PolyAir suspension airbags

[Windsock]

Hi all,

I have a LR 110 flat deck equipped with polyair airbags in the rear coils. Worked well in stiffening the suspension to stop load 'wobble' on and off road but now I have a small leak in the top of one of them and cannot use them anymore. The truck can now wobble under load... However it can be fun if expected but not too much fun on the open road at speed under load

Has anyone had any experience with repairing these bags? If so, how'd you repair them, and was it a good thing to do?

Cheers,

Phil

[oldblue]

I had an air fitting that broke loose and started to leak, I removed the complete fitting from the bag which was not easy to do. Then I used a "Holdfast" product that is used in the coach building trade, for fixing glass to metal. You may need to use a primmer.

[Windsock]

Hey thanks for the info Olblue,

I can see where the leak is once inflated and sprayed with a detergent mix. It appears a piece of grit or something has been sandwiched between the top plate of the suspension and the airbag under load and has pierced the bag. Probably a lesson in there to clean the area before inflation...

Had a chat with a fella at a tyre repair place and he was reluctant to even contemplate the repair. I am unsure what the material is used in the bags even so any info there would be appreciated from anyone.

Cheers,

Phil

[oldblue]

Ive got one that has not leaked and have since removed the air bags from my Prado, so if you don't have any luck, your welcome to it.

[Windsock]

Cheers OldBlue , I'll be taking the leaky airbag out of the truck next weekend soonest or weekend after and will have a close look in the clean and dry. If I cannot fix it I'll measure it up and we can compare dimensions etc and go from there.

[Windsock]

Finally got around to removing and repairing this airbag. Fix was successful so far as it has stayed inflated over a few journeys under various circumstances - laden, on/off road and unladen sitting for about four days with no change in pressure so all seems good.

Fix was undertaken by using A U-Pol product called Tiger Seal (http://www.u-pol.com.au/). Airbags are made of polyurethane and so I needed some PU adhesive to fix them. A good range of PU adhesive is hard to find. Also, most of the PU products I found were said to dry softish and given that these bags are in a situation where harsh contact is between them and the coil springs I needed something that dried harder. Tiger Seal is sticky, damn viscously sticky . It does dry to a reasonably hard finish and yet it is as flexible as the airbag.

I used some medium weight 'duck canvas' as the buffer/reinforcing material and pushed the PU into the grain of the material and then stuck three layers over the hole in increasing 'footprints'.

All good so far and hoping it remains so.