Reasonably new member in Norfolk.

[Martin86]

Good Work

[badoffroader]

Nearly ready for the MOT.

[Anton]

Top work man!

[Martin86]

[badoffroader]

One new MOT on it today,Hoorahhhh!!.
Drives like a pig on the road and I hate it BUT I like the way it looks - front arches have got to be trimmed and moved forward and I'm going to make some rock sliders for it in the next few days and maybe a cab roll bar.

[ScottieJ]

Nice one.

In what way does it drive badly? It shouldn't, not if its all set up right. How long are your shackles?

[badoffroader]

Thanks.To be honest I don't know if they are standard shackles or longer,i bought it with the suspension as it is.It has got 4 section leafsprings - I've got a spare SJ for bits in my garden,i'll have a look and compare them.It seems to feel every bump which sends the wheels all over the place.
Mind you,my daily driver is a 3 litre diesel,auto BMW so the difference is going to be like black and white .
Would shorter or longer shackles make a difference to the drive?.Cheers.

[ScottieJ]

They do feel the bumps a bit and will never drive like a car but they shouldn't be that bad. Does look like the wheels have quite a bit of offset so that will increase the scrub radius and give you more feedback from the bumps on road and increase the steering effort a bit compared to standard offset wheels.

They look like lift springs from the amount of arch in them so that could be part of the harsh ride. Standard shackles are 70mm between bolt centres, if you go longer it can change reduce the caster angle, they don't look that much longer than stock though so they should be ok.

How much up and down travel is there in the shocks on the front and rear, disconnect one end at ride height and compress and extend them to make sure that they aren't bottoming or maxing out on road.

Could even possible remove a single leaf from the spring packs to soften them up a bit, you might loose a bit of lift however it should also lessen the shackle angle a bit and that in effect should slightly reduce the spring rate. When the shackles sit vertically at ride height like yours are it does the ride quality. I favours at all.

In other words there's quite a few factors that can play a role in an SJs ride quality

[badoffroader]

Thanks for the advice.I have had many of these SJ'S and Vits over the last 25 years but not had one for around 8-9 years and i think i've forgotten how horribly they drive when they've had a few mods .

[Martin86]

Whats the story with the SJ in the background ?