Air ride suspension

[mike-tracy]

So there's a legacy I have access to that has the air ride option. Suspension has already been replaced with conventional struts, and I wouldn't be interested in the air struts even if they were intact.

What I'm wondering is if I can use the air compressor and tank on my car, say, to fill up the tires or something? How powerful is it, and how large is the tank? How noisy is it? Anyone have any experience using it in other than it's intended purpose?

[evolutionmovement]

Keeping in mind that I've never seen one, you should be able to set it up with the right fittings, but coiling a long enough one to reach all the tires and keeping it somewhere might be a real PITA. You might also need a manual switch depending on how the system was originally triggered. I also don't know how big the storage tank is (or if it has one). If it doesn't, I don't know what the duty cycle for the compressor is designed for, e.g. running it full time filling 4 flats may burn it out, I don't know. I also don't know what the compressor will run to for pressure, but I imagine the struts were a deal over tire pressures, so that shouldn't be a problem.

This is similar to an idea I was pondering when I was designing my anti-lag system, which used a compressed air tank to store, well, compressed air for use at low rpms when the turbo wasn't producing boost yet. The idea was to take waste compressed air from the intake (or possibly overboosting slightly by opening the waste gate later and using the excess air to fill the tank, but that would require a good control system and a lot of intrusive piping into the passenger compartment). BUT, I also figured it might be nice to be have a fitting on the tank to add compressed air from an external compressor or, if it can produce enough volume and pressure, the on board compressor from the air suspension model. Incidentally, the idea is sound as the Subaru and Ford WRC teams used the same concept, IIRC, somewhere in the 1998-2002 season range but the FIA banned it after a few races, I believe. At any rate, I'm almost positive it didn't last a full season.

[Legacy777]

I don't have the specs on the compressor, but I would have to say the compressor is going to be designed for higher pressures, but rather low volume. The strut bladders are not very large and don't require a large volume of air to inflate them.

This compressor may work for tires and such, but it's probably not going to be very fast.

[mike-tracy]

It's located under the driver side fender, right? I think that's where the hoses going to the front struts go. You're right Josh, the hard plastic hoses are really tiny, so high pressure low volume air it is. I figure since it's out of the way, it would be a good thing to have for an emergency. I'd have a small NPT port for it somewhere close by, and store the air hoses with the spare tire.

[Legacy777]

Yes, it's located up under the driver's side fender below where the battery goes.

[PhyrraM]

Stock compressor and air tank.



Stock mounting bracket stripped of components.



Larger, more capable, air compressor fitted to bracket and stock tank modified for regular air lines.



Modified setup mounted in stock location using stock bracket.



My compressor came with my Praxis suspension, but I'm 100% certain that Firestone Air-Ride kits for trucks come with the same compressor. If your creative, any compressor of similar size can be made to fit.

In any case, just some ideas....

[mike-tracy]

Wow, thanks Jess! Pretty much if I can get it at the junk yard, I'm willing to try it.

[Legacy777]

Yeah....that's a pretty cool setup!