RedFox

I'm not up on the particulars of air systems nor am I interested but apparently there are a bunch of companies selling cheap offshore components and some really bad installations. Insurance companies are considering refusing coverage to anyone using them. Blow a bag or a line while cornering at 100mph+ you have some serious issues... Having said that, I'd like to see one at the track and get their opinion. I have never seen or heard of anybody using any type of air system at the track. The drag racing tracks are the ones that are starting to ban them but I will try to get particulars and post them.

QA-1 shocks might be OK for a 3000lb hot rod but on a heavy vehicle they are simply awful. On my truck, not even driven anywhere near what I did with my Bilsteins, and I have already blown 2 of them. Many other guys here that use them hard have reported the same. They are just a shinny, old tech shocks with lousy reliability. Good for shows/easy street driving and that's it. Just wish that Koni would make a high pressure gas adjustable shock like I have on my other car. With no other choice, I may have to revert to the Bilsteins.

Sportruk

I have to agree with you one the quality of alot of the bag installs. I would say 90% of the bagged vehicles on the road, should not be on the road.
So far, so good with my QA1s. Mine you, they are very firm in the front end. Next set will be double adjustable. There is some other makes that I will look into as well.

Pitstain

1) AirRide uses Varishocks for the shockwave bags, which are considerably more robust than QA1's

2) The idea of a standard firestone bag "POPPING" is rediculous, I aggree maybe a cheap chinese bag, but a quality bag is near indestructable unless it is rubbing on metal due to poor install.

3) Most failures I have seen on bagged vehicles are releated to mounts and welds breaking but never the bag or line itself.

I'll have to check with a few HPDEs to see what their take on bags is, as I have seen nothing in the tech rules that specifically ban their use.

RedFox

I looked at this about a year ago but there wasn't anything cheap and easy for the F-150. Koni has some hyper-expensive double adjustable high pressure gas racing shocks which are obviously not designed for a 5000lb truck. Bilstein has been working on an adjustable line apparently introduced in Europe and that's it.

In the OEM, Delco's electrorheological is supplanting air systems and also proving to be the performance system of choice for Vettes, Caddys, Ferrari, Audi, Acura, Porshe... Expensive and complex but has no equals currently. Wonder if it could be adaptable for the aftermarket?

The New Wave*in Shock Absorbers - - SEARCH-autoparts.com

Sportruk

Wow, interesting technology. It would be great is this could be implimented as a somewhat simple install. If they could mount a linear height sensor directly to the shock, it would greatly simplify the install.
As for the Shockwaves, I wish Air Ride and Varishock would team up with Slam Specialties. Their bags are much heavier and don't experiance any ballooning, so they don't have the bounce, common with the other bags.

Pitstain

The "bounce" is a lack of proper damping...

RedFox

Delco's electrorheological shocks are a "must have" when I will select my next new car...

Pit,
Is it possible that the Varishocks are manufactured by QA-1? They look very, very similar.

The trend in the aftermarket is fewer manufacturers, more private branding and more distributors which are basically marketers.

So this wouldn't surprise me. Don't know. Just asking. Often, the distributor won't tell you but their tech might.

svt 2000

i'm about to install the air ride kit on my L, and i upgraded the rear shocks from the cheap ones to the adjustable ones that air ride has....i forgot the name of them but air ride said they are designed by a company that builds shocks for the track pretty much and air ride actually assembles them. They are billet cased with 16 adjustable positions and look to be much stiffer with less clicks than the QA-1's that I previously had

Tim Skelton

And a decade or two from now, they will be on almost every car. It's an ingenious solution that allows one to go from wallowing on the freeway to stiff as hell for the track in a microsecond.

BTW, the fluid costs something absurd like $12K/ltr.

Pitstain

Luckily the Varishocks are totally unrelated to the QA1's, basically the original shockwaves had QA1 shocks and they sucked so bad that ART went to Varishock from that point forward.

ibismojo

Has anyone considered looking at what the Baja Racers are doing? I'm sure there are somethings that could be used if not at least helpful in finding performance suspension upgrades for the Lightning.

I would bet that if someone was willing to do draw up a suspension design (ie camber gain, caster, kingplin inclination, ackerman, bump steer, tire scrub etc...), most high end offroad race shop would be more than willing to fabricate it for less than 10k. Of course you could ask the offroad guys to design the geometry but they might not be familiar or be bothered with certain suspension geometry properties with the smooth paved surfaces the Lightning would see (not to say that given the time to research, I don't doubt they'll figure it out).

I'm not suggesting that you should use these as replacement but just to give you an idea that the following are all hand built, spindles, hubs, arms, etc. There's no mass manufacturing here.


As for shocks....OEM Bilstein isn't the only choice. For a truck, you could consider their bigger shocks, like the 7100 which are fully adjustable and servicible (adjustable rebound and compression damping). By bigger, it's typically the shock can diameter, axle shafts, piston head, rod ends...7100 designates an approximately 2" OD shock diameter....the typical OEM Bilsteins are usually much less than 2". There's also Sway-A-Away which provide similar shocks to the Bilstein 7100, 9100, and 9300's, but SAW also has more choices of shorter stroke shocks, I think as short as 6" SWAY-A-WAY - axles, torsion bars, and shocks for trucks, cars, and off-road vehicles

falstaff

After read the article and seeing Millens name mentioned, I remembered there was a show a fe wyears ago on DSC or TLC that had this technology on it. They were using it on off road racers ,rather testing it on off road racers. Showed the fluid and how exactly it worked.

Very cool.

race-rodz

short answer....yes.

i have a couple upcoming projects with fabbed nascar spindles/brakes/hubs, very similar to the offroad stuff.... on the other end of the abuse spectrum. the main difference being, they are semi-mass produced...meaning if you need a spare, its overnight freight charges away.

the "jonny joints" i use in the lower links are actually offroad parts that have been around for quite a while, and are slowly becoming common in the "race car" world

JJ

Performance suspension upgrades for the Lightning are only a phonecall away and available now. We offer the tubular upper control arms for stock ride height vehicles (and belltech drop spindle trucks) and lowered trucks as well. Our uppers give you more available caster by relocating the balljoint 3/4 of an inch and for the lowered vehicles we lengthen the arms 3/4 to gain back the camber lost from the drop. The balljoint angle with our arms for the dropped trucks is also changed to achieve a better, if not perfect angle.

We also offer tubular lower arms and a power steering rack and pinion setup as well. All of our UCA and LCA bushings are nylon for durability and responsiveness.





Our products may not be as technologically advanced as an off road vehicles fabricated suspension but we do use the absolute best parts and the quality is top notch along with being affordable and built for daily driven trucks as well as for all out race trucks that want to shave nearly 100lbs from the front end.

As far as the rear is concerned, we will be working on something here soon and will make an announcement concerning our venture.

JJ@WMS

__________________
Removed for not following rules! 4 May 08

RedFox

The scope of the design for off-road suspensions is completely the opposite of a road race set-up and none of the purpose built components would in any way be interchangeable. Off-road guys need huge travel and be able to take extreme loads, so everything must be over-built. On the other hand, hp street and road racing set up work with very limited suspension travel and require lightweight components with the focus being on precision.

Compare an off-road set-up with a NASCAR suspension for example. The later will have extremely limited suspension travel, so shocks and springs are specifically designed for that type of racing.