How to raise Ford Falcon FG MK II rear suspension

[mikerezny]

Hi,
I would like to increase the rear height of our Falcon FG MK II (2014) sedan when we are towing the Penguin.
The towball weight is about 130kg. According to the vehicle handbook, this means 1.4 x 130 = 182kg load on the rear axle.
We also have about 100kg of other stuff in the back seat and boot. So, about 280kg of extra load on the rear axle.

Had a talk to someone from the Airbag Man at the camping show yesterday. They have an airbag kit to suit this vehicle.
The cost of their airbags is about $295 plus fitting.

What I would like to do is to increase the height of the rear suspension and restore it to around the same height as when the car is unloaded.
I guesstimate that I need to raise it about 40-50mm). The problem is that currently I have very little clearance when going over gutters or clearing the centre raised sections on rutted dirt roads. Normally, without the load and towing the Penguin, I would not have a problem.

My current towbar (1,600kg) does not support a WDH. I would need to upgrade to a 2,300kg Heavy duty towbar.

I have absolutely no experience in this area and would value greatly any advice to help me make an informed decision.
(No, I do not want to get another vehicle!)

Some possibilities I thought might be:
1: Adding airbags. (Are there other alternatives to the AirBag man?)
2: Getting higher profile tyres for the existing rims
3: Getting a WDH and upgrading to the heavy duty towbar
4: ???

Are there other possibilities? What are the pros and cons of any of these ideas?

cheers
Mike

 

[Bluey]

Bellows air bags if you have leaf springs too easy i had them on a ford wagon no dramas

 

[Drover]

The best way so it handles and tows well is to upgrade the whole suspension set up, costly but you will get better ride, handling and will be way better once loaded up, then if needed you can add some air bags, adding bags with old suspension or OE stuff is half hearted.

 

[mikerezny]

Bellows air bags if you have leaf springs too easy i had them on a ford wagon no dramas

Hi @Bluey,

I wish. No, the sedan has independent rear suspension.

cheers
Mike

 

[Boots in Action]

The best way so it handles and tows well is to upgrade the whole suspension set up, costly but you will get better ride, handling and will be way better once loaded up, then if needed you can add some air bags, adding bags with old suspension or OE stuff is half hearted.

Hi @mikerezny , do not know too much about this either, so hopefully someone on this forum may have automotive mechanical experience. You could probably fit higher rated coil springs, but this would affect the ride of the vehicle when not loaded in the boot. Tends to make the rear end tighter and give a rougher ride too on corrugations and cause earlier breakaway of traction unless loaded. I have also heard of "pump up" shockies which you can use to raise rear of vehicle to prevent sag when heavily loaded. Don't pretend to know too much about the pros or cons on any of this, but maybe someone will be able to provide their own experiences with these mods. Good luck.

 

[Boots in Action]

Hi @mikerezny , do not know too much about this either, so hopefully someone on this forum may have automotive mechanical experience. You could probably fit higher rated coil springs, but this would affect the ride of the vehicle when not loaded in the boot. Tends to make the rear end tighter and give a rougher ride too on corrugations and cause earlier breakaway of traction unless loaded. I have also heard of "pump up" shockies which you can use to raise rear of vehicle to prevent sag when heavily loaded. Don't pretend to know too much about the pros or cons on any of this, but maybe someone will be able to provide their own experiences with these mods. Good luck.

Hi again @mikerezny , just did a bit of research on Caravanners forum and see references to "progressive coils and better shockies". Pedders was a name mentioned. And they were referring to Falcons with coil springs too!!! This may give you some leads anyway. Cheers

 

[Axl]

I had air bags installed on my Pajero when I had it lifted a couple of years ago and I can tell you that the airbags will help with the extra weight in the vehicle but not so much the tow ball weight, you would see some lift but not the 40-50mm you are after.
If you were to put the higher rated air bags in (the ones with Kevlar sleeves) this may help as they can take up to 60psi but again I doubt you'd see 40-50mm. I have these and when I hook the boat up for an extend journey I take them up to 35-40psi to help out but I still get sag.
The pic below was just prior to heading of on a 300k journey to Iluka, there would be at least 35psi in the air bags and whilst its not the best photo for showing sag you can see that the front is raised and I don't think the boat has a tow ball weight as high as you've mentioned above.
At the end of the day I think you would be better off upgrading the rear suspension.

 

[Crusty181]

Hi @mikerezny , do not know too much about this either, so hopefully someone on this forum may have automotive mechanical experience. You could probably fit higher rated coil springs, but this would affect the ride of the vehicle when not loaded in the boot. Tends to make the rear end tighter and give a rougher ride too on corrugations and cause earlier breakaway of traction unless loaded. I have also heard of "pump up" shockies which you can use to raise rear of vehicle to prevent sag when heavily loaded. Don't pretend to know too much about the pros or cons on any of this, but maybe someone will be able to provide their own experiences with these mods. Good luck.

To put the harshness of ride in to perspective, I've completely replaced the suspension on my Navara. Navara's (along with all the twin cab 4x4 utes) have very soft suspension, angling the market toward the urban cowpokes whilst not frightening them off with a truck like ride. With my car constantly loaded with work tools, the rear end had sagged almost to the bump stops within 12mths of new. Im a cabinet maker, so my load of tools isnt huge and would fit in Mikes Falcon. I upgraded to 500kg HD constant load springs in the rear for both the constant load of tools, and for towing the van. Whilst its noticeable and "firmer", I wouldn't hardly describe it as harsh by any means. It also handles much much better, with the firmer suspension. No-one would be able to notice any difference, without deliberately and consciously doing a laborotory comparison of the before and after. No-one would have no clue driving on the blacktop, and with the usual roughness of off road it would be impossible to tell then to.

At the moment, its completely empty in the back from being away at Xmas, and im not in ay rush to fill it up with concrete so I can stand driving it, its fine as it is. My springs are pretty very duty, and they dont make for a harsh ride at all. Your only up the road @mikerezny, Ill come and take you for a spin. If you cant feel it mine youll never feel it in yours

My original suspension is up on the office roof, and its very unimpressive to look at. Suspension in all showroom vehicles (sport orientated models aside) is a massive compromise tilted toward soft ride, and mostly set up to just sell the car. In most cases purpose replaced after market suspension will provide better handling, better and safer ride plus you can set it up specifically for what you want the car to do ... and its not outrageously expensive

 

[Drover]

If you can't do it yourself or even if you can, go to Pedders or other suspension mob, they will give you the info, new coils at the rear and struts at the front will improve the whole vehicle, the original gear is probably stuffed anyway as it's way too soft, unless you go to super heavy duty you won't have ride harshness, that usually comes about with half done mismatched jobs after it's doen you will think you have a new vehicle.....................Tyres will play a part in it as well if you have rubber thats under 70 profile they will give a hard ride as well as prone to punctures when towing a load........

 

[Boots in Action]

To put the harshness of ride in to perspective, I've completely replaced the suspension on my Navara. Navara's (along with all the twin cab 4x4 utes) have very soft suspension, angling the market toward the urban cowpokes whilst not frightening them off with a truck like ride. With my car constantly loaded with work tools, the rear end had sagged almost to the bump stops within 12mths of new. Im a cabinet maker, so my load of tools isnt huge and would fit in Mikes Falcon. I upgraded to 500kg HD constant load springs in the rear for both the constant load of tools, and for towing the van. Whilst its noticeable and "firmer", I wouldn't hardly describe it as harsh by any means. It also handles much much better, with the firmer suspension. No-one would be able to notice any difference, without deliberately and consciously doing a laborotory comparison of the before and after. No-one would have no clue driving on the blacktop, and with the usual roughness of off road it would be impossible to tell then to.

At the moment, its completely empty in the back from being away at Xmas, and im not in ay rush to fill it up with concrete so I can stand driving it, its fine as it is. My springs are pretty very duty, and they dont make for a harsh ride at all. Your only up the road @mikerezny, Ill come and take you for a spin. If you cant feel it mine youll never feel it in yours

My original suspension is up on the office roof, and its very unimpressive to look at. Suspension in all showroom vehicles (sport orientated models aside) is a massive compromise tilted toward soft ride, and mostly set up to just sell the car. In most cases purpose replaced after market suspension will provide better handling, better and safer ride plus you can set it up specifically for what you want the car to do ... and its not outrageously expensive

Hi @Crusty181 , @mikerezny's Falcon is a sedan and has COIL springs. I may be wrong, but I thought that all utes had leaf springs to carry the heavier load at the expense of softer ride. Coil rear suspension is not the "ideal" for carrying heavy loads and towing anything with tow ball weight involved. As you said, most sedans and sports vehicles are deliberately slanted towards the "comfort" zone to overcome the harshness of lower profile tyres too. Oooppps!! Forgot about Prados, but that is not really a sedan but an SUV.

 

[Drover]

I have heard that coil spring thing before, it may apply to work ute applications but car and wagon type vehicles that aren't loaded truck style they seem to work fine once decent suspension is fitted, after market coils, shocks, bushes and sway bars improve the vehicles all round performance.......just replacing say rear springs just throws the whole dynamics of the vehicles handling out.

 

[Crusty181]

Hi @Crusty181 , @mikerezny's Falcon is a sedan and has COIL springs. I may be wrong, but I thought that all utes had leaf springs to carry the heavier load at the expense of softer ride. Coil rear suspension is not the "ideal" for carrying heavy loads and towing anything with tow ball weight involved. As you said, most sedans and sports vehicles are deliberately slanted towards the "comfort" zone to overcome the harshness of lower profile tyres too. Oooppps!! Forgot about Prados, but that is not really a sedan but an SUV.

Yup, Boots your spot on with the springs over coils but its all relative. I can carry 1.4 ton but thats not the aim with the coil sprung Falcon. The ball weight is 130kg in this case so where certainly not pushing it to its limits, just talking about one option of giving it the suspension it needs to do the job you are asking of it.

Its just one option, a good option, to fit suspension that will suit what your asking the car to do, which is still well within its own capabilities just not within the capabilities of the factory suspension. Were certainly not try to turn it into a monster truck .... (or are we???). I cant offer a soop'd up coil sprung rear end to demonstrate simply cause I aint got one. The point was more about don't subscribed too much to the so called "harsh ride" theory. Firm suspension does not translate to harsh, good shocks will sort that out. No-one (other than try hards) would actively aim for, or tolerate having their vehicle being "harsh'd up" its not about that. My suspension refit is a good example of what would be categorized in the so called "harsh ride" area because it has a very a heavy duty rear end. The springs I have in mine assume my vehicle is carrying 500kg of wet concrete all the time, and then we add the camping gear and go away. My offer was to feel what that is like empty (wet concrete missing) and see that firmness is not necessary harshness when done right.

(Plus Im still relying on @mikerezny's locality when I get my new solar panels ..... so stop undermining my manipulation damn it)

 

[mikerezny]

Hi @Crusty181, @Boots in Action, @Drover, @Bluey, and @Axl,
many many thanks for the time and effort in replying to my post. I really appreciate the great information.
Now I need to take it all on board and move ahead.

At the moment the Falcon spends 90% of its time towing the Penguin. So, I am not too concerned with how any suspension upgrades effect the comfort etc when the vehicle is not loaded. My main motivation is to investigate upgrading the suspension so we get better clearance and avoid worrying about upgrading the entire vehicle. Upgrading the vehicle is problematic since we still don't know if eventually we will move on from the Penguin. We don't want to consider upgrading the Penguin until my partner retires. At that point we will have to think quite a bit about future requirements. The timeframe is most probably within the next year or so.

Opps, sorry for the waffle.

The other takeaway from all the responses is it seems to be that there is not actually wrong with fitting airbags. i.e. they are not a piece of useless junk sold by snake oil salesman. It is just they have only limited effectiveness.

First step is that I need to accurately measure how far the rear sags when we load up the back seat and boot, then measure again when we attach the van. My guesstimate of 40-50mm may be exaggerated. Fortunately, I do have the actual vehicle axle loadings taken when the car was loaded and towing the van. The other possibility is to see if I can reduce what goes in the boot and try to reduce the tow ball loading. Of the top of my head, there does not seem to be much wriggle room. I could travel with a full water tank instead of about 50% (82l tank located behind the rear axle) and there is a 10l water container and 20kg filled gas bottle always in the boot.

Then, armed with that information, I will take your good advice and go visit some suspension specialists. Does anyone have any recommendations that are around the South-East part of Melbourne. I have heard some horror stories about P^%&%&%s and with that and one visit to them resulting in an outragious quote for fitting a towbar, I might be reluctant to give them the work. Still, I guess there is no harm in finding out what they recommend.

How does that sound as a plan?

Once again, thank for all the great advice.

By the way, @Crusty181, the offer to assist with your new solar panels has not been withdrawn.

cheers
Mike

 

[Drover]

I know a great mob where I got the gear for my Colorado, will check when back at computer if they do cars and I check out their place online.
Otherwise Toowoomba is a nice place to visit and I can highly recommend Toowoomba Steering and Suspension, I even let them touch my Ute.

 

[Crusty181]

Hi @Crusty181, @Boots in Action, @Drover, @Bluey, and @Axl,
many many thanks for the time and effort in replying to my post. I really appreciate the great information.
Now I need to take it all on board and move ahead.

At the moment the Falcon spends 90% of its time towing the Penguin. So, I am not too concerned with how any suspension upgrades effect the comfort etc when the vehicle is not loaded. My main motivation is to investigate upgrading the suspension so we get better clearance and avoid worrying about upgrading the entire vehicle. Upgrading the vehicle is problematic since we still don't know if eventually we will move on from the Penguin. We don't want to consider upgrading the Penguin until my partner retires. At that point we will have to think quite a bit about future requirements. The timeframe is most probably within the next year or so.

Opps, sorry for the waffle.

The other takeaway from all the responses is it seems to be that there is not actually wrong with fitting airbags. i.e. they are not a piece of useless junk sold by snake oil salesman. It is just they have only limited effectiveness.

First step is that I need to accurately measure how far the rear sags when we load up the back seat and boot, then measure again when we attach the van. My guesstimate of 40-50mm may be exaggerated. Fortunately, I do have the actual vehicle axle loadings taken when the car was loaded and towing the van. The other possibility is to see if I can reduce what goes in the boot and try to reduce the tow ball loading. Of the top of my head, there does not seem to be much wriggle room. I could travel with a full water tank instead of about 50% (82l tank located behind the rear axle) and there is a 10l water container and 20kg filled gas bottle always in the boot.

Then, armed with that information, I will take your good advice and go visit some suspension specialists. Does anyone have any recommendations that are around the South-East part of Melbourne. I have heard some horror stories about P^%&%&%s and with that and one visit to them resulting in an outragious quote for fitting a towbar, I might be reluctant to give them the work. Still, I guess there is no harm in finding out what they recommend.

How does that sound as a plan?

Once again, thank for all the great advice.

By the way, @Crusty181, the offer to assist with your new solar panels has not been withdrawn.

cheers
Mike

Pedders in Moorabbin did mine. Pretty happy, and they were great to deal with. No BS, just the good oil I found

 

[Bluey]

Air bags with kevlar sleaves to help with rubbing and the sleave makes the bag stronger so bags without the sleaves will take less psi extra 100 there abouts for the sleaves pedders have also done mine and the front too ..... new rear springs bags and front struts very happy with it all i would maybe go with new springs too as the ford ones will not be as strong as after market ones of the same size
See how you go dont be afaide to ring a few places but pedders have australia wide warrenty

 

[Boots in Action]

Yup, Boots your spot on with the springs over coils but its all relative. I can carry 1.4 ton but thats not the aim with the coil sprung Falcon. The ball weight is 130kg in this case so where certainly not pushing it to its limits, just talking about one option of giving it the suspension it needs to do the job you are asking of it.

Its just one option, a good option, to fit suspension that will suit what your asking the car to do, which is still well within its own capabilities just not within the capabilities of the factory suspension. Were certainly not try to turn it into a monster truck .... (or are we???). I cant offer a soop'd up coil sprung rear end to demonstrate simply cause I aint got one. The point was more about don't subscribed too much to the so called "harsh ride" theory. Firm suspension does not translate to harsh, good shocks will sort that out. No-one (other than try hards) would actively aim for, or tolerate having their vehicle being "harsh'd up" its not about that. My suspension refit is a good example of what would be categorized in the so called "harsh ride" area because it has a very a heavy duty rear end. The springs I have in mine assume my vehicle is carrying 500kg of wet concrete all the time, and then we add the camping gear and go away. My offer was to feel what that is like empty (wet concrete missing) and see that firmness is not necessary harshness when done right.

(Plus Im still relying on @mikerezny's locality when I get my new solar panels ..... so stop undermining my manipulation damn it)

Good on you @Crusty181 . Would I try to undermine what you are trying to get into @mikerezny's head?? I do not have to worry about my panels at all!! So I guess you do have an axe to grind. But honestly, you are way ahead of me on this particular subject so please continue and ignore my mutterings.

 

[Boots in Action]

I have heard that coil spring thing before, it may apply to work ute applications but car and wagon type vehicles that aren't loaded truck style they seem to work fine once decent suspension is fitted, after market coils, shocks, bushes and sway bars improve the vehicles all round performance.......just replacing say rear springs just throws the whole dynamics of the vehicles handling out.

Agreed @Drover . You do need to look at the WHOLE dynamics of vehicle and what you want it to do. A half done job is asking for trouble somewhere along the way.

 

[mikerezny]

Hi,
just got back from Pedders in Moorabbin. They advised to have fitted H/D springs and standard Firestone airbags.
The new springs will lift the car when unloaded by about 15mm. They said it wasn't necessary to fit the kevlar H/D sleeves.

All up including fitting is $700. Does that seem reasonable?
The airbags are $295 and another place quoted me $200 to just fit the airbags.

cheers
Mike

 

[Drover]

Sounds good to me, for a car I doubt the expense of kevlar sleeves would be warranted either.................. The better spring rate plus bags should give you the ride height needed when your hooked up, either way better than original suspension any day.