air ride suspension

[mineralgrey01gt]

Ok, i know this probably isnt the right forum for this but someone is bound to know.

I am bagging my 1992 GMC swb sierra and I need to know exactly everything that I need to do it. I know a lot of the stuff already but i dont know if im missing anything. This is what I know I do need:

Tank
bags & brackets
air fittings (dont know how many i need) and air line
c-notch (going to lay frame with it)
valves (but do not know how many i need)
compressor
shocks and relocation brackets

thats all I can think of, but like i said, i do not know how many valves I will need or fittings. Any help is appreciated.

[nightrider05]

Air ride can seem very angering at times, but take your time and do it right. Check out s10forum.com and look at the air ride section..I know you are not bagging a S10,but there is alot of info there. I used that site alot while bagging my 97 Dakota. What all do you want your set up to do? Do you want to be able to adjust every corner individually or do you just want it to go up and down?

Also check out suicidedoors.com for great package setups. I bought a cheap kit off of ebay first and kicked myself in the *** for months afterwords. Jason Thorbeck(owner of suicidedoors.com) will hook you up and is always willing to help you on custom setups. If you are a member of s10forum he will even give you a discount(10% if I remember right, sometimes alot more)

[mineralgrey01gt]

yea im doing a FBSS set up. I have a friend of mine down here that had a bag truck and his good friend builds 4 link rears and he said he would hook me up with one and thats the rear end i wanted to go with so im set on that. How did your 97 dak come out? I had one also and wanted to bag it but i heard it cost a good bit to bag those trucks

[nightrider05]

The cost is all in the install. We did the complete install ourselves. If I would have gotten a good kit from suicidedoors in the first place the whole air ride setup would have cost me less than 1500. My compressor alone is a $1000 dollar compressor(Oasis) so that was a huge cost. The Dakota came out great and gave me very little issues.

The rear is the hardest part. The front is basically just finding the right cups to fit in your control arm pockets. You can bolt/weld those in and then bolt your bags to those. You may also have to do some trimming of your control arm pocket for bag clearence(to keep your bag from rubbing on metal).

If you are not very mechanically inclined and dont like projects, I would take a huge step back and reconsider doing this to your truck. Most of the time when you do a 4link suspension you have to relocate your fuel tank or get a fuel cell, which also involves fabbing up new mounts or making a cage for your fuel cell in between your frame rails(unless you decide to put it in your bed). My Dakota was down for about 2 weeks when I bagged it and did the Triangulated 4-link suspension.

For a FBSS system you will need 8 valves. 4 of these will be your fill valves and 4 will be your dump/exhaust valves. I would recommend doing 1/2" valves for quick fills and quick release. You will need 4 bags obviously and I would recommend doing Dual Port bags(1/2" ports). Do not go cheap on your bags..I did this one time and after blowing one at only 150 psi I quickly ordered better bags all the way around. You will need many connectors, and the best to use are the green DOT Push to Connect fittings. These are pretty costly but take away alot of frustration. Alot of people also use compression fittings that you can get from most hardware stores, but these can be a huge pain in the butt since you will have alot of leaks in the beginning, and also when the weather changes.

If you need any more help just PM me.

[TRX450RACER174]

Is this a daily driver? or gonna be a show truck, cause you can also do a reverse 4 link and not have to worry about the gas tank mods if you go that route.

[mineralgrey01gt]

its not my daily driver but will be driven a good bit on the weekends. Im already going to relocate a 15 gallon fuel cell to the bed since I dont want to worry about the gas tank underneath the truck.

The install is being done by me, my brother, and a few friends. I have a friend that placed 4th in the state in a major welding competition so I have a pretty good welder around lol. Im not going to slack any on the suspension set up as I plan on driving it a good ways for shows and such, this will not be a trailer queen :D

The front suspension im getting Air Ride Technologies Shockwave air bags since they are so simple to put on. The rear is what I was mainly worried about.

which bags do you reccommend? I was looking at slam specialties bags for the rear, are those good? Thanks for all the help everyone, its greatly appreciated.

[mineralgrey01gt]

well I found this kit and i think this is what ill get as its going to be cheaper to buy it in a kit than piece it together.

http://www.stylintrucks.com/parts.aspx?category%7ccategory_root%7c-30=Suspension&category%7ccat_-30%7c109=Air+Suspension&canned_results_trigger=&selected_prod_ids=1129

[underpowered]

www.fullsizechevy.com/forums

check out there, they will have all the anwsers you will ever need. very knowledgeable.