Jacking with air suspension

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Robbouchard

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i had a flat and whilst jacking noticed I had to jack a long way to get the suspension fully extended and lift the wheel. I started from the normal ride height. Thinking about it afterward would I have been better to extend the suspension to off-road height before starting to jack?
 

PaulLR3

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Yes, go to off-road height before jacking as the suspension has a lot of "reach", especially the rear suspension. Make sure you use the rear parking brake and block the front wheels too.
 

bbyer

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Bottle jack under the A arm - least worst procedure.

I carry one of those cheap plastic 12 volt air compressors as my first defense against having to change a flat tyre. With luck, the leak is a slow one and if you pump up the tyre to say fifty pounds, you can drive for a half hour or more and keep doing it until you find someone else to change the tyre.

The someone will probably not know what our air suspension is so you will have to supervise. First off, this is not a solid axle pickup or SUV where you can jack on the rear end - alloy and all that.

Have them jack up under an A arm with a second jack on the frame to lift the body as otherwise the tyre just presses up into the wheel well.

On the road I have two bottle jacks - one for the A arm and one for the frame. The factory scissor jack can also be used for the frame.

Jacking the front A arm is easy as there is a depression the bottle jack fits into really well; the rear A arm, very tricky to pull off safely - and yes, I have a pair of big triangular hard rubber tyre chocks, one to the front and one to the rear diagonally.
 
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Robbouchard

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Thanks for detailed response. To be honest I just jacked with the supplied scissor jack and chocks. I have a trolley jack at home but this was a side of the road repair. It worked fine apart from taking a long time to take up all the rear end suspension travel. It was also -5 deg C here in Ontario so cold hands didn’t help!!! I use one of my summer tires (in winter) as a spare as apposed to the supplied donut. I do find it baffling that LR chose to supply a donut for this very off-road capable vehicle. Before taking yours off road be sure to replace the donut with a real wheel.
 

bbyer

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I do find it baffling that LR chose to supply a donut for this very off-road capable vehicle. Before taking yours off road be sure to replace the donut with a real wheel.
The full size spare was offered as an option on some upgrade package. Part of the excuse for the donut was ground clearance. For what it is worth, the full size tyre hangs down a couple of extra inches relative to the donut.
 

Greg9504

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The full size spare was offered as an option on some upgrade package. Part of the excuse for the donut was ground clearance. For what it is worth, the full size tyre hangs down a couple of extra inches relative to the donut.

That's sort of counter to how you end up with the full size spare. You get the full size spare when you have the HD package, which also includes the 2 speed transfer case and rear locker. So if their argument was ground clearance it makes no sense.
 

bbyer

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That's sort of counter to how you end up with the full size spare. You get the full size spare when you have the HD package, which also includes the 2 speed transfer case and rear locker. So if their argument was ground clearance it makes no sense.
There is the argument that it makes sense to Land Rover. These are the people who put the steering wheel on the wrong side on some of their vehicles.

This is also the same group that cannot figure out they already built the "new" Defender; they called it the Discovery Commercial - coil springs, downscale interior, simple radio and limited electronics. Add a solid rear axle and you would have the new Defender with no development or factory tool up costs.
 
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bbyer

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i had a flat and whilst jacking noticed I had to jack a long way to get the suspension fully extended and lift the wheel. I started from the normal ride height. Thinking about it afterward would I have been better to extend the suspension to off-road height before starting to jack?
In theory yes, but in reality, when being jacked up, the suspension computer realizes something odd is going on and releases air from the system.

In theory, leaving a door open or the tailgate down inhibits air release, but my experience has been otherwise.

My solution is two jacks, one bigger jack under the frame and one a smaller bottle jack under the appropriate A arm.
 

Jazzy

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The full size spare was offered as an option on some upgrade package. Part of the excuse for the donut was ground clearance. For what it is worth, the full size tyre hangs down a couple of extra inches relative to the donut.

So true...hit the White Rim Trail in Moab years ago shortly after purchasing LR4, but foolishly never replaced donut...well, popped a tire half way up Murphy's Hogback (65 miles into the loop), had to back down and then replace tire with donut. Didn't know terrain ahead and fearful of popping donut, drove 65 miles back the way we came at 5-10 mph...10 hours later at 2 am made it off the trail, fortunately had 2 full jerry cans. Needless to say I roll with 6 tires now
 

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