Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Seat Bolster

On behalf of my complaining wife, who after 30 mins in my 1995 +4 says her back is broken and she is getting a taxi home and the divorce papers will be in the post, I am sending the old girl away next week ( the car not the wife} for an SSL front suspension upgrade, which hopefully may make some improvement.
However I remember reading somewhere that one member had found a superb seat cushion / squab that solved the problem for his wife and in fact he used it everyday as he travelled approx 400 miles a day in his Discovery 4x4. The pad was a flexible item made up of many pockets which apart from providing a softer seat, aligned the back to a better driving posture and eliminated back aches.
Does anyone know of this item (it was priced approx £35 ) or any recommendations for anything similar.
Prompt answers appreciated before the divorce papers arrive.
Many Thanks

If you haven't got front brake reaction bars fitted they are an inexpensive fix and they can make quite a difference to the compliance of the ride and cut out a lot of the pot hole crashing and jolting one traditionally finds with a Morgan. I personally find it better to do these things in stages, so you can measure the relative changes and resultant improvements for the ££££ spent.

regards

Hi John
I fitted AVO dampers as a start, the difference was negligible and so this is my next move to seek improvement.
I will try your suggestion next after I have had chance to evaluate the SSL mods.

From my discussion with Melvyn Rutter the other day, brake reaction bars are the first change they normally recommend.. I have SSL suspension and brake reaction bars on my recently acquired Roadster and its too early to say yet as Covid lockdown has curtailed long outings, but the car felt quite compliant on my short run so far.

Just don’t expect too much.
Tell her, it’s a Morgan and will never ride like a modern car no matter what you spend on it! I have just had new king pins and SSL following an MOT advisory after 38+k miles. As they are cheap as chips, had BRBs fitted at same time.
First impressions agree with the dealers advice when I collected it, that it will be noticeably stiffer until after a bedding down period. I felt every bump on the way home so time will tell. However, it felt better going into bends.
Hope she won’t be too disappointed but give it time.

Colin, I have a friend with a 1997 Plus 4, he had SSL fitted quite a few years ago and is very pleased with it (early SSL had Bilstein non-adj shocks) yours will have adjustable Spax

My wife remarked there was a noticeable improvement following the SSL upgrade.

I now no longer have to wince when I spot a pot hole at the last moment.

I have SSL suspension up front and matching Bilsteins at the rear on my 2011 +4, oh! Mulberry BRBs as well. I had the car fitted with SSL suspension when i bought it so i dont know what the standard set up was like. However, i can say that the biggest improvement i made was to thoroughly lubricate the cart, oops sorry, leaf springs with a cocktail of SAE 90 and SAE 140 and i do this every year whilst the car's in hibernation. I've had the car 7 years, when i first oiled the springs it appeared that they had never been lubricated from new so I'm not sure what they used to do at the factory.
I also had the seat sqabs repacked with better quality material and suspension rubber and made the squab angle adjustable in order to support the thighs

Oh! And in addition to the above i got the highest profile tyres i could get consistent with quality, 65 profile fitted.

Has she tried Pilates? Mrs FT swears by it and never has back issues in the Morgan despite having two metal rods screwed to her spine.