Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Tonton,

1. The installation is totally standard as per the installation instruction given by the Air Spring people. The airbags fit into the coils and eack bag has two Polyprop? (plastic) spacers (2 x about 12 and 2 x 40 mm hick) - one for the top and the other for the bottom of the coil. The bag system does not give extra ground clearance but prevent the rear end from sagging when loaded. I found a place in Pretoria West that made (cast) out of the same naterial 4 x thicker spacers for me (±50mm) . These give my Pajero a few mm lift. I think the peice for four was about R350,00. Regards, Cloyd de Klerk

cloyd wrote:Virgilio,

1. Somebody is smoking his socks!!.. Contact "AirSpring Company" in Jet Park close to Johannesburg International . Their tel no is 011397 6390 or 082 554 7023. They ask about R2300,00 for a set. I installed it myself without any difficulty. I am on my second set and uses my normal traffel compressor to inflate them. I installed only one "filling" point at the back next to my towbar ball.

Cloyd.

Thanks Cloyd,
Will contact them tomorrow.
Virgilio

cloyd wrote:Tonton,

1. The installation is totally standard as per the installation instruction given by the Air Spring people. The airbags fit into the coils and eack bag has two Polyprop? (plastic) spacers (2 x about 12 and 2 x 40 mm hick) - one for the top and the other for the bottom of the coil. The bag system does not give extra ground clearance but prevent the rear end from sagging when loaded. I found a place in Pretoria West that made (cast) out of the same naterial 4 x thicker spacers for me (±50mm) . These give my Pajero a few mm lift. I think the peice for four was about R350,00. Regards, Cloyd de Klerk

Thanks Cloyd.

I was interested in seeing your only one "filling" point at the back next to your towbar ball. But I guess that will also be standard?

Regards,

Anton

Cloyde
Thanks will be collecting all the bits of Friday. Considering fitting in cab single control.
Locally made unit R850.00 exclusive of vat. Imported unit R1340. vat exclusive. Will look at the quality and make final decision. Down side will only have time to fit in about three weeks.
Its like giving a kid sweets and saying they not allowed to eat them.
Once I start the fitting will post some pics
Virgilio

Hi Virgileo

I am also looking at going the "air bag" way on my Gen2 Pre-blister because when I hook on my Venter Botswana trailer the PJ's rear end sags. I have replaced the shocks some 5 months ago with Munro's gas shocks, but I am a bit concerned after I've read a article in the Jan/Feb "Wegry" page 12 about a guy with a 60 series Cruiser who has put in "airbags" as well and he had almost no wheel articulation. he had to deflate the "airbags" to be able to go up/down Road to hell, close to Goodhouse (wherever that is). He did not say which brand he has put in, but he says that the company refunded him in full for the whole operatio . Have you had your's changed/put in and how do you find them? What was the costs involved

Thank you
Bennie Gerber

Hi Bennie,
Missed your post. I have not gone the airbag route. Eventually went Ironman suspension route because firstly my shocks were shot and when I measured the height bottom of rim to wheel arch had different heights on all wheels. Difference between highest and lowest was 25mm. Added to that with the vehicle empty and only one passenger in the rear my tyres would rub the inside of the fender when I hit a bump. The rear had also dropped to the point that at night when driving on dims (empty) on coming cars kept flashing me. Bottom line I needed lift as well as firmer suspension when towing my trailer which weighs in the region of 1500KG's when loaded .
The airbags would stop the suspension sagging/ bottoming out but would not give any lift which is what I needed as well.
Read the article guy with the 60 Cruiser. Have my own thoughts but will reserve my comments as I don't know all the details. What I can say first hand is that a friend of mine had the airbags in his Isuzu double cab and was very happy.
As soon as the cash flow improves again will install the airbags to assist my Ironman suspension.
Virgilio

I have the air helpers fitted to Gen2 Pajero. Also had them fitted in a previous LR Discovery. They work excellent! It can give you a slight lift, not much though, but does wonders for towing, loading and handling and roadholding.

Hey guys,
what is the advantage of air suspension?

Wilddog wrote:Hey guys,
what is the advantage of air suspension?

Soft standard ride when not needed, firmed up suspension and lifting of the rear end back to level ride height when loaded.

CATS

Just a word of warning (caution at least):

All (most) of you have seen the images of bakkies with broken chassis, which were posted on the web over the last few years.

Most (if not all) of them were bakkies fitted with air helper systems, fitted to leaf spring suspension.

I suspect that these air systems were inflated to pressures way beyond the specified values (in order to level off the suspension on a grossly overloaded vehicle ?)

This causes a few problems:

• The ride is very hard and uncomfortable
• The hard ride puts stress on other components as well
• Worst of all is that the original suspension is now rendered inoperative, with the following results
  • All the load is supported at one point on the chassis (in stead of the original two)
  • the (over)load is now transferred to a point on the chassis which was not designed for this type of load

Normal (standard) leaf spring suspension: See where the load is supported. See where the load is supported with an air helper over the axle: I suggest you have the chassis strengthened if you fit an air helper system.