Air ride suspension - raising the car?

[witchcraftz]

Just curious, I've been wondering if an air ride system allows you to raise your car higher than stock as well as lower it?

If yes, does it give you a substantial lift of more than an inch or is it just a little bit, say 1/4 inch?

[Slamtastic]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Airlifts lower the car about 1" when raised all the way up from a normal mk4, slightly lower than the stock 3/2/g's. I know bagyard supremes have a really good lift on them so it'd be closer to stock or slightly higher. But I don't know why you'd want to raise it any higher.

Edit: ^ thats for the front. The rear will go really high with sleeve bags (firestones or airlift); mostly limited to how much travel is in the shock. If you do a normal bellow bag (air house, uvair), it'll be lower than stock.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

[VW337]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

[alba]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Lol ^

[witchcraftz]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Wow, thanks for the pictures! That really puts it into perspective. The front looks like it's about stock and the back is definitely higher than stock.

Are your fronts as high as any air ride gets or are there some that would go higher?

[VW337]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Dumb question but what are you going to be driving over if you want the front to be higher than stock?

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Are your fronts as high as any air ride gets or are there some that would go higher?

There are others that will go higher, but they wont go as low.

You are limited by the length of the strut, the higher it goes. The longer the rod needs to be, the longer the strut body.

[MechEngg]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

Most bags have about the same lift, the only one that is different would be the bagyard supreme's with a bag extension of 6-1/2", the others are probably around 5-1/2" to 6" of lift. So you can either lay out and then raise the car X amount, or you can have the car not lay out (say 1" off the ground) and have it lift X amount. Bagyard definitely does custom length struts and i have heard that airlift can customize them as well for a price.

And again, why would you ever need to go higher than stock? And is the main point of airride to lift your vehicle in your opinion??

[T-Dubbs]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

higher than stock for some off roadin

[witchcraftz]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

My reason for being interested in going higher/lower than stock is that even though Vancouver city itself doesn't get snow, the mountains next to it (gotta drive up there to go boarding/skiing) have fast changing weather and can get 20-30 cm in a day. I figured that if I can raise as well as lower, I can use the car all the time and not worry (as much) about getting stuck, because I'm too low, in 20cm of snow when just a short while ago the road was clear.

The main reason a car gets stuck is because the car has bottomed out in the snow, so a bit more lift would help get you through. I think in this place an air ride could actually be something very practical.

Keep in mind I'm just curious, I know nothing about air rides and I was just wondering about it.

[MechEngg]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

With airride if you get stuck in the snow, just air down, compact the snow under the vehicle and lift it up to stock height and you will be fine

[witchcraftz]

Re: Air ride suspension - raising the car?

True, but I figured going a bit higher than stock is better since stock is already really low with the oil pan.