Thread: hydraulics vs. air bags

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Hey thinking of pimpin out my car a little got 1980 Cadillac DeVille wondering what way i should go. Thinking air bags I wana be able to lower it put some little titanium plates so when I lower it when moving I can throw some white sparks. But can you hop with air bags?. Dont know much about this stuff im mostly a body man if you can tell me witch way is best for big old cadillac that be sweet.

Thanks a mill,
Tony G

Air bags would be the least expensive but you can't make it jump unless you use hydraulics. You can't pump the air fast enough to hop. Your psi drops with the first use and it takes a while to get your air pressure back. Hydraulics get their pressure from a pump. The bigger the pump the faster you can hop.
Maybe you could hinge the skid plate and hook up a power window motor to raise and lower it. Be sure to retract it when the cops pull you over and play dumb.
AL

hehe cool.. buddy pretty much said same thing the other day thinkitng of going with hydraulics and mounting then in the trunk and rig up a switch in the door like you said.. Just wondering how much its gana set me back.

Bling, you CAN hop with bags, I have a personal friend who hops his nissan truck with air bags, he uses an air compressor and tank now but soon he will be upgraging to a nitrogen tank, you can get those filled at welding shops and such. You can only run about 150psi in a compressed air tank, but with nitrogen you can run very high pressures, my buddy will be running 1300psi or so in his. This higher pressures allows you to bouch higher, becasue you can use a higher air pressure in the bags without worrying about running out of air. The pressure you need in the bags to bounce it depends on the weight of your car, and how high you wan to go, with a big Caddy like yours your probably gonna be looking at 90psi or so in the bags and you'll probably only get 5 ot 6 inches off the ground, if this is what you want, bags are the way to go, if you want to hop high like the pros you need hydos. But hydos make your car ride VERY stiff, almost like you have no suspension at all, becasue the hydros don't give you suspension like bags do, they only give you hight adjustment, when you runs hydros you keep the coil springs but cut them down to about 3 coils. 3 coils, isn't going to produce a very plesant daily driver, especially in a 2 ton caddy.

Hope this helps.

By the way, buy a "Truckin Magizine" it will tell you everything you need to know about airbags. Plus it has huge ads with all the companies that you are gonna wanna look into for your bags. Air-ride Technologies makes the best systems out there for cruzin, but don't use them if you wanna hop, they wont stand up to the torture, you're gonna want to use a fast-bags kit from a company like www.airbagit.com

I tryed to include a video for you, so you could see a car on air bags hopping, but even after I compressed the file, it was still above the board's 400000byte limit. I'm sure if you do a www.google.com search you could find a video to download without much trouble.

Good luck with it all.

with a nitrogen tank filled with helium with the right set up you can make that caddy hop at least 20 inches id garontee it

i can make my yoda hop and im only using three way 3/8 valves on a tank and compressor set up and i can make it hop about 4 inches,if i change to 3/8 singles i could hop about 6inches and if i change to 1/2 in singles i could easily break the 16 to 18 inch mark still on the tank and compressor if i changed to the helium set up i could easily break the 24 inch mark

If throwing sparks is a primary concern...

http://www.sparkoo.com/

Abe

In my experiance with level ride systems, Avoid the air bags. It seems to me that anything based on the concept of air inside a bendable, form fitting, container over a set of hydraulics is kind of an easy choice. Seriously though, hydraulics can handle a lot more pressure. With the caddilac(Im working on an 82 right now), try to get a set of overload springs out of a caprice. They will take twice the amount of pressure , and with 3800lbs landing from repeated 1/2 foot drops, your gonna need them. Also, if your car has levelride, you have the system already mapped out. If not, actually, probably not, your car has the line routers already in place. You can get the pump mount from any auto parts store, and the belts. Just be sure not to run low pressure lines. I reccomend double thick lines rated at 2000psi. I replaced the lines in an 84 with this, and it still works flawlessly. OK, also, if you have a relief valve connected to a return feed on the system, it is possible to retun some of your ride capabilities. By relieving the shocks, and running the return to the hydraulic system, you will save a lot of damage. Just a few thoughts.

in reguards to drg84 if you use the powerhouse bags from universal air you wont have any problem with weight or just use the double play, plenty of travel and very strong they use them on full sized trucks with out any problem and they keep the same diameter. i absolutly hate i mean hate hydrolics i dont care who installs the system you can basicly junk the car after a few long trips, if you keep the car on a trailer go ahead and run a fluid system, but if not use air because if you blow a line all you need is a hose clamp, a shrader fitting, and a hand pump or one of those little co2 pumps tha you put in your pocket, with hydros you blow a line the fluid will rott your car to the ground the weight of the system alone will destroy your car and then you have no space in your car for anything, if you run air you can still have your sound system and your back seat, with air the only thing you ever have to worry about is blowing a bag ind that is highly irregular if installed correctly and usually never happends unless you are hopping, oh and one other thing if you have a set up like i do i have a fitting on my tank that you can put an air hose and air up your tires use any air tool, i even built a little jack that is an airbag so i can change my wheels when i go to the track!!!! beat that with hydrolics you may be able to pull a wheel up to change your little doughnuts but if you ever run thatcar on the strip it will be useless trust me i use to have a monty carlo with a show hydro system i got so sick of the ride the way it handled and everything else about the car (dont get me wrong it was a nice car and i had lots of money in it) i ended up going to a car show and the ride about killed me so i wend around the parking lot untill i found some one driving a 80s toyota and traded the the guy strait up yes i probably lost $10,000 but id rather have my TOYOTA!!!! any day

i forgot one thing if you do decide to run air make sure you run either four three way valves or eight singles dont to try to run a 2 three way or four singles because you will have a problem with it leaning

drg84 you must have had factory air on a car and never had a regular air ride system to dislike air so much, i just think it is impractical to have hydrolics. i just watch my friends cars every day blowing ball joints, hoses, pumps, and iv even seen batterys catching on fire,

with air you can have a system with 4 compressors and you only need one or two extra battries and never have a problem

another suggestion i have is use a regular pressure switch for like tour house air compressor instead of one that air ride companys sell because you have to use a selinoid to work multible compressors with a standuard air compressor pressure switch you dont need that it has a power switch so you can turn your compressors off if you go away like from your car for a few days you dont have to come back to a dead batterie if you have a slight leak which is not un common but not a problem. the air ride pressure swiches that companys sell i just dont like thats my opinion weather you like it or not!

ive had bags in my 95 impala and ive had several cars with hydros. apples and oranges. if you put hydros in your ride, make sure to get some accumulators. the ride will be pretty much like stock. also, an air bag install done by a shop like MIC, West Coast Customs or just about any other decent shop will run you at 3500 to start with a fast back set up. you will be up around 5gs+ if you want No2, thats if the shop will install it, not all shops will. master image customs will not. depends what you want to do, just go up and down, hop or what have you. a good hydros install will run you to start around 2300. i run adex dumps, trojan group 31s and my buddy machines my hydro set ups, all my stuff is custom. lots of good shops around the country to do installs, make sure if you go with hydros they reinforce your frame. feel free to email me if you have questions. been lowriding a long time, even at 25 years of age. lots of good sites were respected shop owners visit. www.layitlow.com. get some smart asses, but for the most part, you can talk to decent knowledged individuals. even have an air suspension section. didnt check to see where you were located, but personally know guys that do good work out here if you need a place.

as far as even rides go, cant say with air, since i didnt run individuals. never will ever be even, both sides will never have equal pressure. with hydros you eliminate that by using a y block to your pumps.

customer's car

ill post pics of my cadillac and my nomad when it gets done. bags vs hydros. i always get my hydros custom made, my buddy is a machinist and makes stuff for the bigger hydro shops out there. i hate having stuff that looks like other people's. nothing like a custom job.

i have hydraulics on my truck and dont have anything bad to say about them. knock on wood!! ive also got a streetcharger that uses my alternator to keep my batteries charged. in the front and back i also use accumulators for a great ride. i dont have springs in the rear and it rides perfect. the acculator acts like a strut.

i dont like air unless you have a driveline compressor. i would hate having to wait for my truck to air up. with my juice i just hit a switch whenever i want!

This is my mothers car. I have been all the way through the hydraulics on this thing, and I have found no flaws-yet. However, I think that on the lighter vehicles, it would be fine for air. All I know is hat ive seen way to many town cas with busted bags.