Air bags for rear springs

Anyone heard of these? I'm told Volvo do or did air bags to sit inside the rear springs, I think I need some in my quest to make my rather low estate more practical when carrying loads...

[Glen Morangie]

Yes I remember them being popular in the past - might have been called 'spring assisters' or similar. The ones I saw were like minature plastic footballs that went inside the springs, and you inflated them to the required pressure to lift the car. The only spring assisters I can find now are the 'rubber insert' type, which wedge out some of the coils in a spring.

(edit)

Just to clarify - I've never heard of Volvo offering these, they were aftermarket offerings from a motoring association or somewhere.

[Alec Dawe]

I think these air bags are still made. Best place to look is one of the caravanning magazines, in the adverts bit. I'm sure you can still get them.

[Mike_Brace]

Rear springs do sag badly with age - it is surprising by how much. I would before considering air bags buy a new set of springs will make quite a difference. If yoiu continually carryu a lot of weight you could consider heavy duty ones, although they can be a bit harsh when empty. I've fitted progressive heavy duty springs to my GLT estate which has given improved load carrying capability without compromising ride quality when empty. I have not been able to find anyone currently offering these springs.

Mike

[molening]

Did Volvo not make helper springs which came in the form of different shock absorber with a spring around it.

Very helpful thanks. My 'problem' if you like is that my car is running 4" lower springs and I'd really like to go to a proper airbag set up but lack the £850 required and heard about these OE bags from another forum. I'll be investigating further.

[minesa240x3]

Hi wagoneer,just thought i would add my bit.my first 240dl estate(B reg) was very low when towing my heavy old caravan,so i brought some heavy duty springs.Since then i swapped them onto my 240dl estate(E reg) and tonight i put them onto my 240SE estate(J reg).It lifted the back end by 45mm,I also have rubber assisters which fit into the coil springs,They are like a doughnut with a semicircular groove top and bottom,the rings have a cut so you have two ends and you wind them into the spring,this doesnt affect the hieght so much but when load is put on them they affectively shorten the spring.on taking the dampers off i noticed the SE ones had springs inside them as apposed to my originals which when compressed stay compressed??,if the rubber gators on the SE ones weren't perished i would have left them on.The ride is bumpier but with caravan two grown up kids and associated luggage i need them badly.the difference on the heavy duty compared to the standard is 3mm in thickness,10mm-13mm.you could always spend a small fortune on adjustable shocks! I keep looking in the scrapyards for some but as of yet no luck,and lastly my E reg had a torsion bar from one trailing arm to the other which was'nt on the SE,it is now!.Goodluck in your quest.

[Glen Morangie]

Originally Posted by minesa240x3

taking the dampers off i noticed the SE ones had springs inside them as apposed to my originals which when compressed stay compressed??,if the rubber gators on the SE ones weren't perished i would have left them on.the difference on the heavy duty compared to the standard is 3mm in thickness,10mm-13mm.

The shocks on your SE may have been Nivomats, which are self adjusting for the load and use a smaller spring than standard ones. IIRC failing Nivomats 'go hard' but I've never had any so I don't know. They are quite expensive new.

Hi all, relative noobie here. I have had my S70 T5 Auto for a year now, and I was really put off by the way it rolled around corners. I got stiffer & lower springs fitted at the front. This cured most of the big Swedes wayward tendancies.

I left the rear springs as standard cos I didn't want to scrape the exhaust over speed humps (the ones around here are massive, ambulances get stuck on top of them).

The problem with this set-up is that It changes the roll charateristics of the car. Now it tends to squat at the rear (due to the soft springs) when I take round-abouts while the front stays composed and taut.

I want to fit the stiffer springs at the rear but I also want to fit bags so that I can raise the car if I am carrying loads. I have seen bags fitted on PIMP MY RIDE but they were fitted to an American car that had a solid rear axle. The bags were inserted between the axle and a stiff part of the cars underbody.

The volvos rear suspension set-up is semi-independant (take a look under your car - you won't see a solid single piece rear axle). The volvos semi-independant set-up is good but it could make it hard to fit standard bags.

Anyway - If anyone knows where we can get bags that we can fit to our volvos, I would appreciate the info.

Finally - The low springs at the front and standard springs at the rear give the volvo a cool 'Gangster Lean' towards the nose. It make the car look like it is ready to pounce and eat up GTI's like a cat eats budgies.

Iz

[classicswede]

Back to the original question.
What dampers are you running? Dampers will make a big difference to the way a car rides.