LR3/LR4 owners: What height do you set your suspension?

Blaise

Well-known member
I've searched and I haven't seen this discussed... so here goes.

On an LR3/4, the fender to axle height is 465mm front, 485mm rear per factory. You gain an additional 50mm of static height with Off-Road setting.

With tools like LLAMS, IIDT, or rods, we can raise static ride height far higher. However, this comes at the expense of downward travel and excessive CV angles.

So the higher we go, the more clearance we have - but we lose articulation which is the whole beauty of the LR3/4. If you're like Mr JWest, you can also balance spacers to gain additional downward travel - but still at the expense of CV angles.

Well? Where do my fellow air-suspended Ex-Po folks like to run their rigs?

On my rig, I cannot go more than +15mm over factory as my LR sensor is at 235mm to begin with. Not a big deal, could always add rods if needed. But... do I want to? :cool:
 

krick3tt

Adventurer
I have found that using the dial in height is usually enough to get me over almost all the obstacles that I encounter. Although the last adventure did dent the exhaust pipe on my new MagnaFlo system when I dropped off a little boulder that I thought I had or was going to miss.
Not willing to risk the possible damage to the other systems by getting higher. Should have gotten a Mog if I wanted to rock climb.
My concern now is the possible damage to the air compressor.
 

iowalr4

Adventurer
Stock EAS height.
265/65R18 (gives a little lift over OE tires).
Skids.

I'd love to have more war stories with my LR4, but I have to admit, most of my trips are really tame. I did consider getting that ASFIR rear diff guard because it doesn't look too heavy (unlike all my T44 stuff) and it protects the exhaust pretty well. It's too bad the exhaust pipes are located where they are.
 

iowalr4

Adventurer
Yeah on my old car I would just go back to stock height which was fine. +25mm did look cool, just unecessary

Yep. Unless you really rock crawl, that is the only valid reason to mess with it... it looks great/better when it is raised up. But the overall design constraints and changing anything about your drive angles is, in my opinion, not worth it.
 

Avslash

Observer
I think I have tried just about all of the options except for the LLAMS.

I have come back to running on the pavement at the stock height settings. At a trailhead, I will take the 45 seconds or so needed to pop my GOE rods into the extended position. This locks the truck into the equivalent of factory off-road height when the normal setting is selected on the EAS switch. If I need to crawl over or on/off something, I can then use the EAS switch to raise the truck to the factory extended height. I suppose if really needed, I could then try to dial up to the limit of the system using the GAP tool, but I have never done this. Once back on pavement, the rods go back to the factory position.

Given the height limitations of the truck, I would argue that the TR sliders are the best money I have spent on modifications. They have the associated dings, dents and scrapes to prove it.

I am running 275/65R18 KO2's, so the truck is a little higher than factory at all times.
 

TOUGE

Active member
Normal hight for street and smooth gravel, +25 with iidtool for rougher stuff then +25 with offroad hight selected for hard obstacles and deep water. Offroad 95% of the times it's just in +25. This is with 275/65R18 BFG KO2s at 23-25 psi.
 

Jwestpro

Explorer
...If you're like Mr JWest,

Wut?! ;)

Blaise, you just don't need to be running the struts all the time or on the highway any higher than factory neutral, period. There is also ZERO reason to do so other than thinking it looks cool but when you're driving it, you can't appreciate that so who is there to impress? ;) I'd rather take my corners at higher speed with much more stability and also have better roadway dynamics from the struts at 0.

Of road like an actual 'trail' (not just a gravel forest rd) it can be nice to have just a bit more full time while out there, but even then I don't feel the full +50 is necessary and will often roll at +25 unless really needed. This extra provides a little absorption of the bumps up into the strut and compression range for dips. (I know you know that so I'm just stating it for anyone new to this)

Also, you wrote "balance spacers" but I don't think everyone will know what you mean. I installed strut spacers, not sure what balance was to mean. It didn't balance anything. It actually pushed out of balance the geometry....I am however continually testing slightly lower height setting to see where I can retain good highway compression range. If I could sit 20mm lower, that would put the CV well within what is likely a long term viable position. However, we don't really have data on 50-100,000 miles on CV's that are being used with the suspension at +50-62mm full time. I just don't like the idea so Im shooting for -15-20 from the +50mm the strut spacer created.

The biggest thing anyone can do though for the lr3/4 is simply remove the tight clearance areas. With those mods, this whole page is a non-issue as no lift whatsoever via rods or llams is needed to use a 31.5-32" tire in all conditions. Just trim away and it works great, ride height remains ideal, etc.

However, the best combination there is using llams to lift on-the-fly in 2 steps rather than being limited to the factory all or nothing and under 29mph.

If I were to chose tires again, it would be a size not available before, the BFG AT KO2 in 265/70-18. All the fender liner mods are required but then it's just play time as they tuck in on full flex and also are tall enough to squat out fantastically when at 24 psi zone. That's the best ratio too, tall but square profile in section on the wheel with little bulge under full inflation. These aren't lightweight jeeps that will work well on massively wide tires narrower wheels, unless you like the wallowing boat effect.

Ideal sizes in 18":
265/65 31.5"
265/70 32.6"
275/65 32"
275/70 - 33.2" (my favorite next time but will be harder to fit on lr4's due to offset required over the brakes)

The beauty with the tallest tire you can fit, not widest, is that when psi down to low 20's, you also gain articulation by way of the tire itself. You also can air down lower with more sidewall. So it's a multiplying effect as long as the fender liner can accommodate them.

I mainly put the strut spacers in for more down travel but not to actually use the full max strut travel like factory "extended mode" will do. When it did that there was zero articulation left, just siff stilts, with the spacer you can limit yourself to the same total body to ground extension, but while retaining some flex. They also all slightly larger tire size which as noted above, ads to more ground clearance, lower psi, etc.

With a lighter vehicle than mine, a lot of these suspension and handling attributes would be less noticeable. The weight pushes it around so I notice even small changes in the set up underneath especially rolling 75-80mph on I90 through some of the big curves with undulating pavement.
 
Factory NORMAL settings on road! Plus (+) a little IIDTool over on off-road mode when I'm off-road. Dirt roads I stay at NORMAL height in Gravel setting and she drives like a dream. When I need clearance or rock-crawl mode, I use it when I need it! Just my two cents, hope it helps!
 

Blaise

Well-known member
Exactly JWest! We are saying the same thing.

Probably not the best grammar (sorry). You’ve “balanced” being at a lower air strut height by adding spacers to bring yourself back to nominal ride height and geometries while allowing addl downward travel when you want it.
 

Avslash

Observer
@Jwestpro

Would you mind clarifying your highway/pavement setup for me? Sorry to be the slow kid in the class.

If i am following correctly, you are running the SYA 2.5" spacers with the factory height rods. This leaves the truck at factory height, but air strut pressure below "neutral" (factory height, factory rods, normal height selected pressure).

Are you then dialing in lift with the llams controller to bring the air strut pressure back to near neutral, and thus lifting the truck above factory height, but with stock ish compression/ extension and using this as your normal/ pavement mode?

Thanks for any explanation. I have a set of the sya spacers sitting on the floor in my garage, and am trying to figure out the best way to utilize them. From reading through some other threads, it looks like you are one of the two or three guys here who have the most experience trying to get them dialed-in.
 

Jwestpro

Explorer
Exactly JWest! We are saying the same thing.

Probably not the best grammar (sorry). You’ve “balanced” being at a lower air strut height by adding spacers to bring yourself back to nominal ride height and geometries while allowing addl downward travel when you want it.
Hmm, not sure I did that.
1-the ride height in ground to body is much higher than factory by the 50mm strut spacer plus any tire size gains in height.
2-The strut itself is right at factory neutral length. Not extended, not compressed.
3-The hub center to fender flare edge is factory plus 50mm so it’s roughly 465+50 front and 485+50 rear. This puts the struts right at neutral. This is done by using shorter height sensor rods by roughly 10mm and can be fine tuned using the llams tool but I’ll probably pull the rods and adjust them if that length isn’t resulting in nearly perfect hub to fender results above

The above will be baseline. From there if I can I will then set the height so that the strut is compressed maybe 10-20mm if it has plenty compression left for the big highway dips. There’s a perfect one on hwy 18 northbound out of Puyallup at the Green River crossing. Huge compression dip at bridge transition.
 

Jwestpro

Explorer
@Jwestpro

Would you mind clarifying your highway/pavement setup for me? Sorry to be the slow kid in the class.

If i am following correctly, you are running the SYA 2.5" spacers with the factory height rods. This leaves the truck at factory height, but air strut pressure below "neutral" (factory height, factory rods, normal height selected pressure).

Are you then dialing in lift with the llams controller to bring the air strut pressure back to near neutral, and thus lifting the truck above factory height, but with stock ish compression/ extension and using this as your normal/ pavement mode?

Thanks for any explanation. I have a set of the sya spacers sitting on the floor in my garage, and am trying to figure out the best way to utilize them. From reading through some other threads, it looks like you are one of the two or three guys here who have the most experience trying to get them dialed-in.

A-I think they are 50mm. If I’m wrong, I’ll have to redo everything LOL

B-no, you have to actually use shortened rods to offset the spacer effect on what the height sensors read. If not, then they find near edge of or out of range too easily which results in fault mania...

The goal for now is put in spacer, then rods to exactly offset spacer. Now, vehicle will sit higher by dimension of spacer, but strut will be as close to exactly same as factory length. This position let’s the strut behave as normal with only compromise being the control arm geometry higher by that strut spacer measurement.

From there, I hope to lower a tiny bit to get back some of the control arm geometry while not losing too much of the strut length. Even 10-20mm can make a difference you feel at speed or rough terrain.

Tomorrow I’ll first measure the spacer dimension, I sure hope you’re wrong. 2.5” sounds like way more than needed in the first place. I was up in there today actually and I’m almost certain it’s 50mm.

Lastly, my ground to body height will be diffferent unless someone uses the same tire and size so all my notes will be from a hub to body reference.
 

Avslash

Observer
A-I think they are 50mm. If I’m wrong, I’ll have to redo everything LOL

B-no, you have to actually use shortened rods to offset the spacer effect on what the height sensors read. If not, then they find near edge of or out of range too easily which results in fault mania...

The goal for now is put in spacer, then rods to exactly offset spacer. Now, vehicle will sit higher by dimension of spacer, but strut will be as close to exactly same as factory length. This position let’s the strut behave as normal with only compromise being the control arm geometry higher by that strut spacer measurement.

From there, I hope to lower a tiny bit to get back some of the control arm geometry while not losing too much of the strut length. Even 10-20mm can make a difference you feel at speed or rough terrain.

Tomorrow I’ll first measure the spacer dimension, I sure hope you’re wrong. 2.5” sounds like way more than needed in the first place. I was up in there today actually and I’m almost certain it’s 50mm.

Lastly, my ground to body height will be diffferent unless someone uses the same tire and size so all my notes will be from a hub to body reference.

Thanks for the clarification.

I'm sure you are correct on the spacer dimension. I went over to Lucky8 and looked at the kit again. I was getting the 2.5 inches from the rods they include in the kit.

One more question. Have you had any problems or issues with the limiting straps?

Looking at the dedicated thread here on the sya kit, it seems like welding some tabs for attachment of the straps might be the best solution. I'm thinking this would likely be the route i would go.
 

krick3tt

Adventurer
With the help of my Rover Tech friend, and the GAP tool, adjusted the ride height from stock to add half inch to ride height and a bit more for off road height on my LR3. Haven't used the extra height that is already programmed into the off road height in rock and off road mode, that's next on another trip.
Did not go to the limit of the adjustments that are possible using the GAP tool.
The height difference is visibly noticeable so I am looking forward to the gain in clearance for some of the trails in CO.

Not too worried about COG as I rarely carry things on the RR except off road and I am aware of the limitations in doing that.
The nice thing is that the access height is not affected by doing these adjustments.

So in answer to the OP question, I added about 1/2 to an inch and will leave the on-road height at that setting
 

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