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As an aspiring Morgan owner I am reading this with interest. Ride quality and it’s acceptability to my wife is a key issue too. I am thinking of a late model 4/4. Did Morgan make any significant improvements to the suspension towards the end of the traditional chassis models?

The ride slowly improved over time with steering bearings and other suspension modifications, so the later the better, but only a test drive will reveal the truth!!

Test driving is the problem. I’ve seen a couple of interesting examples for sale as click and collect but am loathe to do so without a test drive first. Will have to wait until showrooms reopen. Would be reluctant to buy and then find I need to spend time and effort upgrading the suspension.

Maybe missing the full experience HJF. How will you appreciate suspension improvements without trying the raw deal first. The cost of same using man maths will quickly be forgotten.

Buying a fully modified car and still not being happy with the ride leaves you with nowhere to go and maybe tears

Colin
I have fitted the SSL front and back. As the car was being rebuilt and i'm not getting younger and I had noticed the ride getting very bad ( big pot holes? ) I figured I would go the full hog. When i see reports online it gives favourable reviews, but hopefully in the next 6 weeks or so the MOG will be back on the road and i will be able to give you a better reply soon.

On a scary note i will always remember a MOG being returned to Berrybrook in sunny Devon. I asked what the story was and apparently the wife could not get on with the MOG and the dog could'nt get on being on the parcel shelf. So it was decided to return it. Crazy i know. Surely it would of been better to leave the wife and mutt at home!

A couple of years ago I was selling my Classic Mini Cooper. I had rebuilt it to show standard and incorporated many upgrades to the suspension. It was terrific on smooth roads but sporty on normal U.K. backroads, but I loved it. A chap called me from the South Coast adamant he wanted to buy it. I went to great lengths over the ‘phone to explain its ride quality but he insisted it was for him and he had to have it. He spent nearly all day travelling up by train. I picked him up at the station in the Mini. After half a mile he said “sorry, but it is too sporty a ride for me, and my wife would not like it”. I dropped him back at the station. On questioning him it turned out he had not been in a Mini on the road before but his neighbour had had one and he liked the look of it. I asked if I had not been clear about it beforehand but he said I had. Afterwards I took my wife out on the same route to see what she thought. She likes her comforts but could not see what his problem was. A few weeks later I repeated the process, same roads, with another chap who I thought an unlikely buyer. He loved it, bought it on the spot without haggling and drove it several hundred miles back to Hereford texting me later to say how fantastic it was!

Ride is incredibly subjective and tyres and wheel size have a significant impact.
On the Roadster I had SSL front suspension fitted and would have had their 5 link suspension fitted.
But instead I bought a Aero S4 based Plus 8.
More recently I allowed SSL to work their magic on it, with the result that the ride is comparable to the ride of our Mercedes C43 with the suspension on Sport.

I've als driven Molly, the Plus 4 used by SSL to develop their suspension and I have to say it transformed the car.
So, if you want a Trad with ride and handling that is more like a modern PlusFour than a 1950s Plus 4 then SSL is the way to go.

UPDATE:

I have had the SSL conversion completed along with the brake bars.
I took my wife with me to collect the car, albeit a terrible cold windy damp day two weeks ago. It was a trial of a journey by train and country bus, stopping every two miles along twisty country roads and bitterly cold. No opportunity for refreshments anywhere thanks to covid restrictions and so she was in a really brilliant mood after we had walked the final distance to the workshop, fighting against the arctic winds which adjusted her carefully coiffed hair at no extra charge. The journey there took 3 hours although as the crow flies its only 50 miles.
And so it was, with great trepidation we set off, hood up ( first time with hood up for her ) and heater on full, out into the bleak countryside.
I wanted to avoid motorways and dual carriageways so as to evaluate the new suspension, therefore the only alternative route was along poorly maintained A roads that are mainly used by HGV's that rejoiced in drowning this little red car every time one passed in the opposite direction.
I didn't speak all the way home, dreading the tirade I was sure was building up, to be released in full fury when we arrived.

And so as we entered the house I turned round and with quavering voice dared to ask if she thought the ride was any better than before, I automatically ducked at that point as she was passing the knife rack, but my mind just couldn't compute when she said " It's a pity the weather wasn't better than it was today, we maybe could have had the roof down, as the ride was so much smoother and I didn't realise that the heater would be so good", with that she just walked away and suggested I wash the car before putting it away.

So yes gentlemen, the modifications have been a great success the most surprising element being that the steering is so much easier at low speed. New King Pins and bushes were fitted at the same time and the Lazer tracking resulted in an adjustment being made from 1.5 toe out to 0.5 toe in. The damper settings were made as soft as possible to avoid rear axle bottoming , maybe consider fitting a bump stop.
It would be nice to consider fitting the rear conversion as well if the results were to be as remarkable as the front, but the cost is prohibitive.
Also found the cushion advertised on line and bought one at £40, that's yet to be trialled.

Colin: Great news!!

It terms of returned comfort on money spent the SSL 5 link isn't as stunning as the work you have had done on the front, but still significant.
Time to start saving?