Air Springs, any ideas?

[jschenck]

Amazon bought a school textbook back, and I ordered a set of air springs from them with the return money. Psychology book for air springs sounds like a deal to me. Haha!

Anyways, they're in the mail and will be here Wednesday. I've been studying the underside of the rear end trying to figure out where the best place would be to run the lines. I'm not set on a mounting place yet for the fill valves (I'm not going with an electric pump, just the kind you fill yourself). I've considered mounting the fill valves in the wheel-well on each side and I've also considered running the lines up into the cargo area and mounting them on the interior plastic. The only thing with that is they could be broken off by any cargo I load in, and would be a pain to get to if I had a trailer hitched up.

I'm not sold with mounting them in the wheel-well due to water spray and possibly road debris, but I figure the valves on my tires have held up just fine, so...

Anyways, I'd like to know your thoughts on routing the air lines from the bottom plate of the coil spring (on top of the axle) back up to the body without putting the lines in places they could potentially snag brush or be pinched during body/axle movements.

Please refrain from posting your opinions about the need for air helper springs, I'm looking for advice on line routing.

Thanks for your all your wisdom and input!

I know Ryan is getting a set to aid is OME springs, so if you read this Ryan, let me know if you've determined how you're going to route your lines and where you're going to mount the valves.

THANKS GUYS!

 

[Ry' N Jen]

Next month I'll be getting a set of air springs for our Rig.
Tuesday our heep is getting the air lockers and 4:10 gears installed...

I'll let you know what exactly I'll be buying when it's closer to purchase time!
As far as running tubing/hoses, I've got some ideas for a clean install.
Might incorporate the air bag air lines into the ARB compressor on its own solenoid with a seperate air pressure gauge.

Cheers

 

[ck2012]

I have a set on mine but i have no idea how to post pictures. I have a pressure valve on mine to read how much is in them since I've already popped a set but ill take some pictures tomorrow morning and see If i can get them posted up on here some how.

 

[m_volyrakis]

Have you considered routing them all the way to the engine bay? Tons of people do that for lockers' air lines, you will be needing a few more feet of hose, but the valves will be protected from weather and road debris. Plus if you ever decide to add an air pump the lines will be there waiting for you

On the other hand if you really consider the cargo area look for the installation instructions of the OEM parking sensors.
There is a plugged hole on the left side of the cargo floor. You can see it on the installation manual. Remove the left quarter panel and lift the side of the carpet close to the left front anchor (no need to remove it). drill through the plug and run your hoses through that. I'll check to see if I got any relevant photos out of my installation ... brb!

TAARAAAAAAA!!!!!

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[jschenck]

Have you considered routing them all the way to the engine bay? Tons of people do that for lockers' air lines, you will be needing a few more feet of hose, but the valves will be protected from weather and road debris. Plus if you ever decide to add an air pump the lines will be there waiting for you

On the other hand if you really consider the cargo area look for the installation instructions of the OEM parking sensors.
There is a plugged hole on the left side of the cargo floor. You can see it on the installation manual. Remove the left quarter panel and lift the side of the carpet close to the left front anchor (no need to remove it). drill through the plug and run your hoses through that. I'll check to see if I got any relevant photos out of my installation ... brb!

TAARAAAAAAA!!!!!

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I am actually aware of that plug, and that was the reason I'm considering the cargo area. Just figuring out a safe place for those fill valves would be the trick.

The kit I'm getting suggests running the two lines from the bags into a t, and then only having one fill valve. If I went that route, I'd have to keep the line lengths equal for the bags to maintain equal pressure, correct? And, if a gauge read that I was at 20 psi, thatd be 10 in each air bag, right?

 

[tommudd]

If it says you have twenty pounds of air then thats what you have in each bag, not half of that
Why not just run it back to the bumper drill a small hole and be done, same way we used to do with air shocks

 

[Porkchop]

If it says you have twenty pounds of air then thats what you have in each bag, not half of that
Why not just run it back to the bumper drill a small hole and be done, same way we used to do with air shocks

I like that idea we would run it through a plate screw hole or up by the plate light so you can see it a night then screw a black valve stem cap on it and it will just blend in.

 

[jschenck]

If it says you have twenty pounds of air then thats what you have in each bag, not half of that
Why not just run it back to the bumper drill a small hole and be done, same way we used to do with air shocks

I'm considering going that route too. Just keeps it simple. Excuse my ignorance, but how does pumping 20 psi of air into two seperate air bags give you 20 psi in each bag and not 10 psi in each bag for a total of 20 psi?

Also, if I were to T the lines from the air bags together, would I need to keep the lines from the bags to the T of equal length to ensure that each bag got the same amount of air?

 

[ck2012]

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I started out by removing one of these then installed the valve into bottom of bumper

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ran my hose to a T

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T'ed it to my pressure gauge

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Ran hose over the gas tank to another T and through top or bottom of spring (don't remember which i did) to each air bag

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I need to re-seat my air bags I believe i used my old spacer lift under the air bag as a bottom plate with some cutting?
sorry for the muddy pictures it rained her today in SA, TX for once.

 

[ck2012]

I will have to take a look tomorrow in daylight to see which side i ran the hose through.

 

[jschenck]

The air springs and hardware came in this afternoon! I'll be collecting a few tools and things I need and then they're going in on saturday afternoon. If you guys want, I'll take pics of the install and post them up here. Just lemme know!

 

[Porkchop]

:waytogo:

 

[Paul M]

Excuse my ignorance, but how does pumping 20 psi of air into two seperate air bags give you 20 psi in each bag and not 10 psi in each bag for a total of 20 psi?

Also, if I were to T the lines from the air bags together, would I need to keep the lines from the bags to the T of equal length to ensure that each bag got the same amount of air?

Without getting too complicated, 20 psi at the guage is 20 psi in the system regardless of hose length, bag size, or other differentials. Think water pipes in your house; 50 psi at one faucet is the same as 50 psi at another faucet, even if they are at different locations from the main line. One advantage of using an open Tee system is you will balance the pressure between each air bag...if there is a drop or rise in pressure due to air temp the system will stay balanced.

One drawback with the Tee assembly is if one bag needs a little more presssure than another (for whatever reason you would want to do that), then you'd have to run separate lines and plumb the system accordingly [two fill valves].