petdav30 Posted November 19, 2015 Report Share Posted November 19, 2015 Just purchased a 2012 Toyota LC Diesel 200 Series. Gonna tow 18ft Kedron. Looking for advice/suggestions on two fronts. Would it be wise to upgrade the LC's standard suspension? - and if so, what's the best option/s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv and Di Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 Air bags under the rear for a start which will eliminate the need for a WDH then you can look at any of suspension packages that are available, Old Man Emu etc. Cheers Merv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bas Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 I may be mistaken but a WDH works differently to airbags. Airbags assist in keeping the rear of the tow vehicle at the optimum height, but do not distribute the weight of the towed van etc across the rear and front suspensions. I have both fitted to my 100 series but run only 15lbs in the airbags and use the WDH for what is intended ie weight distribution. Cheers Bas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taka Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 petdav30, My two bobs worth .......... We have a LC 79 series 2013 (3.8t fully loaded) with a 19"6 XC3 (3.5t fully loaded & 350kg tow ball) and found the correct suspension setup is by trial and error. Firstly we ripped out the standard suspension and installed TJM Gold with rear bellows. Towing around the Top End last year basically destroyed all components ($2,300 down the dunny). The bellows ($1,000) were set at around 70psi when fully loaded and we were using the WDH to gain a reasonable ride height, but the stiffness in the rear was horrible (pardon the pun). We were forced to install a GVM upgrade kit. Lovells gave us an extra 600kg of GVM ($5,000 with Engineers Plate) which has been fantastic. Birdsville Track this year proved the capability of Lovells. The bellows were set at 20psi and we did not use the WDH at all. Be careful though, the GCM does not go up when you upgrade the GVM ! With ARB OME suspension, I believe that the upgrade amount (kg) is less than that of Lovells for your vehicle, I may be wrong though. If I had my time over again, I would take the vehicle & van fully loaded to a Registered Weigh Bridge and find out the axle / overall loads before I purchase any suspension. For $30 it would of saved me around $3,000 ! I should of listened to the missus ............. Regards Taka 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merv and Di Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 Hi Bas. You are correct they do work differently but I would not hesitate in saying I would prefer airbags to a wdh any day. I run 15psi normally on the Chev just running around town and with the van on the back loaded, and we go just under 4t I run 30+psi, so I would put a little more into your bags and you might find they work a little better and your wdh might just go out the window. Cheers Merv 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John and Tina Posted November 21, 2015 Report Share Posted November 21, 2015 (edited) From my own personal experience heavy duty airbags on the LC first, see how that handles before you upgrade the suspension . I fitted airbags to my 2014 GXL 200 series and have found it to be excellent. I am not going to touch the suspension at this point. 25 to 30 PSI when towing depending on load. Warm Regards John Edited November 21, 2015 by John and Tina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahara100 Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 I fitted a set of King progressive springs and good shocks all round (Rox) to a 100 series Landcruiser. Used a WDH and towed a 23ft van around Aus with zero issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bas Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 Received an email from RACQ a few days ago and one of the topics is "Getting the balance right" and has a video of a vehicle and caravan with and without a Hayman Reese WDH, and the difference in braking with and without the weight being distributed correctly. It is worth watching and demonstrates that air bags or stronger rear springs alone do not provide weight distribution. I tried to paste the URL without success but Googling "RACQ Getting the balance right" will find it. Cheers Barry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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