Thread: New coils for towing - need advice please

Firestone airbags from truckspring.com in the US.
Got them in mine and they work really well.
Great option ... it's like having two sets of springs.

rear springs are always a compromise,
go with the helper airbags

I have fitted genuine RRC green stripe rear springs to the front which give about and 30MM lift and the same rate, as my problem was bottoming at the front all the time. LRA make a spring which is the same down to the green stripe. I had a pair in the garage and thought I would try them and they are great.

I have fitted King light duty 50MM lift at the back as the necessary lift at the front meant it was tail down. These are virtually the same as stock spring rate but 2 inches higher.

The car is great with my camper trailer hitched with say 70-80KG ball weight and very level.
The down side is that when the car is empty and low on fuel I get quite a bit of topping out banging if going down very steep hills ( mainly Mt Pinnibar).

I plan to leave the springs in as is as they are great for loaded towing , but may see if LRA or someone makes a rear 30MM spacer which may be better with a stock spring. Nobody seems to make a spring with less than 50 MM lift. I would be grateful to hear if someone does .
Regards Philip A

you can try contacting king springs they will make custom springs i get them for my racecars all the times

Yep firestones. Works well for mine with about 200kg of downforce from trailer alone.

Cheers

Thanks guys for the info.

I was having a bit of a re-think about the problem (sag, sway and vague steering).

The trailer is quite well balanced - actually you can easily grab the hitch mount and teter it up and down with one hand, when it's near the balance point. I doubt the weight is excessive; it's not like I'm trying to tow a 35' yacht or anything.

The stuff on the trailer I'd estimate at less than 900kgs, plus the weight of the trailer itself.

It tows perfectly (no sag or sway) on a different car, but that car has a hitch that's mounted several inches higher than the disco.

Do you think having such a low hitch on the disco would increase the down force on the rear of the car from the trailer now being tipped nose heavy? When hooked up to the disco, you can see the trailer doesn't sit level - it's visibly nose down.

Here's a pic of the Dixon bates hitch I've got. It's useless off road, unless you need to plough potatoes... Maybe I should change the hitch first before changing out the springs(?)

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392722403.307471.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392722431.910452.jpg

Originally Posted by ss_0001

Thanks guys for the info.

I was having a bit of a re-think about the problem (sag, sway and vague steering).

The trailer is quite well balanced - actually you can easily grab the hitch mount and teter it up and down with one hand, when it's near the balance point. I doubt the weight is excessive; it's not like I'm trying to tow a 35' yacht or anything.

The stuff on the trailer I'd estimate at less than 900kgs, plus the weight of the trailer itself.

It tows perfectly (no sag or sway) on a different car, but that car has a hitch that's mounted several inches higher than the disco.

Do you think having such a low hitch on the disco would increase the down force on the rear of the car from the trailer now being tipped nose heavy? When hooked up to the disco, you can see the trailer doesn't sit level - it's visibly nose down.

Here's a pic of the Dixon bates hitch I've got. It's useless off road, unless you need to plough potatoes... Maybe I should change the hitch first before changing out the springs(?)

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392722403.307471.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1392722431.910452.jpg

If you can lift it, then I think it's too light on the tow bar. As far as I know the general rule is 10% so if your trailer weights 900kg you should be looking for 90kg down weight on the tow ball.

This is a bit of a problem for some vehicles like my Skoda Yeti. The max tow weight is 2000kg however the max down weight on the ball is only 80kg. My oldman has a caravan weighing 1600kg and we were interested to see how well the Yeti would tow it but his ball weight is about 160kgm which is about right. I didn't want to snap my Yeti in half so I didn't try it but I think it would tow it fine.

Happy Days.

Back on to you original topic of the rear springs. Some have recommended helper bags. I beleive they have there place but it depends what you do with your vehicle as the effect the ride even with the minimum pressure of 5-8psi.

If you just want the helper bags for towing and when your not towing then you stick to relativly smooth black top. Then they are fine.

If you want to go off road or just travel on some black top back roads with a little bit of weight on then they become a problem.

I didn't understand them at all before I purchased my Disco that already had them in place. I had this idea that I thought was great at the time but turned out to be a little hair brained.

My initial plan was to get some light weight prings that would be heavily sagged under the normal weight of the vehicle and then hook up the factory SLS system to the polyair bags to lift the vehicle and maintain the correct height. The idea was to have the reliabilty or coil springs with the ride and adjustabilty of the SLS.

The problem is the bags need to be inflated before the load is applied. The reason for this is they bind to the inside of the coils. If you try use them to extend the spring after it has been compressed by the load, it wont happen without going to pressures higher than the bags can handle and the ends will get blown out.

This binding to the inside of the coils is also what hampers normal spring operation when unloaded. Even with just 5 psi in the bags they press out against the inside of the coils and dont allow them to move freely.

They are good for some people but just remember they are not without compromise.

Happy Days