Air bags, the good and the bad

Some advice-

I have spent enough on bumpers, and building skid plates etc. on my daily driver that I think I should have just bagged it.

I wanted to keep it simple but trying to keep all of that low stuff- bumpers, exhaust, rear quarters- in good shape without the ability to lift the car gets complicated in a hurry.

 

Jey, great diagram, thanks for posting. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I can understand using the gauges on each bag to air up to a certain height or to let out. But when/why do you read the pressure gauge of the storage tank?

 

on my bel air I had to have a driveshaft made for it that was a little skinnier in diameter

 

i don't run one on my system, but they're nice incase you're not getting enough lift, and you can't figure out why....

or if you're compressors fail, and you think you've got air, but you dont?

or if you have to manually fill the tank, and you want to know how much you have....

I don't normally install them, but, sometimes people do... Also, if you aren't planning to run a pressure switch (as some folks don't... it automatically turns the compressor on when the tanks are low), they like a tank gauge, so they can know when to manually fill their tanks.

 

air line

air fittings

valves

tanks

water traps

tefflon tape.

Look for PARKER products in the air lines/fittings and valves. I believe the valves will be called Parker gold, run in mm sizes of 10 and 15.

 

I had them on my 62 drop top cad, Loved them!Used the shock wave on the front and bags on the rear.Never had any problems. Air ride may cost more, but most of the fab work is done! If your going to keep the car , I say bag it!

 

Thanks guys, just wanted to hear some pros and cons and it seems there are more pros to bags vs. a dropped coil set-up

 

and when you air them out everyone looks, no matter what

 

Me and Dad have a 65 sedan... they look badass laid out was gonna do it but the thing is in pristine shape so I left it...

Heres one that sits just right..

 

I'm gonna bag the International when it gets here... New rear end... dropped front axle... and bags... just 'cause I can.....

 

Especially kids. Man, my two year old son gets the biggest kick out of it when I dump the truck

His exact words: "Truck go pshhhh." Wad (that's Logan-speak for rad)!

 

This is what I was thinking,now if it was just some ratted out shitbox I`d cut the hell out of some coils and drive it till the bumper falls off,but I`m going to put a lot of time and money into it so bags it is,besides Cadillacs had air ride back then(optional I think) so it would still be period correct(sort of)

 

Hey MM,
I'm getting my Chevy truck bagged as we speak, and the guy installing it is installing 2 electric compressors. I don't really like them--they take too long to fill the tank, and they have a heavy electrical draw. I've thought about going to an engine driven compressor in the near future. I've heard alot of pros and cons with them, but the main problem seems to be water and oil in the system. What have you done to remedy this problem, and what kind of luck have you had with it so far? E

 

Do those have a drastic affect on the motor? Does it rob power similar to an A/C setup?

 

lol between playing with my bags and the LOUD train horns I have hooked up on my car I have a ton of fun cruising my car around ... and I'm driving it from Houston to Dallas this weekend for a show

 

I hate those little small compressors.. my ex had 2 little ones on her truck and it took forever waiting there for hers to fill up the tank ... I havent had any problems at all out of my engine driven and I know quite a few guys that have them on their vehicles... just make sure there oiled and thats about it. as long is its mounted right and the belts aligned there shouldnt realy be any problems. I love mine and would never go back to a lil small compressor.

 

I have an engine driven as well, the york 210. Water/Oil in the system? When the compressors ship NEW they have 10/30 weight oil them. It airrates TERRIBLY and ends up all over your oil trap. It sucks. First things first, get it, open it, dump out the oil. put in 80 weight oil. mine never makes it out, running strong for a little over a year. i run it at 175 psi, to fill 14 gallons. It's the way to go.

drastic is relative. If you're a drag racer, you probably won't have air ride. Yes. it takes some power, and yes, it's like a AC setp up because most of them ARE AC pumps, the sanden unit that is used, commonly and the YORK 210, 209 units were/are all AC pumps. I know some guys who have successfully mounted them on their driveshafts, much like the alternator idea. it's a lot more wear on the compressor. i suggest an eletric as back up in either event.

www.onboardair.com
www.s10forum.com
www.streetsourcemag.com

All of them will have awesome info about air... even though it's not your style , but, still , lots of good info.


As for the eletrics?


you can run the EXACT same compressor, as the engine driven york 210 , only eletric. It runs from a Winch motor, and puts out a little bit MORE air than the engine driven. They're $1000.00 bucks though.

www.onboardair.com sells them.

 

Exactly, I love sitting at a light here in Houston, windows down, radio cranked, '65 Rivi, and just purge the system for the fawk of it.

I personally don't like the rubber lines. I prefer taking the time, and running hard lines. That way I know that there is no chance that the hot ass underside of my car on a 105 day in Texas sitting in a traffic jam moving at the speed of reverse I don't have line failure, and have to scrape off the highway. Two electrics should cover most people, but if you play with your system like myself and some, you need to go engine driven. My next step, as the 2 electrics drive me nuts with their running.
A quick tip, they have dual bag guages out there now. Where you have one gauge but it has multiple needles for the multiple bags. Better for hiding in your interior rather than cluttering it up with a bazillion non retro guages.

 

this just came to me...

BAGS are for FAGS.

hahaha sssssHHHHHHH.

ok,,who wants to make stickers??? i want a royalty!!!

 

How do nitrogen tanks play into the set ups? Do you just refill the nitrogen tanks when they are empty? Does it make it faster?

 

I have a crazy idea. I have an A/C compressor on my mopar engine that I was gonna take off. Can O convert it to fill the tanks?

Dave

 

you just need to figure out if that unit holds oil or not.


if it doesn't hold oil , you will need an oiler, otherwise it will smoke out on you.


if it's a "sanden" or something like that unit, those are pretty common. a company called AIM (chassis tech) sells them, check like www.bagit.com or something i think is their website.

 

yes, you just get the tanks refilled.

you need a regulator as well, to regulate from 4,000 psi, down to the amount you actually want.

Some guys run up to 400psi in their systems to make them faster. Nitrogen is awesome, helium is better, but obviously more expensive.

i personally won't run it, just because i don't want a rocket in the bed of my truck. working in a chemical company i've saw a few of these have the tops knocked off with 4,000 psi in them, and i saw the damage it did to three brick walls, 40 foot apart.

 

Rather than run a compressor you can run Nitrogen. Works awesome, but you have to have the room for a cylinder & a spare. Nitro is easier on your bags, and valves. Is awesome if you live in cold climates as you don't have to worry about moisture in your lines freezing up.

Downside, besides the refills, and the size of the cylinders. It is rumored that the DMV's are going to start cracking down on these as it is a safety hazard to transport a gas(underpressure)cylinder without its Protective Cap screwed on.

EDIT: Dang Jey, you beat my reply!

 

the parker stuff is rated to from -40 degrees to 450 degree's

and in michigan, it snows in april, so i don't have much of that problem!


burst pressure of 1,000 psi.

i can't stand hardline, because i always , i mean ALWAYS fuck up a bunch of hardline before i get the bends right.

 

Sweet!

I like what bags do for the car, but that was a good one and had to toss out the props.

 

JEY...thanks so much for the advice! the only thing i don't understand is why run 2 valves per bag? (one for fill, one for dump?)

_T

 

yep, you run them in a T fassion

bag at the bottom


left side is fill, right is dump, fill valve is connected to the bag, and the air tank, the dump valve is connected to the bag and nothing.


Flip the fill switch, air comes into the bag, flip the dump switch the other valve fires, and lets the air out to the world.


It's because the valves only throw open, or closed. There are 3 way valves out there, that throw open closed open, but they're slow and stupid.


So yea. stick with two... You can also run two valves for just the front, and two valves for the rear.

using this "FRONT/BACK" setup like that you lose indiviual wheel control, and you will have an increase in body roll as well (as you corner, air from the drivers side bag litterly can go into the passanger side bag, and vice versa, because they're connected. The 8 valve setup is much better, and locks all the air into one bag!


hopefully that all makes some sence.

 

I put in bags on my 59 Caddy. I purchased the kit from Air Ride. The front shock waves were too small and i had to rip them out and send in for the larger shock waves. had to do small small surgury to the car but now works great. I only did it a month ago, so no real long trips (yet) but you and a couple friends should be more than able to bust the thing out in a weekend. As i mentioned before i did it twice. so if you do purchase a kit from air ride mention the issues of the front shock wave being too small to get the front end up fast.(it took 5 min. and had to recycle the tank a couple of times) changed to the larger wave and no problems any longer. They are expensive but they seem to be of good quality and i spoke with several people and they all pointed to AirRide. they also helped me out when i was having issues with there product.

I say go for it.