Newbie to Air ride- Be gentle ;)

[PlattyMCS]

Ok, I'm a complete noob to all things air.

I've been looking into running air ride on my 08' MINI. I've already picked up a set of Airrex struts, a 2 gallon tank and an iLevel interface (all 2nd hand from a forum member of another site).

I'm looking into buying an eLevel kit to control everything, however I have a few questions.

200psi? should I be looking at running the higher pressure as I'm only running a 2 gallon tank?

Compressors? If I am to run at 200psi, what size compressor/s would you recommend?

Hardlines? The car is a showcar, so a flashy install is on the cards. For that, I'd like hardlines between the compressors, tank and manifold. What's needed for a hardline install? I'm assuming the lines are copper or alloy?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

200psi? should I be looking at running the higher pressure as I'm only running a 2 gallon tank?

Yes. 200psi = 1/3 more movement range than 150psi. Air struts also tend to need fairly high pressure, so a higher-pressure tank will allow more movement before the compressor kicks on.

Compressors? If I am to run at 200psi, what size compressor/s would you recommend?

Viair 444c or 480c are good choices. I'd probably run twin comps both for the looks of two and the additional speed. Air Zenith comps are also supposed to be superb, and they're extremely fast.

Hardlines? The car is a showcar, so a flashy install is on the cards. For that, I'd like hardlines between the compressors, tank and manifold. What's needed for a hardline install? I'm assuming the lines are copper or alloy?

Hard lines are typically copper or aluminum. You'll want a bender of some description. I used the Harbor Freight one, and it's okay but not great. Hard lines can connect either to PTC fittings or compression, though compression fittings are considerably more secure. If you want to run compression fittings, you'll probably want to swap your VU4 for the one with NPT fittings so you can screw compression fittings right into it.

Other than that, hard lines are reasonably easy to deal with. Some folks have done entire hard line installs with no DOT line at all, though that sounds like a pain in the ass to me.

Let us know what other advice we can offer!