, so not a good idea.

[Bush65]

Yes you could.

Other methods would be to deflate the tyres, or rig some method to pull the suspension down.

Edit: Rick posted while I was typing the above.

What he said about the closed and ground springs is correct. Although it is desirable to have closed and ground springs, it is not essential. The end of the coil should be ground to make it flat and tapered packer could be used.

Reducing the number of active coils, does increase the spring rate, but the closed and ground coil is not active, so the change to the spring rate will probably be minor, but it depends on how the spring is changed.

[smally4.6]

[QUOTE=FFFRacing;759325]G'day,

I need to lower the rear end of a Defender Extreme by 10 mm to make it fit under the house.

Can I cut down the rear coils springs? Any other ideas?

Cheers
It wont fit under roller doors or tilt a doors ? more info
cheers brett

[Dougal]

A long, long time ago, the cheap skates way when racing in production classes where you couldn't change the springs was just to stick your coils in the oven at some bloody hot temp for a few hours so it annealed them, but they will continue to sag thereafter, so not a good idea.

A similar method is still in use by dumbass ricers.
Stick jack under car at wanted height, heat springs with gas torch until that height is reached.
I don't recommend it.

[FFFRacing]

Thanks for the info,

The area I need to get the car into is under the house. The area of obstruction is 2 large I beams which cannot be altered and the floor is a concrete slab. It's only 10mm

Could I replaced the shocks with adjustable air bags?

Cheers

[mcrover]

Do not cut or grind coils.......EVER...

It not only lowers your ride hight which is the desired effect but it also changes the heat treatment so at best it will continue to sag but at worst (and the most likely outcome) is that the spring will break under load resulting in a loss of control at best or a roll over at worst (which is also the most likely outcome with a LR).

Have them reset, go for smaller tyres, air down (would be really good to fit an system that at the flick of a switch can lower the pressure or when you leave your house pumps them back up again).

Air suspention would also be good but would be more expensive than an air monitoring system which can air up and down the tyres for you.

[Bushie]

G'day,

I need to lower the rear end of a Defender Extreme by 10 mm to make it fit under the house.

Can I cut down the rear coils springs? Any other ideas?

Cheers

Throw some weight in the back that will bring it down then you can easily go back to full height if you need to.

I don't imagine it will need much to drop by 10mm

A few 20 litre water containers or the like.


Martyn

[mike 90 RR]

Do not cut or grind coils.......EVER...

x2

and never heat them ... stuffs them up ...

[loanrangie]

What about digging it out by 20mm or so ?