 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Anyone fitted air suspension to a Defender? |
 
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| TexasRover Member Since: 24 Nov 2022 Location: Paris Posts: 1296   
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I think at the front you would need to relocate the damper since on a Defender this goes through the center of the spring, while on a RRC air suspension it obviously cannot. You could swap the axle (?) but you would still need to create a top mount. On the back you might get a straight swap agreed.
For controls, unless you just fit some schrader valves at a strategic location and inflate and forget, you could consider using the RRC/P38 controller. It has a bad rap for sure, but it is a stand alone system, pretty simple and still very serviceable. I have a P38 and worked through the whole suspension system and it has never caused me any issues once I sorted the valve block with a new seal kit (dropping) and fixed the compressor electrical supply relay and plug (occasional error code). Parts are cheap too but the solid axles will never provide the same smooth ride as independent like my Discovery 4. I like to keep my P38 original, but I don't think the ride would deteriorate much if you were to put it on coils, which many people do. |
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11th Aug 2025 3:57pm |
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| Def90 Member Since: 17 Jan 2015 Location: Kent Posts: 267  
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Hi TexasRover
If you look at the picture of my front air spring I am running the the RRC damper mounting turret with an additional bracket on the axle that works fine. I looked at using the original RRC control system but now considering a much simpler AccuAir system. |
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11th Aug 2025 4:06pm |
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| MadTom Member Since: 10 Sep 2013 Location: Olomouc Posts: 675  
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Controll system, at least basic with just manual controll is a must - to lower the car for parking/low gates, level the car during camping on uneven terrain and to inflate/deflate according to load in the vehicle.
In our D2 the difference of unloaded/fully loaded vehicle is more than 500kg, in Defender is can be much more. D2 drops at least 5cm during loading, and it automatically rises when started. 1cm height difference is nearly invissible, but 5cm is too much. Most impostant function of ait suspension is the self leveling. Crosslink - I think, the tubes used to connect the bags are too small for any fast air movement between airbags. D2 uses tube with 4mm OD and 2mm ID - very thin. "Drobek" = The Small One - Discovery 2, "Blufínek" = The Blue Thing - Defender 130, and for me at least Ford Mondeo  |
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12th Aug 2025 6:12am |
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