Thread: Tennis Ball Air Bags

I know a couple of guys who have used tennis balls in their springs to stiffen them up a bit. It does work to a degree, but I can't tell you how long they last. Once they're in though, they are in to stay. One of my mates who does it has a LWB Bedford van on a Chevy Trailblazer 4wd chassis. On the front he has leaf and tennis ball coil springs, there must be about 10 or 12 in the coil. He reckoned that it makes a difference to his 3 tonne rig.

Yes it is true and yes it works as a stop gap. We bought a S1 Disco a few years back and I did notice that the rear springs were chockers with tennis balls. The first owners had done alot of towing of caravans. I left them in for the one and a half years that we had the vehicle and never had a problem. It did stiffen the rear end up quite a bit. All up in that time we only seemed to have popped one only. I have poly airs in my Rangie which has worked much better though and I would go that way instead.
Shano

Fellas, it is NOT an urban myth, they really do work. I ran my '96 300 tdi Disco for 5 years with 20 tennis balls in each rear coil and this included a fair bit of off road work in the Victorian high country. They stop the back end hitting the bump stops and although I did burst 5 balls, they were not difficult to replace. Also, each tennis ball is an individual air bag anyway.
I would recommend you do it and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than polyairs or similar. You don't need to buy expensive tennis balls either, as mine were el cheapo K-mart variety.

JIm Bellew
99 RR Vogue on Gas - Love that air suspension now (better than tennis balls!)

yes tried it with a rangie I used to have....kept popping the balls and replacing them...but did make a difference..went to polyairs, much better. It is in my experience, a real stop gap as others have said.