Height adjustable air system.

[kodiak]

I’ve been playing with the idea of a height adjustable air system for a long time. Something that would give me 3 to 4 inches of lift at the flick of a switch. I looked in to system that already exist like in the rang rover and the Porsche but nothing seamed tough enough. The only one that looks like it can handle Moab is made by Airock Suspension Systems. They make a system for the jeep that is simply amassing. I decided that will be my next project. I won’t be able to start it for a couple of months but think it’s doable.

I’m not going to replace the suspension with air I’m just going to supplement it. When the air system is off it will be like it’s not even there.

Ok, your thoughts.:cool:

http://www.fourwheeler.com/howto/129_0301_jeep/index.html

[Triathlete]

The rear would be quite easy to do. The front, on the other hand, would require reworking the front suspension since there is no spring to simply replace with the airbag.

[kodiak]

That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet. I’m not going to take out the torsion bars I just need to fabricate a mount for the bags. But it’s never that easy.:confused:

[jgalt]

Careful what you do...

I don't know if you are thinking of removing the coil and shocks in the rear and replacing them with these air-bags, but if you did, it would fail inspection in UT and get red-flagged.

Happened to me on my Rodeo..

[ZEUS]

I already bailed out on this one - I looked at it for a little while last year and found a good, usuable system would be far too expensive in relation to the mild beneficial gains and new negatives. The front suspension is pretty stiff and doesn't allow that much travel anyway, ADD air to gain lift and things begin to stiffen up even further and you would end up losing precious travel. When you say "supplement with air" you have to realize you are effectively adding an extra spring to the mix - multiplying spring force - causing stiffness. Now if you were to use some kind of switch and valve system to send air from one side to the other as a method of forced articulation then you would have half of the problem solved for offroad mode. As the driver's side gets compressed, the air would be forced into the bag on the opposing side, forcing the A-arm on the passenger side to droop. You would also have to shut the valve for street use in lift mode because it acts as a negative anti-sway bar. Another issue is the more you lift the less down travel you have - that is the issue with an IFS anyway. Down travel is the better travel option in the offroad world. "Upgrading" a VX with a gimmicky, stiffer, more expensive, less reliable, non-down travel suspension seemed kind of self-defeating to me. If you think you can figure it out and make it work, KUDOS to you! But the stock front suspension is not a very good canvas to start painting on if you know what I mean.

[kodiak]

Thanks ZEUS and JGALT, IFS can be a pain. I was planning on keeping the original suspension in place and using the air system to dynamically force articulation when needed actively keeping the VX level with a 4 position gravity switch. For example on decent down a hill it would putt more presser in the front bags and depending on left or right angles it would adjust accordingly to keep it level. I would more then likely have to put liter springs in the rear. I know this isn’t going to be easy.