air bag suspension

[Nullifier]

Ok so I think some of you guys are running air bags. I am looking for some more capacity out of my rear. I think since I already have a full oba set I can add bags pretty easy.

Currently I have the OME rear. It Although it is agood for day trip it just does not have enough capacity for me when fully loaded. So what works I really know 0 about air bag set ups. I tries searching but no one seems to have put up ay pics of there set ups that I could find.

 

[ZooJunkie]

Something like this?

http://www.streetbeatcustoms.com/ezs60783-d1.html

 

[Nullifier]

here are some firestone units but will they work with the OME set up since it is slightly lifted? How do you account for bag length needed?

http://www.suspensionconnection.com...e/to=x/tf=model/to=x/tf=description/to=r.html

 

[Scott Brady]

I would think you could space the airbag.

Someone on this forum just installed the firestones.

 

[kcowyo]

Here's post with a couple of pics of my airbags, Nullifier

I went with Air Lift over Firestone even though the prices are nearly identical. I like the Air Lift Smart Air System that they offer. If your bags get down to 10PSI, the smart system kicks in and airs them back up.

I also like Air Lift's in cab controls to raise or lower the bags as needed. SB's right, spacers will allow you to use airbags with a suspension lift. This is similar to how the Land Rover Disco's do it. Perhaps McVick has some input?

I don't flex much or take pics when I do since I'm busy driving, but I'll attach a few pics from my trip over Cinnamon Pass in Colorado yesterday. It's a mild trail but there are a few spots that'll get you crossed up -

 

[Brian McVickers]

I also like Air Lift's in cab controls to raise or lower the bags as needed. SB's right, spacers will allow you to use airbags with a suspension lift. This is similar to how the Land Rover Disco's do it. Perhaps McVick has some input?
-

With the Disco "Self Leveling Suspension" system, and note that not all disco's have it - the majority have coils rather than air bags, The system automatically keeps your truck level as the load changes. Put a case of beer in the back and they inflate to raise the it up to level, add a second case and they pump up a bit more. Take a case out and they deflate until the vhicle is level again...

I have OME HD coil springs in the front which gives the front end a 2"-3" lift, can't remember the exact measurement, To match this on the back end the airbags have spacers installed underneath to raise them up so that they can level the truck without overextending themselves.

I very much like the Air Lift system and have considered it for the possibility of a future conversion.

 

[oly884]

I also have airbags too, same set up as KC and they work great.

And KC, you might be interested in this because my airbag setup is identical to yours:

It crosslinks the airbags, so, when wheeling, the air transfers from one to the other and makes you have A LOT more articulation.

not the best shot, but it articulates just as much as it did without the air bags. Before I got this nifty little thing, it would stop articulating about 3" from the bumpstops, now it goes all the way to them.

 

[AZCPP]

Just a little info when installing air bags. The cross link in the above post is a great idea! But, you do not want to link your bags permanently! If you do so, when cornering the air from the "heavy side" will be pushed to the "light side" thus eliminating any added stability that you were wanting from the bags. In most cases it will worsen the effect. I have a full air ride setup on my truck, air bags on all four corners with all coil and leaf spring removed. Each air spring (or bag) is controlled individually with it's own gauge, pressure switch, and dump switch. This setup makes the truck extremely stable when cornering and allows me to balance the truck according to load or distribute weight for improved traction and/or handling.
:truck:

 

[flywgn]

AZCPP, that sounds like a nifty set-up. I have Firestone air bags on the rear of our F250 with in-cab controls. I run about 10 psi when there is no load and as much as 60 psi when pulling the ATRV or when we have a big load in the truck. I also noticed when I picked up the Horizon a couple of weeks ago that putting about 30 psi in them reduced the slight wiggle between the trailer and the truck.

I've had no problem with this set. On my first set (Chevy 2500) a seal went out on one, but it was covered under the warranty.

All in all, I really like having them.

Interesting, that Adventure Trailers recommends (per mfg recs) that the air bags (also Firestone) be inflated to 6" for optimum performance. We have the Chaser suspension on the Horizon. I find this curious in that I'm more tuned in to the psi reading than the length of the bag, but I'm going to follow Mario's recommendation for the trailer.

Allen R

 

[AZCPP]

I find that the biggest downside to all this control is that I constantly fiddle with it. Drives my wife crazy (short drive), she is always telling me to "JUST LEAVE IT ALONE!!!" and she talks in caps when she sayes it....:yikes: I can set it where I want it and drive over to Flag. and the elevation changes the pressure sometimes to the point that the driveshaft will clatter if I have it too high to start with. It offers 12" of travel so there is a lot of room to fiddle!!!

 

[oly884]

The cross link I made was not intended for use on road, only when off road and more articulation of the axle is needed.

 

[AZCPP]

Yea, I know and it is a great idea. I am going to engineer something on my setup to allow crossflow when I want it. Thanks for the idea.

 

[michaelgroves]

I used Airlift bags in the rear axles of my 6x6 Land Rover D150, and they were brilliant. I didn't cross-link them left-to-right, but I did interconnect the left pair to each other, and the right pair to each other, to give a bogey-effect on the rear axles.

When I was on asphalt, I would pump them up fully to stop the body-roll that is an inevitable side-effect of long-travel coils. When I needed full wheel articulation, I would deflate them to minimum pressure. After 120,000km of fully laden expedition use, I had expected them to be worn through by chafing on the coils, but not one of them failed.

I am wondering though, exactly what the advantage of cross-linking them is? I can see that forcing one wheel upwards will force the opposite wheel downwards, but I'm trying to understand why the nett effect will be better than if the bags were absent entirely (or fully deflated)? Whenever the "hanging" wheel is forced downwards, it's being done by virtue of pressure in the bags. So the wheel that is being pushed upwards by the ground will have an equally high pressure, and therefore won't articulate upwards as much. What you win on one side, you lose on the other. Or am I missing something here?

M...

 

[AZCPP]

If you were to add the air bags to your vehicle to carry more weight but when you hit the dirt you evacuate the air from the bags then what was the point of installing them? With air in the bags and the cross link connected you are still getting the benefit from the bag to carry part of the load but it will allow the axle to conform to the terrain. Yes, you do loose the added stability they provide, but you probably needed the stability at higher speeds not crawlin, when you return to level terrain the air equalizes and you regain the support. It would be just like your tandem setup, just side to side, not front to back. If you were to separate your bags front to rear you are more than likely going to loose some articulation. Obviously air pressure will dictate the amount you loose.

 

[michaelgroves]

If you were to add the air bags to your vehicle to carry more weight but when you hit the dirt you evacuate the air from the bags then what was the point of installing them?

Sorry, yes I didn't make it clear that the point of adding air bags to my twin rear axles, in my case, was solely to reduce body roll. My springs were designed to carry the full load on their own. I only deflated the airbags for very severe terrain, where low speeds and very long axle movements were involved.

Your reply also points out an inconsistency in my logic: fore-and-aft interlinking has exactlythe same issues as cross-linking left-right. As my springs were ample for the load involved, any air pressure in the bags could restrict the spring in one axle from reaching full compression, thus off-setting any advantage conferred by the cross-linking in terms of forcing the other wheel downwards. In retrospect, the ideal for any extreme-terrain setup would be to make sure that the air pressure is just sufficient to allow the axle to hit the bumpstop.

Fore-and-aft linking of the bags was fine for on-road use, but cross-linking them left-and-right would have made the body-roll much worse (as pointed out in the other posts). For off-road use, perhaps I should have made all four of them interconnect?