Thread: Air suspension suitability for offroad use?

I'm contemplating replacing the rear coils in my 130 with air springs. We have recently changed our long-range camping setup from a camper trailer to a Trayon camper so all necessary (and unnecessary) items will now be carried on the vehicle. The rear springs seem to have lost some of their oomph as the 130 sags in the rear when carrying either a load of firewood or the loaded Trayon with 100L water and 120L diesel. The current coil springs are probably around 8 years old, heavy duty and raised height- not sure exactly how high over standard but probably about 40-50mm. They've done a fair bit of work so the sagging is not a surprise.

I'm confident that airbag suspension would be great for the Trayon, particularly as raising / lowering the tray would make putting the camper on & off a breeze, also good for levelling on uneven ground.

What I'm not so sure about is whether they are great for high-country 4wd trips which make greater demands on axle articulation. The reason I raised the vehicle not long after getting it was that a lot of the high-country driving was getting me hung up on ramp-over and departure angles. I don't plan to drive those tracks any less in the future and need the vehicle to be just as capable.

My other query about airbag suspension is reliability; I mean the air springs themselves, not the compressor / lines etc. I converted a soft-dash Range Rover Classic back to airbags from coils so am familiar with what can cause headaches in the air supply area (never took that vehicle off the bitumen), but I'm wondering what the likelihood of failure is with the air springs themselves. I don't want to find myself on the Canning with blown bellows.

I'd appreciate if anyone can share their experience of air suspension to help with this decision?

BTW I am not interested in 'helper' airbags inside the coils.

Youtube travellers, who did an air suspension conversion on their 130 camper in WA about a year ago - I haven't watched recently but it might be worth checking if they have an update on it.