A Sphere, or half a sphere to be exact!!!

Just in case anyone is interested, I have cut an old sphere up to show the bits inside, as said before, there is nothing magic, just a diaphragm.

First pics shoe the sphere as it would be off the car, ie the diaphragm is pressed hard against the wall of the sphere bottem.
The disc at the bottem of the diaphragm is an anti extrusion button, if this was not there, the diaphragm would simply pop into the sphere neck and burst.
If you look carefully at the black rubber diaphragm, you will also be able to see the edge of the clear plastic sheet, this along with rubber on top and below, makes up the multi layer diaphragm.






Second 2 pics show the diaphragm up against the top of the sphere.
When the sphere is in use the diaphragm will be sat around the middle of the sphere with compressed nitrogen on the top of the diaphragm and the AHC fluid below, your suspension movement is determined by the diaphragm moving up and down inside the sphere, compressing the nitrogen and thus the nitrogen acting as a spring to push it back down again.








Regards.
Martin.

Interesting. Not having had one of these, is the amount of nitrogen fixed, with the AHC fluid varying somehow? What does this replace - your springs? Does the seal eventually fail allowing the gas to escape into the AHC chamber?


Chris

Chris said:

is the amount of nitrogen fixed, with the AHC fluid varying somehow?

Click to expand...

Yes, there is a pump that varies the pressure of the AHC fluid and a reservoir for the spare fluid.

Chris said:

What does this replace - your springs?

Click to expand...

What look like regular shocks are hydraulic struts with a pipe out the top connected to one of those spheres. Squashing the strut pushes against the diaphragm. There's a valve between the strut and sphere that restricts the fluid flow and so behaves like a shocker. The amount of restriction is variable, under ECU control so you get the different settings e.g. sport, comfort etc. So the sphere acts like a spring and the valve is the shocker.

Ahh. Right. Does that inherently limit travel Jon? In terms of off roading.

Chris

This limits the travel less than regular springs during flexing. There are normal springs as well, but since they are weaker, they give less resistance to flexing. This is as long as the steering wheel is straight, as the ahc fluid can then flow freely from left to right and vv. Of course there is also the anti roll/sway bar which restricts flexing, but it is slightly weaker for the ahc, so that helps as well.
All this means that you have better traction on the wheels with the least grip during flexing, within the limits of maximum suspension travel.

Anyhow, thanks to Pleiades for posting. This is interesting. Don't hesitate to share more.

It doesn't limit anything compared to a non AHC truck on standard OEM spring and shocks. There wouldn't really be much point fitting +2" springs and keeping the AHC though for example, not without a lot of messing about anyway, you just remove the AHC bits and bobs and put normal springs and shocks on in that case.

Jon Wildsmith said:

It doesn't limit anything compared to a non AHC truck on standard OEM spring and shocks. There wouldn't really be much point fitting +2" springs and keeping the AHC though for example, not without a lot of messing about anyway, you just remove the AHC bits and bobs and put normal springs and shocks on in that case.

Click to expand...

Which reminds me, Jon, don't I owe you money?

John

Dark Dude said:

Which reminds me, Jon, don't I owe you money?

Click to expand...

No, I don't think so, unless you insist PM me if you disagree, save spoiling this technical thread

PM sent!

John

What would happen if you used regular springs instead of the weaker ones along with the AHC spheres?

John

Depends if you add any extra weight to go with those springs? If not then you get a bouncy ride because too much of the load is being carried on those springs instead of the AHC which means not much fluid movement which means the damping is compromised.

Jon Wildsmith said:

Depends if you add any extra weight to go with those springs? If not then you get a bouncy ride because too much of the load is being carried on those springs instead of the AHC which means not much fluid movement which means the damping is compromised.

Click to expand...

So the ONLY way around this would be to install one of those Slee LX470 AHC Controllers (http://www.sleeoffroad.com/products/pro ... itches.htm) you talked about on another thread?

John

Not sure how the Slee box would help? If you want to permanently drive round at a higher stance then you adjust the height sensors so they think the car is lower than it is. A mild lift done like that is ok but I'd crank the torsion bars a touch to give the AHC a helping hand or the front end can get a bit bouncy. Go a bit higher, closer to 2" rear / 1.5" front and you would need to crank the torsion bars some more and start thinking about some standard 80 series springs in the rear and some extra weight to stop the ride getting bouncy.

BTW:

Jon

Thanks for introducing to the wonderful world of Slee 4x4........

John

Slee do a lot of nice products

One more Pleiades happy customer.

I bought a lovely black 2007 LandCruiser 100 in December 2012 and felt since that the ride was a bit too bouncy. Thanks to this forum, I noted that the AHC reservoir level only changed by three graduations between the high and low settings. I booked in to Pleiades in Sawtry [PE28 5SB] last week and met Martin [01487 831239] for the first time. I had all four spheres replaced with Toyota replacements at the total cost of £633.60. Both front spheres were completely flat and there was less than 50% pressure at the rear. The ride now is great and I recognise the AHC system for what it is - superb!

Martin did remark that he had not seen faulty spheres on a LandCruiser that was only six years old, with 44,000 miles on the odometer, before.

PS Also, had a lovely breakfast at Tilley's Coffee Shop in the village, which is within easy walking distance from the Brookside Industrial Estate.

Rick.

Shame when I went to Tilley's in the village it was closed,gutted ...next time