I've been into mini trucks for awhile, love how creative you can get with different setups and really experiment with layouts, seems no 2 trucks suspension is laid out exactly the same. Which has me wondering if any of the j-body community has some really one off setups, I would love to see pictures and diagrams of ideas, lets just make this post one long thread for creative ideas.
J~
Well Im sick of the car stuff and just stepped into minitrucks. Picked up a cheep 98 s10 as my new project.
Anyway. THis is the old setup I had on my cavy.
Nothing fancy. I only know of two others who did something like this but have only seen pics of one of those.
Dont worry aboput the line. THat was a temp testing setup.
The welds were not pretty but they help up to a year and a half of hard use along with hopping almost every weekend.
Only J I know of anything like what you see in trucks is the Cavy built by Air lift.
Cantilever setup in the trunk. COnnecting rod went down to the stock lower strut mount on the arm.
I am all that is man
Oh and Jim at air lift tells me that that Cavalier drags better than many trucks out there.
I am all that is man
now thats the kind of stuff i'm talkin about, freakin awsome stuff, it kind of looks like you just welded bag cups on your lower control arms in the front and directly to the rear axle, you have any more pictures of your setup and i'm guessing thats your car in the sig pic? lays out nice, do you have shocks on the car as well or just the bags? i've heard its a pretty crappy ride without shocks. if you have anymore pics i would love to see them.
J~
i did mine the same way ESB did but in the almost year i've had it done i havn't taken any pics, ah well over the winter i guess..
1st 1st gen on air.....
And it gets decent lift out back. 5.5" I think it was.
Front with easystreet struts is 4"
I am all that is man
thats freakin awsome man. I was wondering what kind of lift and drop you got out of just the bags and if you used an upper mount or not, but the angle is creative and looks to work just fine
. I'm more concerned about the rear of my car than the front, i'd rather not drop my oil pan on the ground since it seems to be the lowest thing on my car lol.
I love the way your car lays out, its low without being overly low and dragging @!#$ off. I am curious about a couple things, I've had the front of my car tore down completely but havent been under the back of my car that much and at the moment its very muddy outside, i was under the impression that the rear was struts as well as the front, so are you reusing the stock strut with no spring on it, or is the rear a seperate spring and shock as it sort of appears in one of those pics?
If its a shock i think i just figured out my next project, if not i'm gonna have to do some more math lol. also what model bags did you use? i'm thinking either air lift bags or slam specialties rs62, and i want a fast kit so probably 1/2" lines and valves with 1/2" port bags that should give me some hop lol, i guess if it turns out to fast i could always add slow downs on the drop valves.
J~
nicely done
, not all that extreme as you said, but one of the few drift kits i've seen layed out on air lol, might just be the reason why most wont do it, kits already to low
.
J~
You could almost compare the rear of a J to a 2 link setup on a truck with bags. Yet no need for a panhard rod. The back is held up by a coil over shock setup. It only holds the car up. Has nothing to do with holding the rear wheels in place. DOsnt act like the front struts do.
I ran for one year without the shocks out back.
I am all that is man
Phewes--- The more times goes by the more I dont care anymore. Im seriously done with my cavy. I dont miss the bags as my car has turned into a simple work car.
My truck has all the attention now.
J- I ran air lift 2b6 out back. But I had been wanting to run slams. I say go slam becasue from what everyone says they ride better.
OR you can wait to see what the new design look like from air lift
dont ask about them. Becasue no one knows about them. But should be out very soon.
I ran a 5 g tank with 110-145 presuure switch.
1/2" line
3/8 valves
single 1/2" port bags.
It would hop 5-6 inches out back. So go ahead and try those 1/2 valves and maybe a higher pressure switch and tell us what happins.
I am all that is man
ESB:
LOL
Well thats good then and you will still always have air ride around you to ride, hitting switches, getting the bitches and enjoy!
I am sure you will have lots of fun with your new S10!
Good luck!
Im looking forward seeing the new design from the Easystreet which is coming out soon!
- Darren
OntarioCAVS.com
I dont know if it counts as extreme but I have my custom Bagovers in the front(and hopefully tommrow the cylinder setup) And Well the only part that I bought FOR my car was the Airbagit bag and plates, the strut was custom made.
I gotta upload the pics
anything custom is kind of what this is geared towards Spiderwizard, just gets everyones attention with that title.
ESB, thank you for all the info on the bags and such, i know the rear end is a solid peice, i just wasnt sure how the rear was setup as far as if it were shocks or struts, never looked that close, but ya it is alot like a solid axle with a 2 link, and no need for the extra hardware lol. i've read in alot of places that the slam bags were a better ride as well, just wondered what a real world opinion is, as none of my friends really get into air or hydro setups.
My rough outline of the setup i'll have so far is, easy street struts up front, 1/2" lines, valves, and ported bags in the rear, a 4 gallon tank and an additional 3 gallon tank in the trunk, probably a viar 450 or 2 and if i can make it work an adjustable pressure switch set at 150psi with a saftey valve on the tank, check valves before each fill valve and water traps off each compressor and a pressure gauge for each bag and one for the tank, so with 7 gallons of air i should have plenty of fun time between refills. although if the viars will take 170psi that would be awsome, i just dont want to burn them up by pushing it, anyone have a recommendation for compressors?
J~
THere are some people on s10forum.com that speek highly of air lift. Say they havnt had problems in years.
Ive also seen a lot of people talk bad about the air lift bags. They had the same problem I had with mine. End plates popping off.
However Air lift says that was a bad batch and they will gladly send you out a new bag no questions asked. The bag from my cavy has been replaced and AIr lift even sent me two brand new 300psi dual 1/2" port Extreem 2b7 bags. Im going to use these on the rear of my truck. JUst opend the box like 30 minutes ago. THese are compared to the Firestone 2600 bags. THe ones I had on my car are like 2500s
But Im going to go with Slam bags up front becasue Ive never heard of anyone switching back to anything else once having a slam bag. A shop owner I know loves them to death. He used them on the first late model F150 that layed frame. On 26" rims BTW
Siad the ride was great and that was before even installing shucks.
Slams also get more lift.
As for a pressure switch. I would run a Square D adjustable switch. THat way you could turn it up on show night and turn it down for daily use.
You could also think about the new Viair 460s instead of the 450s. They are rated up to 200PSI with same speed of a 450 thats rated at 150psi. They dont cost much more and seems to be worth the little extra IMO.
I am all that is man
i've been reading alot about air zenith, supposed to be a 200psi 100% duty cycle fast air compressor, filling a 5 gallon tank from 165 to 200 psi in 1.5 mins, but they are around 300. i've also been reading on thomas/blitzluft 337 compressors, supposed to be comparable to the 450 but it comes with a 2 year warranty and is alittle cheaper.
Now as far as max bag pressure, do higher pressure bags ride any different, say the extreme 300 psi bags vs the 180 psi bags? any idea how quick a single 460 would fill 7 gallons of air? every bodies site seems focused on 5 gallon tanks, except for the oasis, but those are crazy compressors, 14 cfm is nuts.
I dont have pics to show of it, but a friend and myself are in the middle of an extreme rear bag setup. We took the factory axle, chopped out 3.5 inches and rewelded it back together with bracing, removed the gas tank, welded in a 2x2 crossmember and added tabs for the rear trailing arm to mvoe the axle back 1.25 inches in total. The bags are basically going in the same spot as esb's were placed, also using firestone 2500s. We are adding a 2 link panhard as well and completing it all with a mini tub.
As for the air pressure, generally you want to ride around in the city with a lower air pressure and I find the best ride on a highway is a higher pressure. Not every set up will run best on the same pressures, you basically have to just experiment until you find your acquired sweet spot that you like to ride on.
Also, Spyderwizard, I'm interested in seeing those pics!
Why are you going to add a panhard rod?
The way you have setup it should still work just like stock.
I am all that is man
Ok pics of My Cylinder setup in the front:
(i still have to do some work on the rails upfront to drop it another 1/2" or so, As its been pointed out the frame lays on the tires before it dropps all the way
The Bottom Brackets we made. I cut the bottom of my OEM struts off(keeping the chunk of tube in the bracket, aslo had to shorten the bracket about 1.5", then we took a chunk of 1.75" rod and drilled it out and tapped it so the cylinder could screw into it. Then I just dropped it in the hollow mount and welded her up, strong as a strong thing?
Then for the upper Mounts(there was alot of flaming for this But its been almost a week and im still riding HAPILY on this with NO problems. I made the upper mounts from 1/2" Lexan plate, but I will accualy be swaping them out for steel plates because the thickness is to much and without cutting my spindles its the only place I can go any lower.
You can see here why I want to go another 1/2" lower:
Im taking the crossmember off the drivers side soon and replacing it with the tubular frame Im making to protect the engine:
And heres the start of my backup Nitrogen bottle rack/Spare rim rack:
I was claiming to be the lowest sunfire on OEM outer diameter tires but looking at what he has going on with the 22"s and the tub-ing he will probably beat me
Maybe Ill still be lower in the front
very creative setup man, but lexan? I guess its just as strong for the application being 1/2" thick but that would make me all kinds of nervous, steel just seems more solid. I lost track of this post for awhile but it seems some cool stuff was added while i was away
.
J~
Be sure to search for what Bagdfire is doing to his. Tubed out with 22s. That boy is crazzy.
I am all that is man
now what if you took esb's setup and put a shorter shock in there like on some of the trucks. that would work right?
I kept looking for a shorter shock that would bolt in and have a shorter housing than our stockers. But never found any that would bolt right in. I also never did any exstinsive searching.
I ran mine without a shocks for a long time. THe tires rest on the inner fenders. and If I would have tubbed it out I could still go about another inch lower.
I was going to do that but My sideskirts were right on the ground at the rear so I never bothered with tubbing it out.
I am all that is man
