Project Air Springs ? 97 TJ
As some of you know I have been playing around with developing an air springs suspension for my 97 TJ.
Why you ask?
I want to be able to modify (reduce) my roll over angles in certain situations, but there are other reasons as well.
While I have built my own airlift (and air lower) system it is sitting on a shelf in my shop, unused. I was not happy with the performance of what I cobbled together with the parts I had laying around.
That said I have just completed the installation of an air spring system that I purchased from Off Road Only called the ?AiROCK? system that is based on the over-the-road truck Firestone Air Springs.
Here is a picture of my passenger side front corner.
Please note I have a Currie Anti-Rock that will be going in. I wanted to test the air springs out with the sway bar disconnects first to see how they performed this way. The Anti-Rock will be going in later this week.
For those folks who may have an interest in learning more about this airlift kit from the folks who sell it you can find more information at their web site.
http://www.offroadonly.com/airock.htm
Over the next week or so I would like to use this thread to post my installation experiences with this kit, share how I believe it performs and have a general discussion on the topic.
Pre-Install Setup:
My 97 TJ 4.0 was sitting on a 1-inch body lift; 2.5-inch Skyjacker coil springs in the front and 2-inch spacers using stock coil springs in the rear. Tires are BFG/MT/km32x11.50. There are adjustable upper control arms in the rear, and adjustable lower control arms in the front. The remaining control arms are stock.
There are two on board air systems, one (ARB) for my lockers and the other a York OBA system. These systems are plumbed together via two values to allow for almost a complete redundancy between the two systems.
What I installed:
I installed a Deluxe 4-inch AiROCK airlift system. (Also available in a 6-inch lift)
There are four major components to the AiROCK system:
1. Firestone Air Springs (four) with custom built stainless steel brackets.
2. In-cab Control Center that enables inflation and deflation of the air springs from the drivers seat and provides visual feedback of the air PSI throughout the system.
3. A solenoid controlled Air Manifold/Valuing system that is plumbed to the air springs and the OBA system and electrically controlled by the in-cab Control Center.
4. Four Bilstien 5100 Shocks with integrated bump stops
Here is a barrowed picture of all the items that came with this system.
Here is a shot of the Control Center mounted on the top of the dash center section and another of the air manifold mounted to the underside of the hood.
As this thread continues I will post more detailed pictures of these components and describe the installation process.
What do I want to get out of this installation:
My Jeep is built for the type of wheeling I do here in Kentucky, which is focused on climbing and managing relitively steep inclines and off camber angles. Lift, while somewhat important to these obstacles is not my primary concern. Managing roll over angles is.
I want the ability to dynamically adjust my suspension to modify and control the roll over angles of my Jeep. This is my primary objective.
When off camber I want the ability to lower the high side, thus buying myself a few extra degrees.
Given the small track of a TJ and the advertised performance of the AiROCK system my math tells me I can reduce left/right roll over angles by as much as 5 degrees. I should also be able to see another 3.50 to 3.75 degrees in the forward and backward end-over angles. (I intend to test this beyond what the math says.)
Right now, given how I have the air springs set up I can raise any corner or corners of my Jeep an additional 5 inches. I can lover any corner by just over 4 inches.
There are other benefits I expect to receive in taking this route.
I expect to gain the ability to push any or all tires down, with force to improve traction and aid in removal from a high centered condition.
I am also considering a second set of tires and wheels (35?s) for when I wish to travel around the country and wheel trails where they would be needed.
Load leveling, while not a primary concern to me certainly will be enabled via this system.
First Impressions?.
AiRock Components
These are first class components folks, all of them.
The vast majority appear to start out life as off the shelf industrial or over-the-road trucking industry components that are then modified, assembled or otherwise customized for the TJ application.
100% of all custom brackets and hardware to mount the air springs are made of stainless steel. While obviously ?shinny? I like the idea of no rust, ever!
As I go through this write-up I will have much to say about the individual components integration into this system. For now I will simply say without exception this is a first class premium quality kit.
Installation
Anyone with reasonable mechanical skills should be able to install this system.
The instructions are well written, and walk you through the installation step by step. With the exception of two misspelled words (Made me feel right at home) the installation instructions walk you through installing the four sub-assemblies; Control Panel, Air Solenoid Manifold, Front Springs and Rear Springs.
Skills required included minor automotive wiring (4 wires), Air Plumbing, Mechanical Bolt-on, and some Metal Cutting.
Over the next few days I will add a short write-up on my installation.
There was no fabrication involved other then some minor customization I elected to do with my OBA system.
Ride Quality and Initial Performance
Can you say ?SOFT??
I will have much more to say about this later as I get more on and off road seat time.
I have the system set up to give me 3 inches of total lift. This is ? -inch more in the front and 1-inch more in the rear then I had prior to the installation.
On road ride quality is noticeably softer then the ride with the coil springs, yet I cannot detect any additional body roll when going around corners. I was a bit concerned this would be problem. Seems that concern was unwarranted.
To date my off road experiences are limited to a few hours of testing yesterday.
Can you say ?SOFT??
All the flex I had before appears to be there. Perhaps a bit more that can be attributed to the Currie Adjustable Front Track Bar (with Johnnie Joint) that I installed at the same time.
I will have to get a lot more off road time soon. I have a trip planned to Tellico not this week, but the week after.
Support
During the installation I had a few minor questions all of which were resolved or explained to me with a phone call to Steve over at Off Road Only.
One issue I had dealt with my choice of locations for mounting the air manifold under the hood. My under hood real estate is very limited so I hung the air manifold on the underside of the hood. This caused the airline angles to be greater then I felt comfortable with. One call to Steve and the next day I had five 90-degree air fitting to resolve my problem.
Bottom line, support from Off Road Only has been great in my book.
I will be adding sections on the installation shortly.
Have a great day,
Frank