vtminer

Ok, so before anyone goes off, I know I want my cake and to eat it too. I've posted another thread here regarding an LS engine swap and now I'm on to thinking about the suspension. I'm looking to run 37's and will likely end up with about 4-5" of lift to clear them with possibly some trimming in the rear. While the rig will be set up for expeditionary trips, I still want to have a stiff enough rear suspension to tow a trailer at highway speeds but drop the trailer at the camp site and have a flexy suspension. The trailer will have some weight to it as my base platform will be an M1101/M1102 model military trailer, although I intend to chop it down the middle and make it narrower. Fully loaded, I expect the trailer to come in around 2,500 to 3,000 pounds.

I will be starting off with a high quality lift (i.e. no Rough Country or Rancho crap here). And I know that I can get custom made progressive rate coils. But I'm thinking about going with a softer coil setup and installing air bags in the rear to help with the trailer weight and handling. My thought is to mount the bags farther inboard (i.e. closer to the differential). When towing the trailer, I could inflate them to provide the additional support. When offroad without the trailer, I could deflate them. My reasoning for mounting them inboard is still to allow as much flex as possible. While they still would act as limiting straps, the effect is much less the closer to the center of the vehicle you get.

My other though is to mount them farther outboard from the differential and closer to the shock mounting location. In this scenario, I'll mount them such that they are on a "quick connect" style mount where I could deflate and remove them in a few minutes for offroading and quickly reinstall them for towing.

Has anyone ever done either of the setups described above or do you have any other ideas? Thanks.

phuggit

Look up sumosprings. They might be what you're after.