Is "heavy duty" Suspension woth the $

You are spot on the money Brett! Suspension travel, ride quality and longevity of shackle bushes and sway bar bushes are all effected by stiff springing. But, if you need to carry the weight, then you need to carry the weight. Always a compromise.

on a Troopy or 75 series ute after 200,000 klm the shackles, bushes and springs will all be stuffed anyway.Most vehcials will be also! if you own another brand don't pick on the troopys wit htime all springs sag! even coils.
They (75 series)tend to suffer SAS as the springs naturally sag, in fact off road they tend to handle the ruff stuff better asthe suspension wears to a point due to the spring action becomeing more subtle. as others will no doubt point out suspension is always a comprimise. with a little common sense most of the time you will find something to suit what ever you are doing.

With leaf springs always keep you shackle bushes & bolts plus shocks in first rate condition.

The biggest thing to remember is that you trucks suspension is not there as a Fashion statment!

Having to hard a suspension also causes an increase in breaking distance(tyre skips along the surface of the road rather than follow the surface) also results in driver fatigue (needing a kidney belt while travelling is no fun!) coil springs in general give a better ride with equal load carrying capacity. that said though there are now some excellant leaf(parabolic leaves) springs available that give a comfortable ride with good load carrying capabiltiy if selected correctly.

I put HD suspension on my 75 about 180000kms ago, they have not sagged, but ride quality and wheel travel leave something to be desired.

i have just recently had a leaf removed from each corner, has made a big difference to ride, can't yet atest to travel.

Anything to do with suspension is always a compromise - if we could have the all walking/talking/dancing/singing suspension then the manufacturers would just fit that straight up.

You need to decide what it is you need the vehicle to do most (carry heavy loads, highway driving, bush bashing etc.) then make a decision about suspension based on that. Once that's done you need to realise that it will strengthen handling under those conditions - but probably weaken handling in others, and drive accordingly in those weakened areas...

Cheers,
Prado Boy

Thanks for the response guys. I agree with all of the above.

HD suspension has always been a "bee in my bonnet". I have on several occasions been to ARB, TJM, etc and spoken to other suppliers at trade shows etc and I have always been directed to Heavy duty stuff with 20 to 50 % the load carying capacity over standard susp. Having driven heavy vehicles for many years I know that the more weight you carry the softer the ride is going to be. Having said that how much weight do we really carry round in our 4x4's when we go on weekend camping trips or away for a week or 2. From my ecperience it is very easy to over estimate the weight we are carrying.

The suspension on my troopy has sagged. 330k and 60k over 2 years of that loaded up and towing a camper etc etc through the top end and Kimberly. I would like to return the car to its original ride height and maybe even gain an inch or two but not to the detriment of ride- especially on corrugated roads. I towed 2 other vehicles out of creek crossings on my last holiday. One was a 100 series which was stuck in the Penticost River in 800mm of water. He was lightly loaded and could not keep the wheels on the groung due to poor susp travel. This fellow could not believe it as I drove around him with camper in tow. No LSD either.

Any suggestions on suppliers. I am sure that OME and Ultimate are good but just too many dollars, surely there is a reasonablely priced product out there that can give me a little lift without going heavy duty.