I am just curious if anyone has the kelderman airride and if they do, do they wheel with it? Just curious because the ride looks hard to beat, but I don't know how trail friendly those bags are. They look like the ones from rigs so they should be strong, but are they protected at all from puncture or bouncing, or is this a valid concern?

 

I wouldn't worry about bouncing, but I would very much worry about logs or rocks puncturing them. If you're going to only do mild wheeling, though, I wouldn't worry about it...
Chris

 

Yah, I wheel it pretty hard, I was also considering getting a machine shop to fab-up some sort of "shield" or something. I don't want to get too out of hand, but that air-ride seems worth a little work.

 

Just remember that if you do attach a shield, you need something with large enough drain holes for mud to drain back out. (Of course, drain holes that large still allow a small possibility of a stick coming through and getting to that back.
I've designed a combination airbag/coil setup for my Jeep, that puts the airbags tucked up inside the body about 4.5 feet off the ground. If you're into custom fabwork, that would be the way to go in my opinion...
Chris

 

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Wow, I'm not a "fabrication king" so that's a little over my head, but thanks for the insight. I'm not in a mad panic though, so maybe with some careful research and calculation I can figure out a not-to-complex way to set it up. I think I'll email Kelderman directly and see what his insight is. He must have customers with all sorts of applications, he may already have a trick up his sleeve.

 

I don't think you need to worry about the bags much. If I recall correctly they are almost 1/4" thick rubber, pretty tough. Would take a little more than your average stick to puncture it.
Heath

 

Do any of ya'll have this set up already. I was wanting to get the Kelderman air suspension, since you can lower it and raise it. Then a buddy of mine told me it isn't good to raise and lower cause of the panhard bar. Just wondering if ya'll had any info on this.

 

Well I can't think it would cause too much trouble with the panhard bar, but I would be worried about the driveline angles.
Heath

 

With trackbars, your axles will move side to side with the raising/lowering of the suspension. In the rear, you could solve this by running a triangulated four-link. In the front, there's not much you can do, as trying to run a triangulated suspension with no lateral movement with full suspension cycling would create a lot of bumpsteer, unless you went to full hydraulic steering (which is a no-no for a street vehicle).
Realistically, if you're only moving the suspension up and down 2 or 3 inches, it's not going to be a ton of lateral movement, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Chris

 

Another thing to consider is that the bag is inflated. Compare trying to poke a hole in a deflated ballon to poking a hole in one that's inflated...
Still, small sticks are not what I'd really worry about too much- I'd be more worried about submerged logs in mudholes, or rocks, depending on the terrain of your local trails.
Chris

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys, nice to get a few opinions to help the decision. The wheeling around here is as good as it gets for my liking. I live in a valley surrounded by mountains, split down the middle by a huge river. We have "forestry service" roads everywhere, as well as hill climbs, shale river runs, "quicksand" river mud, you name it I can find it within about a half hour drive. One of my favorite parts of living here. If you get bored and want to get out of the truck you can go skiing, white water rafting, boating, sledding, quad/dirtbiking,hiking, and of course camping. It's like an outdoor paradise around here. That's why I was curious as to durability, when we go out we could run into anything, challenge wise.