Someone Please Make An Electronic Ride Height Override For 21+

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

soulsea

Staff member
Administrator
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Posts
11,668
Reaction score
-93,765,692
Location
Bar
With some of the trims of the upcoming Tahoe/Yukon/Suburban/Escalade having factory air ride we need a vendor to get on this asap ... my guess is that whomever comes to the market with it first with a quality product will make a bundle.

What I’m talking about is the equivalent of this that I had on one of my cars, and it worked perfectly.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-B...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Videos in the link.

The only thing that could be improved on the above is if as opposed to having to plug in the gismo in the obd port each time to change the ride height to a preset, if one could just leave it in and be able to adjust on the fly.

Not interested in a million excuses why it’s not possible, this is America, make it happen and we need it yesterday.
 

THE YETI

Director of Operations
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2009
Posts
25,494
Reaction score
10,045
Location
South FL
Find someone and pay them to make it. Make Zillions!
 

olyelr

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Posts
1,626
Reaction score
759
Location
Elk Rapids, MI
Ive read the description. Watched the video. Whats the point of this?

The factory air suspension on the new gm’s is adjustable on the dash. Not sure what you want to be able to do... adjust it without any factory restraints?
 

leroy712

TYF Newbie
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Posts
28
Reaction score
34
Ive read the description. Watched the video. Whats the point of this?

The factory air suspension on the new gm’s is adjustable on the dash. Not sure what you want to be able to do... adjust it without any factory restraints?

You are correct that it is adjustable on the select models that have them, however getting an override that will allow more that a 2” variance in ride height is what we would want. So instead of changing the springs and struts to get a 3-4/4-6 drop you can just electronically do it with stock components and what I’d think would be slight mods to stock suspension and the computer override.
 

olyelr

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Posts
1,626
Reaction score
759
Location
Elk Rapids, MI
You are correct that it is adjustable on the select models that have them, however getting an override that will allow more that a 2” variance in ride height is what we would want. So instead of changing the springs and struts to get a 3-4/4-6 drop you can just electronically do it with stock components and what I’d think would be slight mods to stock suspension and the computer override.

sounds like a bad idea to me.

raising and lowering the vehicle 2” from normal ride height will get everything out of wack (as far as alignment goes). Hell, just watching one of the videos I saw of the new at4, the front tires looked like that had some serious camber when they lowered it to the entry setting.

there is more to it than just letting more air out to lower it beyond the factory setting, or adding more air to raise it more than the factory setting.

ram has had full air suspension available for years on there 1500 trucks. Guys would kind of do what you are talking about by extending the factory height links to gain more lift. Well, sure it lifts the vehicle more, but it also rides like shit because there is more air in the bags than designed.

i suppose a very small amount of height change from the factory settings would be one thing. But to think you could just electronically put a lowering kit or lift kit on, it just doesnt work like that.
 
OP
OP
soulsea

soulsea

Staff member
Administrator
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Posts
11,668
Reaction score
-93,765,692
Location
Bar
sounds like a bad idea to me.

raising and lowering the vehicle 2” from normal ride height will get everything out of wack (as far as alignment goes). Hell, just watching one of the videos I saw of the new at4, the front tires looked like that had some serious camber when they lowered it to the entry setting.

there is more to it than just letting more air out to lower it beyond the factory setting, or adding more air to raise it more than the factory setting.

ram has had full air suspension available for years on there 1500 trucks. Guys would kind of do what you are talking about by extending the factory height links to gain more lift. Well, sure it lifts the vehicle more, but it also rides like shit because there is more air in the bags than designed.

i suppose a very small amount of height change from the factory settings would be one thing. But to think you could just electronically put a lowering kit or lift kit on, it just doesnt work like that.

Cars like the MBs the linked module is for and even my Jeep GC have ride height that adjusts on the fly, it lowers the vehicle above a certain speed to make it more fuel efficient, albeit not more than 2”. I can assure you that if these cars have tolerances that allow them to be lower at high speeds without screwing up alignment or other elements they can handle overriding of their system to make the cars sit lower at slower speeds. I am not fluent yet with the new gm system but my assumption is that it will also have that capability as it’s a newer system.

In any case, even if the GM version is more basic, all of us do mods on these trucks that have some sort of causal affect on other aspects of the vehicle, and we all have our comfort level about how much we are willing to sacrifice to do what we want. Folks paid thousands for airbag systems like the one from Kelderman that are a lot more intrusive than a lowering module of the stock system. If that is beyond your personal comfort level that’s all good, but many of us would line up for such a module.
 

olyelr

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2011
Posts
1,626
Reaction score
759
Location
Elk Rapids, MI
Cars like the MBs the linked module is for and even my Jeep GC have ride height that adjusts on the fly, it lowers the vehicle above a certain speed to make it more fuel efficient, albeit not more than 2”. I can assure you that if these cars have tolerances that allow them to be lower at high speeds without screwing up alignment or other elements they can handle overriding of their system to make the cars sit lower at slower speeds. I am not fluent yet with the new gm system but my assumption is that it will also have that capability as it’s a newer system.

In any case, even if the GM version is more basic, all of us do mods on these trucks that have some sort of causal affect on other aspects of the vehicle, and we all have our comfort level about how much we are willing to sacrifice to do what we want. Folks paid thousands for airbag systems like the one from Kelderman that are a lot more intrusive than a lowering module of the stock system. If that is beyond your personal comfort level that’s all good, but many of us would line up for such a module.

Just lowering the vehicle to where they allow it to already go is one thing... going 3-6” lower is another. Thats what I was getting at, thats all.
 
OP
OP
soulsea

soulsea

Staff member
Administrator
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2011
Posts
11,668
Reaction score
-93,765,692
Location
Bar
From what I can tell from the launch pics, the new trucks appear to have less rake to them, I’m guessing that’s a byproduct of moving off the sra ... if that is indeed so, a 1/2 drop, or maybe a smidgen more would likely be well within the parameters of the suspension geometry and would make a big visual difference.

All of this is guesswork at this point, people need to get their hands on these trucks to see what’s possible ... I just want to plant the seed for someone to look into it.
 

UNOIT

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2020
Posts
37
Reaction score
17
Good thoughts, I can’t wait to see them in the flesh and check out all the gizmos.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Forum statistics

Threads
128,797
Posts
1,805,574
Members
91,781
Latest member
amberv96
Top