Replacing my AHC with Ironman - any advice

[chilipepper]

First posting here as I only just discovered you guys today!

I own a 2001 4.2TD 100 series, I had it for 2 years and wont be going back to the 'best 4x4xfar '

Minor issues have all been sorted but the suspension has just started to act up and the dealer tell's me it's the rear sphere's, rather than mess about after hearing stories of expensive replacements and then sensors etc starting to go, I've decided to go to Westcoast 4x4 and have the AHC striped out and have a new Ironman 2" lift fitted.

Any advice/feedback appreciated regarding this set up, the car is my everyday vehicle I do 20k miles a year mainly motorway with some towing of plant and equipment, I'm a contractor for National grid so my off roading involves pulling trailers across field's what ever the weather. (General Grabber AT2 fitted )

I'm concerned that the set up may be to harsh for normal everyday driving, I currently always have the car in comfort mode! has anyone on here carried out this modification?

 

[Gav Peter]

Hi CP - welcome aboard... I seem to recognise that username from another LC forum that shall remain nameless!!!

I don't know anyone who has undertaken the suspension change you're considering but Jon Wildsmith has swapped his 'fancy 100' suspension with springs & dampers so might be worthwhile looking at his truck - try Rig of the Month section... He's got airbags too for towing.

Other than that, I have my 80 riding on +4 Ironman suspension & am pleased with its performance to date. I find Paul a very knowledgable & helpful chap at WC4x4

Looking forward to seeing your truck & hearing how the suspension swap goes

Cheers

 

[chilipepper]

Gav, thanks very much for the prompt reply, and yes i've been active on 'the other site' I didn't know this one existed, having trawled the old threads here seems much 'sunnier'

Is there something I should know?

 

[Graham]

First posting here as I only just discovered you guys today!

I own a 2001 4.2TD 100 series, I had it for 2 years and wont be going back to the 'best 4x4xfar '

Minor issues have all been sorted but the suspension has just started to act up and the dealer tell's me it's the rear sphere's, rather than mess about after hearing stories of expensive replacements and then sensors etc starting to go, I've decided to go to Westcoast 4x4 and have the AHC striped out and have a new Ironman 2" lift fitted.

Any advice/feedback appreciated regarding this set up, the car is my everyday vehicle I do 20k miles a year mainly motorway with some towing of plant and equipment, I'm a contractor for National grid so my off roading involves pulling trailers across field's what ever the weather. (General Grabber AT2 fitted )

I'm concerned that the set up may be to harsh for normal everyday driving, I currently always have the car in comfort mode! has anyone on here carried out this modification?

.
Hi CP,

I am sure you wont regret heading off to see Paul at the crew at WC 4x4.
Where are you?
With fuel costs, this also has a bearing where to head for.
Paul and them have a passion for the LC after starting off with LR many years ago.
You will see some of Paul's, and his brother's Land Cruisers.
Paul has an awsome 80 series lifted pick up which he made.
His brother is making a similar 80 series pick up, but with double cab configuration.
The LR are simply Lego toys, and just as durable he tell me.

Any way.

Good to see you here, I am sure you will have a far more enjoyable time here, and probably far more replies in a day, than you will in a month on the other place.

Graham

 

[Gav Peter]

Gav, thanks very much for the prompt reply, and yes i've been active on 'the other site' I didn't know this one existed, having trawled the old threads here seems much 'sunnier'

Is there something I should know?

Pas de problem We're a happy bunch over here CP

'We' abandonned ship after the owner of 'the dark side' began mucking around with peoples posts, modifying ebay links etc etc & then seemed to move onto more sinister activities & it was eventually found out that he was reading & deleting private messages... Posts were being editted & deleted & folk were being removed from the forum...

Anyhoo, his loss. His forum was just getting quite busy & a quite a good place to hang out until then - now all the good guys hang out over here

Soooo.... Pics... Any mods to your truck to date??

 

[chilipepper]

I thought the 'dark side' had gone quiet over the last 12 months, you had all come here!

No mod's to mine yet other than oversize Grabber AT2, tried a tunit chip for a while and was very impressed but when I started to have problems with fuelling I removed it (turned out to be a bad connection to the fuel pump and was an easy fix but I decided to keep it standard engine wish after that as I'd like to keep this one long term.)

I've had a series of off roaders before Mercedes ML and 2 G Wagons, Defender, Disco and a Range Rover mk3, but having 4 car's was upsetting the wife so I reduced to two, one of which had to do everything, family, work and play. I was advised by a fellow G Wagon owner that if I really wanted a 4x4 that I could hammer day in day out it hand to be a Toyota and I haven't looked back since.

I even took my standard 100 with road tyres to a G Wagon owner's club event, off roading in North Wales and the G boys were amazed where the LC could go given it's size and crappy tyres, only 6" deep mud going uphill defeated me, and new tyres were fitted two weeks later!

 

[Gav Peter]

Yeah, thats about the time frame CP - as I say, his loss... I had a few dialogues with him towards the end but in the end found him quite off his trolley!!!

So whereabouts in the UK are you? Can we expect to see you out on a laning trip at some stage??

 

[Julian]

I have also changed the suspension under my 100, but not with Ironman stuff
The job of removal is pretty straight forward, I think there are right ups on here, should take about a weekend

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

If your rear spheres are shot then that may be why you're using comfort mode all the time, you'd probably find with everything working as it should you'd never go near 'comfort'. I'd be wary of having much lift if you do a lot of towing, you probably already know this but AFAIK there is no tow bar made for the 100 series that has type approval for use with a drop plate and if you're doing more than taking some rubbish to the tip that could be a bit of a show stopper ... I ended up having to put a spacer between the chassis and hitch of our caravan to stay legal A 25mm lift might still be ok if your ball is on the middle set of holes at the moment?

 

[warrenpfo]

Any reason you went for the Ironman or was it a close race with other brands out there?

 

[chilipepper]

Thanks for all the replies;-

Gav I'm based in Chester, and would love to do a bit of laning, used to do alot with the G wagon when it was working!

Warren, I went with Ironman as it's what Paul at Westcoast recommended, I took the car to him when I bought it and got him to comprehensively service it before giving it to much stick.

Jon, you,ve got me mildly concerned, Paul's recommending a 50mm lift which he said would in reality result in appox 40mm, I have recently bought a long double axle caravan for family holidays instead of camping (three girls 6,4 and 2 and a wife who hates cold tents) The caravan is just under 8mtrs hitch to rear so I may have problems with the rear grounding?

What is the legal limit? I have a friend who uses a 53 plate L200 pick up which looks higher at the back.

ps no were not gypsies , but the first time we took the caravans to the coast in Aberdaron we stopped at a chippy only for my wife to be told to 'move on gypo's' No wonder she wants me to buy a Q7

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

You don't want to be towing a twin axle with a high ball height as it will give you high nose weight, bad news for ride comfort / stability and bad news for the caravan chassis really. If you have an import or commercial then type approval doesn't usually apply but UK/European cars come with whole vehicle type approval and from March 1998 can only (legaly) be fitted with type approved tow bars and coupling devices. I've dug quite a bit at Toyota and other bar manufacturers and to my knowledge there isn't a bar for the 100 that includes use of a drop plate in its type approval. Chances of that being a problem depend on the smarts of the VOSA person if stopped or insurance assessor if in an accident ... If you have another lower set of holes on your bar you can drop the ball down to then you'd probably get away with a 40mm lift.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

p.s. we used to have an 80 series and towed an Avondale LandRanger 6400 with it which looked like a bit of a gippo outfit

 

[chilipepper]

Jon

Very interesting, I got my LC from Ireland where it was fitted with a 4 bolt 5 tonne tow hitch, it seem's quite low to me on N setting, I'll measure and check, what would you say is the ideal and max height for the centre of the tow ball?

My 'outfit' as the Caravan Club call it, is a 10 year old Avondale 640/6, same age as the car and seems to be as well built, bought it of a guy in Stourbridge in March, small world

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Somewhere on the net there is a spec for tow ball heights but I don't know what they are off hand. 4x4's have an exemption in the part of the regs that specifies what range the height must be in BTW. I run 2 tow bars, one with the blade cut short which provides a rear recovery point only for off roading and an unmolested one I use for towing the caravan and that's not on at the moment for me to measure for you.

 

[chilipepper]

Paul at Westcoast 4x4, Southport, Lancashire 01704 229014, he recommended a full suspension swap with an Ironman 2" lift £640 for the kit ( on 'B' road springs not hard expedition springs, shock's and torsion bars) £120 for fitting and if required £120 for removing all of the AHC system.

I pick the car up yesterday (1 1/2day job) I am amazed by the ride much smoother and more controled, less roll and while the lift is probably 3" as I think my suspension had been sagging for sometime.

My insurance company NFU have noted the modification but as it is not 'performance enhancing' there is no increase in preimeum!

All in all a great result! Photo's to follow

New Dixon Bate adjustable tow bar fitted which gives a ball hieght when connected to the caravan of 380mm exactly in the middle of what the Caravan Club recommend, I'll post pic's and detail's in a seperate thread

 

[Gav Peter]

Excellent - sounds like one happy camper there

 

[Graham]

Good result,

Paul and them really know the stuff about the Land Cruisers.
Their Iron Man is a very good alternative.
I got the "B" springs when they had my one in, the ride is marginally firmer than the stock.
The thing wich was noticible though, was the greatly reduced roll in corners.

Any way, glad you happy, I am sure a lot of 100 series AHC owners will be treading these very same foot steps.

G.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I'd be interested to see some pictures of your new adjustable tow bar

 

[Saskia]

Paul at Westcoast 4x4, Southport, Lancashire 01704 229014, he recommended a full suspension swap with an Ironman 2" lift £640 for the kit ( on 'B' road springs not hard expedition springs, shock's and torsion bars)

Any idea which shocks they fitted, Nitro Gas or Foamcell?