Air vs Coils

[JeremyB]

Thinking of buying a D3 for touring and towing a 2 ton offroad van. It needs to be able to get into National Parks but probably won't go rock crawling just for the sake of it.

Is there a consensus view on Air vs Coils for towing? I'd heard (from a sales guy!!!) that the coils were much better.

Also the air suspension model I drove had a lot of float. The Terrain Response was in the onroad position but the air suspension lever was in the raised position. Does the TR override this lever - or was it in the wrong setting for road driving? Again - couldn't get any sense from the sales guy.

Thanks in advance for any advice.



Jeremy

[WhiteD3]

If you can afford it, go for the air/TR. The ride's excellent both on and off road, and personally I don't think there's any float. I had 7 blokes in it the other night for quite a long trip out to dinner and they were all impressed by the ride quality.

The TR with all the driver aids will certainly make touring a lot safer.

Living and working in the city, I find the access height button extremely useful for UG carparks.

There's a thread in here somewhere (pre the D3 zone) about a guy with a coil sprung D3 who got a front bar, then had to get better springs to hold the front of the car up!

Cheers.

[JeremyB]

Any suggestion the TR gets confused with a van behind?

[Bushwanderer]

Hi All,
It looks like my D3 (with TDV6, manual & coils) will be the base from which all other D3s will be compared.

Bring it on!

[101RRS]

For the class of vehicle the D3 with coils has relatively poor ground clearance - little better than my Freelander.

Definintely go the air suspension - ride is better and you get the ground clearance appropriate to the offroad requirements. When jacked up a air suspension D3 far superior ground clearance than the coil version.

Garry

[JeremyB]

Garry
Thanks for this .. confirms what we had thought.

Our problem is that neither of us like the ride in the air suspended models. Its fine from behind the wheel - but in the passenger seat both felt it would be easy to get car sick. Plus the slight question mark on reliability.

Went back and drove both models again to make sure - and then drove the new LC200 which has a good ride as well as excellent ground clearance and 50% more torque. Also has Bluetooth as standard plus Hayman Reece compatable towing kit. Price is a bit of a premium - less so when you take the cost of a larger tank and wheel carrier into account.

Its looking like it'll get the nod.


Jeremy

[WhiteD3]

Garry
Its fine from behind the wheel - but in the passenger seat both felt it would be easy to get car sick. Plus the slight question mark on reliability.

Jeremy

Jeremy, I recently did a trip to Canarvon Gorge with my two boys, one of which is prone to car sickness on windy roads. Over the 1800k round trip they took turns in the front seat with no probs at all. My Mrs is also not keen on car travel but loves the ride of the D3.

Re the air suspension reliability; if you read through the many posts on the subject you'll find that there were a (very) few probs early on but not now. I've got the 2007 model, done 16k with no issues. There's others on the forum who've done 80k+ and will tell you the same.

Also, I've been on a few clubs trips this year and everyone comments how good the D3 is when it lifts its skirt (so to speak) to climb or clamber over obstacles.

Cheers.

[101RRS]

Garry
Went back and drove both models again to make sure - and then drove the new LC200
Its looking like it'll get the nod.
Jeremy

Hmmm - you might want to look into this a bit more - the 200 series is getting quite a bit of a caneing on other 4wd forums and it is mainly coming from Toyota drivers and is not the usual inter-brand rivalry.

garry

[gghaggis]

Jeremy,

There is no comparison - air all the way. I don't understand the 'ride sickness"?? I have a disabled daughter who's quite susceptible to motion sickeness, and for her the D3 on air is the best thing since sliced bread. Perhaps it was not set up right, or the tre pressures were wrong?

And the LC200? Had a good look at it at the 4wd show - bulky, heavy, average articulation and no more room inside than an LC100. The LC100 V8 is probably a better off-road machine. And still not up to D3 standards!

Cheers,

Gordon

Cheers,

Gordon

[JeremyB]

Garry
Most of the stuff I've seen on the LC200 in other forums is of the 'doesn't have a live front axle' or 'real 4wd's have wind up windows' variety. Is there anything I'm missing?

No issue with people who are OK with the air ride. Just the way it seemed to both of us and confirmed by the 2nd test drive. We also confirmed that you get what Landrover give you - no sport mode or any other option.

Remember - our #1 requirement is to tow a 2 ton van. See the Overlander tow test where there were clearly some initial problems with the air suspension. However the comments here are consistent - the D3 & air should be inseperable.

This post also doesn't fill one with confidence:
http://forums.overlander.com.au/viewtopic.php't=51182




Jeremy