Thread: WANTED: More Flex

yeah that looks pretty good, with holey bushes and rubber bushes these are the only pics I bothered taking and this is no where near full flex.

I am only guestimating but I beleive there is atleast another 4" in the front and plenty in the rear.

In answer to McRover, why do I want more flex? Well there is only one thing that stops a 4wd from getting certain places, and that is a loss of traction, however that may have ocurred. I don't have lockers at the moment so I need as much wheel travel as possible to maintain traction in undulating off road situations. I know the 3 link front end is inferior, when it comes to wheel travel, to a 4 or 5 link, but was wondering why it was pulling up so short on travel. I'm sure my 2" lifted King Springs in the front end of my 84 RRC flexed more than what my D1 does. I know the lack of compression will be due to the spring rate, but why do I miss out on that extra 65mm of down travel on the other side? I am currently running standard shocks (deciding on new ones hence the post) but running longer shocks will not give me better articulation as I am not using the full potential of the standard shocks. I was probably more interested in the line that Slunnie was recommending. I was wondering if the standard control arm bushes on the 3 link were the limiting factor. The problem being that you say the slotted bushes will chop out on corrugated touring. At the moment that won't be an option as I am temporarily living in Derby, and with the start of the Gibb River Road only about 5km's away, there is a lot of corrugated driving going on at the moment. I am just trying to get my suspension to work at it's current limits before extending those limits and fitting a locker or 2.

first you need to find out what spring rate your kings are.
Softer springs will help stretch the downtravel aswell. It's all about weight transfer and softer springs will transfer the weight better than stiff ones

Thanks for that Grimace. The only thing is that I have a winch bar on the front with as soon as possible a winch to go with it and I didn't want to go too soft on the front so as still to retain my 2" lift.

well 220lb in the front is maximum (and thats what ill be running on the next setup)

I have duel bats and will be running a tube bar with a highmount.

also the Disco and RRC use a triple shell front radius arm bush that binds the front end up more than the Defender ones, (only an inner and outer shell) so if you fit the Haultech bushes + longer dampers it makes a big difference.
As the blokes above have said, 80 series TLC dampers are the go for ease of fitment, with OME having the best ratio of open/closed lengths and probably no mods needed to fit (others, eg Koni need the towers raised to avoid the damper going metal to metal at full bump) and Bilstein having the shortest stroke (the internal gas chamber takes up too much space)
IIRC, when going to longer dampers the front anti-roll bar needs removing too otherwise the drive shaft will crash into it at full droop, well, at least it does on a 'fender.
The Haultech bushes are remarkably long lived too.

I spent plenty of time stuffing around with the front end of my fender thanks to a certain 4wd shop,they gave me a heap of front springs and shocks to take home and try and return what ever i didnt need

After much playing around i used a 2" OME spring along with a OME shock to suit 80 series cruiser.I spaced the shock tower up about an 1".This kept my uptravel the same so need to play with bump stops and gave me more down travel..I also fitted Haultech bushes and i'm rapt with there performance and longevity(approx 3 years)

Theres still room for improvement but it was a cheap and easy solution and works well

Thanks for your replies guys. I shall do a bit more enquiring and a bit more research based on your replies and keep you updated on the results as they happen.