suspension heavy duty or med duty on a 109 ??

[glbft1]

Greetings,
making plans to switch out my military springs to parabolics on a mod 109, my question is to go with heavy duty ones or med duty, will be lugging heavy stuff once and a while, extra passengers on hunting and fishing trips etc just want to have good articulation out in the woods and keep my teeth on the road!

[Firemanshort]

Stay away from 4 leafs in the rear unless you have a 4 door and plan to keep it loaded to the hilt. 3 leafs are still plenty stout enough for most loads - especially occasional loads.

I have never tried them - but always wondered about the 2 leaf set up with the progressive third leaf - I bet that it a good combination.

[TeriAnn]

making plans to switch out my military springs to parabolics on a mod 109, my question is to go with heavy duty ones or med duty, will be lugging heavy stuff once and a while, extra passengers on hunting and fishing trips etc just want to have good articulation out in the woods and keep my teeth on the road!

Never, never ever ask this kind of question without providing front and rear axle weights for both your normal and your fully loaded for off road vehicle configurations. Any answer anyone can give is about as accurate as giving your height in planetary diameters taken to the second decimal point.

ANY spring system worth considering has a minimum and maximum design load spec that is available to potential customers. Land Rover has a fairly wide choice of springs based upon the weight range each spring is designed to carry. This makes it real easy to dial in the correct springs for your individual truck. Weigh your truck, look up the spring rated for that weight and plunk down your money and get springs that are right for your individual truck. The parabolics folks SHOULD be doing the same thing.

I've never been a fan of parabolics for multiple reasons but it seems to me like most manufacturer's take a one size fits all approach that may or may not be approximately correct for any individual vehicle.

I have a friend that recently converted his 88 to parabolics. He ended up with a softer ride on the street but less off road articulation. Shocks removed, his truck's static front axle articulation is a total of 2-1/2 inches from full upward articulation to spring hanging. His 88 is definitely over sprung in the front.

If a manufacturer or retailer can not get you those specs, look elsewhere. Without actual weight data from your truck and weight design specs from the spring manufacturer, consider any reply to your question is about as accurate as asking the 8 ball.

[jac04]

... look up the spring rated for that weight...

Where is a good place to find this information? Is there a chart somewhere?

[brucejohn]

Teri Ann has a table of land rover part numbers with min and max weights for various vehicles here: http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/spring_rates.htm

For what it's worth: I know nothing about springs, did not know about TeriAnn's site at the time and replaced my originals with the heavy duty parabolics from our hosts, (harder, faster, stronger is better right?) and feel I made a mistake. This summer I will likely pull one of the leafs. =/

[yorker]

here:

[Mercedesrover]

It's a Land Rover....Don't get too carried away here....

If you have a 4-door and run heavy loads often, go with 4-leaf springs in the rear. If you have a 4-door that's not loaded too heavy or a p/up that carries a load here and there, run 3-leaf springs. If you have a p/up and don't carry anything more than a couple bags of groceries, run 2-leaf springs. 3-leaf springs are probably the best choice for most people.

My 109 4-door gets loaded heavy. It has 4-leaf paras. My 88" gets loaded heavy. It has 3-leaf paras. Some people don't like paras....I don't get it and I don't care to try and get it.

I hate the silly spring debate.....It's not rocket surgery, people.

[scott]

It's a Land Rover....Don't get too carried away here...I hate the silly spring debate.....It's not rocket surgery, people.

no but some would consider it brain science