Adventuring Pals struck a safe balance with a tailored airbag solution that at 90,000 kays was still going strong

WORDS AND PHOTOS ELVIN AND ESHLYN PAL

I have been running airbag suspensions on my dual cab ute for over 90,000 kilometres now. We have taken it all around Australia on our big lap, towing our caravan on road and off road. We have completed a Simpson Desert crossing and over 10 trips to K’gari Fraser Island. I will explain why I chose it and how I’ve used it successfully without it causing any issues. 

When looking into levelling out the back of my ute for towing our caravan, there were a couple of options available out there. The one I kept coming back to was the air bag helpers, due its adjustability. 

Why Change?

We had an existing Outback Armour suspension setup which was performing superbly. At the time, it was the heaviest constant load rear springs, which was about 400kgs. The only trouble was that when I hitched up the van when the ute tray was loaded, the ute would be slightly nose up. This didn’t appear to be affecting the performance as it still felt stable, but it just didn’t look right, and I didn’t want to get into a situation where it might cause a long-term issue. After all, we were on our big lap and towing constantly, and in some fairly remote and rugged places. 

Work & Play 

I liked the idea of being able to adjust the stiffness of the bags with ease by using an air compressor, which I always carry in our 4WD anyway. 

This has been working well for me even when we have stopped our big lap and returned home. I have two lift-off canopies, one for work and one for camping. I also use the ute without any canopy, and we still tow our caravan, too. It’s been great to be able to easily change my rear airbags to suit whatever layout I’m running whenever needed.

Chassis Care

While I was researching airbags on dual cab utes, I kept coming across a lot of stories about utes bending and snapping their chassis, which was a very troubling thought indeed. What got me past these troubles was a deeper dive into researching how airbags work and how to use them. I spoke with many people using airbags successfully for many years, I spoke with independent vehicle engineers, and I also spoke directly with the guys at Airbag man. I explained my needs and they gave me a great guideline to work with. 

Pressure Matters

The biggest mistake most people make with airbags is running them with too much pressure. They are not meant as a replacement for heavy duty spring,  rather a helper. If you have a larger constant load in the back of your ute, then a set of suitably-ra

ted rear springs is still a better option. I already had 400kg constant load spring on the back of my ute and about 400kg of constant load on the tray. So, I got the air bags to help only when hitching up the van. And even then, I only needed to put in 15-20 psi of air to level out my setup. When towing off road, as well as airing down my tyres, I also reduce the air pressure in the airbags to 10-15psi.

Daily Driving

When I’m not towing, I only have 5psi of air in the bags which is the recommended minimum.  

By keeping the air pressure in the airbags at a suitable level, I have avoided any troubles and rather I have found it to be a great solution and I would have no hesitation in using it again in future setups, as long as it suited my application. 

The Adventuring Pals Subscribe Here

Facebook

>