Hey all, as some of you might know I've been slowly piecing my disco build together. She'll also have to serve as a reasonable daily driver (and for now our only four wheeled vehicle).

She's getting a 6.2 diesel, custom armor and some special upgrades and modifications aimed at making long range road tripping and overlanding an economical, enjoyable, and reliable experience.

She's riding on rte heavy duty springs, and more than a few times my wife has commented on the harshness of the ride. I tend to agree. I'm sure once the heavy diesel preloads them that they wont be as terrible. I also installed some bilstiens which helped dampen the tendency to rock and bounce a little.

I want to do my best to kill any rattles, vibrations, bounces and alignment issues that nobody wants to sit through for 12-16hrs at a time.

I'm thinking a good suspension upgrade path is:

1. Refresh all of the suspension bushings.
2. Rebuild and install a D2 propshaft. (greasable ujoints)
3. HD track rod+drag link with (greasable) chevy tie rod ends.
4. Relocated and refreshed steering damper.

Are there any other things I should give attention to? I'd want the ride to be as smooth as possible; would I be better off with the OE rubber bushing kit or the blue polybush?

 

The suspension bushings won't improve NVH much, but I believe replacing the body bushings will.

The steering rods won't improve NVH.

The steering damper won't improve NVH.

The easiest thing you can do is to lower the tire pressure. Just make sure you have enough pressure to support the weight and speed. You can damage the casing by overheating the tires, and you won't even know it until they blow out months later.

The springs should be selected based on the weight of the vehicle. If your vehicle is a heavy tank, it will ride like a dump truck. Minimize the weight and everything will work better. The softer the spring rate you can run, the better, but you still have to support the weight you have.

For comfort on the road you want softer damping rates in the shocks, especially in compression. You can use a little more rebound without hurting the ride too much. These parameters will be opposite of what you want for bumpy offroad terrain. Also, you will need the anti-sway bars to be working well to control body roll with the low damping rates. Because the sway bars interfere with articulation offroad, many people remove them altogether. With high damping rates, the car can still handle well. The Range Rovers never had anti-sway bars for many years, but they introduced them to allow lower damping rates for comfort.

To lower rattles, you will probably have to disassemble the dash and make sure everything inside is secured. Get a big box of Dynamat or other CLD and use it to dampen any sound. It is not a sound barrier. You'll see installs on the Internet where people use it for 100% coverage, but 25% coverage is totally effective. What you want for a barrier (100%) coverage is either lead sheeting (usually sandwiched between layers of foam) or because of the lead toxicity, mass-loaded vinyl. You'd cover the entire floor with MLV, using HH-66 vinyl cement for the joints. Besides that, you'd want to make sure all the door seals are good.

I don't really understand what you're saying about the diesel, but if it's a GM 6.2, there's no way that's going to be comfortable, ever.

 

that gm 6.2 is gonna rattle that thing apart. Lol. We use them in our military vehicles, not impressed... Good luck.

 

Because of weight I would use the red poly, less deflection to make the suspension function properly, I think decent ride springs are gonna be hard cause of the weight of that engine plus the armor

You will probly end up with fox or bilstiens with remote and trial /error on the valving rate

How much lift are you running?

 

If you tried my steering you'd know those things would vastly improve my NVH. (TRE's are shot...)

I've been surprised by how disinterested the po seems to have been in maintaining this truck. It's in much better shape than when I got it, but after ~165k I assume the rubber bushings are all shot too.

That's really helpful. I'll do some research and see if I can get away with softer springs once all the weight is added up. I just went with the heaviest ones I could find thinking the diesel would crush anything else...

Sway bars are indeed a must. Is it possible to increase the preload on the bars to help prop the truck up a little better? I'm interested in quick disconnects for off road, but I certainly don't plan to go crawling in this rig anytime soon.

Agreed on the MLV. I plan to do lots of dampening work as I shift gears to the interior build. Also contemplating ideas on heavy dampening ideas on the firewall to shield us from the 6.2. I know it'll never drive like an XJ, but it doesn't have to be a tooth rattler either. I hope.

Whatever the rte HD's are. I think 3"? Feels a lot taller than my last D1 with OME's.

Are there better options out there for body bushings?

 

Don't the Chevy TRE's interfere with the brake calipers?

 

I don't know, recently read a super long thread about TRE options on one of the other sites... no mention of them interfering. I'll find it and check more closely.

 

Not sure what difference body mounts will make, rubber vs urethane, unless the rubbers collapsed , what I mean is I have always replaced rubber body mounts with urethane but never noticed a change in ride comfort


I don't think I have seen anyone praise the ride comfort on Rte or tf springs, just saying...
You also might not have enough weight on them , like driving an old dually empty rides like a brick ad jumps all over the road loaded down rides like a dream

If I go up in height I will stay with the OME HD like I have ride is great and better loaded down imo

What shocks are you running?

 

Found it. You have to grind the caliper at one of the bolts.
http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showt...t=chevy&page=3

I opted to go with 1.5" x .25" wall DOM, custom Rover thread tube adapters, and standard Rover TRE'S.

 

And the best my D1 on RTE springs ever rode was with 4 guys in it, all our camping gear, and 150#'s of mountain bikes hanging off the back. It rode like a Cadillac then!!
My other D1 with OME springs rides much nicer down the road, but won't ride as well packed to the gills. Everything is a trade-off.