I run 4 corner Air bag man air suspension. Fitted the kit in early 2021 and since then done several VHC trips and a Simpson crossing with a stint in the Flinders Rangers driving the tracks to watering holes etc. My kit is not off the shelf. I run extended shocks and have modified the front turret height to suit the longer shock and in the rear i have a hybrid bellow with 20" extension and run 12" shocks.
As for VHC type touring or driving that type of track in the GrizzlynBear video, provided the set up is all balanced you should not have a problem. By balanced i mean, shock lengths are ideal to bellow travel and the bump stops are your limiting factor on compression.
Issues that i've encountered since fitting the kit:
1) broke the piston on the front. From the short section of video in the GrizzlynBear failure, mine was the same. I did mine **** around at home. i aired up the rear to full extension but that put the weight on the front and it broke the plastic bit that holds it to the axle mount. I see how the GrizzlynBear failure could happen in the bush and i'm conscious of it. Having sufficient height in the front when in cross axle terrain will help. It gives the bellow a fighting chance for the PSI to exponentially increase to increase the rate before the bellow bottoms out. See pics
2) i cracked the rear diff coil mount. The bellow has a larger diam base compared to the coil and with the diff roll from the pinion angle, there is alot more leverage on the diff mount. I found the crack on a rest day before the Simpson crossing. only found it because i was dedicated enough to put a torch on every nut, bolt and suspension part as a precaution. Welded it in Birdsville as a temp fix. i replaced the cracked mounts with thicker and larger mounts that i had welded on.
3) i broke both front shock mounts at the bottom. One went on Davies plain over Xmas. That was a palaver to limp back to Omeo to weld a fix job to get me home. the other in Bunnings car park. Air bag man revised the bracket design from the first set with extra bracing. On my set up the shock bottoms out before the extended bump stops have enough resistance to be the primary limiting factor. I run GL + 1" bump stops + the spacer that Air Bag man offer in the kit. I'm +2" extended. I run 3 way adjustable shocks so there is about 1" at the base of the shock for the rebound adjustment mechanism. That reduced the closed length by that amount. Short of designing (which i will do) a shock mount that is set lower at the bottom to account for the shorter closed length, it will be an ongoing problem. FWIW the 130 handles no different without shocks on the front with air bellows. not sure if that is good or bad. The Bunnings breakage was 2 hrs Hwy drive from home where i had a spare.
The rear has been trouble free save for the mount crack. if you are just interested in load carrying and flexibility of height adjustability between loaded and empty, fit rear bellows and run coil fronts. A rear sway bar will be beneficial. On balance, air suspension is not worth the money, hassle and stress. I never had a problem with coils and never gave thought to failures of coils in the bush. With air, i'm very conscious of it and it occupies much of my mental load when in remote areas.
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Originally Posted by MLD
I run 4 corner Air bag man air suspension. Fitted the kit in early 2021 and since then done several VHC trips and a Simpson crossing with a stint in the Flinders Rangers driving the tracks to watering holes etc. My kit is not off the shelf. I run extended shocks and have modified the front turret height to suit the longer shock and in the rear i have a hybrid bellow with 20" extension and run 12" shocks.
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