Jetboy
New member
Just one more thought - I've wanted to do this forever. But I probably never will. If you wanted to maximize mpg on the highway - height adjustable suspension would be ideal. I've already done the rear GX460 air suspension setup, so we know that works and it's a bolt in setup for rear air springs but you'll need to work on the height adjustment system. There are some aftermarket options or custom setup could be done. Front has never worked for me. The issue is that no one would make me a air bag for a 2.5" diameter shock and I didn't want to give up my bigger body shocks. But my use has changed and maybe I'd be okay with it now going down in size to an OEM TRD Pro fox setup. Then you'd need to identify the correct spring length and combine with a bag-over setup. That would give you adjustable height air suspension front and rear. My ideal setup would be to run the front with the bags totally deflated for highway driving. So I'd design it to be 1" below stock height with the airbag riding on its internal bump stops. So you could have a nice low highway cruising height for max mpg and then you'd be able to adjust the front up to maybe 5" above that, so 4" lift height, for the trails. Or anything in between.
I'm guessing you'd be into the setup around $2500 for the air springs, compressor, ECU, sensors, and balance of system (hoses, fittings etc). I'd also want as a must-have adjustable rear shocks because it's tricky to match a shock with the air spring rates without trial and error. Best part of this setup is that you'd have the best of all worlds as far as ride height, steering and alignment being proper at street height, and the ease of being able to go way up on its tippy toes for short sections of a trail where you need the absolute max clearance.
Downside is that air suspension is prone to leaks and failures. So you'd need to consider that for how remote you're going and what parts you need to bypass any component and still be able to drive the vehicle. When I had the GX air springs in the rear I carried a spare coil spring and had the ability to manually inflate each air spring separately, so if one popped I could swap in the coil. Never needed to. Only time I popped one was in the garage working on suspension. I'm still not entirely sure what I punctured it with, but something I was doing popped it.
If you think you'll never get a payback on a commuter car - I can pretty much guarantee you'd never even get a sniff of breaking even on air suspension to pick up maybe 1mpg at best on the highway! haha. Just thought it was a fun idea for discussion mostly.
I'm guessing you'd be into the setup around $2500 for the air springs, compressor, ECU, sensors, and balance of system (hoses, fittings etc). I'd also want as a must-have adjustable rear shocks because it's tricky to match a shock with the air spring rates without trial and error. Best part of this setup is that you'd have the best of all worlds as far as ride height, steering and alignment being proper at street height, and the ease of being able to go way up on its tippy toes for short sections of a trail where you need the absolute max clearance.
Downside is that air suspension is prone to leaks and failures. So you'd need to consider that for how remote you're going and what parts you need to bypass any component and still be able to drive the vehicle. When I had the GX air springs in the rear I carried a spare coil spring and had the ability to manually inflate each air spring separately, so if one popped I could swap in the coil. Never needed to. Only time I popped one was in the garage working on suspension. I'm still not entirely sure what I punctured it with, but something I was doing popped it.
If you think you'll never get a payback on a commuter car - I can pretty much guarantee you'd never even get a sniff of breaking even on air suspension to pick up maybe 1mpg at best on the highway! haha. Just thought it was a fun idea for discussion mostly.
