Airbag Suspension

[RustyH]

I've gotten a few requests for pictures of my airbagged suspension. I've got 20 pictures, and will be showing them five at a time, so bear with me. Most of the wheel shots are of the rear drivers wheel. Here goes.

I'll start with the trunk setup. Where the rear tire usually goes, there are now three batteries tied together to run the "upgraded" sound system. There's also a plug for running the truck on 110, but the convertor was shorting out the batteries and until I get it fixed, it's been pulled.

1) drivers side of trunk, with spare tire still in place
2) trunk with spare removed, but center section in place. Cross bar is revoved by undoing two bolts on cross member, then it lifts clear. You can see the air tank, porportioning valves and dual air compressors. All the airlines are hard copper piping. Very strong and stable. I know with this system I lose the trunk, but since I never had one before in a pcikup, I don't really miss it.
3) Closeup of porportioning valves. The round silver object poking through the trunk wall is where the 110 electrical plugs in. The other side is hidden behind a waterproof cover. Not in use at this time.
4) Cross bar for spare tire, showing cutout for airtank.
5) The trunk as is normally seen.

More pictures coming

[RustyH]

The next pictures were taken underneath the truck, mostly at the drivers side rear tire.

1) You can see the shock absorber mounted here. Because the rear linked suspension had to be disconnected in order to have the rear airbags raise and lower, custom shock mounts were fabricated and rear shocks installed. The ride is stable and comfortable, with no noticible rear sway.

2) Hard air lines and wiring exiting the wall of the trunk. You can also see the hitch mount in place. One bolt was missing during the install of the hitch because the long bolt couldn't get clear of the airlines. A slightly shorter bolt was eventually used and all three bolts are in place.

3) Another shot of the airlines exiting out the drivers side of the trunk

4) The line on othe bottom is going to the top of the drivers rear airbag. The other line is continuing around the front of the trunk

5) The airline for the front airbags goes from hard line to what appears to be plastic and this line then goes over the rear differential.

More pictures to follow

[RustyH]

Here are pics of the truck at different levels.

1) Driving mode. Air pressue at 120 PSI. This is the height that I normally drive at. It's comfortable and looks good. The truck did have 22s on it, but I took them off and replaced them with the stock tires and wheels, for now. I want to get these 20" wheels:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...IF:MOTORS:1123

but I'll have to wait until I sell the 22's. Any takers?

2) Rear wheel, 0 psi. The top of the tire is hitting the inner fender well. I have discovered that all of the upper fender wells are cracked or broken. Obviously someone tried to drive this while it was completely lowered. Not a good idea with stock wheelwells.

3) Front wheel, 0 psi. No turning in this position.

4) Both front and rear at full 150 psi. The ride is very harsh and stiff at this level and you can drive over a dime and tell what date it was made. When pulling my trailer, I may pump up the rear end a little, around 130, but I don't need to go this high.

5) Rear wheel, 150 psi. You can see the added clearance, it looks like it's almost stock here.

One more set of pics to go.

[RustyH]

Almost done. The following pics are of the center console airbag switch and guage assembly.

1) Two switches, air guage and Ipod mount. The red needle is for the rear airbags, the black needle is for the front. The switches are spring loaded toggle switches. Press, or in my case, tap them forward, air pressure increases, tab them back and air pressure decreases. You can get pretty specific if you're careful.

2) The cluster assembly is not attached per se, it just sits in the center console. The wiring, which you can see when I pull it up, holds it in place pretty well. The console still slides forward and backward without any problem.

3) In this picture, you can see an on/off switch I added after getting the truck. Before, when the key was on, the pressure switches were active. Needless to say, that meant you could drop the suspension accidently while driving. By installling this on/off switch, I can adjust the air pressure before I start, then disconnect the switches so it can't be changed while driving.

That's all I've got for the airbag suspension for now. When I get my new wheels, I make sure to get some shots of both front and rear airbags when the wheels are off, both in the up and down position.

If anyone has any questions, I'll try and answer to the best of my abiliity. Understand I didn't install this system, but from what I've seen it was a top notch job all the way around. I understand the front torsion bar link setup was modified so it is still attached and working, even with the airbags. Only the rear link system, with the torsion bar over the rear diff, is not hooked up, although it looks like it was also modified to work, just left disconnected because the shocks work so well.

All the welds for the shock mounts look sturdy and professional. I've notcied some surface rust and will be wirebrushing the area and applying paint at a later date.

Sorry such a long post, but I figure this should give you all the infor I know.

[Nailz]

great photo's man. A little more complicated than the set up on my 54 Bel Air.
I like your choice in rims. I'm getting something similar from MKW. I wanted to get a 5 spoke style..but the ones i've seen on Ridges leave too much of the brakes exposed, in my opinion. Plus not many rated for the weight.
you got a nice ride.
~Nailz

[X-Brawn]

Admit it, dude, you just like showing off that sick Ridgeline of yours. I definitely need to get some kind of meet setup for the Arizona and SW crew for this spring (after the April meet, of course) just so I can see your truck up close.

[shovelhd]

That airbag defeat switch was a glaring omission. You were smart to add it.

[xridgelinex]

Thanks.... Really cool...With everyday driving at 120psi, do you drop it for highway use to like 110 or 100psi? Or is that too soft?

[RustyH]

Originally Posted by xridgelinex

Thanks.... Really cool...With everyday driving at 120psi, do you drop it for highway use to like 110 or 100psi? Or is that too soft?

So far, I've been keeping it 150. The ride is comfortable to me and that's where I had it aligned at. The truck is driveable at 90 psi, but that's pretty low and if I hit a bump while making a turn, I think the front tires would hit the fenders.

When I picked up the truck in California in January, it only had about 3,800 miles on it. About a thousand miles later, the front tires were noticibly wearing. I don't know what airbag pressure they had been aligned at, but it was probably really low. The shop said my alignment pretty bad, although it tracked perfectly straight for me. Maybe it was the orginal 22s that were on the truck. I put back on the orginal tires and wheels about two weeks ago and the ride is much more comfortable and so far, after about 300 miles, no discernable tread wear.

[japantuner]

maybe a quesion already answered in the past but is it legal? i plan to add airbag this spring and found a guy a airbag company who fit m 5 inch of range for 3500$ install....

not really expensive but really legal?

could you drop only one side?

what's clean-up and maintenance cost?

thanks for answer

josué

very cool the ride