we want to put some air bags under my little brothers 56 merc. Our drive way is verry steep and s****es with 3 in blocks under her but we want her lower so i was wondering if anneyone knew about cheep air bags or is it better to go expensive shuld i go 2 baggs or 4 rite now im just lookin for info on em anney thing would be helpfull thanks
Use firestone brand bags...those things are tough and have been used on semi's for years. Most of the big companies like airride tech and air lift sell their brand and firestone... If you can affor to buy all four do it all at once. It's just easier that way.
As far as Air suspension goes. Don't be like me and be a cheapskate. Buy the GOOD bags (firestones) compressors, switches and valves. You can cut corners a bit by going to a H.D. truck store and buying thier airline, fittings and tanks. Also, if you are comfortable with your fab skills, you can make your own mounting plates with 1/4" plate steel. Just remember to mount the rear bags at the correct angle in relation to the pinion as if they were at ride height. A lot of people forget this and end up with a wrong angle of bags when driving and often rub or wear out the bags quickly. If you want to do just the rear (I'm ***uming) Still buy a control head for four bags and buy all four bags. Often (to quote Johnny Cash) "Its cheaper that way." Take your time and do your homework. Otherwise you will be sitting on the side of the interstate at 5:30 on a Friday with a blown bag.
I agree with the other posts. Do your homework and DO NOT cut corners. You have to remember that your whole car is riding on that suspension, so do it right the first time. I've seen some real quick and dirty installs and it will always come back to bite you in the *** (i.e. broken shock mounts, broken bag mounts, etc). Check out suicidedoors.com. They have quality brackets at an affordable price. The guy is real cool and has an awesome return policy. I got my bags from a seller on ebay, quality stuff, firestone bags, viar compressor, etc. Good luck.
I would echo what others have said....Cheap airbags are a waste of money. Go for Quality. it is the same with tools. don't buy cheap China made **** and have to replace it 5 times when quality tools last for ever. If money is tight I would go with just the rears. it is a simple project and will get you what you are looking for. besides the drag boat look is tuff as hell draggin' tail looks cool and dropping the front just creates problems. You can do an internet search for shops that will sell public direct but make sure they are firestone. One of the guys I know bought cheapo bags are ruined his 51 ford on the freeway with a blown bag. not woth it. and yes we told him so.
Even doing it the RIGHT way can cause major headaches, so do your homework and shoot for the best. I had a good shop install the suspension on my Falcon, which required relocating the shocks to the outside of the front arms. The arm wasn't made to take a side load like that, and the weld was STRONGER than the arm itself, so the arm ripped. Tore the metal clean apart. The fix required boxing the lower control arm. The point is that you should go for the best you can. Everything rides on that suspension. PS: I also used Firestone bags on all corners, and used 2 valves per bag (for a total of 8). That isolated the air and gives a much more stable ride.
for what its worth.. I have 3 air ride equipped cars.. I have saved money by getting airline, fittings and such LOCALLY.. i buy bags and sometimes brackets from www.suicidedoors.com in my humbe opinion the electrically driven valves are just more trouble and money than they are worth. and a pressure driven Paddle valve will work just fine for a budget install.. I like a 3 valve system.. one for each front wheel and one for the rear (although my truck and my wagonl both have 2 valve systems) my own personal trick.. is to go to the junkyard and get a compressor out of a mid 80's caddy (one that has rear air struts) .. or better yet a 90's lincoln town car with factory air ride.. (it'll work slower than your $200) pumps.. but in my town I can get these "factory" pumps for under 20 bucks.. last but not least.. (and I know this will work) go to your kenworth truck dealer and ask for GT seat switches.. (they are valves used for air ride seats).. they mount like a push pull type switch for the air springs.. and I have seen them used in place of the paddle valves.. good luck sawzall
firestones are good, but my favorites are slam specialties. tougher construction and they have internal bumpstops so you dont have to worry about pinching the bag when laid out. also they have more travel than firestones www.slamspecialties.com like was mentioned...if you go with a four corner setup, make sure you get two valves per bag because if you have a shared air space for each side then the air can travel from bag to bag and cause some serious roll action in the turns. also alot of the price depends on how fast you want to drop or lift. the bigger your valves and line, the faster you go, but the more $. if youre lookin for slow rise just to lift it when going over bumps and driveways then 1/4 or 3/8 line and valves will be ok. how much do you plan on dropping/lifting the suspension? because its really nice to have a large air supply, smaller chance of running out of air and being stuck low, and your comp doesnt have to kick on and be annoying as often. good luck
The Firestone double convoluted bags, which is the style that the Slam Specialties bags are, also have internal bumpstops. It's a feature that's inherent of the double convoluted design. However, if one were to use the sleeve type bags on the rear, they'd need to set up some bumpstops to limit the bag's compression.
use Slam bags and Oasis compressor are the best and make sure the airline and fittings are D.O.T. approved. Go to a hydrolic supply fot the fittings they sell them cheaper.
actually if you want to talk who has the better (ie, stronger) bags in actual tests, that i have personaly seen performed, the Airlift bags outperformed all others. they are put on a machine and run through their cycles repetedly untill the bag gives out. Firestone are good but if you want to get right down to it the Airlift bags went thousands and thousands of cycles longer than any other bag and we are talking MILLIONS of cycles. i forget the actual numbers but it was quite impressive. Airlift also sells an extreme duty bag (for hopping and all that crazy jazz) that they NEVER got to fail after MILLONS and MILLIONS of cycles. it NEVER failed! they finaly just shut the machine down before they wore it (the machine) out. i too used to run around town looking for the cheapest prices i could find on fitting and hose and whatnot, till i finaly realized i could'nt do it any cheaper than what Airlift sells their "Crafter Pack" kits for. thats not even taking into concideration all the time and gas money spent runnin around town and calling on the phone to get prices. anwho, i can get you an entire "4 Path Crafter Pack", to do all four corners, for $1200. thats a HAMBer only discount and inlcludes shipping to the 48 contiguos United states. this kit inludes 4 bags, 8 valves (4 up, 4 down), %100 duty cycle compressor, 2 dual needle gauges with 4 switches, all wiring, all plumbing (including lines and fittings), a 5 gallon air tank, a 110/145 psi preasure switch, complete instructions and probably a couple other little things i'm forgetting. just fab your own mounts and your good to go. the biggest thing when building an air ride suspension, and the only thing i have EVER seen cause a bag to fail (no matter the brand) is that you can not have ANYTHING come into contact with the bag at ANY point in the suspensions travel. if ANYTHING rubs the bag it WILL put a hole in it. that is the only reason i have ever seen a bag fail, excluding the years i spent working in the spring shop on semi trucks. those things do occasionaly wear out after MILLIONS of miles. well, thats my 2 cents on the subject. good luck with your project. oh, and in case your wondering. it's only $240 cheaper to go with a front (or rear) only setup. better off to do the whole shibang at once as far as i'm concerned.
That seems like a really good price for all of that "stuff"-We used to tell our customers to expect to spend at least 2500 for a good setup(includes labor and alignment). A buddy of mine had an early 90's Buick with air leveling that we pulled the compressor off of, wired with a toggle switch and we were good to go. The only thing wrong is there is no automatic shutoff once the tank is full which I would ***ume that there is with an actual Air Ride setup? Gotta pay attention to the gauge while it's on or I will be in trouble. Works pretty good though and the price was right-free. Mootz
Airlift are the ones I have and I know that they are good since the guy I got them from builds them to hop on nitrogen.
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