Hey All, I am about to pull the trigger on a new suspension. The independent rover shop that I go to for parts suggested Terrafirma 2+ HD's in the Front and 2+ MD's in the rear. I go into the backcountry quite frequently and it's definitely time to replace my tired stock suspension for something that can take some abuse and provide additional clearance. The bloke at the parts desk has always been very helpful, he suggested HD's in the front because of the added weight of the Bull bar and the soon to be installed Winch in the front. He also added that MD's would be more than adequate for the rear.

I have done some reading on the subject, and was looking for some additional feedback with regards to any drivetrain difficulties or issues that you may have experienced as a result of changing the suspension/lifting the vehicle. Furthermore, would you advise the I go HD's all around? Or stick with the suggestion above (HD in front and MD in rear)?

Ps attached is a picture of the aforementioned Disco, can never have too many pictures up here!

 

The reading I have done the terra MD is same as OME HD, if this is the case I have OME had with a bumper and brush guard and winch and its fine

Not enough weight will give bad ride and too much lift, I am sure someone with terra springs can jump in here and advise you better

 

The Terrafirma are too short and stiff. A softer, longer spring will give the same ride height with a lot better flex. With Terrafirma, you just have a lifted dump truck, unless your Rover is over 8000 pounds.

 

I see, do you have any suggestions of an alternative suspension setup?

 

Driving offroad does not require stiffer springs. It requires stiffer shocks. The only thing that will call for stiffer springs is adding weight to the vehicle. Although you may add some things to the vehicle for off road use, your goal should be to reduce the weight by removing unnecessary items, and not to increase it.

The Terrafirma HD front springs increase the rate by 87 pounds per inch over stock front. The MD rear springs increase the rate by 185 lbs per inch over stock rear. The math shows that the HD front springs accommodate an additional 780 pounds each, or 1560 pounds on the front axle over stock. The MD rear springs accommodate an additional 1430 pounds each or 2860 extra pounds on the rear axle. So unless you're adding about 4400 pounds to your Rover, the Terrafirma spring rates are wrong.

Why are they so wrong? Because the aftermarket is using spring stiffness instead of spring length to achieve "lift." They're not making the springs two inches longer. In fact, many of them are not at all longer than stock. They're just making them so stiff they don't compress, and the Rover sits two inches higher.

Driving offroad with springs that don't compress isn't better than driving with springs that do. But those springs do let you fit big tires, which look cool.

 

I honestly haven't read or heard about this before; however, I do understand your logic. So what would you replace a tired suspension with? and what Brand/specs? I want a setup that I can take into the rockies and not have to worry about, something that can take the abuse of endless rock beds, water crossings, and logging roads etc. Basically an all around alternative to my current setup. I do know that I need a lift because I have already run into some clearance issues on steep water crossings. Running larger tires is not a huge priority. I am very pleased with the set of BF's I am currently running.

 

I don't have an authoritative answer for you, like "do this." It's your choice. The type of offroad driving you do makes a big difference in determining how to upgrade it.

If you're negotiating difficult obstacles and very low speed, then suspension travel and traction (airing down and lockers) are going to make the biggest difference. If you're driving logging roads at more than 10mph, then shocks will make the biggest difference. If you're mudding, then lift and tires.

The stock springs are good, especially if you can lower your weight. If you wanted to keep some flex in the suspension and still support plenty of extra weight, you could select the Light Duty springs from Terra Firma or OME. I can't tell you how much "lift" you'd get, but at least it wouldn't be too stiff.

Lift without tires won't gain much since the differentials and axles are the lowest things. Increasing the tire diameter provides a significant gain, but you can only go so big on the Land Rover before you run into other problems such as axle strength and door clearance.

Increasing suspension travel will be a big benefit to off road capability. You can achieve this by raising the top shock mounts and installing longer shocks. There's also some gain to changing the links, but you'll quickly find out that the TF and OME springs are too short as they'll dislocate and you'll need retainers or cones to keep them on. Coilovers solve all these problems.

If that's too involved, get some light duty springs and some adjustable valve shocks like Bilstein 7100 or Fox 2.0 or better.

If you valve your own shocks, you can tune them to your type of driving. Nobody sells shocks for the Land Rover set up for off road driving. They're all way too soft on compression. Since many people are using dump truck springs, they may not even notice. The shocks also tend to come with very high rebound for street driving. For off road driving, you'll probably need to go way up in compression, and up a little in rebound.

If you hit a bump and your suspension bottoms, that's the shock, not the spring.

 

I have a 2 inch lifted D1.
I went with king springs HD front and normal backs because i like yourself have a bullbar and intend on fitting a winch. I do a lot of off road driving. Daily almost.

I cant fault the setup. Car sits perfectly flat.
Front Left = 846
Front Right = 845
Back Left = 845
Back Right = 844
Thats measurements from surface to top of inner guard. I know these measurements are not accurate to compare with others. They were just measurements i made to see how flat it sits after the lift.
After the lift i noticed a bit of darting when driving over 80. I assume that is because the camber/caster has not been changed to suit the lift. I also fitted a set of 33 inch muddies at the time so that also could be a contributor... not sure. I did get an alignment done when i got the tyres.

As to the driveline after the lift.
My car still has the do nut setup GRRRRR. (intend to change that too) And i have had to change one of those already i assume because of the lift and increased angle my rear axle now has.
I also had to chop the HELL out of my guards to fit the 33s but im not sure if you intend on going that path. If you do let me know and i will send you some pics of the amount i had to cut out.

 

Thanks for the input! This is why I posted this thread, I wanted to hear from you fellas on your experiences with suspension setups. I also know that there are a lot of you guys putting your disco through its paces more than me. But I am usually in the rockies rock climbing and camping in the summer and driving ice climbing trails in the winter. My Rover (which is my Daily as well) has always gotten me in and out of some knarly locales, and I am always so astonished at how well a bone stock Disco can keep up with some of todays rigs.

I have never heard of King Springs before, can you purchase them in North America? What did you mean by the above that I quoted (I just wanted to better understand)? If you have some photos of Panel/Body trimming I would be interested in seeing them, I'm not going to be changing my tire size any time soon, but would like to have a better idea of what is involved. More information never hurts.

This is all great information, so thank you to all that have contributed.