Thread: WDH or Polyairs?

What kind of weight at the towball?

ummm id say not much more than 110kg, my ball weight is 120kg, the aggregate trailer mass is around 1280kgs. because my unladen tare weight is around 950kgs, im planning on installing a second 80litre water tank underneith, which should decrease the weight around the tow ball (installing the second water tank to the rear of the camper)


also, thought i might just add a quick question in regards to WDH, if i go off road for example, i know the Goldstream is a good camper which can handle going off the beaten track etc, but if im going up and down bumpy rutts for exampe (purely hypotetically) or travelling down say the telegraph track, will it continue keeping the car/tralier combo level? or am i missing a bigger picture here?

common sense says to me that the WDH is only suitable on the highways and normal roads, but once i go into the scrub, is it a waste of time?

eddie

A WDH will need to come off for off road work.

The airbags wont do the job a WDH would do anyway. The WDH actually transfers load to the front axle where the air springs will just lift the back.

Go with the Polyairs, 1200kg will be fine with airbags, we have Coilrite bags in our coiler D2 and they are great, cheaper than the WDH also.

Baz.

If you only have about 120kg-ish then you wouldn’t want a heavy WDH. The big set from Hayman Reece are for 200kg+.

If going down the WDH route than the lighter (mini or intermediate) systems will suite.
http://www.haymanreese.com.au/products/weightdistributionsystems.htm
There are many manufacturers making the light kits now. Active fab in Beenleigh list a 4 bar kit for $178+GST. If I remember I paid about $300 for PolyAir kit back in late 90s, then had to fit them.

As for off road use – it depends on what you’re doing. The lighter kits - dirt/gravel tracks (general bumpy ruts) & beach work they are OK (we have for over 20 years), in fact since they transfer weight to the front driving wheels they can be beneficial. They are just a spring, put more force than 80kg / pair of bars and they just bow, the torsion that the 19mm bars produce is not going to damage anything if stretched past their operating angle. But going into areas that require the extra clearance and articulation they will have to come off.

As mentioned. WDH will transfer weight back onto the front wheels of the car, maintaining traction for minor things like steering and brakes (if you don’t have ABS it is especially noticeable). The kit also forms a torsion bond between the chassis of the car and chassis of the trailer which settles down forward and aft rocking. Polyairs (and similar) only raise the rear of the car, so the front of the car will still be higher than normal (carrying less weight).

On the other hand. With only 120kg it really shouldn’t be a problem, so polyairs could provide a solution with less ****ing about…

Personally, I’m not a fan of polyAirs - I fitted them to my Disco 1 some 12/14 years back and hated them – they make the car hard when empty compared to the factory ride, you must maintain a min of 5 psi to avoid pinching which for me was too rough for everyday use. When fully loaded they only needed about 20psi, so 5 is actually quite significant. Might as well just fit heavy springs, or buy a Nissan.

If we tow the 3t boat with the D1 (yes we still have it) both front wheels will lock under heavy braking (on dry tarmac), its not a good place to be… WDH (550lb kit) solves that, PolyAirs make no difference other than making the driver feel confident with a level car.

WOW! you found 5psi in the polyairs too hard????

I keep mine at that level just to keep them in shape more than anything else, can't feel any difference if they have 0 psi or 5psi, but I have a D2, maybe the overall weight distribution makes a difference?

I use Polyairs now because they were already on the car, I bought Firestones form Chicago Springs in the US for my previous D2 for about 1/2 the price of Polyairs and as long as you have no lift, they are great. If you do eventually do a lift you can buy the Polyair spacers for about $40, just jack her up, let the bag down, push it up to the top of the spring and slip it in between the coils..... couldn't be easier.

Our off road camper goes aboout 1200kg fully loaded btw with a ball weight about 90kg. Everything stays nice and level and have never noticed any impact on braking etc (elec brakes)

We have used Polyairs for years, towing a boat and find them excellent to level out rear of the vehicle.


One important thing with these is not to run them completely deflated, even a few PSI is OK.


Erich

Interesting. I am planing on fitting polyair's and use a WDH as well when I hitch up my new van. I am hoping on coming up with a "happy medium" like doing most of the leveling with the WDH and then just tweak up the rear end with the bags.
Regards
Robbo.