6/21/2002
Having a lift is great but on most of my trips I'm usually carrying camping gear and or people. This immediately sags the soft rear suspension taking away my nice lift. After much diliberation, I ordered a set of lift bags from Airlift Company. Initially I ordered them from a local retailer and one month later still no air bags. I cancelled the order and placed it through Performance Products. Again the order was backordered for weeks. In between I found a better price and cancelled the order from PP. I then ordered from http://www.macromotive.com. Somehow every time I order from them, the service is great. One week later I had air bags in hand.
Here's what came in the box. A few fittings, some line, instructions and two air bags.
The instructions indicate that the existing
bumpstop cones in the spring have to be cut down. Since I have a lift, I
elected to cut off 1.5" less than they indicated to compensate for the lift. Here is
the cone cut down.
Here is the cone with the Daystar spacer
installed. With this setup, the distance between the axle and body will be the
correct distance for the bag.
Originally the instructions wanted the air bag
installed with the air fitting facing down. However the factory cones have a nice big hole
up the center for running the line directly to the body. Installing it this way keeps the
line out of harm's way and it doesn't have to be routed along the axle.
I ran the air lines out the top and took the
passenger side line and routed it through the cross member. On the driver's side I linked
the two lines together, being careful to leave slack for the bags to move within the
spring. By linking the bags and allowing air to pass from one bag to another, I hope to
keep axle articulation good. Temporarily, I routed the fill/empty valve to the rocker
panel and attached it through a running board bracket. If the bags function well, I will
link it directly with my on-board air system and maybe have an in-cockpit control.
Fill range on the bags is 5-35psi. As a test I put 20psi into the unladden vehicle and went for a spin. The suspension is firmer, and the ride height higher by maybe an inch, but it is by no means harsh or uncomfortable. Actually it rides rather nice and seems to have less brake dive.
The next day I took an excursion to Miller Jeep Trail to test the
dirtability. At first I had about 15psi in the bags and offroad the vehicle bobbed a bit
more and didn't seem to flex as well. I only had a light compliment of camping gear so
after the first half of the run, I dropped the pressure to 10psi with no appreciable loss
of ride height. Thereafter the vehicle flexed quite well. Coincidently Charlie, another
guy in the club, had a '94 LandCruiser that also had Air Lift bags. he said he had had
them for about three years with no complaints. I don't have any either.
9/15/02
Happy with the Air Bags I decided to plumb them into my onboard air system. I ordered Air Lift part 25801 which is an add on RV gauge system for front air springs. I installed the controls where the ash tray normally sits. Illumination is already there.
The solenoid to control the high
pressure air got installed on a wiring loom bracket under the hood where I fed the control
wire and air line in under the dash. The hose can be connected to a conventional air
system using a 1/4" CMP (compression) to 1/4" NPT (Navy pipe thread) converter.
Buy some ferule supports and a CMP junction if you need one to join to the existing bag
line. They are all common parts in hardware stores. For some reason Air Lift recommends
connecting the high pressure air to the OUT port of the solenoid and the air bags to the
IN side. The poor ARB compressor is really getting loaded up with duties. Two lockers, Air
bags and tire air-up duties. [See the updated compressor I now have at AIM Industries Compressor Installation]
The dash controls are a bit peculiar. The fill button uses a toggle the pivots two ways but is wired such that either way activates the solenoid. On a dual gauge (left/right) setup the same switch is used to control the left and right bags individually. To deflate the bags, a push button of sorts is depressed which opens a Schraeder valve at the back of the console. A bit goofey but it works. If you want piece something together, I recommend http://www.clippard.com
5/5/07: I have converted my 4Runner to FJ80 springs in the rear and the air bags are no more.