fitting air helpers (Iron Maiden's boobjob)

[ricster]

I got a set of 2 air helpers from IanT a few months back and have been threatening to fit them for ages.... but as usual time never works on m y side. So Saturday morning after visiting Father in law and helping him with his Kia' turbo problem, I was standing in my driveway and decided that the sun was shining for a reason.... time to give the Iron Maiden her boobjob.

So out with the jack and trestles, put the Patrol in 4L, chock both front wheels and up went the Iron Maidens rear end. I disconnected the shocks to allow the axle to drop to the max. I disconnected the diff breather pipe, brake line and difflock pipes to prevent damaging them.

I jacked .... and jacked.... and jacked.....and then jacked some more. put 3 layers of Maxi Bricks down as a base eventually for the trestles to rest on..... and the wheels are still on the ground and the coils are still tight in place !!!

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Its quite impressive when the rear is that high off the ground, but swambo won't like it cause she would never reach anything if she had to load a bag in the back.....

Eventually the coils were loose enough to get them out. I checked the coil tops for any signs of cracks and all looks 100%.

Swambo works for Tectra Automation, and they do pneumatic goodies, so a few days earlier I sent her on a mission to buy me 2 elbows and a T-piece and 6m of hose. I got an air valve from another hydraulic hose place, so I had all the bits and pieces and was ready to fit it.

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In went the air lifter with new hose, and then cut the hose as I didn't want a 90 deg bend in the pipe and fitted a Bosch Rexroth elbow. I did this to both sides.

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Then fed the new hose through the gap above the coil top's and out towards the exhaust.

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I joined up the hose to the elbow on both and proceeded to pop them back into place.

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Once in place it was a matter of fitting the air valve onto the towbar plate that holds the trailer electrical connector, and use the T-piece to join the left and right side bags to the air valve, and all was done. Just slowly let the Patrol down while watching that the coils are seating correctly, reconnect all the hoses and bleed the brakes.

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[IanT]

And did you blow them up???

[ricster]

delicately and gently...... with love......

Used my compressor that stays in the Patrol. Took about 4 seconds to get it to 2.5 bar, then reduced down to 1.0 bar. Will check the pressure when I get home tonight and see if there are any leaks

[offroadbiker]

Nice man, I had mine done two weeks ago....

One question thought - what is the possibility of them being exactly the same pressure/ or not if you use only one connector to inflate? Reason for asking is that mine are separate so I was just wondering.

[Tinus lotz]

Mine is also separate prefer it that way ...if i load the car i even it out with the helpers...
So is the iron maden going faster now that its driving down hill all the time?????

[ricster]

I don't need to go faster, 140Km/h is plenty fast enough for me when I'm on holiday. And anyway, my diesel beauty still beat your 4.8 on the track Tinus......

I decided to use only one inflation point as the pressure will be equal in both bags. I don't overload the patrol and I've never had it leaning to one side due from packing so these are purely for when I hitch the Baraka off road trailer and have the wife and kids 20 bags of sh...... stuff in the back to keep it level.

If I had 4 air bags, I would build a console to be able to operate each bag independently, with a built in compressor so as to level the Patrol on a heavy side slope, but with just the 2 on the rear coils I felt that this set up would work the best for me. If need be it would be a quick fix to make them independent as the pipes are all there ready in case I need to change the setup

[IanT]

Was it not a bum lift not a boob job????

[Kagiso II]

now you must just lookout for BOOBY TRAPS .. :-)

[ricster]

..... damn.... The Iron Maiden got a buttimplant....... that 's scary !!!

[Grant]

Hi Cedric,


Looks like you are following the Kardashions rear look. Not for me