Thanks Gerhard,
Has anyone experienced issues with their Gen3 Paj as a result of this and really bad roads, have seen a few pics with a few bakkies with broken chassis, mostly with piggy back campers on rear in bad road areas.
How do vehicles with air suspension overcome this problem, more curious on say the Treg and Disco 3's and 4's. I know it is a different suspension setup overall, just would be interesting to understand.
Around the use of airbags, what would be safe pressures so as not to compromise the monocoque chassis, as that is not the intention.
Thanks
David
As I said, the problem is mostly with leaf spring suspension.
Fitting air helpers change the position of the load points on the chassis.
With the leafs only, the load is transferred to the chassis at the ends of the leafs.
With the air helpers, the load is tranferred to the chassis at the mounting point of the air helpers. The chassis was not designed for these loads at these points.
On the suspensions with coil springs, the problem is not the change in position of the load points (they stay the same), but more the higher loads on the support points. The load is 'softly sprung' for the normal coils, but for the air helpers (pumped very stiff), the load is 'hard and unsprung', which transmits shock loads to the chassis / body.
Vehicles with air suspension (VW Touareg, Disco, CYenne, Merc GL/ML etc) are designed to have the loads at these points.
Sent by 4e, from my iPad using Forum Runner
Fitting air helpers change the position of the load points on the chassis.
With the leafs only, the load is transferred to the chassis at the ends of the leafs.
With the air helpers, the load is tranferred to the chassis at the mounting point of the air helpers. The chassis was not designed for these loads at these points.
On the suspensions with coil springs, the problem is not the change in position of the load points (they stay the same), but more the higher loads on the support points. The load is 'softly sprung' for the normal coils, but for the air helpers (pumped very stiff), the load is 'hard and unsprung', which transmits shock loads to the chassis / body.
Vehicles with air suspension (VW Touareg, Disco, CYenne, Merc GL/ML etc) are designed to have the loads at these points.
Sent by 4e, from my iPad using Forum Runner
Thanks Guys, this helped me as well as I am looking for a solution.
Just some feedback on the rear airbags, they really are fantastic, just returned from Kgalagadi and I can definately say these bags are great. The rear still drops a little, but definately not as much as before wth heavy load and trailer hooked up, had mine pumped to 2 bar, and they really stabilise the vehicle as well, noticeable in corners as well as when towing on tar and gravel. I didn't want to over pump them as I have got the heavy duty as per Marcel which can handle 4bar, but happy just to stabilise the rear without causing any long term damage or weaknesses.
Great mod!
Great mod!