I very well may have too high of standards for this, another guy that owns a tj rode with me soon after I got mine and made the comment that mine rides much smoother than his, so this is probably just me wanting what I can’t have, with this particular vehicle anyway. I like it though, aside from the rough ride and limited space, it certainly will get me wherever I want to go and it’s easy to work on and parts seem to be easy to find
Air ride suspension
- Thread starter Mattmcc19
- Start date
Your Jeep does not have to drive like a Jeep if you don't want it to. Mine doesn't.
Even with me being the mechanic behind that SxS I had, parts were high and you had to strip half the buggy apart to replace/work on anything. I couldnt imagine the cost of having to pay a dealership to work on it
I’ll get back to you on that shock length, the more I think about it you’re probably on to something, I just know my air helper bags have a small leak that I can’t seem to find but when they do have air in them that Jeep takes the bumps a lot smoother than without and it doesn’t sway side to side going down the road
Good setup of whatever you have gets you a long way.
The goal is 50/50 travel from the normal ride height. The idea is to give the shock valving time and distance to slow down before full compression or full extension.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08833NJW8?tag=wranglerorg-20 This is what I ordered to replace the coil springs, I can send them back if necessary, but I hope they’ll do the trick, I’ll be able to lower the body to get the shock stroke in the right place and find that sweet spot. Again, I hope! I also ordered a dual path on board compressor so I can control the front and rear separately, tell me what u think
If you go back to my first post you'll see that I mentioned shocks as possibly being the #1 issue with your ride. A few other things that haven't been mentioned yet.
1) What brand of lift & how did you determine that it is a 4" lift? Not saying it isn't just curious how you determined this?
2) Shock brand? Shock length?
3) Tire size? Trie brand?
4) PSI in the tires a) Street pressure b) Off-road pressure
This might not help but I'll be back in the area in March so if you wait I'd be willing to try and meet up and give you a ride in my TJ to show you what it feels like with air springs.
I think you're jumping from the frying pan to the fire...
I really think you need to try and figure out WHAT is causing your stiff ride first.
Answer the questions above and maybe we can help figure this out.
If you are going to go this route, you need to work out the bag travel from either side of ride height. The shock travel should work within the bag travel.
Also understand that the steering and track bars get set to their lengths and ride height. If you change the ride height with the air bags, then you disrupt the steering and track bars relative to everything else.
These are reasons why air suspension systems on a TJ are a pile-on of compromises and why the AirRock system is a silly gimmick.
No idea what brand of lift, the guy I bought it from apparently wasn’t the one who put it on, he told me “he thinks it a 4” lift”, and judging by the spacers under the coils it looks looks right. The shocks look brand new, rough country, no idea the length. I just replaced the tires with same size I bought it with - 33x12x15, and trying to smooth the ride up some and only really driving back roads I run about 20psi
OK once you're around the Jeep take some pictures of the suspension both front & rear springs plus the steering and trackbar. And measure the springs to verify how much lift you have. If it's a spacer lift then that isn't helping things at all either.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/how-can-i-tell-how-much-lift-my-jeep-wrangler-tj-has.193/
Being Rough Country shocks could point to one of the #1 issues. Most of the Rough Country shocks aren't known for being very good. Before you go to all the work of trying to adapt those air springs to your TJ I'd address the shocks. But also if your lift is just spacers I'd install a quality set of coil springs also and lose the blocks.
20 PSI is a good pressure on back roads. When off-road I'd drop to 10-12 PSI as it will help with your ride plus improve traction.
Just to add a little bit more to this. I didn't look really close at the air springs you listed from Amazon but here are the specs on the Firestone air springs I have on my TJ.
My rig’s suspension felt terrible on rough local roads at 20 psi when I had subpar Rancho shocks (which might be better than what you have).
Don’t trust anyone to tell you that a set psi number is good when they haven’t ridden in your rig. I’d play around with the tire pressure more to see if it helps, and then determine if that number is compatible with the speeds and amount of pavement driving you do.
I see little value to having you sit in my rig unless you plan to spend $$$ for a similar setup, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
I know you suggested shocks being the problem at the top of this thread and I appreciate the help! and believe you’re probably right! I’ll be home tomorrow night and hopefully Thursday or at least this weekend I’ll be able to really look at it and see where it’s sitting as far as shock stroke. The compressor kit
I really appreciate all yall chiming in, this is my first time joining a forum. I will look into the shock length and all that asap and get back to you. The air springs I ordered have a 10” stroke from compressed to expanded, and I talked to my buddy, it was not a 4-runner like it thought, it was a jeep Cherokee with solid front and rear axles so not as different of a vehicle as I’d thought
So I got my jeep jacked up and determined the shocks weren’t necessarily my problem, the rear axle was tilted making me think a shock was out but after removing shocks I realized it was the control arm bushings, which are all old and dry rotted. I found a complete set of control arms front and back for $300 and went ahead and got new shocks too. All together with the air bags and compressor kit I got about $1100 in it. Im currently trying to figure out how to mount the bags
Excited to see your results with the airbag springs. What brand of shocks did you go with, and what amount of lift height? Also, did you go with stock control arm replacements or adjustable?
Ranch RS5000x shocks for 2-3” lift, and stock control arms, I’m gonna bring the lift down from 4” to around 2”, so the stock control arms should do just fine, especially for the price! Adjustable arms started at more than twice what I paid
Did you try inflating it with that slight angle? Not suer what it's could do but just curious. The AiRock kit had these brackets that make the air spring sit a little more level but it still bowed some.
When I made my own brackets I have them centered over where the axle sits.
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