Hey guys, so first a little history.

I've had my classic (300Tdi + R380 converted) for sometime now and used to use it as my daily drive as well as off road vehicle. Recently I've spent a pretty penny getting it completely restored (got a donner 1990 vogue se and went crazy). Over the course of time the Rangie was modified with OME Suspension, ARB bumper, winch, led bar and rock sliders. During the course of the restoration I got my hands on a defender 90 2.5na + lt77.

I decided I'm gonna give the rangie an easy life from now and only drive it to work, road trips, etc. (no real off road stuff), and use the defender for trials and stuff. So the questions I wanted to ask are as follows:

I was thinking of moving the OME suspension to the defender since I'll be using that for more of the tough stuff. But if there are any advantages to using the nitrocharger sport shocks with the stock rangie or defender springs on the Rangie I wouldn't mind keeping them there, ride comfort and drive ability is what I'm looking for though. (i'll have to buy new/2nd hand rangie springs and shocks or use the ones that come off the defender, any pros and cons of both options? Like is there a difference in spring rates and dampening between the rangie and d90?)

After getting back the stock suspension (or installing the stock defender suspension), will the front end of the rangie sag due to the weight of the bumper and winch? Or will I be able to retain then for the light touring I plan to do. If no I can move the winch and led bar to the defender and put the bumper up for sale.

Lastly the ride of the OME's under the weight of the rangie was just ok, am I in for a rough ride after installing them onto the lighter defender 90?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the slight brain twister!!

 

The OME springs are too stiff for the Range Rover and the Defender, but won't cause a rough ride on either. They will cause a lack of flex. If you didn't mind the lack of flex, then it will probably work out for you. If you take trials at all seriously, you'll want coilovers on the D90.

The stock springs are fine, even with the bumper, winch, and sliders as long as you don't load the vehicle any more. They also won't allow large diameter tires.

The primary influence on your ride is tire pressure and compression damping. Low tire pressure makes a smooth ride, but you can't run tires fast (like 30mph) at low pressure or they'll be destroyed by internal heat. Soft shocks (low compression damping) makes a soft ride on smooth streets, but allows a lot of body pitch and roll, and will bottom out on bumps off road. Anti-roll bars help some with roll, but also limit flex.

I'm not familiar with the nitrocharger sport shocks, but I understand they're basic, non-adjustable gas shocks. They would probably work fine on the road or for low speed offroad driving. For any speed offroad, they'll bottom out.

You can probably make the Range Rover comfiest with air springs, soft shocks, and anti-roll bars, but it sounds like your goal is to make the D90 work offroad, and that you're not especially trying to make the Range Rover a lot more comfy.

Since you want to make the D90 work offroad, forget the OME stuff. The springs are too stiff, and the shocks are too soft, and neither is adjustable. At a minimum, get some tunable shocks where you can change the shim stack to adjust the compression and rebound, and set the gas pressure. If you're going to change the springs too, get coilovers where you can select from a wide range of spring rates so you can match your vehicle weight and actually flex instead of just something off the shelf designed to lift some bloke's D2 a couple of inches so he can fit bigger tires.