airbags - How reliable off road??

I took my D2 for its first proper off road session the other day and the air suspension worked a treat, but my question is how reliable are they?? what I mean is how likely are they to go bang and leave me unable to get home?? I walked past a D2 the other day with an air suspension problem and the rear towbar was about 2 inches from the road! should I change it to coils If its going to be off roaded lots??

There are a few people on here who use them offroad with no problems, urban panzer is one i think.

Personally i would want to remove them for coil springs, My D2 had this done just before i purchased it and the handling feels great.

Brian

Personally i like the air suspension, i had it on my range rover, it was on all 4 corners on that and i never had any problems. As with everything if its kept in good condition it should be reliable. Some people prefer springs, i prefer air at the end of the day its whatever you feel happy with.
Mark

I do like the air, its very useful, the only thing that concerns me is if they get damaged off roading, and leave me unable to drive home! Ive heard horror stories of RRC's with air all round blowing a bag and all four corners are on the stops after a bit of light off roading, infact I think theres a vid on youtube about it.

if yer air bags are tired then dont do it.All components will fail if used off road when there on there last legs any way.Seen p38s off road on air.Made really horrible noises but was fine.

jimbo-td5 said:

I .....what I mean is how likely are they to go bang and leave me unable to get home?? ??

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Not likely but also not impossible...same as it's possible to burn the clutch or the engine to fail.... but if U wanna go offroad u have to be prepaired for everything. I used them alot even in ORM and untill now they've never bertayed me. For insurance first put new bags and height sensors.

I also made a trick to be sure that I'm able to go home from muddy fields if a bag is leaking: when I replaced the bags I interpolated a T air joint on each bag's air supply pipe(close to the bag), on these joints I put two pipes connected to an other t-joint which have a faucet(located in the trunk). I have a heavy duty 12v air compressor(I use it for tyres mostly) which I can connect to the faucet and I made my plan that if i'll have leaking bags I'll disable the car's compressor(from fuse, as to not burn it)) and connect my compressor which'll pump the bags untill I reach clear ground........ might be a silly idea but I stick to it.......meanwhile to avoid other questions I can say that no pressure loosing thro this improvisation and my compressor has an exhaust valve which can be adjusted as to not blow the bags just to keep them under pressure.....is well known that the car's compressor is burning out if it's working too hard, it's just not rigged for heavy duty

Those air springs are designed to be as heavy duty as the coil springs.
Tierd old bags are no more likely to go when coming down a steep bank or going over a speed bump !.

If your going at it that hard off road that something gets mangled up your rear wheel arch bad enough to puncture a bag, then who,s to say it wont have your brake lines off aswell.

Another thing to think about; what puts more strain on the bag, bumping around over rough stuff or when towing 3.5 tons ?.

I like rear air and have had no problems with it.

If its something that your worried about then try and find yourself a couple of great big bits of industrial rubber, cut a " V " in each end and, if your bag goes, strap it between the axle and the chassis to get you home.

Del.

50 pence said:

If its something that your worried about then try and find yourself a couple of great big bits of industrial rubber, cut a " V " in each end and, if your bag goes, strap it between the axle and the chassis to get you home.

Del.

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that's a great idea too......unless it's so deep mud that U can't jack up the rear......but brilliant and easy to handle on strong field:clap2:.