Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Problem: the talon is too low, the owner has a very steep driveway and will completely pwn the intercooler/bumper every day.

Solution: buy some cheap GM air struts, pump, regualtor...

Ok, thoughts? how would you do it?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

How much higher does it need to be? He could just get coilovers and lift the car :)

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Screw the air suspension, make a bracket and mount some wheels under the front clip. The wheels will take some weight off and raise the front up.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Well, there are 2 problems, first the driveway, when the car was stock it scraped pretty bad, this is a bad driveway.

second, it is now lowered pretty far, and to make things worse it has a SBR Race (Big) front mount.

although rollers is a great idea (and maybe the solution that I will be forced to go with) I am still interested in being able to raise the car 4"-6" at the push of a button, only the fronts....

-OR- if adding it to the rear is possible, backing up into the driveway isnt unrealistic, but going over huge speed bumps is still a valid problem.

Maybe ill post the pics of the speed bumps and maybe you will understand my problem

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Maybe he should raise the car back to stock height and take the driveway slowly and at an angle rather than straight on.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

air ride would be pretty cool, but definatly not in winter time. i can hear the pop now.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Thanks for the comments, but I am going ahead with this project, other supercars have the function stock, to raise the front of the car for temporary amounts of time.

I was thinking of using something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FRONT...spagenameZWDVW

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

...and I am sure a couple hundred thousand are spend on the R&D for this function on the supercars. You really think a truck shock is going to perform correctly on a DSM? Its a cool idea yes, but I think its going to have some severe handling drawbacks.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Tell him to take the drivway at an angle. My driveway is bad too. my stock ride height scrapes on it sometimes. But my friend with a lowered honda can make it up my driveway if he goes slow and at an angle.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

I have yet to find a driveway my S2000, 3" dropped 1G Talon, or 2" dropped Evo can't handle when taken slowly at an angle.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Its a good thing a DSM is not a super car then, he needs to take the angle entry or he needs to lift his car with proper suspension. If he wants to lay frame buy a mini truck or a car with a frame to lay.

~John

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

just bolt a couple trailer balls on the underside of the cross member, it works for those low rider mini trucks :whoo:

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

What do you think that is going to do to handling?? How do you expect truck shocks to possibly work on a DSM that uses struts on the front?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Park on the street? Or make a ramp? Driving up it at an angle should work though. Could drive backward up the driveway too.. haha

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Ok, since the driveway issue is "solved" how about the huge speed bumps at my friends apartment that scrape my intercooler?

Second, if designed properly, there would be no change in the suspension during normal driving, I would only be using this system for situations where I need to go over a bump!

Yes, several hundred thousand dollars has gone into the development of supercar front ride height adjustments, I think I can do something similiar for a fraction of that.

ok, changing gears, after looking at how little room there is between the frame and the wheel....what about 2x of these? http://www.firgelliauto.com/product_...products_id=59

anyone with just reason why these wont bolt on with minimal fabircation of brackets? possibly a rubber damper as to releave stress on the actuator itself?

changing oil could be pretty easy if i could just lift the car up by flipping a switch! LOL

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Mount youre intercooler higher? That seems like a more logical solution. My car scrapes the jack supports on most speed bumps, even going slow. I hate it, but theres really not much you can do about it. Im only lowered 1.5"s too, cant imagine lower.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

I absolutely hate the speedbumps at your place now, especially the one near the sidewalk to your door, that one seems bigger.

Did you hear the huge bang when I went over that last night?? I thought my transmission cracked half or the oil pan got dented in. It wasn't like the normal scraping sound, it was a hard thud.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Haha yea I heard that! I was thinking ouch. I doubt it was youre pan or tranny, those should be above the subframe. Id say it was either youre exhaust or jack points. I have scraped there too, but go uber slow now and never hit.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Ok, back on topic....any reason why Linear Actuators shouldn't work?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

That looks like a better possibility. It would have to be mounted between the strut body and the A-arm. The mounting on the strut body is going to be the hardest. You would need to make some sort of beefy clamp to go around the strut and push against that with the actuator attached to the A-arm. I would think that would be easier than attaching it to the strut. You want it as far out as possible to give you a larger torque arm. I wonder how it would work if you mounted them on the sway bar and pushed against the frame/body?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Like This?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Wow, those actuators are big. I don't think you will be able to fit it up top like that. You will need to flip it upside down. You will probably want to attach it to the strut body like I mentioned before, but point it up.

How big are the springs on his coil overs?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Arent you the same guy who wanted to do some wierd dual turbo setup? How did that work out for ya?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Superbleeder - Got a great deal on a 2.3 I still think my twin turbo idea is better then sliced bread, but first I gotta get the rest of the car going strong.

JET - The actuators are not to scale, the springs are not to scale, the car has AGX's with ground control's so there should be pleanty of room! I like your idea of using the swaybar as a way to push down on the lower control arm!

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Air in the winter will be a disaster unless you are conditioning it. Electric linear actuators sounds like a fun project. I've got some catalogs at the office with a wide array of actuators. Let me know if you'd like me to pull out some manufacturer names.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

How would the actuators work for normal driving? I'm guessing they will impede on the actual purpose of the suspension dampening. Or, can you simply take them off real quick? Also, how much clearance will you actually get prior to over extending your shocks?

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

You would need to back the actuator out enough so that it didn't touch during normal driving.

I know your drawing wasn't to scale, but I looked at the actuator dimensions and they are pretty huge.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

Ksport springs are 420lbs/inch for DSM coilovers, and they compress more then 1 inche when you set the car down. It would seem to me that 400lbs of force is not going to do much, make a skid plate and drive slow over the speed bumps, or mount the IC higher.

~John

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

If they put out a true 400 lb of force, then you should raise the car just over an inch with one on each side, for stock GC's. This is assuming he isn't riding on the bump stops.

Re: Supplemental Air Suspension, how should it be done?
 

If that is enough to fix it, just raise the car 1" or buy a taller tire.