Shockies or Air Bag Replacments ??

Hi nuboy, I have just fitted a set of Powerdown RAW Nitro shocks to my '02 100S & found them to be really good. A little bit harder ride that std, but not too stiff, because I wanted to retain my L/C soft ride, must be getting old lol. They came well recomended by off roaders & are supposed to be bullet proof, guess only time will tell aye. Check out the website.

www.raw4x4.com.au/index.html

Regards PEBE

Hi nuboy

I would suggest both! At a guess I would say you are probably carrying a full load in the back of the cruiser as well as towing the van. To wear out a pair of shocks in 10,000k's is a sign of either poor el cheapo shocks or too much load. I have done 75000k's in my prado with OME suspension and polyairs, carrying a full load and for a lot of it towing a 1500kg van, and the ride is still good. Have you taken it back to the mob that put the Pedders on?

tg

Hiya nuboy. Coupla questions for ya first if i may.....
1) How often do you tow?
2) Are the rear springs standard or after market?
3)Is the l/c a daily driver for SWMBO and the kids during the week?

Got that bit out of the way and now on to our experience with air bags.
Bloody love them. Towing is simply improved more than you could imagine. Stability of the tow vehicle remaind constant throughout a large range of surfaces form bitumen to dirt and onto the tracks.\
Around town as a daily driver they are set down to about 8psi, with very little effect on ride quality at all, if anything it handles better with the bags in.
Towing/heavy loads is improved as well. Simply pump up to about 30psi BEFORE loading/towing,,,,hook up or load up,,,,then lower the bags to get an even ride hight of the entire setup.
I measured height of the back end( Bottom of rim to underside of guard ) before the bags were fitted, then when loaded/towing i adjust the bags down to this height again.( about 27psi for me ).
Our suspension is stock standard except for the air bags.

meow.

rick.

Air bags love 'em.
I've just posted this article feedback (also now in forum as a newThread dated today 2/7/2007)

Vehicle/Trailer Load Balancing. Other solutions.
I've not tried load balancing bars, but the effect seems to be that of 'transferring weight from the rear wheels to the front of the tow vehicle, thus ensuring efficient steering and braking' (quoted from the article).
Elsewhere there is a recommendation that tow bar load should be 10% of the trailer weight; so a 2000Kg caravan should have a 200Kg tow bar load (vertically).
For a well balanced rig it would seem important to have 2 parameters about right: the tow bar weight and height (the latter to match the trailer tow hitch height) plus the relative weights of towing vehicle and trailer within regulations.
Air bags on the rear axle of the drive axle also seem to be a common solution but this suggest that tow bar weight might be too much anyway.

However, I've never seen the solution that I've adopted; I don't have an engineering background but chose the following as an alternative solution (suggested by me, fitted by ARB); and it seems to work very well....

I have a 1000Kg offroad dual axle camper trailer (with heavy duty leaf springs and linked for trailer load sharing) , and have fitted airbags to the front axle OF THE TRAILER. By increasing the pressure in these airbags, the balancing point of the trailer moves backwards and adjusts the towbar load, and consequently the height. The trailer is fairly well balanced currently so on the open road I have just 10psi in the bags, but I plan to add weight in the form of a trailbike, and maybe more storage, onto the drawbar (it's a long one), so would just add more air.
The setup has the added advantage that enough air (about 70psi in my case) will lift the rear axle clean off the ground; handy for those tight reverse turns that scrub tyres in a dual axle setup. It makes the tow bar weight too light, but I wouldn't drive far or fast with it anyway. Handy also for decoupling: takes the load off.
I also went one step further and had airlines fitted from my vehicle compressor to the trailer via a control switch & gauge; so the trailer air bag pressure can be adjusted from the cab; even while moving! I'd be interested to know if anyone else has seen such a solution, whether it might work for heavier caravans, and whether anyone has seen a device for measuring actual towbar load.

Nuboy shocks & airbags do 2 different jobs, one being to stop rebound & the other to carry weight. If the rear of the car is sagging you have 3 main options. Upgrade the springs, fit airbags or install load level bars to the van.
If the rear of the car is bouncing too much this would mean either the shocks have failed or the shocks are not valved sufficiently to control the additional weight of the van (may be OK just for the car). Ideally your suspension could be upgraded to something like the Koni adjustable shock for long life (200,000km before rebuild) with either heavier springs (regular towing) or airbags for ajustability. Polyairs in a 100 series Cruisers work very well but the shocks should be valved to allow for the increased spring rate.
If not towing offroad a set of level riders are very cost effective at both transfering weight to the front axle & reducing sway & rebound.
Cheers Craig........
HZJ105
Koni shocks, Med weight Lovell springs with Polyair bags.

First choice is a set of Tough Dog shockers,
Second choice is a set Ride Pro ( Canadian made,, not Chinese lookalike )

And go for the biggest bore long travell type

Beautiful

Cheers
Bucky