air suspension questions....AlexFTS and anyone else...?

[richbaker78]

well im getting round to starting to plumb my airbags in plus a few other little extras....and am having a bit of a head wreck about how i should plumb it in....ive been on the low rider forums but they are pretty slow to respond so would appreciate anyones thoughts on here if they have any ideas:

system is:
York Air con compressor driven off engine
2 x 1 gallon tank on 1/4 inch lines (except for accesory line which will be 1/2")
suplying: 4 independent x air springs, 2 linear actuators and an accesory line.

Use: air sus will be used mainly for ride height and leveling rather than putting on displays. actuators will only be used once parked up and accesory line will be used for nut runners/tyre pumping etc.

Questions:

I am aware that my tank capacity is small however given the functional use of this system rather than the showy use and the fairly high output of my pump i reckon I will be Ok since the pump will just run directly throuhg the tanks? Al - what size tank are you running? i could possibly get a larger secondary tank in if needs?

I am running two tanks - therefore should I run them in paralell or in series? I was going to run one tank for front and one for rear therefore i could use them seperatly and have them filling independently from the pump. however by joining them together I would have effectively one large tank....im thinking this might be better given the potnetial to use small air tools as it would give me a better reserve.

if i do join the tanks will i need to use a larger line than the 1/4" - perhaps a 1/2"?

Realise this is fairly outside the norm for this forum but any thoughts or advice welcomed as i have thought about this too much and now cant see the wood for the trees so need a fresh perspective!!!

ta
Rich

[Alex (FTS)]

Yo yo. It just so happens I have been thinking about some of these issues allready because of my own system. I have a 5 gallon tank running just my front bags and it will inflate both my front bags to full and then it just simply runs out of pressure. So I have been also thinking of running a second tank.

At the moment I have 2x thomson compressors (from landrovers) running just one tank but I'm gonna squeeze another tank in there too and Si (my guy at the hydraulics and neumatic shop) said that it would be fine to run the tanks in series i.e just connect the tanks together and I'm gonna use some 1/2"OD. I think it is best to have just one large tank and then just let the solenoids divert the air about. This is what companies like ridetec do and they make all the AirRide stuff that most people use.

Also it has been brought to my attention that all air systems must have a water separator in them otherwise your airbags etc will effectively will just fill up with water produced from the compressed air. I've seen em on ebay from landrovers for about £30 but the guys at Dutchyhose sorted me out with one! Cheers guys

Oh and low and behold si from Deutchy hose has just walked into my house and he said that if ya wanna run air tools you can just brais on another socket and just screw on a quick conector-job done

Hope that helps dude
_________________
www.faltownskateboards.com

[richbaker78]

cheers Al - that all makes sense - i was gona run 1/2 inch from comp to tank and also to link tanks up and then out to the air outlet for a bit more flow. the rest im keeping on 1/4 for now as i already have all the bits in that size.

Im concerned that your 5 gallon isnt big enough!!! i havent got enough space for any more than 3 gallon - i guess i will just rely on the pretty high delivery from my pump which is loads more than electric ones.

Good tip on the water seperator - guess a normal garage compressor one will do? Im already having to run an oil seperator as well cos the York likes to spit oil down the tubes!!

i reckon you should run a york as well Al - might help you overcome your tank size probs too!!

have you seen this site: (loads more like it too)
http://www.kilbyenterprises.com/

[Alex (FTS)]

Yer I would definatly like to run an engine driven compressor at some point as I find my twin compressors rinse the leisure batterys and still take a long time to fill the tank-well about a minute or two.

Just checked my tank size and actually I think it might be a 3 gallon tank after all-but I'm hopeing to fit another tank of similar size, but again like you I am running out of space unless I move the tanks out side of the van, which I could do but I would rather they were in the van. I also checked ebay again and you can get a water separator for £15 plus a few quid postage so actually thats not too bad at all.

As regards pipe size the only advantage there is increased flow so it helps if you want ya van to go up quickly and dance but that about it as far as I can tell. so yer I think 1/2" is a good idea for compressor and tank but I think 1/4" is fine for the bags-I run 1/4" all round and am perfectly happy with the speed etc. Maybe I'll change to 1/2" all round one day when I havent got more serious things to do first! lol.

That website is pretty cool once I've got my second tank in I think I'll try and get me an air line attachment type thing going-gotta be well usefull!
_________________
www.faltownskateboards.com