Help with stiffer road springs for added weight

[chris_los]

Hello Everyone;

I'm in the process of outfitting my 1977 350SE for a classic car rally that will go from Cape Town to Nairobi this July.  I'll be adding a roof tent, 12v fridge/icemaker, a second "house" battery and some luggage.  I estimate all this will add about 500 lbs of weight to my 350SE.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with what type of road spring to install to help cope with this.  I was thinking of putting W116 300SD front springs on, with 4 tab spring seats up front as the OM617 is heavier than the M116 and that should give me some extra clearance.

For the rears, where most of the additional weight will be, what are my options for rear springs?  I have a friend who put W140 springs on his W126 to raise it up, but I don't want to lift it more than 1" or so, I just don't want to be down due to the weight. 
 
My car is in Cape Town and I'm in Canada until mid June so I'll only have about 2 weeks to fit all this stuff (I rebuilt the top end of the engine fall of 2023, plus did service and other repairs).  I do have a 450SE in Canada that I'm using as a template and parts car.  I will be able to test fit uprated road springs on my 450SE and use some cinder blocks as test weight, then pack them to South Africa when I go...

Any suggestions?

I'd also kill for a factory W116 sump guard... mine is missing.  Does anyone know if the W126 sump guard will fit a W116?

[rumb]

Sump guard for sale in Shop section!
https://forum.w116.org/shop/nos-protective-sump-guardbaffle-plate-for-sale-1165200042/

[Jackhammer]

SLS would be perfect for this, but i'm guessing too complicated. How about h&r springs? granted, they are 30mm lower, but are also stiffer,  maybe they could work for you, with the thickest rubber pad on top of them

[ramiro]

I actually retrofitted SLS in my W126 because of the propane tank never regretted it , if you can find a donor it actually it is not very hard.

[ptashek]

I guess your best bet would be to get springs from the "special protection" version, as these had to support a huge amount of added weight. Front is A1163214404, rear is A1163240904, but both are marked as NLA