Considering air ride

[nght&day]

After this past weekend at Sowo i have seriously started considering going with air ride, but my A4 is a quattro and i like taking advantage of that at times.. will i be kissing that bye bye once i do air? I got to speak with some of you guys on your air system this past weekend and the response i kept getting was the ride while aired up is great and that its like riding on springs. I wont be doing stupid crap on my current wheels since im putting in a order for a 2nd set of cheap light wheels to eat shit with id just like to know more about the handling performance of being on air, im definitely a newb on this topic. :shifty

[nght&day]

Anyone? :devillook

[FreshLikeSushi]

need more info
what air are you looking at
how low do you wnt to drive

air doesnt affect your quattro shit that doesnt matter anyways to anyone that can drive

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

air can handle as good if not better than coils. . WITH the right setup.
The 1st questions I ask are

are you going to daily the car?
whats your budget?
are you going to use it for show or just function. . meaning will you be playing with the switches alot or will you just use it to drop when parking?

[nght&day]

I was looking into bagyard for a set-up, and yeah i daily the car. Im mostly using it for airing down when parked but i dont want to lose functionality of the vehicle either..

[Tuck&Poke]

i'd like to hear more about this too

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

I was looking into bagyard for a set-up, and yeah i daily the car. Im mostly using it for airing down when parked but i dont want to lose functionality of the vehicle either..



ok well then daily i would recommend some sort of Digital setup, if thats too much maybe a manual setup with Pressuryte.

digital - hit a switch and go. you have 3 presets and control over 4 corners

manual - you can set up for Front back side to side or just front to back; depending on your wants and budget

Pressuryte combines both the use of manuals with the "AutoPilot" control of the digital aka set the pressures @ 40 PSI and the Pressuryte keeps it there

As for a compressor for the way of use you described, you can get away with a single 420 and have enough air at your finger tips to go up and down. If you plan on playing with the switches more a duel setup will be better.


As for struts. . Bagyard has 2 series available

Supreme & Bombers

Supreme are fully customizable in every sense of the word. Custom color, length, valving

Bombers are satin blacking with a Conti Tech (IIRC) double bellow bag and come in 1 length and valving. These out the box ride like coils and are very easy to dial in.

im trying to think of anything else

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

Here is my write up on my switch from Supremes to Bombers (the supremes were lent to me by Andrew@openroadtuning while I was waiting for the Bombers) So they were no customized to MY specs

Bombers by SteveO

Initial impression out of the wrapper was amazing. they just look cool @ 1st and then you really start to notice the details. The quality of the strut was 2nd to none and the new leader lines seem virtually undestrucable.

Installing was cake. this would be my 3rd install and they just slide right in. 4 bolts and 1 fitting (per side) it really should take you more than an hour a side ( no including the stuped fender liners. lol
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/air%20install/install2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/air%20install/install3.jpg

To start: ive 3 set of bags on the car. . Bag Overs, Supremes, and Now the bombers.

My driving pressures
BOC: 70
Supremes: 31
Bombers: 36
The BOC where good for having bags. Thats about it. The supremes were loaners and not ideal for my car due to the fact they were just not short enough and the ride on this set was soft but thats because thats how someone ordered them. Not the bags fault

The bombers made me forget that the car has no front sway bar. It was like driving the car for the 1st time again. Unless you need custom colors these are the bags to go with. From the pics you can see that they are a bout an inch or so shorter but the best part is they have the same lift. 3 wheeling is a breeze

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/air%20install/install1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/wagen%20in%20werks/4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/air%20install/install4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v142/got_vdub/air%20install/install5.jpg

it will EASILY be on the ground once i find a set of 18's

:alright

[Tuck&Poke]

sorry to hijack andy, but im pretty sure you'll want the answer to this question too.

so if i were to order supremes, i can specify stiffer dampening to make the ride stiff? The bombers cant be custom but it seems that they have a much larger range of travel and therefore more psi to reach the same height as supremes, which translates to a stiffer ride? I know a bit, but when it comes to equivalent spring rates and stuff like that im a noob.

And do they make bombers for the b5?\

ive never ridden in a car with a legit setup, just BOC and the ride to be honest wasnt great.

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

sorry to hijack andy, but im pretty sure you'll want the answer to this question too.

so if i were to order supremes, i can specify stiffer dampening to make the ride stiff? The bombers cant be custom but it seems that they have a much larger range of travel and therefore more psi to reach the same height as supremes, which translates to a stiffer ride? I know a bit, but when it comes to equivalent spring rates and stuff like that im a noob.
.
more psi only equals more stifness in the higher PSI range. I'm not an engineer but the valving ont he supremes shown we too cushy not like a Caidlac cushy but like a car with just lower springs. The bombers feel like coilovers. I think the perfect setup would be a set of color matched supremes WITH the length and vlaving of bomers


And do they make bombers for the b5?\
.

Yes


ive never ridden in a car with a legit setup, just BOC and the ride to be honest wasnt great.
BOC are only good for the saek of "having air bags" and going low. ride sucks. and ets can take a hit too

[Tuck&Poke]

thats exactly what i want, coilover ride and the ability to dump it when i park. Thanks for the info. The price on the struts is steep but you get what you pay for. I think i found what to spend my xmas bonus on.

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

thats exactly what i want, coilover ride and the ability to dump it when i park. Thanks for the info. The price on the struts is steep but you get what you pay for. I think i found what to spend my xmas bonus on.

once you see the craftmanship that goes into these parts you will have no problem with the price. i almost didnt want to install them. lol

Andrew @ OpenRoadTurning is the man to talk to though:alright

[nght&day]

got_vdub, thanks for all the helpful info man! Im thinking, if the supremes werent ordered by you maybe the person who originally had them ordered a softer ride? You said they are fully customizable, so wouldnt this be better than the bomber since your able to choose how stiff you'd want your ride to be?

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

got_vdub, thanks for all the helpful info man! Im thinking, if the supremes werent ordered by you maybe the person who originally had them ordered a softer ride? You said they are fully customizable, so wouldnt this be better than the bomber since your able to choose how stiff you'd want your ride to be?

yessir. I personally am unaware of how you specify the "valving" specs. that is something you would need to talk to Andrew about. He should be chiming in soon since he will be back from Worthesee:alright

[andrew@openroad]

Here is a little bit about our valving and shock setups...

Each BagYard setup is built on a B6 or B8 hybrid Bilstein strut. Each strut is hand manufactured in Austria to our exact specifications. The thing that many people don't know about BagYard struts is that our struts are valved for air springs and not for normal springs. Our competition uses a valve rate for normal metal springs and not air springs, thus the driving PSI is a bit higher.

We have started producing supreme bags with bomber dampening for those that are looking for the supreme bag setup and customization but with a stiffer ride.

best form of contact is email: andrew@openroadtuning.com

I don't frequent the forums a lot.

[chrismkay3]

i may be picking up a mkV gli and would like to go air as well. i'm wondering about the swaybars, how much does this affect the handling of the vehicle? are there any air setups that are not BOC that allow you to run a swaybar?

also this would be my daily, any thoughts on something like BY bombers lasting through the winter? and i mean winnipeg, manitoba, -40c winter...

edit: 1st post!

[geoffafa]

Oh hai you guys... Guess we are all getting our fix from the same place :)

[Tuck&Poke]

i may be picking up a mkV gli and would like to go air as well. i'm wondering about the swaybars, how much does this affect the handling of the vehicle? are there any air setups that are not BOC that allow you to run a swaybar?

also this would be my daily, any thoughts on something like BY bombers lasting through the winter? and i mean winnipeg, manitoba, -40c winter...

edit: 1st post!

i dont know much about the mk5, but what i do know about sway bars is that removing the front one is going to give the car more oversteer. Day to day driving, even driving it hard, you wont notice a difference, If you plan on tracking the car, then you will.

[andrew@openroad]

We can do any BagYard setup with a sway bar mount on it. I've been driving without a sway for probably 15k miles now and haven't thought about it, honestly. It does loosen up the front a bit but, I'm not tracking the car so it doesn't really matter to me. As for the MkV, my friend has bombers on his and he ordered another set with the sway because he's going to track the car. He runs the e-Level setup and will be corner balancing his car for auto-x. As for handling the winter, the BagYards were developed in Austria and it's pretty damn cold there in the winter too. We've never had an issue with temperature.

[trism]

Are bagyard setups only made for euro cars? Im interested in a set in the future, but am building an ef civic

[andrew@openroad]

Bagyards are for almost any kind of car!

We've done kits for: Honda, Toyota, Infiniti, Lexus, Nissan, VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, etc.

[SteveO@OpenRoad]

Don't forget Mini, BMW, Porsche!!!

[andrew@openroad]

oh yah definitely ritter's mini - that thing laaaaaays out.

Done some E30, E28, E46, E92, E60, etc.

[trism]

so much awesomes. i might get in tough with you guys about pricing etc