What Brand of air bag valves are probably the best when it comes to reliabillity and working well. I just bought my compressors 2 viair 480's and I'm probably going to run one 5 gal tank. Ive been on the fence with the tanks but I think a 5 gal seems to be the most comon to use. I want to buy some valves but I'm not sure what to use. I've been looking at the smc valves because they seem to be decent priced and I've heard of lots of people using them. I already own a set of 4 manual paddle valves that I could use but they are only 1/4" line and I wanted to run either 1/2" or 3/8" line and valves so it would raise the car fairly quickly. I don't want to hop I just want it to go up fast enough incase something is in the road when I'm driving I can raise it up to try and get out of the way. I know 1/2" valves raise up pretty quickly but on some vehicles that I have looked at they jump up almost to fast sometimes but I've mainly looked at small pickups with bags. What I am going to be raising up is a chopped 54 chevy 2dr sedan which is probably heavier than most of the ford rangers/s10 pickups that I have looked at with bags. I do want to be able to drag the rear of the car so it will need to be able to lift quickly when I need it to. But that will probably be the extent of my "playing" besides just lowering the car when I get to a car show or grocery store then raising it when I leave. I've used the search function but didn't really find the information that I wanted to know. Any help would be appreciated.
I run parker 1/2inch valves on my buick riveira. They are really reliable and i know that parts and diaphrams are available for rebuild. The are good up to 350 psi i believe and even withstand some moisture if you dont run a water trap. I have a local guy who gets em for me when i do air ride builds. He can get the 3/8inch parkers as well. I dont remember the price, but i believe they were about 30 dollars a piece.
I have Air ride technologies Big red vales on my car. I got a good discount on them which is why I went with them. I have no complaints about them, I don't know how they compare to other valves thouh as this is the first bagged car I've had. I can tell you though that I have 1/2" fills on the '54 and it goes up quick but won't hop or anything. I used 3/8" dumps, so it doesn't slam down when I air it out.
the ART valves are nice but fairly pricey, im running SMCs on my and ive never had any problems, i got an amazing deal on them through waylayed 3/8's is fast enough fills for me, i am running at like 180 psi (with an EDC) but to keep your valves in good condition i would recommend a water trap and running silencers on your dumps
The Jalopy Journal
