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jwest
Member Since: 09 Jun 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 114
  
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| Matzker-wheel spacers and air suspension control |
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Has nobody found this yet? They seem to have some very useful items for those of us who want more off-road capability or at least more control over the suspension.
http://www.matzker.de
They have wheel spacers made to allow larger/taller tires as well as an electronic suspension control system that allows lowering and raising the suspension at will and to the maximum rather than the factory limit and/or maximum once you are already grounded. We all know that once you are grounded it takes more than just a bit more clearance to get going again while having it to start with could be the ticket to not sticking in the first place.
The highway driving suspension lowering, by about an inch, sounds like a nice sporty ride as well when desired.
Anyone know about this stuff? 96 Disco I, 210,000 miles - still going strong
04 Disco II, Vienna/Tundra, +2" lift, onboard air, 120V...
07 LR3 HSE
2008 Audi S4 Avant mt6
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 23rd Apr 2007 4:59 pm |
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10forcash
Member Since: 09 Jun 2005
Location: Ubique
Posts: 16534
  
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Seen it, not particularly interested in it but if it floats your boat, why not? 
Oh, and AndrewS proved conclusively that it doesn't improve offroad performance 
do a search on here for it (with all possible spelling errors  ) and you should find some opinions on it
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:03 pm |
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Slimer
Site Moderator
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Last Exit to Nowhere
Posts: 16295
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Search the site, plenty on Matzker kit.
Personally I think the suspension kits (apart from being fairly expensive) are well made but biased towards on-road handling, we've proven on a couple of occasions that a D3 with standard suspension can go places off-road that one with full Matzker kit can't The End
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:05 pm |
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jwest
Member Since: 09 Jun 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 114
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Slimer- doesn't the kit increase the height and therefore give you more clearance? Is this not "better"? 96 Disco I, 210,000 miles - still going strong
04 Disco II, Vienna/Tundra, +2" lift, onboard air, 120V...
07 LR3 HSE
2008 Audi S4 Avant mt6
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:08 pm |
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Slimer
Site Moderator
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Last Exit to Nowhere
Posts: 16295
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Not necessarily, can just mean you get well and truly stuck and then don't have the advantage of extended mode to give you clearance to reverse back out The End
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:09 pm |
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10forcash
Member Since: 09 Jun 2005
Location: Ubique
Posts: 16534
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the full kit has different dampers fitted, these may be what reduces the off-road performance by overly stiffening the suspension, reducing the articulation possible, it may also be due to crosslink valve behaviour being different once the air suspension warning indicator is on - which is what happens when the Matzker kit is switched in
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:12 pm |
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jwest
Member Since: 09 Jun 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 114
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so it apparently, and somewhat by their own statements, applies more to stiffer road handling then for better offroad capability....? It does still seem that if what you mainly want is height vs articulation, that this kit may still ad to that aspect. For example in double track with ruts and high centermud section or in deep snow. I have been stuck 2x in snow on a double track simply due to lack of clearance under front and rear diffs on my disco 1. Digging out snow for an hour removed me but a few more inches would have gotten me through....those spots, and into a worse spot at least
In the US I when on big trips, the highway miles are around 3000-6000 miles with a few days actually "off-road" in either summer or winter. The sporty handling provided by the lowering/stiffening kit might be nice fro the rest of the year and to/from on those trips as well.
I do want to try the wheel spacers though. 96 Disco I, 210,000 miles - still going strong
04 Disco II, Vienna/Tundra, +2" lift, onboard air, 120V...
07 LR3 HSE
2008 Audi S4 Avant mt6
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:36 pm |
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jwest
Member Since: 09 Jun 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 114
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Slimer wrote:Not necessarily, can just mean you get well and truly stuck and then don't have the advantage of extended mode to give you clearance to reverse back out
how does this "extended mode" actually go into effect? does the system have to be in "rock crawl" or somehow sense it is bottomed out? couldn't one "induce" this to make it go into effect? 96 Disco I, 210,000 miles - still going strong
04 Disco II, Vienna/Tundra, +2" lift, onboard air, 120V...
07 LR3 HSE
2008 Audi S4 Avant mt6
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:39 pm |
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Slimer
Site Moderator
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Last Exit to Nowhere
Posts: 16295
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It works when it senses you've bottomed out, TFC can explain the details far better than I can. Once in extended mode you can manually go up a bit further in to 'super' extended mode
It can be induced/'fooled' into going into extended but I don't know why you'd want to do it, better to let it do it as it was designed to and use it to get out of trouble rather than get into trouble. It would probably have helped in the situation you described in snow The End
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| 23rd Apr 2007 5:44 pm |
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10forcash
Member Since: 09 Jun 2005
Location: Ubique
Posts: 16534
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Firstly, I doubt the differentials would have bottomed out - they are tucked away quite well, it's more likely that the wishbones on the suspension digging in were causing the lack of movement particularly if you were in ruts / tracks
Extended mode is induced when the suspension control unit senses a drop in gallery pressure (i.e. the wheels are not supporting the majority of the vehicles mass) and TC has been induced, providing both criteria apply for 40 seconds or longer, then extended height will be invoked. Thereafter, an additional suspension lift can be manually added by pressing the brake pedal down and the suspension paddle switch forwards for about 3 seconds
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| 23rd Apr 2007 6:26 pm |
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Pelyma
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Patching, Sussex
Posts: 15496
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Ian I think he was stuck in D1 not a D3! DS3 TDV6 HSE - Silver with Alpaca (old one) Gone
DS3 TDV6 HSE- Silver with Alpaca (new one) Gone
D4 HSE Lux - Montalcino Red Gone
Porsche Cayenne V8 Diesel S
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| 23rd Apr 2007 7:55 pm |
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disco4x4au
Member Since: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Perth
Posts: 409
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Slimer wrote:
It can be induced/'fooled' into going into extended but I don't know why you'd want to do it, better to let it do it as it was designed to and use it to get out of trouble rather than get into trouble. It would probably have helped in the situation you described in snow
When you see a drop-off or climb, where you _know_ you're going to leave half your bumper behind, and there is no way around, or you suspect the overhang will rip into the underside of the car, then it would be _more_ than a little helpful to be able to select the higher setting _before_ venturing forward.
Maybe because I usually venture out with modified 4x4s, and so the terrain is usually pretty harsh, I have often needed to get out of the car, fool the suspension into raising and then proceed over the obstacle. Quite a pain in the mud and rain .... You lose a little articulation (mainly at the front), but if you have the rear eLocker, that combined with the TC more than makes up for it. You just have to pick your line a little more carefully.
Jwest, as far as I can tell, the basic Matzker kit (without the dampers) does nothing but raise the vehicle to approx the same height as extended mode. Providing you use it judiciously, I can't see any problems with this. I don't know why the Matzker-equipped car did so poorly in Morocco - perhaps AndrewS was simply a better driver than the Matzker guy?
Cheers,
Gordon ex - 2006 D3 TDV6 SE, silver, with lots of stuff - R.I.P.
ex - 2009 D3 TDV6 SE, silver, had lots of stuff too!
Now - 2010 RRS 3.0 TDV6, rimini red, 18" rims + Cooper LTZ, rear eLocker, Spider tuning box, GOE protection plates and rock sliders, GOE 3way shortened rods.
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| 24th Apr 2007 1:21 am |
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simon_arch1
Member Since: 10 Apr 2006
Location: Melbourne Australia
Posts: 502
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Gordon - how do you trick the car into going into extended mode?
Like you, there are times when you just know you need the extra clearance, just for a little way to clear an obstacle/rut/ditch etc - not that you want/need to drive with the extended suspension for long - and I agree, you are going to get better articulation without it extended...
In my D2, I often rasied the SLS at the rear to help get through obstacles, then dropped it back down to normal again when clear...
cheers,
Simon D3 - Buckingham Blue, SE, TDV6, 06 model; chipped; underbody armour; Mickey Thompson ATZ 275/65-18 AND MAXXIS Bighorn muddies; rear wheel carrier from 4x4intelligence.com; iPOD aux connection! GME 3200 UHF - aerial mounted on wheel carrier  ; LR roof rails/cross bars; Autosafe cargo barrier, Safari Snorkel; Traxide - aux battery; ARB bull bar with Tigerz11 winch; Lightforce 240 XGT driving lights (mitchell bros tow hitch to come)
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| 24th Apr 2007 3:10 am |
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disco4x4au
Member Since: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Perth
Posts: 409
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simon_arch1 wrote:Gordon - how do you trick the car into going into extended mode?
Simon,
One of the few things the LR-supplied jack is good for .........
Prior to the obstacle (car at off-road height), place jack under chassis rail (NOT the air-tank!!!) and adjust until jack is just raising vehicle. Get in and try to lower the air suspension. The car will detect the jack and go into extended mode. After removing jack (important step, that!), you can go into super-extended mode by holding the brake pedal down and selecting "raise" for more than 5 secs.
As TFC noted, you can't exceed 8kph for more than 45secs, or the car will automatically lower to std off-road height.
It's actually a pretty good trick, just annoying if it's raining or you're in mud.
Cheers,
Gordon ex - 2006 D3 TDV6 SE, silver, with lots of stuff - R.I.P.
ex - 2009 D3 TDV6 SE, silver, had lots of stuff too!
Now - 2010 RRS 3.0 TDV6, rimini red, 18" rims + Cooper LTZ, rear eLocker, Spider tuning box, GOE protection plates and rock sliders, GOE 3way shortened rods.
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| 24th Apr 2007 4:13 am |
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opodden
Member Since: 29 Jun 2006
Location: Elverum
Posts: 100
 
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Has anyone measured the flex in a standard D3 and a Matzker equipped car (with Selective Control suspension in raised (offroad mode + 45 mm))? One way of doing it is using a 20 degree RTI ramp. But even easier, since we are comparing the same vehicle with identical wheelbase, is just raising one wheel off the ground and measure the distance from the bottom of the tire to the ground.
If anyone with a Matzker enhanced car is willing to do it, I can provide the numbers for the stock version.
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| 26th Apr 2007 1:02 pm |
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