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Airshocks. Selection and tuning

No way

No way

Motorator
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
33
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818
Airshocks are obviously lightweight and real easy to package on a small buggy or crawler. I see lots of people running them but I keep wondering if they are often set up/tuned incorrectly.

What I see is they have a tendency to push/extend when you don't want them to like crawling up a steep crest/rock or on side slopes. They seem to want extend to push the rig over..
I decided against them for my current build and went with coil springs and regular shocks for reliability and predictability but as I look towards "the next project" airshocks seem like the way to go if I want to reduce weight and solve some packaging issues.

Those of you using them for crawlers and non go fast buggys, what are your experiences?
 
They work well on a light rig.

If you play with valving and oil qty you can make them behave pretty well I'd say.

As far as pushing/extending, it's very often because the nitrogen pressure is really high in the 2.0s if your buggy is slightly heavy. If you get some 2.5s they work soooo much smoother IMO.
 
I had Fox 2.0 air shocks on my last rock buggy. Yes they work for rock crawling. Yes they generally suck for any prolonged rough/fast terrain. Yes they are mostly valved and setup to inherently suck for fast and rough. Crawling only, I'd probably run them again. The unloading is as much of a problem with the suspension setup as it is with the air shocks. I know there were some guys that got pretty serious about tuning them, I think they all went to ORIs now. Coil-overs STOMP both of them in bang for buck:flipoff2:
 
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I switched from c/o's to fox airshocks. They are way better for a crawler. They are a progressive rate and you can sett them up to work like a bumpstop at the bottom of the travel. My rig is a yota on mogs with 44 pbr's and a v8
 
Bebop said:
If you get some 2.5s they work soooo much smoother IMO.
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Is this across the board? I have heard that the 2.5s don't work well on light rigs. I have a pair of 2.5x16 foxes that I plan to run on the front of a suzuki with 4 cyl. My buddy offered some 2.0x14 kings for trade since he wants to link the back of his full size. Mine are old and beat up, his are in pretty good shape. I just want what will work best with my rig.
 
Bypass remote reservoir air shocks look interesting. Added air accumulation for a less regressive rate. I assume the reservoir is floating piston to separate the air and oil. I would assume with the correct reservoir size and pressure and rod size you could equal the rate of a spring coiover.
I wonder why they haven't used them in the legends class as a way to run a single shock and have a bypass. Maybe a 3" or 3.5" shock body with a 2" rod. Rod side mounted reservoir/accumulator with the cooling fin/tubes. Maybe next year at KOH.
 
David Taylor used King remote reservoir bypass air shocks on his old XJ buggy, probably KOH 2010 or so. Back when you could be competitive with garage-built vehicle-based cars. So they have been out there a long time. If they are not being used in legends it’s because the value isn’t there.
 
Air shocks are pretty useless unless they are resi out the bottom. With the amount of shaft displacement, oil flow through the piston isn't much. Add in the fact that emulsion ones foam up real quick and they fade like a mother fucker.

These are how you do it.


IMG_20190112_155229.jpg
 
tonyt said:
I switched from c/o's to fox airshocks. They are way better for a crawler. They are a progressive rate and you can sett them up to work like a bumpstop at the bottom of the travel. My rig is a yota on mogs with 44 pbr's and a v8
Click to expand...

How do you set them up for bump stop?
 
My light weight zuk buggy works well on 2.5 foxes. I run about 3-4 inch of up travel.
 
Been working well crawling for me for a long, long time.

I compress them 100%, then extend them ½" and completely fill them with oil. This lets you run the least amount of gas pressure possible to get to your chosen ride height and gets rid ofthe stupid unloading issues.

Obviously no good for bombing across the desert, but I don't live near one. :grinpimp:
 
rockdog57 said:
How do you set them up for bump stop?
Click to expand...

I filled the shock till it's full of oil with about 1 1/2" of shaft showing then adjust nitro pressure for ride height and they work great. Not a true bump stop but really close.
 
The problem with air shocks is people set them say at 200PSI and if it's not enough ride height they just add more N2 Pressure. I would sell them to people and explain to try and run 200-250 psi for ride height and adjust the oil volume which changes the spring rate. Easy to discharge. Pull schrader valve and fill a certain ML through that hole. Recharge and check. Keep doing that until it's where you want.
 
Just like on air bumps. I usually bottom them out completely and almost fill them all the way up with oil. That way you can run 100psi and get the same effect at full bump and way less harsh when you initially hit them compared to 200psi or so.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Is this across the board? I have heard that the 2.5s don't work well on light rigs. I have a pair of 2.5x16 foxes that I plan to run on the front of a suzuki with 4 cyl. My buddy offered some 2.0x14 kings for trade since he wants to link the back of his full size. Mine are old and beat up, his are in pretty good shape. I just want what will work best with my rig.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't. It has been my experience that 2.5s work better everywhere.

HYDRODYNAMIC said:
Bypass remote reservoir air shocks look interesting. Added air accumulation for a less regressive rate.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought the airshocks have a progressive rate curve. Oil qty changes the steepness of said rate.



I'm impressed by the amount of people that think that hydro-locking their shock is good practice !!!!
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Is this across the board? I have heard that the 2.5s don't work well on light rigs. I have a pair of 2.5x16 foxes that I plan to run on the front of a suzuki with 4 cyl. My buddy offered some 2.0x14 kings for trade since he wants to link the back of his full size. Mine are old and beat up, his are in pretty good shape. I just want what will work best with my rig.
Click to expand...

Keep the 2.5’s
 
Bebop said:
I wouldn't. It has been my experience that 2.5s work better everywhere.



Maybe I'm wrong but I thought the airshocks have a progressive rate curve. Oil qty changes the steepness of said rate.



I'm impressed by the amount of people that think that hydro-locking their shock is good practice !!!!
Click to expand...

You're correct. There used to be an excel spreadsheet floating around that showed this. I'm also surprised by that as well as that anyone thinks air shocks are really "better" than coil overs...
 
DesertCJ said:
You're correct. There used to be an excel spreadsheet floating around that showed this. I'm also surprised by that as well as that anyone thinks air shocks are really "better" than coil overs...
Click to expand...

Better is obviously subjective.

Better as in
Cheaper, lighter, easier to adjust spring rate, easier to package, kinda work as a bump stop

​​​​​​
 
Easier to tune, lower operating pressures = less unloading. Will hold up better to hard hits due to increased oil volume.
 
Bebop said:
I'm impressed by the amount of people that think that hydro-locking their shock is good practice !!!!
Click to expand...

No shit, I have seen over filled bumps explode the top cap off. Over filling them is just asking for trouble.
 
mobil1syn said:
plug a bleed, add compression, .010 on rebound
Click to expand...

Funny enough that's what I did very recently on a friends car.
But I left bleed alone.

What's the impact of bleed on an airshock that makes it non-desirable ?

I usually add bleed (to a C/O), not remove it.
 
I always laugh to myself over these threads.

Most people never take into consideration the terrain and wheeling type.

Who wants to run a coil over on a cone dodger?
Who wants to run a air shock bombing the desert?
 
bdkw1 said:
No shit, I have seen over filled bumps explode the top cap off. Over filling them is just asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

I have filler them when tore apart with shims loose on the piston to fill them easier to get the ML total. I fill them with about 10-15ML less than that to have room for the N2. I have also over filled them and blew the top off the bump stops so i don't do that.
 
Ran 2.5 sway a ways on the front and 2.5 fox in the rear of my YJ and it was stupid stable. Zero unloading issues.

photo51371.jpg
 
4R_on_the_Rocks said:
So, who thinks the negative spring in the fox air shocks really makes a difference?
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Say what?

Are toy saying they add a spring under the piston to give it some resistance to fully unloading?

If so, I could see that possibly helping. We used to do that with rc crawlers to make them more stable.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Say what?

Are toy saying they add a spring under the piston to give it some resistance to fully unloading?

If so, I could see that possibly helping. We used to do that with rc crawlers to make them more stable.
Click to expand...


yes, that’s what I’m saying but it’s not very long. I feel like it’s pretty pointless on some of the longer shocks, but I’d like to hear some other opinions.
 
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