Thread: BT50/Ranger rear spings

Hello Folks

I think my poor old 2013 BT50 (now with a Ranger donk - what do I call it???) has a saggy rear (so do I but I'm closer to 60 than 50 so its a bit more understandable) and I was thinking I need to replace the rear springs. She does carry a fair load of fencing gear day in day out, and tows a fully laden 3.5 tonne trailer pretty regular.

These https://www.adenstyres.co.nz/product...22498986688594 ones seem pretty reasonable, any thoughts or alternatives?? Looks like I'd need bushes, but are they otherwise straightforward for a home bubba mechanic to install?

It says they are 50mm lift (the makers site says 45 - Eh?) - can I get away with just replacing the rear, or will I need to bush up the front too ??

Thanks
Foster

You would need to fit new shocks also as your factory ones would be too short with a set of lifted leaf springs. When I lifted my hilux I fitted 400kg constant load leafs in the rear, now it carries a load perfectly, no droopy ass. Bit of a rough ride in the back seat when unloaded but I don’t mind.


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Airbags?

A common prob with some model rangers and BTs, believe they had a bad batch for a while? Especially with constant heavy loading

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Recommended downweight is 10% according to the towing rules for light trailers, so 3500Kg max trailer weight gives you 350Kg downweight. Much less gives you a possibility of the trailer shoving the arse of the tow vehicle and jack-knifing you. Having had it once, it ain't fun and not recommended. That was on a large boat, with dual outboards and the axles too far forwards. A situation that was soon fixed!

Agree,
In my past life our transport engineer always said there should be 10% on the tow ball.

Originally Posted by DPT

Agree,
In my past life our transport engineer always said there should be 10% on the tow ball.

Yep, this is the correct formula alright

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Originally Posted by Mauser308

I had this problem with mine from brand new.

YOU MUST DO BOTH ENDS.

I'll repeat that, you must do both ends - as I found a lift on the rear transfers more weight onto the fronts which stuffs your front alignment - the front wishbones run a 2:1 ratio, so if you drop the front end by 20mm as the spring compresses you are already into negative territory for the front wheel angles. What happened to my ute was the front end would just wash out left or right on gravel and you couldn't steer out of it. Bloody dangerous and pretty terrifying as you couldn't correct out of it.

I had my leafs done from the dealer, as I was writing off tow balls on driveways and sitting on the bump stops... Front end they walked away from (thanks Ford).

My solution, was this from Iron Man at the front:

Ford Ranger PX Front Strut - Foam Cell - Ironman 4x4 - NZ

This has a separate spring seat which slides right off. This allows you to tune the front ride height by inserting a spacer ring under the spring seat, and with the 2:1 ratio a 10mm ring gives 20mm lift at the front end. If you go to an adjustable strut with locking rings - you have to cert the suspension as it's modified. Because the Iron Man strut has a solid spacer ring, it's not adjustable so that means you don't have to cert it. These struts can be used with the factory springs = a cost saving. Do the rears with the same branded shock offering.

Springs I had were from the Cambridge spring workshop, mine are a 7-leaf with overload which compares to a 3-leaf factory with overload. I carry about 225Kg as standard load, and I could probably afford to go to a 6-leaf+overload. My standard lift is about 50mm at that weight, max for uncerted mod but that part was a dealer fit so didn't need certing... The front dropped about 22mm, which is where I arrived at the 20mm lift figure with the 10mm spacer ring under the spring seats.

To be honest, the difference for me was chalk and cheese, turned a useless piece of crap expensive lemon into a functional work ute, got 85,000km's on them and I haven't looked back the Iron Man product has functioned exceptionally well...

Add a note - I didn't have to touch brake lines or any other bits, driveline angles are steeper and did concern me but no issues as yet. I have noticed that the traction control and vehicle safety systems like ABS are a lot more gentle and come on a lot more progressively than on factory suspension, they came on with a crack when the ute was on factory but now if they come on the vehicle stops doing whatever was naughty, the light comes on on the dash and you keep driving - that part of the mod was awesome and a vast improvement.

Hey - thanks, that was exactly the advice I was looking for . . . cheers

Originally Posted by berg243

just a heads up all those new trucks should have a down force rating on their towbar , exceeding this could invalidate your insurance in a crash as they might deem it as driver error for unsafe loading. all that stuff gets checked if you have a crash while towing.

True to an extent. The tow ratings on most modern vehicles are based on ADR ruling for Aussie and dont accurately cross over to NZ towing laws. We have a very grey area in that part of the rules when it comes to towbars and ratings.

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Originally Posted by berg243

just a heads up all those new trucks should have a down force rating on their towbar , exceeding this could invalidate your insurance in a crash as they might deem it as driver error for unsafe loading. all that stuff gets checked if you have a crash while towing.

Yes some do have very low downforce on the ball, my ranger is rated to pull 3500kg and upto 350kg downforce on the tow ball. Rated correctly for the 10% loading.

Hire companies have had a big shake up in recent times as they used to turn a blind eye to a case like above, not now though as a portion of liability can fall back on them, regardless of what you sign on the hire agreement.

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Originally Posted by Mathias

Hire companies have had a big shake up in recent times as they used to turn a blind eye to a case like above, not now though as a portion of liability can fall back on them, regardless of what you sign on the hire agreement.

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Yep definately. I use hire companies regularly for EWPs, diggers and compressors. If the towing vehicle is not adequately rated for the load to be towed then item are not released for hire. No more dodgy loads towed behind hiace vans


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Originally Posted by Mauser308

Even some older utes (while capable) aren't rated to tow a large trailer - and the unbraked rating is another can of worms. Legal max unbraked towing weight behind a light vehicle is 700Kg, but you don't need to fit brakes for a WoF until something like 1750Kg. If you always take the trailer in empty so its light it'll never get close to the trigger weight - but an empty car trailer unbraked? WTF!

The 750kg max unbraked rule is ADR as any trailer over 750kg max towable mass in Aussie must have brakes fitted, while here in NZ we are over 2000kg. This is where the tow bar ratings and compliance certification used in NZ are based on ADR, which doesn't tie in to our towing rules. My work Ranger is all based on Aussie rules, including the NZ made (Best Bars) tow bar as it had to comply to Ford Australia specifications.