This past weekend I had a chance to really work out the new air spring suspension I installed on my Jeep. I will tell you up front it exceeded all my expectations by miles.
While I don't have the greatest pictures to share with you (It rained like you wouldn't believe and turn all the dirt between the rocks into one big mud slurry and no one wanted to get out of their Jeep to take pictures for me) I will post a few that I have before the rains came.
My biggest concern was not if I could alter my roll over angles in a positive way, I was certain I could do that, but rather how would it flex and follow the terrain.
It was so smooth, I just don't know how else to say it. There was much less apparent spring unloading when off camber, and getting to the max limits of my suspension component seems to be almost effortless. Smooth, soft, yet much much less body roll.
I had the front sway bar disconnected and the suspension set for 4 inches above stock. Compressing a corner had little effect on the body angle until the very extremes of compression where reached and then I think it was becuase I was on the bump stops. If I stayed off the bump stops the body stayed level. I found this truly remarkable.
One problem I did have was with the rear sway bar links. They are too short. (Anyone have the part numbers for the Currie AR type link parts from Grainger?) I have to fix this.
If all goes to plan I will install the Currie Anti-Rock this week and see what effects that has on my Jeep both off and on road.
Here are a few pictures.
As you can see our rocks here are a bit different then those out west. Ours are generally very large (school bus to house size) and attached to the ground firmly, separated by dirt till it rains (then mud), and intertwined with lots and lots of trees.
Here's a few pictures. I will get many more next time out, as these certainly are not of any extreme obstacles. (Yes we have them too!
Like Moab in many ways but our rock is truly "Slick Rock Smooth" in comparison.
While you can't see it in this picture I am driving across one of the largest "Natural Bridges" in the country. This one is called "White's Arch" and is about 15 feet wide and located on the top of a mountain. At the 16 feet (on either side) there is a 600 foot drop almost straight down. (Figured I'd give a geography lesson while showing these pictures.)
I pulled the right front up on this ledge so as to test the front articulation. In all honesty I didn't think I was up there. It felt so different, and went up so effortlessly. I am estimating there are a few more inches of travel left. Many 2 to 2.5 more down on the driver side and another 1 up on the passenger side.
This next photo does not do it justice. What you are looking at is solid rock and it is much more steep then it appears. I included this picture to show the different corners going in different directions. Again, smooth or soft is the only way to describe the flex even if it is on some really smooth rock. I have wheeled these areas many many times and was very pleased with how effortlessly my Jeep went over these with the air springs.
Here's one on the way down Slide Hill which gets extremely steep (read that many roll over on this one) just a few more feet in front of my Jeep and goes on for a very long way down. This is like Sand Hill coming out of the Hammers in that it is virtually impossible to get up and is impossible to get up when it rains. We hit the bottom about the time of the torrential rain fall and had no choice but to deal with the mud fields at the bottom. (See photo under the :How Many Gallons Post.)
Here is the last decent picture I have. It's nothing special but I liked it so you get to see it.
I am struggling to adequately describe my impressions of how my TJ handles with the Air Springs as compared to before. I think one of the best analogies I can come up with would be to generally compare a leaf spring YJ to a coil spring TJ ride quality and flex ability. TJ just seam to flex and get there easier then the leaf spring YJ. (No offence YJ folks, I am speaking generally.)
It is clearly far easier to move or flow the suspension over the terrain, there is far less body roll, even when at extreme off camber angles, and the air springs appear to absorb more violent bounces such as bump impacts to get over an obstacle.
I am very pleased with this, and I think in the long run I will remain pleased, but I do intend to be open minded as much as I am capable of being and test the heck out of it.
With the exception of a minor secondary bounce (on -road) when large bumps are hit at high speeds I haven't found anything negative to report.
Tomorrow if I can I plan to measure the angles that I can control between left and right side and front to back on the Jeep. These angles will be the angles by which I can reduce a roll over situation by and that my friends is why I installed this in the first place. Any other benifits I get are a plus to me.
While I don't have a picture to share I was able to test the off camber angle reduction on a section of a trail which I do all the time. There is no doubt that lowering my high side while off camber greatly shifted the physical center of gravity of my Jeep in relationship to the plane of gravity.
The last time I did this trail my wife was driving and I spotted. She followed the most conservative line and yet I was able to stand by the high side of my off camber Jeep and could literally pick it up by the rocker guard and roll it if I wanted to with perhaps no more then 25 pounds of uplift force.
Taking a far more aggressive line this past weekend I was able to alter the roll over angle so much that one of my biggest Jeeping friends could not lift the passenger side at all.
This my friends Greatly Pleased ME!!!!!!!
I need to play with this a lot more, but so far I am impressed with the performance and benifits I have seen.
Time will tell.
I realize this isn't the greatest piece of writing here, but I am indeed struggling to describe this and I just don't have the words or examples yet.
Any questions? Perhaps they will help flush it out better.
Frank