Ok I have kept up with a lot of posts and read a lot on air ride. But my question goes out to all who actually have it and drive on it often.
-How reliable is the kit really?
-How often do bags break and when they do does the whole corner of the car just slam down etc?
-How often do you have to do maintnance on the kit?
-Worth while for a car that does make long trips occasionally and drags occasionally (mostly the weekend toy)?
Any advice for me I have been considering getting it for quit a while I'm just too skeptical of practicality of it.
Thanks
Winks Online Click Here
Easystreet is The Best bolt on kit your goign to get, and from what I have used of theres they do have a nice high quality setup, I just dont like Viair, the compressor thats included I would upgrade to an AirZeneth, As far as practical, Air will ALWAYS have some problems. If you dont want leaks, tape EVERYTHING, and use COMPRESSION fittings not push-Loc, and thats as close as you will get to leak free(thats what I run)
You also need to invest in valve heaters if you are anywhere it ever gets below freezing, because valves DO freeze. and then you cant move.
as far as bags busting, The only people I have ever KNOWN that happen to would take the bushings out the front to make the car sit about a 1/4" lower, but then that puts stress on the bags by twisting them when you turn which eventually causes a tear. So Leave it stock and your fine
I have never had a prob with mine, i wouldnt use it as a daily driver just cause the ride is rough.
Other then that its fine.
yea i just put the easystreet strut bags in and no problems yet only with the air zenith and that company backs there @!#$ 120 % cuse there sending me a brand new one and charged me nothing
Ok as far as a bag blowing and just dropping... Depending on which corner, if its one of the fronts, yes it will slam do to indepent suspension, rear will not slam do to solid axle rearend. It will ride sloppy and sag a bit on that side, but will not drop completely.
Now as far as lines blowing, thats a different story. Say you are riding down the road and one of your lines blow, depending on how you have your setup will determind on what all you have to do.
The best thing I can recomend is mounting your valves AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the bags and running check valves in between the valves and airtank as close to the valves as possible, that way if you have a line blow from the check valve to the the tank you have nothing to worry about except your tank being dry so you can still limp it home to fix your prob.
Now if you dont have check valves, the whole car NOT JUST ONE CORNER will drop if a line blows from the valve to the tank. If it blows between the valve and the bag you will only lose that one corner.
For the first few weeks to a couple of months, I would carry around a couple of extra tools, fittings, unions, and a couple of feet of airline just to make sure if something happens your not stranded.
DO YOUR ROUTINE MANTINENCE!!!!! Clean your valves every couple months to ensure no trash is building up in them. Check lines that may rub something. Drain your tank at the most every two weeks. Be sure to use gromets when running a line through metal.
-Brandon
matt its not bad. i have had 2 bags go on me and they were both rears. acctually im on a blown one right now. as for lines be carefull and you shouldnt have a problem. ive only had one line problem and it was installer error=my stupidity. i say go for it mine is a dd and is awsome.
I dont want to jack the thread, so Im sorry for asking, but where can I find gromets, and what size should I run for 1/2" and 3/8" airline? Also, how exactly do they install?
I drove my bagged SF from Temple Hills, MD to KY and also from MD to S A, TX and had no problems. So just be meticulous and pay attention to what you're doing and you can use your car like normal as if you had stock susp.
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Sdwndr2 wrote:I dont want to jack the thread, so Im sorry for asking, but where can I find gromets, and what size should I run for 1/2" and 3/8" airline? Also, how exactly do they install?
You could get gromets at any auto parts store, prolly in the HELP section. I would prolly run 3/4" gromets for 1/2" line, and 1/2" gromets for 3/8" line.
They are easy to install. You basically drill the size hole you need and slip them in.
You see the grove. That is where the metal sits and the rubber lips are there for protection againts cutting things with the jagged metal.
-Brandon
Thanks alot for your help redeco....Will the lines sit in nice and tight, or should I silicone them once they are in the gromets or what?
just like he said. put the grommet in and push the line through. its fine just like that. get a grommet slightly bigger than your line and it will fit snug
See I could care less about how rough the ride is. I'm bouncy right now. My real only concern is if it's always going to be breaking or stuff needing fixing or repair which I can deal with to a certain extent. It sounds like if you keep up with the maintance after the initial install things should be fine.
I understand the check valve as an extra saftey percaution, and if I ever do bags I will have them at every corner of the car.
I guess the thing I'm still not nuts about or one of the only things keeping me from doing it for the most part. Is the fact that a bag can blow out and kill the corner of the car on the expressway which could lead to something really bad. I guess thats just the choice I need to make at this point.
Winks Online Click Here
Im in the exact same boat youre in right now. Im trying to decide what I Want to do. IM just going to say screw it and go with air ride. I'll deal with problems AS they occur, and not focus on them, but focus on the good attributes of an air ride system.
its not as bad as you think. it does jerk your car quite a bit but it isnt really crazy its like driving down the expressway doin like 90 hit switches haha i dont care if people say im stupid but oh well. its not to crazy and when your doin 106 and drag its crazy. ive never seen so many sparks behind me
bags arnt as fragile as people make them out to be. think of all the rigs running around on bagged setups. ive seen truck bouncing 2-3 feet off the ground at shows not blow bags though i have seen some go. you could always blow an axle or tire or steering linkage out with what you have now. theres no gaurentee's but aslong as you take your time and set it up right you should be fine.
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Yea I prolly end up picken up. My only concern was if something like that happend and my g/f was in the car. I could give two shs if just im in the car. O well every oil change give it all a good inspection. The odds og a bag blowing out completly (not a small leak) are unlikley for just driving and crusin. Andrew I guess it's time to see if those rims tuck
hit me up.
Thanks all great feed back it was exactly what I was looking for. I just need to catch up on some projects I got going on now first.
Winks Online Click Here
What sndsgood said.
Also I can think of one way to keep you from losing a corner if a bag blows, but in stead of losing 1, your gonna lose 2. That would keep the car from jerking to one side of the road, you would drag instead.
What you do is this, instead of running the (8) 3/8" valves that come in the kit, use (4) 3/4" valves, (2) for each end of the vehicle. 1 fill and 1 dump for the front of the vehicle, 1 fill and 1 dump for the rear, then just T out of the valves to go to both bags on that half of the vehicle.
You may lose a little bit of speed in the bags that way (not real sure on the flow ratings), but I know you will lose a little bit of handling, but you dont go slaming into the person beside you either. You will only have front and back switches as well.
-Brandon
I blew out a rear bag on mine. It was an easystreet bag but not one made for J bodies.
The bag I had blew because of a faulty design on the cap. Many people in the truckin world had the same problem but we were all hooked up right. It was quickly replaced for free.
One front bag also had some problems with the center ring on the bag busting. BUt I beleive some sort of chemical got on the bag and started eating the rubber.
Over all I think the kit is great and I love the Viair compressors. Mine never gave me trouble ever. They would shut themselves off when I over worked them at shows. BUts the ats it.
I wouldnt mind picking up another Jbody just to bag again. I baught an S10 because that was my dream for many years. After starting on it I realized that the Cavy was just more fun and def not overdone as the S10s are.
I am all that is man
hey man i live in arizona now so i cant help ya or else i would sorry man
wow you really did leave lol. thats cool thanks though.
I don't really car about pancaking or bouncing my car from corner to corner anyways because I simply have too many things in my car that I don't want to do that to. So running the two lines to two t's is a possiblity and I might just do that. But I got to get this gigantic box of parts in my car first before I get another project going on. That and I still got a lot to do to winks. So maybe over the winter.
Winks Online Click Here
Problems Ive had
1. Plastic AIM fiitng on my tank blew apart causing me to loose all system presure while doing 60mph. 4 tires up in smoke eating the wells. Snapped the fitting back together and went on my way. I got lucky that it went back together. Next day all AIM crap came off of car and I swapped over to the fittings you get from Lowes. I never had a problem out of one of those. And I beat the crap out of wheel wells to make sure I could still roll with 0 psi.
2. Blew a front line on pas side while dogglegging in a sharp U turn. I was careless in my line rought and my tire ate threw it. I was lucky it was close to a fitting and I cut off bad section and had enough slack to hook it back up. Later on I secured lines so they would never touch the damn tires.
3. Overheated the compressors a couple times playing around to much at car meets. If I had enough air to lift to ride height I would leave it alone. Other wis I had to wait for them to cool off.
4. ran battery dead about 3 times playing to much at car meets. Put in a yellow top and never happined again.
5. Blew one of my rear bags. Faulty bag got another free. Lucky this happined at home. But you can still drive with one rear blown.
6. Wires in front bag started popping out. like I mentioned in earlier post. I think something got the bag ate threw rubber then allowed the wires to rust and pop.
So. Had I used the proper quality parts the first time, ran things correctly out of harms way, and pay more attention to my play time then I wouldnt have had most of my problems. JUst be sure to give everything a nice checkup maybe once a week and your good.
I am all that is man
