Ranger Mods

After a bit of research and a number of comments on another forum, I have decided to 'beef' up my rear suspension with a very simple mod - turning the large, second stage spring in the standard pack, upside down. The reason I'm doing this is that I don't want to lift the car too much, but I want it to be a bit firmer and not bottom out so easily.

If you look at your spring pack, you'll notice that the large, fat spring near the bottom is curved downwards, with probably quite gap between it and the leaves above (unless you're heavily loaded already). By turning it up the other way, it is in contact all of the time and the second stage starts working almost immediately.

From all reports, the car raises slightly (maybe an inch or so), but rides very smoothly and is much more progressive and also less bumpy. That 'slap' you get when the first stage makes contact with the second stage over bumps also disappears apparently.

It's a simple job and you shouldn't even need to remove the shackles, just loosen the u-bolts, drop the axle down, undo the centre spring pack locating bolt, flip the spring and bolt it back up. Having said that my mechanic mate is doing it for me as he's got a decent hoist (and I'm too lazy).

I'll report back when it's done (sometime next week hopefully).

Cheers

Cant wait to hear the results and see some photos.

Did the springs today and it looks and rides great. I had fitted Ironman helper springs, which worked OK, but I wasn't overly happy with them. After flipping the second stage spring and leaving the helpers off altogether, it still sits a bit higher than before.

It actually rides really nicely now, firm, progressive and no spring slap when you hit a big bump. And the best part is, it's free (providing you do it yourself) and fully reversible if you don't like it.

The actual job was quite straightforward - jack up the car by the chassis, undo the u-bolts, drop the axles down a bit to give you some room, undo the centre locating bolt, flip the spring over and put it all back together.

Before... with the helper springs still on


After... so much tidier

Well Gerry, I will have to look into that.

GerryP wrote: ↑Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:24 pm Did the springs today and it looks and rides great. I had fitted Ironman helper springs, which worked OK, but I wasn't overly happy with them. After flipping the second stage spring and leaving the helpers off altogether, it still sits a bit higher than before.

It actually rides really nicely now, firm, progressive and no spring slap when you hit a big bump. And the best part is, it's free (providing you do it yourself) and fully reversible if you don't like it.

The actual job was quite straightforward - jack up the car by the chassis, undo the u-bolts, drop the axles down a bit to give you some room, undo the centre locating bolt, flip the spring over and put it all back together.

Before... with the helper springs still on


After... so much tidier

Hi Gerry,
what is your experience with the reversed springs in regards of offroad articulation?
I am using helpersprings as well (to support additional weigh every now and then) but have the impression that the helpersprings limit articulation quite a bit even if the pre-load is at the minimum.
Cheers

Too early to tell Me Too, I haven't even hooked the van up to it yet. But it does ride a whole lot better. I'll be very interested how it tows though.

GerryP wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:07 pm Too early to tell Me Too, I haven't even hooked the van up to it yet. But it does ride a whole lot better. I'll be very interested how it tows though.

Keep us posted

Update... we have just arrived in Birdsville after travelling up the Birdsville Track with the caravan in tow. Our van runs at around 2.6t. The track is probably the worst I've seen it, I assume because of the huge number of vehicles that attended the Big Red Bash a few weeks ago.

Anyway, reversing the springs actually worked a treat! It towed amazingly well over all of the corrugations, was smooth and stable in the rear end and never looked like bottoming out. I haven't put the Ironman helpers back on as they are definitely not needed... I now have a set for sale if ya want 'em. LOL

The only other mod I've made to the Ranger's suspension is to fit 10mm spring spacers in the front (which lifts it about 20mm) just to give a little more room for the bump stop. The rear of the car without the van (with the spring reversed) still sits up a tad higher than the front, so it looks just right.

Anyone considering doing this mod... go for it! It's a different car to drive and handles the van great.

Nice lil hidden feature for sure.

Hey Gerry are the spacers in the spring or strut on top of the strut?
The strut spacers are a bad choice because it can cause the strut to bottom out internally before hitting the bump stops shearing the lower part of the shocky. Food for thought.

What's your travel plans from there?

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Hi Gerry,
thanks for the update.
You probably don't have much info about how it behaves without weight if more wheel articulation is required?
Would be interesting to know how long you can keep both wheels on the ground compared to the standard spring setup.
I am using the helper springs and it limits the articulation quite severely.
Without any weight I need to use the diff locker at almost every rock step when I need to approach at an slight angle

I have been in Birdsville on Monday and the track to Dalhousie was not easy but really good fun
Have a safe trip.

Great to hear Gerry.

The only thing I thought that may happen with the spring reversed was with the extra pressure needed to pull the spring up, the U bolt may have snapped.

After towing the van on that rough road it's obviously strong enough.

ok, I did it as well.
I got Dobinson MRR shocks and in the process of installing them I turned the leaf as well.
So far it looks good (without the Ironman helper springs), plenty of drop but still some 2cm additional lift.
Will report back how it performs with my slide-on camper and offroad.
Turning them was relatively simple with only dropping the axle.
Used a few clamps and ratchet straps to get the center pin back in and the axle in the correct position.

ok, status report:
with an empty tray the reversed one is ways to hard (at least for my liking)
On the the sealed road you feel every little imperfection in the back and the rear is getting quite unsettled
Off road articulation is quite limited as the suspension is difficult to compress and you need to rely mainly on the drop.
Unfortunately I need to cover both extremes, empty and a slide on camper with some 500kg.
I am thinking now about something what I can adjust more easily than the Ironman helperspring, similar to "StableLoad Quick Disconnect" see https://www.torklift.com/rv/stableload
Will return for now to the original configuration and then back to the drawing board...

Thanks for that Me Too, it's good to get a report on this mod for a standard, empty tub. I'm really happy with mine, but I have a canopy, fridge + slide, second battery, roof rack and Ironman rear step and side steps, so a fair bit of weight which I carry all the time. I'm also happy with the way it handles the caravan with about 240kg on the ball. So maybe this mod isn't for everyone, unless you've got some extra weight aboard all the time.

Cheers

Hi Gerry,
totally agree; the weight is the main factor.
I have a light aluminum tray and with the slid-on camper it is quite a nice ride, better than with the helpersprings.
And the spring shape is looking ways better as well, no W-shape.
But empty I find teeth shattering and might be ok on a race track

Ok, next approach to get best of both worlds; loaded and unloaded
I removed the second stage spring completely and added BOSS triple airbags.
So far so good, with around 8 PSI I have a very compliant suspension which keeps the wheels in contact on road where I had a very bouncy back before.
I have not tested them with full load and off road but will report back

I shiver when I hear airbags on a leaf sprung vehicle.

The chassis was never designed to have load on them at the point the airbag rests on, there are so many stories of bent chassis when towing or a heavy load over the back so be very careful about how much load you're actually carrying.

Load points are where the leaf meets the chassis and changing this will stress the chassis in different ways. There is no substitute for properly rated leaf springs for the loads you carry.

My opinion and there may be other that differ which I welcome.

Yes, I know that theory and had a deep dive into the subject.

I had always my doubt from an engineering point of view whether the airbags would be the real cause for cracked chassis.
The point where the airbag is resting is the same where the bumstop is sitting and that point has to be designed to take shock loads.
And most of the cracks I could find photos of,f where in front of the front leaf hanger, so did not make sense to me

So I got in touch with the engineering guys who provided the chassis stress reports for airbagman (https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1921/ ... 8791676826) and had a lengthy chat with them.
It actually confirmed me in my opinion that not the airbags are braking chassis but the load as such plus additional factors like speed and road condition.
e.g European truck companies are reducing the allowed GVM for offroad use by some 30%.
And you see bend/broken chassis also with strengthened leaf spring.

IMO a problem is that airbags are allowing easily to camouflage overloading by leveling the vehicle back to "normal".
Combine that with speed on a rough track and it is a recipe for disaster.
Overloading and high speed will most likely kill any chassis

Again, in my opinion: more user error, not so much the airbag .

GerryP wrote: ↑Sun Jul 29, 2018 9:07 pm The only other mod I've made to the Ranger's suspension is to fit 10mm spring spacers in the front (which lifts it about 20mm) just to give a little more room for the bump stop. The rear of the car without the van (with the spring reversed) still sits up a tad higher than the front, so it looks just right.

Why do you want more room for the bump stop? The Jounce bumper forms part of the suspension and is there to take some of the load as the vehicle nears full compression.

One of the large mining companies has a fleet of Rangers that have a GVM upgrade fitted but most don't actually need it so it's essentially just a lift kit. They've been changing control arm bushes repeatedly because the suspension never reaches the Jounce bumper causing higher than expected loads to go into the control arm bushes.

I don't understand why no strut spacer supplier provides a jounce bumper spacer to ensure it still contacts as intended.

During my recent trip I came across several Ranger owners, one saw this post and reversed the spring, momentarily.

With van on it was great.

With a fair bit of weight in the back it was okay.

But empty and corrugated roads equalled chiropractor, he said it was like riding on a pogo stick.

He then carried 6 bags of sand at all times but it the end just reversed the spring again.

RossPat wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 3:57 pm During my recent trip I came across several Ranger owners, one saw this post and reversed the spring, momentarily.

With van on it was great.

With a fair bit of weight in the back it was okay.

But empty and corrugated roads equalled chiropractor, he said it was like riding on a pogo stick.

He then carried 6 bags of sand at all times but it the end just reversed the spring again.

That was exactly my experience as well, plus almost no articulation when empty.
See my post above

Bringing this thread back to life again with a question for Gerry, if im running at approx 250 - 300kg constant weight, would reversing my spring be a hinderance or help?
Cheers
Warren

G'day Warren. I always had some weight on the back of mine, like a canopy, roof rack, fridge plus Ironman rear step bar and side steps. Don't know how much that all weighed, but it rode really nicely.

Some here have reported that unladen it is very bouncy or rigid, which I can understand as the second stage springs are almost always in contact. It also raises the rear by 40 -50mm.

With +300kg it shouldn't be too bad I would think, but hey, every car is different, as are people's expectations. If you have the time and inclination, give it a go. At least it doesn't cost anything.

I should add here that I am now running new upgraded springs. Not because the spring flip wasn't good, but only because it's the only way the engineer would ok a gvm upgrade.

Thanks Gerry. A few hours of my time is worth a try I would say. I have a canopy and putting in draws, dual battery system, a fridge and some tools. So at a rough guess this will be about 300kg constantly in the back. Hopefully this is a cheap mod for the suspension.