Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

[Rogerthatv2 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Rogerthatv2]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Looking good Richo! Lucky bugger being on the beach... Trying to con Lawry into letting us head to the beach on Ekka Wednesday but with not much luck.

[hookedon4wding Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close hookedon4wding]

Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Thanks Richo, I have the factory towbar so slightly different setup buy will get them valves fit somewhere similar.

Question: do the valves come with covers?

PS, your Prado looks great with the white bar and lift. Will have to do the same to mine I'm thinking.

Cheers, Sam.

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Thanks Richo, I have the factory towbar so slightly different setup buy will get them valves fit somewhere similar.

Question: do the valves come with covers?

PS, your Prado looks great with the white bar and lift. Will have to do the same to mine I'm thinking.

Cheers, Sam.

Hi Sam

Those chrome bits are covers, the open end is a valve stem remover, the valves ar sealed with them pn.

Regards, Richo.

[hookedon4wding Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close hookedon4wding]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Had my Firestone Coil-Rite airbags installed today. Very happy with the result. They were installed by Motor Court Toyota in Mornington, VIC and they did a brilliant job, particularly with the fabrication of the bracket at the back which is very neat.

They recommended running about 10psi in them when unladen. The manual says 5psi minimum. What do you guys run yours at unladen?

After the quick trip back from the dealers, I didn't notice any harder riding with 10psi in them.









Cheers, Sam.

[Silvo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Silvo]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

They recommended running about 10psi in them when unladen. The manual says 5psi minimum. What do you guys run yours at unladen?


Cheers, Sam.

20 psi, i never change it.. 20 psi for everything for me. although unladen for me does include black widow drawers which i leave packed.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Sam,

In your picture the bags look under inflated. It looks like there is a gap between the bag and the spring coils. They normally bulge out and work against all the coils of the spring. This is my experience with the Polyairs anyway.

Mick

[hookedon4wding Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close hookedon4wding]

Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Sam,

In your picture the bags look under inflated. It looks like there is a gap between the bag and the spring coils. They normally bulge out and work against all the coils of the spring. This is my experience with the Polyairs anyway.

Mick

Hi Mick, they have 10 psi in them in the photo. Airbag Man instructions say that if they bulge more than half way through the spring they're over inflated.

Will play around with a few different pressures and see what works best.

I have nothing in the back for day to day driving.

Cheers, Sam.

[Richoson Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Richoson]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Hi Sam

I run 5psi and still get the nice ride. I have Black Widow drawers installed and measured before they were installed and with the 5psi have the same ride after. I don't carry a lot of gear in my car when round town to keep the consumption normal, when loaded for a trip I run around the 15-17psi range.

Regards, Richo.

[hookedon4wding Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close hookedon4wding]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Hi guys, I presume the bags will still have allow the suspension to sag a little (just minimised) to allow for shock absorption still?

With only 8psi in the bags, the rear sags about 30mm with the camper hooked up (about 110kg ball weight). With 25psi in the bags, it sags about 10mm.

Does this sound about right? Should I have to put that much in them? The ball weight will be reduced once we pack the camper (get some weight behind the axle) but the measurements above are with nothing in the back of the car. I still have to add a fridge and some food boxes for our trip.

Cheers, Sam.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

I was surprised to find this bit of information on the tyre inflation recommendations from the Pink Roadhouse:
(this copy of the tyre pressure pdf is actually from the Mungerannie Hotel website, the Pink Roadhouse website doesn't seem to have it available)



Hmm. Any takers?

Michael

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Hmm. Any takers?

It's true in a sense, just not explained at all.

Air bags make your suspension stiffer, for the sake of the arguement think of it as increasing the spring rate. The stiffer they are the less compliant they are over rough ground and the more abuse your tyres get.

So while airbags themselves won't make tyre damage more of a problem they add to to your overall spring rate.

For example;
If you and I both have X brand springs at medium rate and I run airbags then if everything else is equal, I will be more prone to suffering tyre damage (cuts and chipping mainly)
But: if you change to heavy springs, well then things could be equal in regards to tyre damage or you could even suffer more (depending on the final spring rate and airbag pressure)

Mick

[Riding On Air Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Riding On Air]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Hi, Airbag Man here,
The lines above about tyre damage are very true, and in addition, if the spring rate was not high enough to hold the vehcile up, it will bottom out on the bump stops easily, making the suspension very stiff, and make the vehicle prone to damage underneath, so choosing a happy medium is the best idea. We recommend that air helper bags not be inflated above 20psi if a vehicle is going through very rough terrain as this will ensure they will not be damaged a a spring compresses under full flex. If you want to maintain maximum driving height on rough roads then an properly tuned aftermarket full air suspension is the best option as it will allow the tyres to follow te contour of the roads better than a coil suspension, and yes we do sell these, at special prices for PP members .

[vh_ofc Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close vh_ofc]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

I will be putting air bags on my 150 Prado soon to help support towing an 1800kg van. Not sure which yet. One thing I have noticed un-asked in this thread is why not run the air lines to a common filler point? I had an air bag support system in a Commodore some years ago and you regulated the air pressure in the bags by a single filling point located in the rear boot channel. I would have thought that you would want the same pressure in both sides, so filling from a single point will give you that rather than trying to exactly filling each side from a different filler using a fairly inaccurate pressure gauge?

[Silvo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Silvo]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Interesting, ive never thought of it that way, but yes mainly I use even pressure each side.

Dan

[raydes Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydes]

Re: Firestone vs Polyair Bags?

Joining the two air lines so you get equal pressure in each may be OK for a Commodore but for a off road vehicle when on rutted tracks as one wheel goes up and the spring and the bag compresses the air , the air in the bag will get forced to the opposite side and may split the bag with double the air in it.