School me on Air shocks

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cali-cruiser

cali-cruiser

Joined
Nov 15, 2003
Threads
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Location
arnold, CA
I'm getting parts together to put a 3 link on the rear of my 40. Still in the planning for the way I'm gonna keep the thing sprung. I'm thinking of running some fox air shocks. Like these http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/product.php?productid=182&cat=34&page=1

What do I need to know, Limit straps? how big 2 inch or 2.5? bump stops?
Will it be streetable?

So on and so forth,


Any info is appreciated.

Josh
 
How much does your rig weigh? If it is a full bodied rig, the 2.5's will treat you better, however, the 2.0's will probably work ok in the rear.

I am thinking with the Cummins in there, you are running a pretty heavy rig so I would go with 2.5's, coil springs or coilovers.
 
If you're thinking 2.5's, I'd do the coilovers. If 2.0's will do the job, then I'd go with those.

I'm gonna guess since you mentioned "tire carrier" in your sig that it's not only full-bodied, but it's got more than a little added steel back there, not to mention the front.

Emulsion coilovers would be my recommendation. If you use QA1 springs from Summit Racing, you can have a setup for $360 a corner, which isn't much more than 2.5 air shocks.. The difference is, you don't need a nitrogen fill setup everytime you want to tweak something.

My SAW's have small bumpstops on the shafts, but you can drill out stock Jeep ones, or buy the Polyperformance BBCS ones for just over $10 each.
 
as of right now i'm guessing I'm running a little over stock sprung weight right now and the tire carrier will probably be coming off as I may just narrow up the rear as I'm gonna stretch my wheel base.

I'm having trouble finding the coil overs your talking about on summit, Do you have a link.
 
10 4
 
Looks like I'm going to go with some king Air shocks,
One more question,

Do I need to run these straight up or can I angle them in a bit?

Any one else running air shocks have any pros or cons before I take the plung.
 
If you're gonna run side hills or street it, plan on using a sway bar. I'm using currie anti-rocks. Long wheeling days will have some fade due to heat, and they will need a slight recharge after a few trips out.

they make nice poser shots tho.

IMGP1999.jpg

IMG_2875.jpg
 
cali-cruiser said:
Looks like I'm going to go with some king Air shocks,
One more question,

Do I need to run these straight up or can I angle them in a bit?

Any one else running air shocks have any pros or cons before I take the plung.
Click to expand...

You *want* them angled in slightly. It increases the effective weight they carry, but any shock that goes past 90° during suspension movement becomes quite ineffective. (Plus, it also makes it harder for the tire to hit when they're angled in.

My coilovers are about 10-12° in.
 
Biff,

What length shock are you running and do you have any pics of you upper mounts.
I'm wondering how its gonna look with them sticking through the floor.

Also what kind of pressure do you run in yours? for reference,
 
I always read about coilovers vs air shocks .. I'm Air shocks fan ( in paper coz never seen one :D )

It looks a pretty simple setup .. vs coilovers and dealing with coils rate and more stuff ..

In airshocks you fill it at rate that you want/like/need and are enough.

Or I'm missing something.
 
I was planning on going with quarter elliptical, until I saw a suki with airshocks out on the trail. the thing slipped right up anything the guy wanted to go up, and the ride was like a cadillac.
 
Tapage said:
I always read about coilovers vs air shocks .. I'm Air shocks fan ( in paper coz never seen one :D )

It looks a pretty simple setup .. vs coilovers and dealing with coils rate and more stuff ..

In airshocks you fill it at rate that you want/like/need and are enough.

Or I'm missing something.
Click to expand...

You are :flipoff2:

You still deal with spring rate.. but you have to change the nitrogen pressure (and sometimes the fluid level in the shock) when you want to change ride height and "spring" rate. Alot more involved IMO. Plus, the spring rate isn't linear, it's quite exponential.

If you dont' like messing with things, you'd be just fine with air shocks.. Fill 'em once, then top off after a few runs, and you're done.

I know how I am, and I'll be forever screwing around with my shocks... one reason I went to co's.

But they are a helluva lot easier to package than coilovers, especially in his application.

cali-cruiser said:
I was planning on going with quarter elliptical, until I saw a suki with airshocks out on the trail. the thing slipped right up anything the guy wanted to go up, and the ride was like a cadillac.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I doubt the airshocks had much to do with it. you could do a 1/4 elip with some good quality shocks and get the same performance.. his climbing ability had alot to do with the geometry of the 4-link, among many other things (such as being just over 2000lbs!)

You should really weigh your rig first though, you may be close to the 2.0's limits. I've seen plenty of cruisers on stock axles upwards of 4500lbs, and under 1000 of that is unsprung.
 
Eskimo said:
You are :flipoff2:
Click to expand...

Thanks :D

Eskimo said:
You still deal with spring rate.. but you have to change the nitrogen pressure (and sometimes the fluid level in the shock) when you want to change ride height and "spring" rate. Alot more involved IMO.
Click to expand...

Point .. you are right .. bot you can change it more easy ( the " rate " ) in a air shock than coilover ..

Eskimo said:
Plus, the spring rate isn't linear, it's quite exponential.
Click to expand...

And it's not the same thing in coilovers .?

Anycase I thought I never can run airshocks or coilovers .. in my heavy TLC :frown:
 
To me, pulling the lower retainer and swapping one coil for another is alot easier than letting all the nitrogen out, draining the oil, adding a measured amount back in, and then recharging the shock.

Coilover springs are typically linear rate. you have the combined rate before the dual rate slider stop, then it goes to the "primary" rate. (The spring rate of the bottom spring)

You could run 'em if you want to bad enough. A torch will make all kinds of room! :D

Also, if you have a vehicle like mine- not moon-buggy light, and sitting with a limited amount of uptravel, getting what I consider a good spring rate from air shocks is tough.
 
Eskimo said:
To me, pulling the lower retainer and swapping one coil for another is alot easier than letting all the nitrogen out, draining the oil, adding a measured amount back in, and then recharging the shock.
Click to expand...

Ok ok ok ok ok .. you win :frown:

I would consider found a 300lb/in and one 250lb/in coils for my future ( read in 10 years ) coilover idea :D
 
if you've got the pockets for coil-overs...GETTEM!

I'm running 2.5 18" S-A-W's Remote Res with a dual coil rate(OK, I got the shocks for a deal and I now realize I really didn't need anything that big)

I'll end up having a chunk of $$$ in 2 shocks...I'll run 2.0 16" in the rear

Picture001-3.jpg

Picture010-4.jpg
 
cali-cruiser said:
Biff,

What length shock are you running and do you have any pics of you upper mounts.
I'm wondering how its gonna look with them sticking through the floor.

Also what kind of pressure do you run in yours? for reference,
Click to expand...

Sorry, haven't checked back in a while.

They're 16" 2.5 Fox

running 225 lbs, factory valving from Polyperformance.

They're needing more charge lately as they've lost a few inches over the last year.

total extended length is 44" eye to eye, so they're looonnnggggg.

i'm running a full bodied truck and don't have any overloading issues. I'll probably bump up another 50 PSI soon.

Rear shocks are up to the bottom of my jump seats so that i can still have the rear seats down. I'm going to re-jig the rear when i go aluminum tub this winter, probably bell crank them (run horizontal) as i don't want the exposure through the floor (water, dirt, etc) often ends up in the cab.

Build photos:

IMG_5303.jpg

IMG_5251.jpg

IMG_5260.jpg

IMG_5267.jpg

IMG_5254.jpg

IMG_5249.jpg

IMG_5258.jpg
 
Does any one see a down side to charging these things with air besides the fact that most of the oxygen and other elements will bleed out more quickly than the nitrogen. The reason I ask is i've got a free source for over 300psi of air (The drill rig I work on), and 78% of air is nitrogen and 225psi is 78% of 300psi

Any thoughts?
 
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