My 64 Bel Air wagon is my el cheap daily driver for next year, but I want to have some fun with it at the same time. I was going to go air, but after my last car with air the headaches that where involved I'm not sure If i want to wait 20 minutes every morning to fill the tanks again. I was thinking about hydraulics, like a 2 pump, 4 battery setup just to get the car up and down fast. Is this a good idea on a daily driven car? I need the car to be pretty reliable. Besides the battery charging problems, whats the disadvantages of juice on a daily? Some people have been telling me that if you don't bounce the car it's alot easier on the lines, fittings etc... and should be very reliable. Others tell me i'm fucking nuts and just cut the coils. ???????
You know man, I don't have a immediate answer for you, but I can say this. Living in Albuquerque, home of Orley's Lowrider Magazine, I see a lot of juiced cars on the road as daily drivers. From what I've read and seen lately hydros have become much more driveable over the last few years. So, this being said, any customizing will bring it's headaches, as you found with bags, hydraulics will be instant. I have heard that they don't ride as well as bags though, so that may be a consideration also. Try these guys Hoppo's 909-986-1711 1127 W State St. Ontario CA www.hoppos.com They might have some better information.
i've had both, i'll take air over hydro any day! if your only concern is the slow tank fill time, go with an engine driven compressor, they're dirt cheap if scrounged from the junkyard, my setup fills a 9 gal tank from zero to 150 psi in a minute flat at idle.
at idle??!?!?! holy shit whats the name of that compressor and what did you get it off? I need at least 175psi to get the front off the ground
just your average York a/c compressor. i field tested and found one that was real tight by holding a finger over the outlet and spinning it over a couple of times by hand. you can tell the capacity by the numbers on the tag but i can't remember what the code is. the one i am using now happened to come from a jeep grand cherokee i think.
Someone did a post on this a few weeks ago. Search for 'compressor' and see what shows up. Pretty informative. BTW...bags ride great, hydro's don't.
I'm partial to the Hydros..aside from the fancy charger that you'll need...it's all pretty basic! How it rides...all depends on the coils !! Most guys lose thier minds and put in big ass hopping coils and then bitch about the ride...duh But as far as the air goes here's a link about doing up a AC compressor for air. Hope it works and helps http://home.comcast.net/~jwtrapper/wsb/html/york
I had Juice on one of my dailys-I won't tell you what it was on-lol, I ran it both ways-with and without accumulators. It was a small car, and it had 1.5 ton springs so it was kinda rough, but with them, it rode relatively nice. Keep in mind that it was built in the early 90's, and it was an old set up when I bought the car. reverse flow cylinders and acc. make them ride nice now
Exactly what the last two poeple said. It all comes down to What springs you run and accumulators. I have ridden in many lifted cars and they ride fine if they are set up right as is anything.
I drove a 64 Biscayne in high school for a couple of years and it had juice, on the stock coils, no accumulators, no front shocks and it road just as good as it did stock and all I had to do was charge the batteries overnight on the weekends. They never left me stranded, just be sure to use good products, Reds, Prohopper,etc.
I also ran mine at 12 volts-may not be the best for the pumps, but I ran the batteries in parallel with the stock one, alittle slow, but I never charged them-buy a street charger and the same applies
Yeah, I was going to go with the airbags but figured I can get more bang for my buck with juice. Right now, Pro Hopper has specials for an entire hydro kit for $1095. I might give it a try for my Bomb ('47 Chevy Fleetline).:
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