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Air bag suspension chat


KKtrips

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I did the same thing with copper tubing in the 53, plugs in, no leaks. I do that again but its pretty soft to have under the car.

 

20160722_090132_zpsfkc05dx4.jpg

 

I got some runs of straight aircraft hydraulic tubing so that'll work (maybe), just have to get commercial fittings.

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  • 6 months later...

Question for everyone.

What is the "best" ride height.

By this i mean as low as you can go but still not worry about bottoming out etc as you drive about.

 

I know the legal limit is 100mm. whats still rather low considering i can air out lower when parked. But is 100mm good for highway, driveway, day to day driveing? Or do you risk damage.

 

My setup is a 1949 Hudson custom. New front end and rear end.

Ridetech HQ Shockwaves, 5 gallon digital setup. 

More info on my build thread. 

Im at the stage i need to decide on ride height as the old front and rear have been cut out and I need to figure how low i want the car. So ideas please and advice. 

 

Thanks

Alex

 

 

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I set mine up with to work with the stock bump stops, so it won't go lower than that. When fully down there is only about 10mm of clearance for the chassis though. For normal ride height I used the accuair system to auto-set which I think is mid-height. I think the front is tweaked down slightly. I'm not sure what the ground clearance is like, but probably about 100mm. 

I can run it on the lower automatic setting (15% IIRC) which is OK on smooth roads, even at 100kph. It will hit the road on sudden dips though. I tacked some 5mm plate onto the lowest parts of the chassis rails to cope with this.

You can get it certed with lower than 100mm, in theory anyway.

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How low works is more a function of how stiff the suspension is, more than absolute clearance. A very long time ago Hot Rod magazine did an article on a mid 60's Impala that got much uprated springs and shocks while being lowered a couple of inches. In the write up they said that even though the car was lower it didn't bottom out or scrape anywhere near as much as stock. 

The other thing is longer vehicles will scrap on speed bumps etc if the lowest point is on the middle. The very low HQ ute I had a long time ago never hit driving around but scraped on the hump going in and out the driveway. I had to replace the clamps on the exhaust about once a year because they wore through, which save the rest of the exhaust.

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Which is great when you can adjust the spring rate, but seeings as this is "airbag chat" and an airbags spring rate is dependant on pressure, which also happens to be dependant on height, then you realise that slammed = low spring rate, hence the question to other airbag users...

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think if you asked 10 people this question you will get 10 different answers. The height I have the impala at is different depending on who is in the car, where I am going or what mood I am in. If you are setting the cars suspension up now, my advice is to set it up so it lays frame. The only way is up from there :) My car has about 150mm of adjustment which is high enough to attempt some rock walking...

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  • 9 months later...
  • 7 months later...

Okay guys,  knowing what you've all learnt by doing...how would you approach bagging a 64 impala these days?

I've just trolled through all 16 pages going back 8 years. There's a bit of evolution in ideas here.

So how about now? 

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Yeah this thread isn't really coherent and good for advice, didn't make sense your other thread was closed.

Anyway, just buy a ride tech kit. Avoid the shockwaves (shock and bag combo unit) and it is all pretty much bolt in with some slight mods to spring cup and maybe rear perch. Look at the instructions for the link below for how it will bolt together. You can buy all these parts separate etc, they also have a automagic controller that self levels, their one or the accuair ones are dope.

https://www.ridetech.com/products/suspension-packages/product-3298/

So get the bolt in kit with fancy controller is my vote, pay the $$ up front and just bang it in and done forever.

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Oh weld on front shock perches with that kit, but that is super basic with the supplied parts.

And the reason for no shockwaves (even though they are cool) is only from second hand experience. They have less travel and hold less air so not as good of a ride. Also puts all the weight of the car on the shock mounts, which is not the end of the world but kinda lame.

I have their shocks in my wagon (on springs) they use custom fox racing shocks and they are amazing, dialed right in for the car they are supplied for.

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