Thread: Too much emphasis on suspension????

I have a Koala c/t that I bought 5 years ago.It was at the bottom of the price scale then.$6200 back then.

It has 7 leaf spring packs on the outside and a 5 pack in the middle.I don't know the reasoning for this setup but after trips to Cape York,the Vic high country and and outback Qld trip plus many 4wd club trips I can not fault the setup.

The only mod I did was to put a set of shocks on it.

I plan on doing an ather Cape trip this year.

Mike

That is one of the reasons for our choice being easier, The Cape York model we are interested in is only $15K, and that includes delivery to Melbourne from Cairns.
We went to the factory, Ahern metal industries, and had a squiz, liked the simplicity and strength, no nonsense design and good build qaulity. I'll be ordering one as soon as funds permit I think.

JC

there is absolutely nothing "wrong" with a good standard leaf spring setup on a trailer.

it is just that the "good" leaf type independant setups are an order of magnitude "better". IMHO a lot smoother to tow and a darn sight less harsh on the contents of the trailer. not to mention they are usually a lot stronger as the load and shock coming back thru from the suspension is fed back into the chassis of the trailer in at least 4 points not 2.

had both and wont be going back to standard leaf suspension on a camper.

never had a coil sprung trailer nor towed one over any serious country so cant comment on them, but i would dearly love to give an ultimate the personal treatment.. love the look and style of them. have followed a few and they seem to tow very nicely as well.

Originally Posted by justinc

That is one of the reasons for our choice being easier, The Cape York model we are interested in is only $15K, and that includes delivery to Melbourne from Cairns.

good friend of mine has one and he loves it... has been around AU at least twice with it behind his 80 series cruiser.

A friend built a trailer to carry his Historic race car, about five years ago. He got fed up with trailer repairs on the road. He reckoned going to interstate meetings from Brisbane, he had more trailer troubles than race car ones.

He built a tri-axle using Aeon rubber springs to achieve a low deck, radius rods and Panhard rods, and lever shock absorbers for ease of mounting. The one drawback is that the suspension is not load sharing. He used 2 tonne axles, electric brakes, and 8.25 x 16 light truck tyres. This was not a cheap job but is strong and reliable. He was designing a load sharing suspension similar to a tri-axle Hendrickson but needed the trailer before he nutted it out, hence the non load- sharing suspension as built. The race car weighs a bit over 1 tonne, add tool boxes, spare parts and tyres, drums of fuel, camping gear etc. and you can have some idea of what the gross trailer mass is. It cost him around $5000 plus his time. He says it was worth every cent. He pulls it with a J3 Bedford conversion, with Mexico Chev. truck engine, RTO610 Road Ranger.

For the same reason you don't tour in a 60 series or a series rover, they'll do the job quite ample, but the coils are still far superior, you will have trouble with the leaves as they fatique on continous corrugations, as in days in the centre, my old boy has a kimberely, if you didn't notice the weight, you wouldn't know you were towing it

not that I am trying to advertise leafs,,
but they do more than just "carry weight" they also locate the axel, probably the second most important thing.
something coils cant do,,
by the time you add location bits and pieces the coil set-up will weigh as much as the leaves,, and be more complicated,,


gawd,, I sound like I own a series

I have often wondered about this too. When we bought our trailer we went for the KISS principle - it just has heavy duty leaf and axle. Apart from high clearance and an 'off road' coupling there is nothing too out of the ordinary about it. We have towed it, laden around Australia, dirt, sand and bitumen. Has done GRR, Buchanan Hwy, Gulf Country . Only issue I have had is a rock rebound taking out rear window on the Disco between Lyndhurst and Marree. (hmmm..four hundredth reminder to self - Must get around to fitting a rock boot / sock one of these years....)

Part of my reasoning in going for a simple approach was observing Army half tonne trailers being abused for decades. These are robust, but very simple setups. I could not recall any significant mishaps due to technical failure of the trailer. (quite a few though due to some of the numpties who thought that they could set new land speed records on dirt roads whilst towing a trailer when we replaced the series LR with the Perenties).

I accept that there are some limitations - we never put anything in the trailer that we do not think could tolerate a bit of a shaking. In conclusion, the setup has proven (in our case) to be simple, cheap and effective.

Cheers

Mark