Spring rate L400

[Mr. Pistachio]

Hey Folks,

Does anyone knows the spring rate for the L400 LWB. As the spring right now are good but when under load I loose almost 3''. Because the plan is to camperize the van and put long range full tank, personnal stuff, food, I estimate to close to 500kilo. So I basically need some new springs in the back and for that If I can get a idea of what it is right now, I could do some maths and have some custom made or find some on trucks around.

The folks from the UK have this imcomplete post but it's a starter.

http://www.mdocuk.co.uk/forums/viewtopi ... bf561871b3

Thanks!
Antoine & Mr. Pistachio

[jessef]

I plan to install airbags in my sisters L400 in the rear for this reason. Sometimes unloaded, sometime loaded up to 500kg's.

[Mr. Pistachio]

Hey Jesse,

What kind of system are you looking at?

Antoine

[jessef]

unsure as of yet. Need to check the ID of the rear coils and height.

[monnomania]

Hello - reviving this post....

I have a L400 LWB and am having the same sag problem with all the camping gear and bed frame in my Deli. So now on the larger bumps I am knocking the bottom of my shocks!

Anyone know of a good spring that should nicely retrofit into the rear suspension? And any suggestion where to find it?

Chris

[jessef]

You can put in Lovell's with minor mod. The spring needs to be cut down to the shape of the stock one.

I would prefer airbags like these

http://www.truckspring.com/suspension-p ... 60747.aspx

Those are for the springs out of a Mitsu montero. Close to an L400 but not quite. You'd have to measure the ID / height of the stock spring both compressed and extended(drive one wheel up a ramp).

http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-ups ... n-write-up

[monnomania]

Thanks Jesse for the quick reply.

Do you have any more info on the Lovell's? Parts number or associated vehicle to reference? Maybe the best location to find one? I am in the USA so any extra info would be great.

I am concerned about the airbags - it was an option I considered but I have been councelled that they might pinch and bust???

Chris

[jessef]

Chris the issue you will run into with the Lovell's is that it will lift the rear about 2.5-3" inches above stock height. You would need spacers to drop the rear sway bar down and the rear brake bias booster up.

Spacers + springs will run you close to $6-700 whereas the airbags you can use in the stock springs and it will cost you between $1-200.

[Mr. Pistachio]

Hey,

So I've put the Lovell's on my L400 and I'm quite happy with it. I bought it from : http://www.kollarracingproducts.com/servlet/StoreFront and got the RFR-20HD

Antoine

[supa_fox]

Hey Antoine,
I contacted them as well, the shipping was way more than the springs to the point where I had to reconsider, Can you share some details on cost and how you had them shipped? I am looking at some different options which I will post in a seperate thread. Also, how was the install? much modification?

Cheers
Jason

[jessef]

Shipping them into Canada from US/overseas is expensive.

As a reference, I had two sets of springs shipped from Australia. The springs cost $450 and the shipping for all four springs came out to $840 (customs nailed it) and taxes/duty.

What Antoine did and others is go down to the US and pick them up there.

You still have to pay duty (6.1%) and provincial taxes when bringing it into Canada as it was not made in the USA.