I ordered 1 ton springs from Craddock's in the UK on a Fri and they shipped on Wed and arrived the next Monday.
First thing I did was unwrap them and set em up next to the Rocky Mountain parabolics I had removed.
I don't know how much you can take from this comparison as they have different numbers and thickness of leaves. Next up was taking off the stickers and looking for manufacturers marks. I wanted to know who makes them. they were marketed as Genuine when I bought them but by the time I got them the Genuine ones listing had disappeared and Original Equipment ones were offered.
That's when I found the Bearmachs stickers under the Craddocks stickers.
Look, at least it wasn't Britpart, although I suspect all of them use the same manufacturer. These came with a 2 year warranty and were around $40.00 less per spring than other sites selling the Bearmach springs.
Both were unwrapped and set up on the table with the paras.
Although there are some slight manufacturing difference between the new springs they both seem to be equal and no front or back noticed. and no makers mark unless it is under the thick paint.
Once again I jacked up the back of the 109 and put it on jack stands, pulled the rear spring off and set about putting the 1 tons on.
Here is a pic of the bad old heavy duty spring next to the 1 ton and paras. At this point I really noticed how stiff the 1 tons were compared to the HD's. I could physically deflect the HD's by about an inch to inch and a half and the 1 tons not at all, just by pushing down on the spring eyes.
Above you can see that the 1 tons spring eye is already starting out higher than the old springs.
It took a long time to get the first side done, mainly because the locating pin in the spring needed to be pulled outboard to allow the axle to drop on. I couldn't just pull it out because it was being held up with a jack. After 3 hours of fussing around I got it to fit. The other side dropped in quite readily. I think it is due to my not having a flat even surface to work on.
On but not tightened up;
I pulled it out onto the street where it was flat and drove back and forth a couple of times and then crawled under with the torque wrench and tightened everything up to spec.
Looks better now!
I was tired from all the heavy carrying(springs, floor jack, bottle jack, wheels) around and the constant getting up and down and torquing( Ubolts 58ftlb, spring pins 70ftlbs, wheel nuts 80ftlbs). I had some lunch and took a nap! Later I went for a quick drive to check things out.
Driving impression;
On the quick 5 mile trip it was nice to not hear the klunking from the bad bushings. It sits level on the road and is stable. Nothing broke or fell off! I even hit a dirt pull out at speed, 30+, full of LARGE potholes and it barely felt them.
The next day I did a longer drive to take my motorcycle front tyre in for replacement. I did notice the ride was better than the paras. At one point I thought to myself "This is the vehicle I was meant to drive!"
I'm thinking the suspension is stiffer, at least the connections are better, and the whole body seems to lean more in the turns, probably due to the Tepui Tent on the top, but not alarmingly so.
So that's my first impressions, hopefully this will be the final suspension incarnation.
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