Air shocks and streetability.

This has been discussed before, but I've never really found an answer I'm happy with.
98xj, 6.5" long arm, bumpers/winch/tirecarrier (still pretty light).

I really hate coil springs, and I hate trying to find leaf springs that give me level ride. I've gone through 5 sets of leafs and none brought me closer than 2" from level. I ended up having to go with shackle relocation and extended shackle, paired with some really old 4.5" RE leafs to get my ass end to sit right. Now after all that, my coils are too short when extended, and are almost falling out on droop. Yes, I can limit strap, but then I lose quite a bit of what should be useful droop. My ass end has no up-travel at all, but has at least 10" down, but this just isn't useful with no up travel. On top of the no up-travel on the rear, the shackle relocation introduces all sorts of dynamic alignment issues that I don't feel like fighting with.

That said, I'm thinking it's time to 4-link the rear, and go coil overs or air shocks all around. I know coilovers pretty well, and I know they'd do the job perfectly, but I'm starting to get interested in the air shock for several reasons.

1. Years ago, air shocks were a brand new thing on bikes (downhill) and everyone said they were crap. Despite that, I looked at the design and numbers and they seemed like they should perform better than a traditional coil-over. I got one and never looked back. The difference in ride quality, and tuneability were ridiculous. 10 years later, air shocks are the standard on DH bikes.
2. Coilovers don't have the range of adjustment that Air has. With coilovers, if you want to change your spring rates, you need new coils. Yes, there is some minor tweaking possible without dropping another $2000 on coils (and then probably another $2000 when you don't get it right the first try), but with Air shocks, the tuning range is near infinite. Air also allows you to adjust your ride height very easily on the fly (hell, on the trail if you need).
3. Offroad ride quality. Air wins from what I've heard, and I'll believe this for now as I saw the difference on bikes 10 years ago. Air just has a very nice progressive spring rate (which is fairly highly configurable) which makes for phenomenal for soaking up big right angle hits (ie: rocks) and nice soft landings.
4. Price. A good air shock is only the price of a really good shock. $350 per corner vs. $1000 per for coilover.

That said, I'm still concerned about street performance and reliability.
For street, I've heard air is too rolly as the air shocks provide no anti-roll. I've still got a front sway bar and I'd be more than happy to install a rear as well, if that would keep my jeep on the street, but also allow me to run air.
On the topic of reliability, I've heard lots of guys caution about "well if it pops, you have no suspension at all and you can't drive home", but I've never actually found anyone who's popped one.


So can anyone with experience speak to this? Keep in mind I'm already on 6.5" lift with 35" tires. I'm not looking for the Lotus street experience. I just need my rig to be safely drivable on street.
How about reliability? Has anyone actually broke an air shock and not been able to drive home?

Where are you finding air shocks for 350 a corner? What kind of travel out of it?

I would think with a front sway on disconnects that your on street would be fine, I mean as find as 6+" on 35" tires gets anyways, it's not a sports car. And based off your mods I would think this would be occasional street use or even just to the trail street use?

xriide said:

Where are you finding air shocks for 350 a corner? What kind of travel out of it?

I would think with a front sway on disconnects that your on street would be fine, I mean as find as 6+" on 35" tires gets anyways, it's not a sports car. And based off your mods I would think this would be occasional street use or even just to the trail street use?

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That's just the price everywhere. Fox, Sway-A-Way, and pretty near everyone else are sub $300 per corner.

My Jeep is my DD, but I don't drive a lot. About 50% of my street driving is to/from the trail. The rest is mostly just grocery getting, but once I move to a new place, I'll be doing most of that on my bike again. So, it needs to be relatively safe on street, but doesn't have to handle any better than my existing setup. I figure front/rear sway bars should keep me from rolling over.

blistovmhz said:

That's just the price everywhere. Fox, Sway-A-Way, and pretty near everyone else are sub $300 per corner.

My Jeep is my DD, but I don't drive a lot. About 50% of my street driving is to/from the trail. The rest is mostly just grocery getting, but once I move to a new place, I'll be doing most of that on my bike again. So, it needs to be relatively safe on street, but doesn't have to handle any better than my existing setup. I figure front/rear sway bars should keep me from rolling over.

Click to expand...

I drove with 5.5" of lift and no shocks, no sway bars for 40 miles including through the city. Besides almost getting sea sick (and I never get sea sick) from the lack of shocks it was fine. Felt like I was in a boat.

I thought the cheaper air shocks were just normal shocks, not replace your springs type shocks.

I would think significant reinforcement of the current shock mounts would be needed?

not sure what your issue with coil springs are, but I sure as hell would not be running air shocks on the street. and where the hell are you paying 2k for springs for coil overs.