Rear suspension air bags and off roading

[adrtoy]

Wonder what I'll affects installing rear air bags would have on suspension flex? Assuming the bags were deflated to the manufacturers minimum spec and no added cargo weight.

 

[Titanpat57]

Wonder what I'll affects installing rear air bags would have on suspension flex? Assuming the bags were deflated to the manufacturers minimum spec and no added cargo weight.

they have no affect...they are for down compression only, and basically act as bump stop until you inflate them higher

 

[Sig_Fan_55]

I spoke to a guy at airlift while I was trying to find the right size for my Toytec springs and he let me know they actually work by horizontal force and not so much vertical. This was news to me. I thought it was the opposite.

 

[adrtoy]

Good input so far. Thanks! Pretty easy to see they won't have an affect on down travel but I was wondering about limiting the up.

 

[Jetboy]

Good input so far. Thanks! Pretty easy to see they won't have an affect on down travel but I was wondering about limiting the up.

They will limit up travel or at least change it. Minimum of 5psi will still have some change in compression rate. Probably won't be a ton, but the effective spring rate will be different from a more linear coil spring. The air spring rate increases as it's compressed. Ie it gets stiffer faster. So big bumps will be more harsh. But really big bumps that would bottom out will not bottom as easy. It's a balance.

 

[BobsTrail]

I leave mine at 5 psi for on-road and 10 to 12 for off-road. Seems to help on the bumps. Probably my imagination.

 

[wfo9]

I don't think you would see much impact (if any). there is a pretty big space that remains in a spring when it is fully compressed. Plus you have bump stops that keep you from getting to that much compression. There is actually two...one on the rear axle and another that sits inside the spring (but gets mostly cut out to make room for the air bags..) As long as they were deflated enough... It should be a minimal impact.

The only type of off-roading where I would see some potential impact is really high speed scenarios where the suspension would bottom out with force. In low speed stuff... up travel/compression is not really very important You still need and want some... but it's really down travel that matters most.

Also, if you linked them together with balanced pressure... It might actually help articulation a tad. As one side compresses... its going to move volume to the other and help it extend a bit. Just some theory there.. not sure how well it would work in practice. If the assist is mostly horizontal force from the bag shape... it might have another behavior.