Thread: Airbags - Polyair or Firestone?

Hey All

I am gearing up for another Simpson/Flinders trip next year and am thinking of putting in some rear airbags to help with load carrying. I have a TD5 disco with coils all round and run HD Old Man Emu springs which have dealt with loads up until now (on a Tassie, then Fraser and a few Big Desert Trips) with only marginal amounts of sag. But with the Simmo I am going to be carrying more water, more diesel etc etc.

So, I am thinking either Polyairs or Firestone airbags and just wanted peoples advice and experiences with the two. My father had Polyairs on his GU patrol for a while but got rid of them cause they kept on leaking and I had heard that Firestone make airbags for trucks and may be a bit tougher.

Questions I have -
1. How do they compare for price?
2. How are they for reliability?
3. Are they easily fitted? either brand have any fiddly problems?
4. Anyone know of the best place for prices?

Cheers

Angus

G'day Mcdisco;

I have exactly the same set up on my 300tdi disco , old man Emu Suspension , Coil Spring all around with OME Dampers ( nitrochargers ) , and have fitted Poly Air Bags to aid with load carrying capacity.

1) whilst not sure how they compare with Firestone Airbags , If i remember correctly from Memory I paid around $370.00 for the 2 Air bags, Pedders suspenion in hornsby fitted the bags for $120.00 , infact they ordered it from Polyair and had em delivered & Fitted.

originally i bought a set from a mate who had a disco and the airbags that came off his disco weren't the right ones to fit my OME coils so i took my disco to pedders and they orderdered the right ones.


now if you decide to go for the polyair bags make sure they fit your specific OME coils , as you know there are different sizes of poly air bags...

2) in terms of reliability , I've not had any issues with them , I've done a few short trips Off-Road ( no desert trips yet ) and they performed well.
Never had one punctured and deflate etc .


My rear coils Springs are 100kg constant OME's, Prior to having poly air bags i had a shelf unit installed + Kaymar Rear Bar + ARB Roof Rack and all the Extra Load I was carrying , and the Rear-end of Disco was redicoulsy sagging , and I do carry quite a bit of Load , so once poly airs installed the vehicle is back to it's normal position before any load was placed on the vehicle etc , I run about 15psi-20 psi of preassure depending on the load etc.

3) easily fitted , IMO no. it was a fiddly job , the rubber plates didn't seem to fit into the top and bottm of the Coil Spring's brackets and some rubber had to be shaved off around the rubber mounts to get' em to sit in nice and level ....pedders had just the right tool for the job , i didn't , on top of that you have to fuly deflate the Air bags to place them inside the Coils ,and keep them deflated by placing the Hose of the infaltion nuzzle of the air bags and Block off the other end of it so they stay deflated , fit them inside the Coils and then once air bags completely installed , remove the blockage and inflate them back up and hope somehow this would straighten em out, it makes things so much easier if you access to a Hoist , I had a really sore back at the end of it.

4) As for Best Prices Pedders organised the Polyair bags and they were quoted the same Price that Poly Air Quoted me.




Polyair Springs
Princes Hwy (cnr Railway Rd) Sydenham 2044(02) 9519 9774www.polyair.com.au


all the best Mcdisco , let us know how it all pans out for you...