Suspension Bushings

[madcanuck]

Hello all,

I've tried to figure this out for a while, which route is a better route to go, poly or oem? I'm sure they both have their pro's and con's.

I'm of the belief that with LR history they may have designed their bushings both suspension and chassis for world wide (all climate) use, whereas polyurethane are more off-road specific and may not last as long.

(bit of a dream maybe)

Is it reasonable to mix them, OEM in some spots, etc?

Since I have the truck at a point where access is pretty good (body stripped off!!)

I had upgraded the suspension on my old jeep wrangler-great for off road, but sucked to and from work on the hardpack, I don't really want to go down that road again.

Any views on this one way or the other would be greatly appreciated

Thanks, T

[Stonehead1]

I've rebushed both a 90H 110 CSW and a 93K 110 hardtop. Both were also upgraded to one-tonne pickup springs on the rear as I carry very heavy loads and also haul a large dual-axle livestock trailer loaded with pigs.

The CSW was done with red polybushes, the hardtop with OEM bushes.

The CSW is much firmer with more controlled handling when carrying/towing a heavy load but it can bounce a bit when unladen. It's nowhere near as comfortable as it was before, nor is it as comfortable as the hardtop, but I much prefer the improvement in handling on the road. Off-road and on soft ground, the CSW is fine but on hard ground it gets uncomfortable and jarring. However, as almost all my off-road work is on soft ground I can live with that. There's more feel off-road - which is good - but kickback through the steering wheel can be much worse (don't tuck your thumbs under the steering wheel!).

The hardtop felt less direct and pitched and rolled more than the CSW under load on roads, but the ride was smoother on poor quality road surfaces. You also took corners about 5mph slower. The hardtop was slightly more comfortable than the CSW on the road and a lot more comfortable on hard, rutted off-road surfaces. There was less feel off-road than in the CSW, but the hardtop felt more forgiving.

For my present purposes, the red polybushes are the right compromise but if I wasn't carrying loads of 700kg plus or towing a big, heavy trailer, I'd go for OEM.