Air Bag Springs for a TJ

Elff is on here once in a while and used to run the ORO Airock system on his TJ.

I've never used the system personally but have seen it used at RC and it was pretty impressive watching the system level the Jeep out.

Keep in mind you will be working your air compressor pretty hard so don't skimp in that department or I think you will run into issues.

Good luck.

EDIT: Fixed Link

I work on air suspensions almost every day. Almost all of my customers that wheel swap out the air bags for coil springs. They all seem a lot happier and and I see them a whole lot less. It is a cool idea, but there is just too much stuff to break.

It is a nicer ride over the small stuff, but in the big rocks you still get tossed around. Quality suspension seats that fit you go a long way in helping absorb the sharp impacts. I have used firestone in the past for lifts. I know they have a bag with 14"s of travel, but I can't seem to find the part number right now. There is some limited info on pirate4x4 about how to make air springs work well offroad.

Also keep in mind Karvor that you will need to switch your steering to a crossover (knuckle to knuckle) tie rod instead of the inverted Y setup on the stock TJ to avoid changes in toe as you raise and lower the bags. This would only be needed if you set the system up to have adjustable ride height.

See if you can ride in a jeep with suspension seats and ORi Struts. I'm sold on that combo for comfortable wheeling. They look expensive initially, but you will spend a ton more getting an air suspension setup that works well.

Quote from Spedly

See if you can ride in a jeep with suspension seats and ORi Struts. I'm sold on that combo for comfortable wheeling. They look expensive initially, but you will spend a ton more getting an air suspension setup that works well.

Yeah. That's not a bad set-up.

This is all I can imagine as I read the thread

Wonder if a coil hybrid like this would work...

Single airbag centered over the rear dif with coils left and right.

[====== ===]
s B S
s B S
[]------[ ]-------[]

If you want comfort just spend the money and get ori struts. Just got back from johnson valley, vegas and moab and we beat the crap out of rigs at high speed and there was no loss of control and the jeep felt like it was on a gravel road even in 2' whops. It will run around $2500 for 4 which seams expensive but you dont need bumps, limit straps or sway bars. They are fully adjustable externally and fairly easy to mount. I have done airbag stuff. If you add the labor of making mounts and figure on all the failure points of bags the oris make much more sense. Am sure billy will give a test ride in his as his jeep is still street leagal.

Aaron

Aaron, whats the comparison of cost\time\benefit of coilovers vs. ori's?

Quote from Erock

ori's do NOT require limiting straps, or bump stops. you would need to get these for coil overs.

yup.

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ori's do NOT need a sway bar, so you could remove your factory sway bar and still maintain safe handling characteristics

yup.

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fabrication to install is essentially the same, but since you are not doing straps or bumps, it may be quicker to install ori's

yup.

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this being said, the cost ends up being nearly identical

depends. How much time are you going to spend tweaking a set of c/o's to get them 'right'? Ask Aaron how many coils he has in his garage for his rear c/o's...dey ain't free!

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the ori is extremely tuneable, you can seperately tune the "spring rate", compression damping, rebound damping, and ride height, all with out taking it out of the vehicle.

Somewhat...some of the more advanced stuff involves changing the weight and volume of oil as well as some of the internal valving but you can do ALOT without having to touch that.

--Ian

Quote from clendaniel

yup.

Sway bars would still help if you are doing a lot of higher speed turning as you can run the strut softer and let the sway bar handle the body roll rather than strut.
I can do an evasive maneuver as fast as anyone with my ORI's but a long clover leaf style turn will cause the body to list more than other suspension set-ups.

That said, I won't be getting sway bars in the foreseeable future. There is nothing else I've seen that has the simplicity and performance of this setup for my particular application.

Or if it's that much of a concern you have street and trail pressures for the struts...just like your tires.

Quote from clendaniel

Or if it's that much of a concern you have street and trail pressures for the struts...just like your tires.

It's not really that. It's a give and take. If you want minimal body roll, you need a higher charge but you will get a rougher ride. An anti-sway bar will compensate for the lower pressure.
Even ORI recommends a sway bar in their instructions. Like I said though, I'm perfectly comfortable without one so no need for one with the way my Jeep is driven.

The only major arvantage that a co has over an ori is in high speed desert racong. The ori is a double emulsion air shock. Meaning the nitrogen and oil mix and over time with high speed the compresson performance will fade. Co have seperate oil and nitrogen chambers and they will stat cooler with no fade.

So far i have gone through 4 pair of springs for tuning and around $100 each so it adds up quick and i still dont have it right. I suspect it will take me another 2-3 sets to dial it in.

Aaron