The Perentie has always “wandered” a bit on the road and this can be quite scary at times, especially on some of the local Forest Roads which have strange cambers. The extra weight of the Alu-Cab Roof and front roof rack don’t help matters either.
Part of the problem was the wheel tyre combo which has now been sorted, but I always planned to upgrade the Suspension.
As you know, the Perentie has a unique heavy duty chassis with a 2 inch lift, but Suspension parts are basically Land Rover. Ultimately the vehicle will be quite heavy as we add Overland kit, so I wanted the upgrade to be sufficient for this.
With lots of aftermarket choices, I started my research and soon found that many suppliers would not make recommendations for the Perentie. A number of people on the Australian Perentie Owners forum use components for a 130 Land Rover which makes sense, but another popular upgrade is to Old Man Emu parts, not surprisingly – made in Australia – well they know what they are doing out there! If it breaks in the bush, then you have a real problem.
The importer for Old Man Emu in the UK is Arbil Ltd and they list dozens of different suspension components, including coil packers and castor angle correctors. So one evening I sent them a e-mail asking for advice and not necessarily expecting a reply……..
Oh ye of little faith, I soon get a reply from Simon Picken asking me to give him a call. Simon was extremely helpful and understood exactly what a Perentie is and provides me with a list of parts, together with guide prices – all I have to do is select my supplier.
Britpart sell some Old Man Emu parts but they assign them their own part numbers, so I pay yet another visit to Paul Light Land Rovers. I give Paul the OME parts numbers and he cross references these with Britpart. The following Monday I have these on my driveway!
Paul is busy getting back to normal after the lockdown, so I ask Darren and Dave at Milford Motors to fit these for me as I don’t fancy attempting this job on my front drive. I clean everything down soak all of the bolts with silicon to make the job easier and get new turrets and top plates for the front as these were looking a bit worse for wear.
I drop the car in and the soon get a call saying the job is going well, followed but the usual “BUT” – one of the top bushes for the rear shock absorber is missing! This is a singe part which is pressed in, rather than the two part bush – I call in at Paul Lights and pick-up a standard Land Rover bush which is too big! Britpart do not list the bush kit separately (which is a learn for the future), so Paul simply orders a new Shock Absorber, which arrives the next day and hands me the bush from the box – result. Incidentally, in the box is a bag with the bottom bushes and the washers etc, the missing part was floating around separately, so someone on the packing line is Oz must have been looking forward to there Fosters a bit too much!
The car is soon ready and I take the opportunity to look over it on the ramp with Dave, as the MOT is due soon – more of that later.
The Perentie now stands even Taller with the rear cross member over 2 ft from the ground, more importantly it drives brilliantly – no wallowing…….
I wire brushed and painted the rusty rear axle which improved the look of the car from the rear – will do the rear hubs at some point, but may upgrade the disc brakes – we will see.
48 States of Gray 