Thread: air ride ?

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If you could put air ride on all 4 corners of your hotrod would you ? Thinking I might do this to my 40 Ford pickup. I thought I would do this in the future but that will just lead to more work. Inputs welcome !

I'm only giving you this as my personal slant on air ride.
If you set a chassis up properly, you can get it to sit correctly using most anything. Leafs in the back, coils in the front. You can also get it to sit and ride nice with 4 coilovers.
The biggest problem I have with air ride is a leak or blow out in one of the bags. Bags do have their place but I set my car up with 4 coilovers and the ride is adjustable as with bags and I don't have to worry about a leak or blow out.

Originally Posted by Navy7797

If you could put air ride on all 4 corners of your hotrod would you ? Thinking I might do this to my 40 Ford pickup. I thought I would do this in the future but that will just lead to more work. Inputs welcome !

If you're really thinking you'll do it in the future then I'd do it now as the cost differential is not too bad, compared to the total cost - just looking at RideTech's intro for Street Rods a pair of their ShockWaves is $700 while a pair of coilovers is $550. The $300 delta, compared to buying coilovers, and then later going back and buying ShockWaves or something like them and spending maybe $1250 or more in total. Makes more sense to decide what you want (plan the work) and then do it once (work the plan).

The guys at RideTech have a big presence at the big shows like Goodguys, and they seem to have just about all of the bases covered for options. There are lots of people selling systems, and I have no idea which one is the best value, but RideTech might be a good source for information. I'm kind of with Chopt50wgn, and not sure I'd want the extra complexity and potential for pesky leaks from an air ride system with all of the tubing, compressor, and controls. Depends on how you plan to use the truck. Are you wanting to AutoCross it, or are you just wanting a dependable driver? Sorry for the lengthy reply....

I added an auto leveling air suspension to the rear of my T bucket. I was interested in good ride and keeping the stance the same, regardless of load. It works great for that. My T only has about 2 1/2" of compression travel in the rear. The air ride keeps that the same all the time.

Mike

I'm going with bags and separate conventional shocks on the rear of my T modified/bucket. With a bit of shopping around, I found the cost for the bag set up with schrader valves vs coilovers to be close enough to be a toss up in my mind...and for all practical purposes functionally equivalent. The over and above cost comes in the stuff like pumps, tanks, valves, controllers, etc...and there the sky is the limit.

For me there are two unrelated reasons for going with the bags. I will be pulling a small trailer, and the bags with the schrader valves are much easier to adjust for that than coilovers would be. The other reason will require the complexity of a tank, pump, etc...I am disabled with severe mobility issues. The bag setup will allow me to have the car kneel, to allow easier ingress/egress...then return to drive height. Something that would be impossible with any other type of suspension.

The price of shock waves compared to coil-overs needs to include the cost of the air compressor, air tank and control system. The most sophisticated height control system is not cheap, it can easily exceed $2000.

http://www.ridetech.com/store/ridepr...ay-system.html

You should also add minimum height stops at all four corners. The trailer queen cars probably don't have them, but if you the drive your car, you don't want something dragging on the ground and rendering the car unable to drive, if you get a leak.

I've been unimpressed when trying to get help from the technical support folks at ride tech. They all seem to be clueless and act like they're doing you a big favor to provide some help. I'm sure that the sales guys are great, but service after the sale sucks.