Turbocharger Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Playing with a trailer at home today. Specs are: The front is wearing red+white springs & +2" ES9000s from Procomp. The rear sports some Bearmach +2" 125% rate blue springs and some shocks that I found at Sodbury. There is a Milemarker on the front and a cage in the back. The field slopes down to vehicle-left, and ran out of traction with the difflock open and the front-right wheel in the air. With the more favourable slope when the front-left ran up, I had to stop before hitting the trailer. It looks to me like the new +2" front shocks have given more droop but there isn't the weight to push the front springs to the stops when stationary. At the rear the spring just dislocates and is well up into the arch on full 'stuff'. To me, it works well because there's a little 'suspension' left on full articulation; I can't see how to get more front travel without more weight (electric winch?), softer longer springs (bad for the road) or raising the spring mount on the chassis(!). I'm looking forward to putting longer rear shocks on - the 'up' performance is fine and more 'down' travel can only help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 If you put a ramp on both the left and the right you'll find it will go up really easy Nige I'll get me coat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Very nice, you'll have to take the trailer sides off next time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted November 18, 2006 Author Share Posted November 18, 2006 The headboard doesn't come off, and I didn't want to go too far back in case it tipped up (it's not our trailer ) Feeling dizzy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedley Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Hi turbo, slightly o/t but hey, what is the internal part of your roll cage like? is it just a conventional hoop/cross brace and stays? Im looking to put a cage on a series 3, but want to be able to run with a hard top, truck cab and no roof at all, so just putting ideas together... thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted November 19, 2006 Author Share Posted November 19, 2006 I can't find any pictures but... It's a a Tomcat cage, installed by Dave at Tornado in Derbyshire. I have a normal hoop, bolted down to the chassis via two sandwich plates and 4x M14 bolts. The stays are welded to the cage and bolt through the floor in a similar way, down to the chassis rails by the rear crossmember. The front external section bolts through the roof in the same way through two sets of curved sandwich plates which were bolted to the roof and then welded up. Although I've not taken the roof off since, I reckon it's still possible if I rotate it (as viewed from above). Hope that makes sense... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 It looks to me like the new +2" front shocks have given more droop but there isn't the weight to push the front springs to the stops when stationary. At the rear the spring just dislocates and is well up into the arch on full 'stuff'. To me, it works well because there's a little 'suspension' left on full articulation; I can't see how to get more front travel without more weight (electric winch?), softer longer springs (bad for the road) or raising the spring mount on the chassis(!). Try removing the rear axle bolt from the NS front radius arm... See Si's 3-link thread in the T+F forum. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedley Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Hope that makes sense... Yes, thanks very much mate, Im thinking of continuing the external bars all the way down the sides of the roof, with another sarnie plate at the end and some internal braces that go vertically down, then inwards around the wheelarch, then down again to pick up on the stay brackets that bolt to the chassis, so the roof is protected and with either t/c or no roof, the rear bed is still fully protected, with a winch under the main hoop and the fairlead fixable between the two rear vertical braces so that it is at the rear of the vehicle. As for the front end, im thinking of adding wing protection bars running from the front hoop along and down the edge of the wing, round the headlight and picking up on a home made winch bumper (housing pto winch) Hope that makes sense! Does anyone have any improvements/criticisms of this design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted November 20, 2006 Author Share Posted November 20, 2006 Two things occur about the full cage design: 1) it's a lot of weight up high - I can tell the difference in roll during corners with the cage I have, more would be bad news but not terrible. 2) you'll never be able to get the hardtop off again unless you put the bars higher on the roof than I have - you've got to clear the internal gutter when you lift the roof off (or turn it as I tried to describe above). The wing bars sound good though - want to do mine afterwards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedley Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 The wing bars sound good though - want to do mine afterwards? I would, if i still lived in somerset! Problem is, i now reside in the Republic of Ireland... thanks for the info on your cage and your thoughts tho. p.s. does anyone have a pipe bender for sale?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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