I have found a kit for our cars but I was wondering what is the performance sacrafice of running one of these systems is?

http://airbagit.com/product_info.php?products_id=3690

 

you trade some in-cabin ride height adjustability for weight. There are some performance air-bags for cars, but most real race cars go with more tried and true strut/spring designs for many a reason. Also, the bag diameter may be an issue in the rear, but you'd have to check one out to make sure. Usually the benefit is you can slam lower than you can drive for parking, and then raise up to a drivable level to not leave the bottom of your car on the pavement.

Did you notice the kit comes with a three gallon air reserve? That's not small.... The pump unit has got to be 10 lbs or so....

But you may have finally found the suspension cure for Pimpeds sound wall system he's building!

Matt

 

Airbagit makes junk systems and the quality of their bags are pretty sub-par. I've been told by a bunch of mini-truckers and euro buddies who run bags to stay far away from the airbagit bags.

I'm currently building up an air system for this coming spring. DrO is right ...the rear requires a very small diameter bag which is hard to source. Most bags are 5 inches in diameter whereas our rear springs are about 4.25" so atleast a 4" bag is required. The next hardest part is the front struts. The rears just use normal mounting methods....but the fronts require you to weld on some parts to allow you to bolt the front suspension in and attach the sway.

Ther performance really depends on the setup, the number of valves you run, the amount of pressure you are running at, and the quality of the struts. Some air setups give you fully adjustable coilovers with bags on them for better handling and suspension adjustability. The airbagit setup probably isn;t the best for handling though.

 

3 gallons is pretty small for most setups...generally people go with 5 gallons.

The average size compressor won't be much more than 8lbs

 

but it's large for the storage space in a Mini....

If you need cockpit adjustable ride height, air bags are a good way to go, but you have to have the space for the reserve. If you just need to raise you car for winter driving in snowy areas, I'd do a coil over and raise/allign seasonally.

But that's me. Whatver floats you boat!

Matt

 

True it will definitely take up trunk space.

I guess it should be noted for pimped....the only rear bag that I've found that will fit is rated to easily carry the weight of our car, but I think his weights are probably too high for such a small diameter bag.

 

Please tell me about your air bag set up for the spring???

 

I'm just gonna part together my own rather than get a kit since there aren't any quality ones for our cars.

I'm probably gonna be running a 5 gallon tank with two Viair compressors to speed up the fill-up time. The management is gonna be through a digital controller rather than manual switches and gauges.

I haven't fully figured out the bag situation yet, but I think I've got a plan that will work. The rears are gonna be a simple bolt on 4" sleeve bag...but I'm still working on what to do about the fronts.

I can say that it doesn't look like we can use our stock front struts as they don't have enough travel to go low enough. I want to come close to laying it on the gound, but the front struts would bottom out before the car was even low. It's common among the euro crowd to just use koni yellows up front...but unfortunately that doesn't look like an option for us.

I'm not really aiming for performance though...

 

Sounds good!!! Hope all goes well!

 

Why can't you use Koni yellows on the front set up? That's what I run all the way around.

 

Well that's what I'm trying to figure out.I'd love for them to work cause I have some sitting in my basement....so, I've sent them an email. I'm just trying to figure out how much travel the Koni Yellows have up front from the parked ride height to fully compressed. On the stock struts it's only 1.9" so the airbag would only be able to lower the car 1.9" which is no good.

Do you happen to know how much more travel the Yellows have over stock?

 

I don't sorry.

 

Koni had really good customer service though when I had a problem with the bolts on my rears. So they should give you an answer pretty quickly. Good luck with your air suspension.

 

Thanks, they really were good about it. It appears that the Koni's suffer from the same problem as they have the same dimensions as stock and don't have any more travel.