Now for the Suspension

From the outset my setup was going to need heavier suspension. A full internal rear fit out, water tank (plus 60 litres of water), accessories plus gear starts to add up weight wise. When you count for the roof load then we are talking additional load of around 300-350kgs. Coil springs give simplicity and ruggedness when off the beaten track, but they don’t have the versatility of an air sprung set up. And when loaded up and in deep old Defender ruts I was always going to be bottoming out. So new uprated, lifted coils were always on my shopping list.

Enter Ralf Sarek in Virginia. Ralf runs a specialist auto engineering business and had taken the initiative to send his stock D90 HT springs off to a specialist spring manufacturer in Kentucky to be fully mapped. They then designed an uprated set to give circa 400kgs of load uprate at the rear and circa 200kgs at the front plus 1.5” lift at the front and 2” lift rear. Ralf tested these out on his Defender with success. Based on this he allowed me to be the first U.K. customer. I received my beautifully red powder coated set in June. These we’re fitted by my local engineering guys. The rears were a bit of a challenge as they need some specialist compression gear to fit. But nothing any competent auto shop shouldn’t be able to accomplish. I took the opportunity to also fit new 285/65R18 boots in the form of the Radar Renegade R/T all-terrain / mud-terrain crossover. These add a further 1/2” lift based on their rolling radius. Nice fit I. The arches with no rubbing. The pictures speak for themselves. Lovely purposeful stance. Exactly 6.5cms higher at the arches all round when fully loaded. Transforms the look. More importantly I’ve lifted the chassis 6.5cms higher and reduced the down “bounce” in the off-road setting. I have sacrificed some down travel on the suspension Which can be recovered if I add a set of slightly longer shocks which Ralf has done with success. I’ll see how this set up goes before I gone down that route. The on road compliance and ride is entirely unchanged from the original and the only slight sensation is of a marginally higher centre of gravity when cornering.

So a success all round so far. I’ll learn more on the longer road test of Atlas Overland’s upcoming Italian Alps trip. But definitely a key addition for any serious overlanding set up of a coil sprung new Defender.