Air Ride Survey

[40 Chev Coupe]

I'm looking to put an air ride system on my Merc. Does anybody have any preferences or experiences with any particular system?  Good or Bad.
Also, 4 link rear or air over leaf?
Any info would be appreciated.

[enjenjo]

I did a 49 a few years ago, air over leaf. Home made system with a leveling valve. It's been working fine now for over 10 years.

[Glen]

You can save a ton of money by buying the solenoid/valves individually and building your own system.

I would reccomend a digital gauge panel, it eliminates having to run the air lines into the interior to a manual gauge.  The sending unit just hooks up on the pressure side of your airspring and one front side connection for the tank.

A couple of hints:

Invest in the $5 line cutter so your cuts are clean.  
I use loctite on the fittings to make a good seal.
I use check valves also to prevent air from leaking back.
On the Buick I ran Hydraulic stainless braided line from the solenoid to the airspring in the engine compartment.

[donsrods]

Check out Suicide Doors, and AirRideTechnologies.  Used both, and their stuff is first rate.

Don

[sirstude]

I have redone the Olds about 3 times, and it still has not hit the ground.  The key here, I guess, is spend the time to make sure what you want before you start.  The final setup I have now is using AirRides level pro system, which is what I always wanted, just took them a while to get it out.  I had bought the old e-pro system a few months before they came out with level pro.  When it came out they were great to deal with to upgrade the system.  

watch out for the 'Plug and play" system that someone, (I think AIC) has out.  I bought one and none of the fittings were correct.  They had just tons of teflon tape on the fitting to try to seal non-pipe fittings together.  I got this from another outfit that was at GoodGuys a couple of years ago and then disappeared.  But it is still the same setup.  The compressor/tank/valves are all mounted in a nice frame.


Doug


Glen, did you just use regular braided line to the front bags?

[Glen]

Glen, did you just use regular braided line to the front bags?

Im not sure what your asking?  I used a steel braided hydraulic line that was custom made at a Granberry dealer.  I had them put the flare fittings with the proper degree of angle to make it nice and clean.  It was 3/8" line.

I just liked the idea of added safety since my car sits on the frame when the air pressure is released below 65 psi in the front and 25 in the rear.

The SMC valves on the suicide doors website are the same I ran on my car.  I would suggest running some ball type valves inline so you can adjust the rise and fall rate.  For example if you open the front valve on a 1/2 valve the vehicle will fall rapidly.  I used a ball valve and close it down to adjust the fall rate (once set you never have to touch it again).  The front obviously falls faster than the rear due to the weight without them.  

I also have the security of shutting the ball valves and no person can raise or lower the car.  The Buick will sell at Barrett-jackson in January, it will be nice to close the valves until it arrives at the new owners house to keep the transporter from ripping the fenders off.

I run a master power cut off switch.  when the air ride is down and the car sits on the frame its also more difficult to steal because the solenoids will not operate without 12V

[sirstude]

Glen,

Thanks, that answers my question.  You must be running about the same bags I have on the Olds, as the pressures seem to be about the same.

Thanks
Doug

ps, I still want your interior for my Olds, but my wife won't let me paint the car green.