Pedders Suspension

Hi Lachie

I think you'll find that Pedders supply and fit Polyair brand air bag inserts for your rear suspension. I've had these fitted to four Prados over a 14 year period and have never had a problem. The other brand to consider is Firestone, however I'm not sure who the local distributor is.

They are excellent (IMHO) is levelling out your vehicle when carrying heavy loads - stuff in the back and a loaded roof rack.

I don't think they help with levelling the vehicle towing a trailer - that's more of a job for springs, shockies and possibly a WDH.

George_M

Lachie,
I have had pedders foam shockers and their springs fitted to my 80 ser for 8 years and polyairs for 3 years. This was also to prevent the sag. I tow an offroad van, and they recommended air bags before i picked it up.
I am not happy with pedders workmanship but the shockies have been surprisingly good.

Cheers,
Bill

If you go into some of the Forums like Toyota,Nissan & Pajero Club of Victoria (recent postings on Pedders) you can form your own opinion. There was an article awhile ago about problems with Firestone Airbags but I do not know the details. I have ARB suspension (I think Kings may make their springs) with load sharing/progressive coils in the rear. I have a 1500KG off roader & no problems also a good ride when not loaded. Had this system on 2003 Pajero & now on latest model. There are numerous combinations of springs and shockers. I asked a tour operator (tag along into the outback & everywhere else in Aust) he said he uses either, Koni,Bilstein or OME shockers. King Springs and second choice Lovels or ARB. He also takes tubes of tennis balls in the vacuum packs when people with air bags have a failure. He jacks vehicle up & puts T/Balls through coil to match other non punctured a/bag.

First question is why? Air suspension is considerably more expensive than any normal setup and in our experience the performance is at best variable. There is a considerable amount of science and engineering required to get the correct bump and rebound setup and airbags that repalce springs normally get harder as they increase height which really makes the shocks work very hard. So you need to ensure you have the suspension correctly matched otherwise potential problems

For example Disco 4 is a huge improvement over Disco 3 but not perfect nor does it offer as good an all round ride as a decent sping and shock setup

We use TJM XGS gold shocks and their extra heavy duty raised springs with poly air bags as helpers on one of our 120 Prado and it offers, in our view, an excellent all round result. Our vehicles operate from sort of heavy to 2950 kg for a 14 day tour and slightly lighter if we have the XTrak on the back

Polyair's need to be kept moderately inflated when the vehicle us unladen and that means around 6-8 psi. When our vehicle is fully loaded and/or towing we run them at 14-16 psi as they are spring helpers and load levellers not suspension

Regards

RobA

Thanks all for you reply's.
Now thinking on the line of new shocks and progressive springs. I have had a quote of around $ 1,700.
Lachie