Airlift 1000

[dandywarhol]

Agree with that but I thought it might be more prone to chaffing

[Velocette]

Agree with that but I thought it might be more prone to chaffing

Yep, the last thing you want is the thing getting caught in the spring. A neoprene foam spacer maybe would work.

[BongoTerry]

I decided to fit some air lift units to the rear suspension of my Bongo after
noticing that when loaded for trips out it would occasionally 'bottom out'
when going over what I considered to be small humps in the road surface.
I chose the Airlift 1000 units as they look to be simple basic pieces of kit
which seem easy to fit and come with all the fiddley bits and pieces like a
tee piece to link them if required and tyre valve type fittings which are
designed for panel mounting.
So here is an overview of how I fitted them, I'm sure there must be many ways
to do it but maybe this will guide someone as this worked for me and seeing
as how my right arm is disabled well, if I can manage it so can you.
The kit I used can be found at:-
http://www.mattsavage.com/acatalog/copy ... rings.html
Look down this page and find the AL001 set, list is listed for the Bongo
rear suspension.
When I bought mine (24/08/2010) the price was £70.00 + £9.00 p&p + VAT
totalling £93.41

After chocking the front wheels I jacked up one side of the rear
(not on the axle) and removed the road wheel.
Then using spring compressors which are made for the job I compressed the spring
(as shown)



Then I pried it out from the top, There is no need to remove it completely.
I took care to take a note of the springs original position so as to refit it
correctly, also take care when re-fitting to make sure that the top rubber mount
has it's stop correctly located.
The instructions suggest here that the air nipple should be fitted at the top,
this may be fine on some vehicles but on the Bongo the aperture disappears
into the chassis and with my limited capability I was unable to find a suitable
exit so decided to fit the unit up the other way first dropping the thick
spacer to the bottom of the spring with its ridge facing down, then feeding
the air line through and out of the bottom and sliding in the air bag,
finally placing the thin spacer on top of the air bag, sliding the whole lot
back into position and releasing the spring compressors in the same way as they
should have been tightened, that is, one by one, half an inch at a time or there abouts.


Then I inflated the air bag to 50 PSI and after re-fitting the road wheel I
gradually lowered the jack meanwhile just ensuring that the air bag seated itself
inside the upper cup of the spring holder.
I then released all of the air pressure so as to be able to run out the air line
to its destination. There, easy, now do the other side.
After routing and clipping the pipes up into the near side rear light enclosure
I then put them through a grommeted hole into the void which is behind the lower
seat belt mechanism and then tee'd them onto the supplied tyre valve which I
fitted as shown.



I then inflated them to 17 PSI as a starting point and will let you know what
I think after the run to Looe.

[robdrinky]

Hi,Bakey-we met at a french reststop.hope you had a good trip.
i run ours @20psi when in holiday mode,settled on this after some experimentation.

[Jaws]

Great description BongoTerry! I recently fitted the same kit but couldn't get my (somewhat larger) spring compressors into position. After watching the video here..
http://www.airliftcompany.com/installation_videos.php
I managed to get the assisters in place without moving the springs or removing the shock absorbers. Some gentle persuasion with a blunt instrument was all that was needed! I also invested in the compressor kit and ended up mounting this tucked away in one of the units of the conversion with the controls accessible inside a cupboard door. This lets us put a back box on and then adjust the pressures to suit.

[The Great Pretender]

Interesting stuff, but remember the stiffer you make the spring rate (higher psi) the more you alter the damper/spring ratio (weaken it). It is possible to design a system that copes with just a driver and fully laden but it costs more.................. And accountants don't like extra cost.
The answer is a third spring allowing each wheel to rise and fall and in tune with its damper empty or loaded.

Now think about what happens when you load up the Bongo, the springs compress, the body drops and the anti roll bar arms turn but don't twist the bar. If Mazda had fitted a lever arm in the middle of the bar connected to an extra spring and damper you then have separate control of wheel movement (comfort) and load (weight).

[MountainGoat]

I have had Air Spring Assisters fitted to my bongo for 3 years now. They were fitted using the fact sheet that can be found in the members center. This recommends that the assisters be fitted with the Air Nipples facing downwards.
A word of warning, do not fit your air valves in the tailgate as shown in Terry's post if you intend to fit a back box or you will have to remove the back box to open the tailgate every time you need to adjust the air pressure in the assisters. Fitting them in the much more accessible position at the back of the sliding door well as recommended in the fact sheet is much more preferable.

Tony

[Jaws]

Interesting stuff, but remember the stiffer you make the spring rate (higher psi) the more you alter the damper/spring ratio (weaken it).

Anybody know where I can get some adjustable dampers

[dandywarhol]

Interesting stuff, but remember the stiffer you make the spring rate (higher psi) the more you alter the damper/spring ratio (weaken it).

There's another school of thought that says if you stiffen the suspension (higher psi) then you reduce body roll which wil give the dampers less of a hard time

I found the combo of air assisters/standard coil springs and stock dampers worked v. well, including towing a 2 wheel trailer with 2 220 kg motorbikes weighing down the towbar.

[The Great Pretender]

Interesting stuff, but remember the stiffer you make the spring rate (higher psi) the more you alter the damper/spring ratio (weaken it).

There's another school of thought that says if you stiffen the suspension (higher psi) then you reduce body roll which wil give the dampers less of a hard time
I found the combo of air assisters/standard coil springs and stock dampers worked v. well, including towing a 2 wheel trailer with 2 220 kg motorbikes weighing down the towbar.

Yes to the first point but no to the second as the damper should be matched to the spring rate to arrest its oscillation. Springs are chosen to match sprung to the unsprung weight (the vehicle against suspension and wheel), allowing in our case a nice ride. This is normally expressed as cycles per minute as it makes it easier to understand. Anti roll bars are measured in thousands of lbs to arrest the sprung mass (everything inboard of the suspension) rolling instead of going up and down.

I'm sure it worked well, but, I think you are being a bit naughty you know your tow bar will only be taking a fraction of the trailer weight.
Sorry about the over simplification, trying to keep others on board.

[dandywarhol]

It was a bit tongue in cheek Mel - but the trailer design was a poor one - its wheels were too far back - I could hardly lift the towhitch onto the ball by myself

I'm with you on the matching of dampers and springs but the unsprung mass is HUGE on a Bongo - live rear axle and all that - so the standard dampers have a lot to cope with anyway..................................

[The Great Pretender]

Now, here is an opportunity to upgrade the Bongo suspension but it wont come cheap...........................
First get hold of one of these to cannibalise........................
It's a bit like BMC hydrolastic suspension but computer controlled. Looks fantastic but .................lol..................here comes the but, why do they need to use a Z bar at the rear to control downforce as the hydrolics are computer controlled?

http://blogs.insideline.com/straightlin ... round.html