Okay, here is everything and everything that anyone ever wanted to know about the suspension that I have on my Tibby. I have a 2K Tiburon with a full "Fast Bag" Air Bag Suspension. What this means is this:

Where the stock struts are, there is a custom bracket/strut that has a rubber convuleted (spelling?) bag modified in the center of it. So basically, if you were take a stock strut, cut it in half, and put a rubber hollow bag in between the 2 pieces, this is what it would look like. This type of suspension was first designed for big Semi trucks. It was then developed for the Mini-truck and sport truck community. (I have a very large following in the lowrider/minitruckin community) And now it just being offered for sport compacts.

When this type of suspension came out, it was pretty much laughed at because no one could imagine putting little air bags where the lowered or stock suspension was. Most people were either using air shocks, hydraulics, or basic lowering suspension to get their ride down in the weeds.

A basic airbag suspension consists of 4 airbags, air lines, a heavy duty compressor, an air tank, and a high PSI pressure switch to raise or lower the vehicle. When this suspension first started to hit the show scene, it would take anywhere from 1-3 minutes to fully air up or down. The best part about it is the ride quality. It's literally like driving on a cushion of air and you don't feel any bumps what so ever. The other good thing is you can literally lay your frame or body (if you have a car or body drop) almost right on the ground. The negative parts to this is that if the airbags were installed incorrectly, they would rub on a suspenion part or frame, and you would rip a hole in the bag. Alot of times people would be driving, their bags would pop, and the front or rear of the vehicle would slam to the ground, therefore showing an amazing fireworks and spark display! Also, people would get a real cheap compressor and they would run out of air quickly from their storage tanks. They wouldn't have enough power from the compressor or enough air from storage to get their ride back up to driving height.

New Advancements:

The old set ups, you had to weld everything in. newer kits are available as bolt in in case you want to go back to stock or lowered suspension pieces. Some companies have come out with stronger and thicker airbags to help prevent them from tearing or popping. An airbag will still tear or pop if it rubs, but not as quickly as the older ones. Also, people used to hate the idea that it took so long for their ride to air up or down. So people started to come up with new ideas for their air bags to air up faster like installing large scuba tanks (compressed co2) and larger air lines to the air bags. This worked for awhile and for the most part, people still use this set up. Companies came out with a true fast bag set up which means they had everything the old set ups had, except they had bigger air tanks for storage, very heavy duty compressors, electric solenoids (like in hydraulics), large air lines, and very high pressure switches. The old set ups used to just have either 1 switch (for up and down) or 2 switches (independant front or back). Now companies have 4 switches (each wheel or front-back-side2side) and just recently, they came out with 10 switch set ups so you can do all the same moves as hydraulics (this is the set up I have) With the electric solendoids, it made it very easy for your ride to go up and down just as fast as hydraulics. You can't hop off the ground with airbags, but there has been a few people that not only use the compresses CO2 (scuba tanks) but they use them with the electric solenoids and they are able to make their ride hop off the ground with an air suspension.

Even Newer Advancements

Alot of Spot Compact owners were getting upset because companies were coming out with airbag suspensions for trucks mostly. There really wasn't too much out there for cars unless you either built your own kit (like I did) or if you modified a truck kit to fit with your suspension. So companies have come out with an air rod kit. What this is, is basically a "strut like" air cylinder. Basically an over sized air shock/strut with a connector for an air line. They just bolt right up to where your stock strut goes. These as well have the capabilites to lay your car flat on the ground and they can either have the basic set up (1 minute air up/down) or the fast air set up. Since I noticed the other day my air bags are in fact rubbing, I will be going with the air rod set up within the next week. They currently make air rod systems for older Accents, and Sonata's. I'm not giving up on the air bag set up though, because it's a very custom idea/set up. I'm going to continue to work on the airag set up and perfect it so it won't rub, but in the meantime, I don't want to take a chance of the bags popping while I'm cruising down the road at 60 mhp. Also, alot of people actually ask what the strength is as far as racing goes. It all depends on the welds, and the quality of your work. Since having my bags, I have still been able to race and take off without anything shifting (suspension wise).

Sorry for the long email. If anyone has any questions about this, hit me back, and I'll try and answer it the best way I can. I will be creating kits to sell within the next few weeks once I finish perfecting the airbags from not rubbing. If it turns out that there is no way to not have them rub, then I will be offering the Fast Air Air Rod Kits to people to purchase. I do have pics and I do have a 4 three minute video's of the air bags in work. I will posting things in the near future, and keep an eye out on Shark Racing and Team SR because these 2 companies may be carrying my kits or another companies kits in the future. L8TR.....

[ May 08, 2001: Message edited by: 2000Lo&ShowTibby ]

 

So I guess that's a real pix of your ride, huh. That's cool, you would definitely get some mad attractions at a import show. And lastly how much do the kits usually run?

 

Korean Shark...alot of the import kits that are out now are pretty much for Honda's and Acura's. Most kits available are for the Air Rods and not the bag kit. As far as the kits that are available for Hyundai's, I personally can get them for:

Accent/Sonata
Slow Air - $1200 (complete Air Rod kit)
Fast Air - $1700 (complete Air Rod kit)
Lo&ShowTibby's Full Custom 10 Switch Airbag Kit - price TBA

 

hmmm 1200 for the slow air. i might be hooking up with you sometime next year. after the BOOST and the body kit.

 

tone.....let me know when you want to buy the kit. They're pretty easy as far as installation goes. If you can lower your car yourself, then you'll have no problems installing your own air suspension. The fast air is a little more complicated because of the electric solenoids, but I'll be able to walk you through it step by step.

 

What is the purpose in having it in the first place?

 

Isn't it to drop the car to the ground when it is shut off. That is only purpose I can see of having them hooked up, but this is merely my own opinion.

 

well for me the reason im looking into it is because after i get my engine bay looking AWSOME and putting down some of Turboman and Onpols power im going to do the show on my car. i wanted the air bag cause im going to slam the car to ground( for shows only). thats why i want it. but i just need to look into a little more.

 

BlueSpanishShark...it's just another form of lowering suspension. Someone would get for the same reason as having adjustable coil overs or hydraulics. They want to be able to have some kind of adjustable suspension where if they want, they can slam their car down in the weeds, or raise it back up for every day driving.

Korean Shark.....it's not just for when you have the car shut off. Lets say you want to take up all your fender gap in your wheel well and be able to cruise down the road being real low to the ground. All of a sudden a speedbump or an incline in the road comes up. The air bags allow you to air up while driving so you can get over obstacles. As of right now, the only options for people who have Hyundai's to get there car real low is Hydraulics. The ride quality with juice is pretty harsh (very bouncy). Your other option are lowering springs, but springs usually don't set your car down real low. Just a couple of inches at the most.

Toneboogie...your right. Airbag and Air Rod suspensions are mainly for show, but they do help greatly when you need to get over something without scraping the underneath of you car. Plus lets say you have 2 cars at a show. One with lowered springs or coilovers, and one with adjustable suspension like juice or air. The one with the adjustable suspension is going to be ALOT lower, it's going to be more custom, and therefore there will be more looks, and more points awarded for you at the show.

Also, consider this. Everyone is always talking about how there really are not too many fully modded Hyundai's out there and how everywhere you look, you see a modded out Honda or Acura. Judges at car shows and photographers for magazines are only gonna look twice at a vehicle that is 100% unique and different from all the rest. Some of you may think having an adjustable suspension like hydraulics or air is stupid, but I gurantee you will get a hell of alot more looks, show points, and even magazine coverage. This is coming from someone who has been in the show/modification scene for the last 11 years and who has had 2 (soon to be 3, I hope) vehicles in magazines as full features, as well as being sponsored by multiple companies with past vehicles. It's all about being different. Plus the main thing to remember is to always build your ride so that it makes YOU happy, not because of what someone else thinks. But at the same time, if you're going for alot of recognition, you have to see what others are doing, how they're succeeding, and then build your ride around those prinicples so that's it different, but yet cool.

[ May 09, 2001: Message edited by: 2000Lo&ShowTibby ]

 

2000Lo&ShowTibby

work with me here, these are just some quick questions I came up with

Okay, let's say I'm a "Ricky Racer" kinda guy... I wanna do autocross events, occasional race track events, drag strip weekends on occasion and street drag races when someone Rev's on me.

Would the airbag suspension hold up to this kind of abuse?

What is the "life expectancy" of an airbag supension setup?

How much weight does an airbag setup add?

Could I make the suspension really hard for track events and make it soft for street driving?

Could I raise the rear and lower the front for Drag Lauches?

Would it still work with aftermarket swaybars?

Would a quality airbag setup be a viable option over $2000 to $3000 full coilover/strut race setups?

Do the airbag setups adjust the camber as you raise and lower the car?

Would I end up needing a new alighment by going up down up down 10 times a weekend for autocross events?

[ May 09, 2001: Message edited by: Random ]

[ May 10, 2001: Message edited by: Random ]