Spacers on the air suspension struts and bags on their own won't help, it is the wishbones and suspension arms that are maxed out, you need to drop both subframes which would mean dropping the gearbox support as well... It's a massive job that I doubt I will ever bother doing, it's good enough in it's present form...

My 32's on 18" rims gives a good side wall, these Maxxis I have are 10 ply light truck tyres, the sidewalls are incredibly strong, had some real abuse over very sharp rocks and they just shrug it off...

I split a sidewall top to bottom hitting an 18" rock step in a water crossing too fast (too fast for the rock, not the crossing) and I didn't even notice the split for over a week until I parked it with the split at the bottom and it gaped open, down to the cords and from top to bottom, tyre still ran fine... I've had it professionally repaired and tested and it's now the spare...

I had to remodel the front plastic wheels arch liners with these muds which actually are nearer 33 than the 32 they should be..

Wedge a piece of wood between the arch and guard and then get the hot air gun out, heat it till the plastic just starts to get a shine then let it cool and it will keep the shape...  Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Oh and 32's with the standard diffs is fine, 1st gear low is still a crawler gear, most things I do in high box anyway, the torque of the V8 makes it effortless...

I get an average 7mpg when off roading if that's of any interest.... Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

hahaha that is horrible fuel economy, at what point would you go diff ratios 33"?, we normally do that on cruisers round here.

Anyway to fix that economy? Don't let school get in the way of your education

also with the lift, could you not drop the subframes leaving the gearbox in place and get custom shafts? I haven't had a really good look at the guts of one. Don't let school get in the way of your education

Your thinking too much down the live axle route... the props don't articulate on a L322 they are fixed length and have to stay level...

Best thing with diffs is try it and see, the V8's are 4.10 and the TD6 is 3.73  Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

royalgoldfish wrote:

Anyway to fix that economy?

Buy a Suzuki Jimney, superb off road and do loads of MPG...

Bit small inside though, but the killer is, no heated steering wheel so I'm not getting one...

Mine runs on LPG which is half the cost of petrol so it's not too bad.... Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

hahaha touche, i think ill pass on the Jimmy, Rovers are definitely more my taste so ill just have to cop the roading milage or look seriously at a TD6, range is a big factor. Four wheeling down here is a bit of an expedition so that sort of range would seriously cause some problems especially up north of the country but i suppose it would take a whole weekend to do 100km of offloading which is only 30 odd liters.

I always figured that like the rear diff it could be dropped and prop extended, but again I've haven't been bother to question up until now. Don't let school get in the way of your education

You can't drop the rear diff, both diffs are fixed solid to the subframes... it's the driveshafts that go up and down...

If one driveshaft fails you are stuck... no taking props off and locking the center diff as you can't and it won't do it, break a shaft or CV joint and you're snookered... No drive...

It's a pig of a job to change one as well, you need a special tool to pull the new one back through the hub as it's an exact fit...

Having said that they are pretty tough and with the torque converter and auto box any spinning wheels hitting rock and gripping is taken up by the TC and the shock loads aren't put direct through to the shafts.. Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Ah i understand now, what spares do you bring with you to stop the tow truck getting called? air bag patch kits (if such thing exists), CVs? Don't let school get in the way of your education

We are never far from a main road here so i don't bother... usual tools and a few basics and a chainsaw to get down some of our tight lanes...

Before I had the snorkel and drowned it in a river half way up the doors it still got us 220 miles home.... not quite everything was working like it should but we got there...  Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

I would have though the car was toast after that, you've relocated the diff breathers and all up high i take it or has RR fixed that?

Definitely taking notes on the module relocation and disco snorkel though thats the last thing i want to deal with since were a bit far from civilisation most times. Just like Hilux and tritons here if it can't be done with a spare CV, a tire patch kit, winch or code reader/clearer..... probably up creek and you'll need proper help

Also do you reckon a airbag could be repaired with a tire patch kit? thinking if it happens it wouldn't hurt to try Don't let school get in the way of your education

I really doubt you could fix the airbags with a tyre repair kit (when mine cracked I gave it a stab but blew straight off).

There was a write up on, perhaps this forum in fact, of a 322 that did London to South Africa. Whether it was that trip, or indeed that person, but I think they managed to replace it with coils as a temporary fix.

To be honest unless they get hit as long as you keep an eye on them I would say they'd last as long as coils. However the problem is when they get hit you're in a bigger hole, pardon the pun, than you would be with coils. Ed

Yeah i definitely wouldn't be wrecking it with a coil, does it all just air down from escaping air? or is it the computers that ground it? (if its mechanical, add a valve block to each corner and clear the codes with the reader?

Sorry is this is just all wrong, I'm just taking a stab in the dark Don't let school get in the way of your education

When mine went the air escaped, the ECU detected this and started running the compressor fulltime to compensate. This then overheated, cut out and it eventually sank to the bump stops. With the cross link setup on the suspension I suspect isolating each corner (and retaining the EAS functionality) will not be trivial as you'd need to "manually" lock out each valve when going off road. Ed

It's also worth noting that almost certainly the single biggest contributor to the 322's (and D3/4/RRS) on road and off road ability is the air suspension setup.

In a road vehicle you want fully independent suspension so that when you hit bumps etc the shock is not transmitted through the axle to the other wheel. Try driving a Defender around a corner and hit a pot hole half way and it feels like the whole vehicle jumps sideways. However, off road there are large benefits to a live axle setup. Number one is you always have the same ground clearance no matter what load you carry (ignoring tyre deformation). The other significant benefit is that when one wheel is pushed up over an obstacle the connected wheel is pushed down to regain traction. If this were an indie setup then the wheel by the obstacle would rise whilst the rest of the vehicle remained flat.

What Land Rover did was install the cross link valves between wheels on an axle. On the road these are closed, in effect isolating each corner from the effects of the others. When off road the valve is opened which means when one wheel is pushed up the air is pushed over to the other side pushing the wheel down and simulating a live axle setup.

If you went to coils then you would retain the independent setup for road handling. But you compromise ground clearance as now the car cannot adjust the coils like the air setup. If you put stiffer springs you then compromise comfort or handling or both. When you're off road you've now lost the live axle setup.

So keep the air bags... Perhaps as a backup one could carry some small springs that fit between the bump stops so that if one does go then at least you have some suspension to get you back to civilisation.

(Apologies about fat fingers submitting before I'd finished). Ed