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Axle check straps ...


Anderzander

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I rather like the idea of trying some axle check straps on my 90, which has quite long travel suspension all round, and I'm wondering what might be recommended ?

I don't know if they can be strong enough to be used on road to reduce body roll ? But it seems it would be beneficial to be able to clip in before hitting any big side slopes when off road ?

After Si gave the all clear for scorpion reincarnated - I quite liked the straps they have on their rear suspension:

http://www.extreme4x4.co.uk/acatalog/REAR_TOP_SHOCK_MOUNTS.html

So I emailed for a price without the shock mounts and they want just over £50.

I might be balking at the amount of money I've been spending recently - but thought I'd like to canvas opinions before I put my hand in my pocket ?

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I can't speak for Simon of course, but whilst he may endorse the manufacturing quality of a company's goods, he wouldn't necessarily vouch for a particular products necessity or effectiveness.Perhaps Simon could answer this? Has the effectiveness of limiting body roll or axle articulation on a Defender ever been quantified with say a before/after test on a tilt platform ? Regardless, there are situations offroad where good articulation, can mean the difference between continuing to progress on your wheels or on your roof. Continually attaching and detatching check straps as we transition from sideslopes to axle twisters would get old very quickly for me, and I think I would rather fit a pair of chassis suck down winches if I ever felt the need to limit suspension travel.

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Surely the straps shown are only to be used when jacking uo a wheel to change it!

I sure would not want to use a strap to reduce on road lean, what if you go in to a bend full on or a big side slope off road but the strap has come loose!!

Marc

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Thank you both ....

Bill, Simons endorsement was simply that the company was under new ownership - as opposed to the quality of their products. I would never have considered buying from the company before.

In terms of off road use - there are probably only 2 or 3 spots on routes that I take. So not too much of a pain to engage and disengage (though quite useful), but I take you point.

Pull down winches are a bit beyond me at the moment - thus considering a cheaper less engineered approach.

Marc - For on road I was thinking of the series axle straps, which I believe serve to effectively shorten the shock length ?

Stephen

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So .... Are there any made to limit travel whilst travelling ..... And are any of those capable of being disengaged ?

I've had two Series Land Rovers with check straps on the rear axle. I've been told they prevent the drive shaft separating at high speed over bumps but struggle to take that seriously (might be different if my driving habits were wilder!). In both cases I have removed them because you REALLY notice the loss of articulation. Plain dumb. After many years of use, I have yet to lose a driveshaft...

Don

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I run limit straps on the rear of my comp truck these are 6 ply "Trail Gear" straps rated to 9,000 lbs these are not there to limit travel but to support weight on the axle when its in the air rather than hanging all the weight off the air shocks.

post-1650-0-80952400-1381404640_thumb.jpg

with some creative thinking you could easily mount these types of straps (and you can have custom lengths made too) in a way they could be disengaged...

The much better way of doing it is with an anti roll bar like si (XEng) produces.

But really if you have so much body roll that your worried about going over then you need to look at your setup.

How much travel do you have?

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I think Si doesn't make an anti roll bar for the td5. Travel wise I have +5.5" shocks all round.

I'm not worried about going over - it's more that in gullies or deeply eroded tracks it can lean far enough to put the body in contact with the ground etc.

I also run x springs and wonder if they exaggerate that.

I can post some pictures that shown its flex - but I'm not sure I have any of it on side slopes.

I'll google those trail gear straps - they look a nice bit of kit and easily adapted to work with an R pin or the like at one end.

Oh - very nice looking set up there by the way :)

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As far as I'm concerned, axle check-straps serve the same purpose in droop as bump~stops do in full-compression - they relieve the shock-absorbers of the axle-restraint duty in overload conditions.

Having your shock-absorbers serve as the ultimate limit of axle-travel in either direction is Not Good; treating them this way will give them a short and unhappy life [bent piston-rods if your bump-stops are not doing their thing in compression, pistons ripped off the piston-rods if you regularly hit full-droop in an aggressive manner].

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