NOOB. New to the Air game.

[ThatBMW Guy]

Hi guys,

I'm new to the air game. I've seen set-ups here and there but I'm still new to actually setting everything up, what I need, and what brands are good (whats gonna last? etc.) Anyway, I don't want to buy a kit considering the fact that I want to make my own custom build plus I'm on a budget. I just have a lot of questions.

I have a 1995 BMW 540i. What air suspension brands are good but also a good price?

1.) I want to run a dual compressor set up. I've seen both AirZenith and Viair. Viair is half the price than AirZenith is but how good is it?

2.) I also want a 5gal tank but I've seen ones with 4-port, 8-port, and even 9-port. I'm gonna assume that that means how many "openings" the tank has. How many should I get?

3.) I've seen online that there are 1/4" and 3/8" lines/fittings. Does it really matter which ones I get or is more of a power/personal preference thing?

4.) Bags. What bags are good? Brands that won't break the bank? I've seen Bag Riders but I don't know any other brands that carry universal bags. Speaking of which, I heard that you can buy bags and basically put them over your shocks and boom, you're done. I think its called "Sleeve" or something. I don't have coils so I'm not doing a bag over coil set-up. OR can I just take my strut out completely and weld some brackets and put bags on? I heard that you can do that too. Obviously not as simple as that but you get the point.

5.) Management. I'm aware that this part I can't be cheap on and spend a decent amount of money on something good. I don't know any other good brands on management set-ups besides Accuair.

6.) Do I need water traps or not? or is it something like you dont NEED them but it's good to have them?

7.) Anything else I'm missing here? I can figure out what kind of gauges I want and touchpad/controller, but other than that anything else I'm missing?

I just want a decent set-up going and I'll upgrade parts as I gain more knowledge in the future. Also it'd be great if someone provided me a list with everything I need or even a list with all the parts as in brand and model wise. Sorry for the long read lol. I know some of these might be really stupid questions and I'm usually really good with cars but when it comes to air suspension, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

1. Both Viair and Air Zenith are superb products. I've run Viairs for a few years now, and they've performed excellently. Viairs are half the price because they're half the size, not because they're half the quality.

2. That depends on how you want to plumb your setup and lay out your install. More ports add flexibility to your install, and you can do things like plumb your accessories (safety valve, pressure sensor, etc.) right into the tank. I'd start by sketching how you want the install to look, and from there you can get a sense of what kind of port configuration is good.

3. 3/8" has a higher flow rate, and the lines look a little heftier if you care about that. If you want your air ride to move between heights rapidly, 3/8" is the way to go, otherwise 1/4" is fine. There are a few minor reasons to choose one versus the other, but we'll get there when we get there.

4. Bag Riders offers the Air Lift Slam Series for your car, as well as an Airrex kit. I'm more familiar with the former, but I don't think you can go wrong with either. Since you have a pre-fab bag and strut setup available, that is what I would go for. They'll be ready to rock right out of the box, which will save you a LOT of hassle.

5. Manual management in its various flavors, AutoPilot V2, and AccuAir e-Level are the big three, but there are some other options. Basically, your options lie on a spectrum with cheap, simple, and more manual adjustments required on one end, and expensive, complex, and totally automatic on the other end.

6. Unless you live in a desert, I recommend at least one water trap. You will still need a tank drain, but a trap will cut down on the amount of water getting into your system by a large margin.

7. We can get to that part once we've got some of the particulars sorted out above. Depending on your management system, you may not need gauges at all.

So, now let me ask you some questions and we'll see where we get:

A. What's the budget?

B. Do you care to have ride height or pressure presets, or are you okay with making manual adjustments according to your gauges?

C. Do you mind having to press a button or two if someone gets in or out of the car, or would you prefer to never have to worry about it?

D. Where do you fall on the scale of "hide all the shit under the floor and who cares what it looks like" to "show-quality VIP install"?

[ThatBMW Guy]

Wow, to be honest, I expected people to respond with "you shouldn't be doing it if you don't know what you're doing" or just answer one question on this thread so first and foremost, Thank you for your help.

I'm more confident since now I just gained some more knowledge about Air Ride.

To answer your questions:

A.) Like $2,000 total once I buy everything. Give or take a couple hundred.

B.) I don't really mind manual adjustment but it'd be nice to have presets. I'm gonna go with manual adjustments for now and if I wish to do so, I'll just upgrade to a system where I can have pre-sets.

C.) I don't want to hook up everything and "throw it" into my trunk but I also don't need like a ridiculous, out-of-the-box trunk set-up. What I might do is just do a Mahogany Wood floor and hide everything underneath with the top of tank sticking out. Or do a Mahogany floor and mount my tank and compressors in a decent arrangement on top of it with management and everything else running underneath.

Again, thanks for the help. Really do appreciate it.

[meme405]

Wow, to be honest, I expected people to respond with "you shouldn't be doing it if you don't know what you're doing" or just answer one question on this thread so first and foremost, Thank you for your help.

I'm more confident since now I just gained some more knowledge about Air Ride.

To answer your questions:

A.) Like $2,000 total once I buy everything. Give or take a couple hundred.

B.) I don't really mind manual adjustment but it'd be nice to have presets. I'm gonna go with manual adjustments for now and if I wish to do so, I'll just upgrade to a system where I can have pre-sets.

C.) I don't want to hook up everything and "throw it" into my trunk but I also don't need like a ridiculous, out-of-the-box trunk set-up. What I might do is just do a Mahogany Wood floor and hide everything underneath with the top of tank sticking out. Or do a Mahogany floor and mount my tank and compressors in a decent arrangement on top of it with management and everything else running underneath.

Again, thanks for the help. Really do appreciate it.

Bump your budget up by about $1000, and DIY everything and you might be able to get somewhere. Otherwise don't go into this without having $5000.

So the question becomes; how comfortable are you DIY'ing this? Have you installed coils before? can you plumb the system?

I got a shop to do my install, it ended up costing me upwards of $2k for the install alone (mind you canadian prices might be different, and the shop and the setup I chose are on the high end side).

Basic figures:

-Bags and struts - $1000-$2000
-Management - $1000-$2000
-Install - $1000-$2000+

And this doesn't account for the miscellaneous shit you might need on the fly, like bungs, water traps, check valves, fittings, brackets, etc.

There's a reason people shy away from the air game, its a BIG investment, and it doesn't shrink over time either, your gonna be chasing leaks all the time, there's maintenance, stuff could break, etc.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

We're happy to answer questions for people who know how to ask for help.

I do agree that you need to bump your budget up, but if you're willing to self-install, you can save a fortune. Unfortunately, you have coilovers all around, which means off-the-shelf bag setups are pretty damn expensive. Expensive though they are, they are absolutely worth it, IMO. Were I you, I would budget $4500 for your setup if you're willing to do the gruntwork yourself.

I would order the following:
- Bag Riders E39 Air Ride kit with Switchspeed management. Yes, you can save a bit by getting their cheaper analog management, but the extra couple hundred gets you the ability to easily upgrade to e-Level when you're ready for height management.
- Get one of the 4-gallon tanks or larger. With bag-over-coil setups, you need all the capacity you can get, since you'll be running high bag pressures.
- Twin 444c compressors. I really think twin compressors are necessary both for redundancy and so you don't drive yourself nuts listening to your compressor run for thirty years after you air up.
- Dual SMC check valves. I love Viair compressors, but their check valves suck ass.
- Dual water traps.
- 3/8" lines. You don't need it for speed, but the inlets on the VU4 manifold are 3/8", and this will save you from having to put goofy reducers inline.
- Dual-needle gauge kit. Do a tank pressure gauge if you think you need it, but you don't.

Plan on another hundred or so for wiring, another hundred for any additional fittings you need, and yet another hundred for miscellaneous stuff like grommets, loom, rubber hose to protect your air lines, zip ties, that sort of stuff. This'll put you about $4300.

Now, where can you save some money? You could cut something like $500-$1000 out of the price if you're willing to fab your own bag setup with something like Aero Sport bags over shortened shocks. However, this requires custom design, fabrication, and welding, and I don't know where your comfort level is with that. I'll tell you this, after designing, prototyping, fabricating, and endlessly tweaking my own setup over the course of six months, I would gladly have thrown another thousand at it to have an off-the-shelf setup that just worked out of the box, especially if it came with shocks and struts balanced for air ride. Where you stand on the cost-v.s.-hassle balance only you know.

[ThatBMW Guy]

It looks like I'm just gonna have to save up a bit more money. Thanks for the help guys. I'm probably gonna buy everything at different times. I'm really set on having a bag set-up and I'm willing to spend the $4,000-$5,000. I don't know what will happen in the future but I'll do my best.

Also I'm not on coils or anything. All I have is lowering springs for now and I was thinking about getting coils but I want the adjustability on the fly with bags because I live in Chicago so speed bumps and road work are gonna wreak havoc on my coils if I get them.

I have to get some stuff sorted out with fab work and stuff. I don't mind doing that. I'm gonna do some research on what I can do with the actual bag set-up.

Thanks for the help. I'll keep this thread updated with further questions and purchases and pics.

[ThatBMW Guy]

It looks like I'm just gonna have to save up a bit more money. Thanks for the help guys. I'm probably gonna buy everything at different times. I'm really set on having a bag set-up and I'm willing to spend the $4,000-$5,000. I don't know what will happen in the future but I'll do my best.

Also I'm not on coils or anything. All I have is lowering springs for now and I was thinking about getting coils but I want the adjustability on the fly with bags because I live in Chicago so speed bumps and road work are gonna wreak havoc on my coils if I get them.

I have to get some stuff sorted out with fab work and stuff. I don't mind doing that. I'm gonna do some research on what I can do with the actual bag set-up.

Thanks for the help. I'll keep this thread updated with further questions and purchases and pics.

[veedubbin]

hey, this might help. It's a list of everything I bought for a complete set up. It's a 5 gallon tank, dual 444c compressor setup, with vu4 management and I made a custom switch box. I listed everything besides the actual struts I used. Which were universal air lifts from bagriders. http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=65574

[ThatBMW Guy]

Wow, that helped a shit load. Thanks bro, I really appreciate it.

[ThatBMW Guy]

I found this http://www.accuair.com/vehiclekitpro...-e-34-68-cyl-0 and I'm rather shocked considering the fact that I expected AccuAir to have nothing for the E34 BMW. I might just get these because it's AccuAir so it's high quality and it's almost the same price as the E39 struts on BagRiders. Thoughts?

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

I had it in my head yours was an E39 for some reason, so ignore my bag selection above.

The kit you have linked to is built by TWR, not AccuAir themselves. TWR kits are the same as D2, KSport, and so forth. I would search around for reviews on those brands and see what you think.

[36truckowner]

My suggestion would be to look at air ride transports. I know it sounds crazy but trust me. You can get firestone name brand bags, large tanks, all the plumbing (valves, airlines, ECT.)

For height adjustment all you need is a levelling valve. These valves are cheap(ish) and are easy to get your hands on, and best of all they are self adjusting if you put one at each corner http://www.gasgoo.com/auto-products/...1/1135866.html There's no 1 2 3 setting like the accuair but how low is your stock ride height anyway?

You'll need to get a compressor and you might have some problems getting it to fit like systems that are made to fit. Nothing big just some fab work. Also, this system has no wiring (except for the compressor) since the leveling and dumping systems are controlled trough the leveling valves themselves rather than an expensive computer IMO. Every suspension has it's downsides and the problem with this one is that you don't have on the fly adjustment like any of the computerized systems. Also they won't fit like ones made specifically for this setup. Definitely a system to look into, being around log trucks all my life I can say first hand that it works and it is extremely simple compared to the others

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

The problem with leveling valves is that you lose the ability to air up and down, which is the entire point of air ride in our application. For a truck, the point is to keep the vehicle level and with full ground clearance, even with a heavy load, and in that application, leveling valves are perfect, but they're not appropriate here.

I've also yet to see a large truck with bags small enough for our use, nor bags that are designed to be mounted around a shock / strut.