Thread: Is it possible to make the ride smoother?

Just saw this thread.
Mate from Zimbbwe was telling me an old "Bushies trick"... supposedy.... well, he reckons it worls.

Jack vehicle up til there is apce at top of the coils.....
Fill space inside coils with tennis balls as many as will fit.
Drop (lower) vehicle from jacks.
Drive car - if too hard, pop a tennis ball in each corner with a screwdriver.
Continue until ride is to your liking !





NB I am NOT recommending this, but if you try it let us know how it goes.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Just saw this thread.
Mate from Zimbbwe was telling me an old "Bushies trick"... supposedy.... well, he reckons it worls.

Jack vehicle up til there is apce at top of the coils.....
Fill space inside coils with tennis balls as many as will fit.
Drop (lower) vehicle from jacks.
Drive car - if too hard, pop a tennis ball in each corner with a screwdriver.
Continue until ride is to your liking !





NB I am NOT recommending this, but if you try it let us know how it goes.

Vlad, doing this won't improve the ride, it will make it firmer. I know peoplw with polyairs who carry tennis balls in case the poly-airs fail on a trip.

The tennis balls apparently don't last very long, so it is by no means a long-term fix.

Yes that's an old Africa trick! Before we knew what airbags were!

Ben I wasn;t suggesting it was a GOOD plan.... Cheers

Fender,

While there is a lot of good advice posted and as always it's down to your personal preference, I think Chuck touched on it a couple replies ago...

What pressure do you run your tyres at? While you're working out what you want to do with the suspension, have a look at running a couple PSI lower. There's appears to be major panic about sidewall damage, but I've for many years now changed my tyre pressure to suit the days driving and the last suspected (not confirmed) sidewall blowout I had was in 1997 (touch wood!!!).

On a serious note though, give it a thought. High pressures are bouncy, rattly and generally uncomfortable when the car is unloaded, and slightly lower pressures will absorb a lot of that. My Puma 90 spends 80% of its life at 2 bar (29 Psi) because it bounces like bugger at factory recommended pressures and at 12000km barely shows wear on the tyres.

Cheers!

Thanks for the help!

Do you run (or is it typical) to have the airbag suspension on all four wheels, or just the rear two wheels?

Secondly, I have been a fan of Bilsteins, but is there a particular shock that is well suited to these?

And last, are there manufacturers/ brands that are better than others? Have you had experience with good/ bad ones?...... I figure if it is more expensive, then I better do it once and do it right$.

Cheers

(it't nice to have a working "A" again.)

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Hi TG,

There are not really any significant drawbacks at all that I have found. If you fit the right size bags you will get as much travel as the suspension links and shocks can give you - in fact I have more travel than before!

Advantages:
Much smoother ride.
Ride is just as soft with no load or fully loaded.
(usually) more articulation - and much smoother articulation.
Can drop suspension down to load/unload (I have found this very handy as I often carry a tandem kayak on the roof).

Disadvantages:
Need a compressor
More complex than steel coils
More expensive than coils (depending on setup)
Possibly less robust than coils (but bags are VERY tough and can be repaired with tubeless tyre plugs)

Originally Posted by ThorneGator

Thanks for the help!

Do you run (or is it typical) to have the airbag suspension on all four wheels, or just the rear two wheels?

Secondly, I have been a fan of Bilsteins, but is there a particular shock that is well suited to these?

And last, are there manufacturers/ brands that are better than others? Have you had experience with good/ bad ones?...... I figure if it is more expensive, then I better do it once and do it right$.

Cheers

(it't nice to have a working "A" again.)

I have just done the rears (so far). Hally, Rovercare and Rangierrover have all done all 4 wheels (and posted up pics of their setups).

I have kept my bilsteins and am happy with them. Though others have different opinions of their suitability. An Air spring has slightly more inherent damping than a coil (which has none).

There are several airspring manufacturers, however Firestone (which most of us have used) had as good a reputation as any.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

... An Air spring has slightly more inherent damping than a coil (which has none)...

I don't think inherent damping is the issue. The main difference (compared to coils) is that air springs have a much lower spring rate, which it turn results in a lower natural frequency.

Some people may not think they can have a much lower rate because they put such emphasis on this when considering coil spring upgrades and changing ride heights, but they need to remember with air springs, the ride height is changed by adding or subtracting air, not by changing spring rate. The spring rate is non-linear, particularly at the travel limits, but doesn't change much over much of it's range.

As a coil is compressed on bump, the force (= spring rate x deflection) in the spring increases much more than and needs more rebound damping compared with air springs.