Hey,
I've been searching and searching but cannot find any answers.. I have a friend that has a Ford Lightning that has done something I've never seen before. He has custom Olhing suspension for the race track but also has air bags so he can ride conformable around town. IMHO the best possible setup for riding low or riding comfortable.
Thanks!
IF its on your friends truck... how come you didnt include his setup in your question so we could kinda use it as a jump off...
As far as being the best possible way to ride low and comfortable.. there are a few options.. but.. if youre not building a race truck that HAS to be able to launch hard.. this is definitely NOT the best way to ride low and comfortable.. since first of all when you set your truck down onto the suspension.. you have to give it room to ride... so now youre running an expensive bag setup that
wont do what you built it for in the first place.. youre going to limit the last 2 or 3 inches of your drop.. to set it down on top of super stiff race suspension...
so now it wont go as low OR ride as good....
Any easy way around all of this is just to run a bad ass bag setup.. with a bad ass set of shocks.. with an adjustable on board valve set... so you can have a super stiff race setting and a street setting.. and not worry about doing some heavy hybrid setup
But to do this hybid thing.. Well.. you would do it like a helper bag setup..
the issue is shock stroke.. and stiffness.. no matter how you use a bag to lift the truck a hair and take some weight off the spring the shock will still be just as stiff.. and you cant move the truck but so much before you run out of room since the race suspension would be tuned for a dead drop.. lifting it on the bags for your daily drive.. will actually put it on the high end of the shock.. and into a more limited stroke range... where as a bagged truck is tuned for the middle of the bag setup.. and low is just a tamp thing
and then comes limitations on how to do the setup based on space..
and last of all.. there is the issue of spring stiffness.. spring stiffness on any setup could be measured in a rate lbs/lift a spring providing X(lbs) of lift is going to be stiffer than a spring with X-5(lbs) of lift... lets call it load rate
If a 12 inch spring is trying to lift the truck with 1200#s of force.. it will bush back on any weight provided with that much force.. vs.. a spring the same height with 800#s of force on the same truck would be alot softer and would sit lower and be softer... float more....
Adding a helper bag which is basically what you would be doing increases load rate without increasing the height of the spring.. and if you could do that it would actually make the ride stiffer.. UNLESS you lifted it beyond the tension point of the spring.. but in that case you would be super high on the shock and would be insanely limited on stroke.. and not just that but a decent bump would let the spring get loose and at LEAST cause a rattle
Maybe there is another way? But this seems like the physics of why it wouldnt work..
I think one of your problems is youre assuming bags ride like shit... when reality is .. ****** bags ride like shit..
Hummers, High end Benz, Lincolns, autoride Escalades.. there are some cars that ride AMAZING on stock airride setups.. and when someone builds a showroom floor car that is NOT a sport model.. and its supposed to ride like a dream.. the run air ride..
Unless your builing a Yukon XL race car.. you need to concern yourself more with running an airride setup that rides stock.. not a hybrid setup that rides like a civic
