Air shock pressure???

Yep, real life air shocks...working antiques...just like me.

Anyways I'm horsing around under the heap, wondering how much pressure should be on these things. :dunno:

TIA, Mike

I used to have a set of Hijackers (back in the day). I just pumped them up until it road at the right level.

I belive its one of those "gotta feel" it deals. Load it up and pump it up??

So here's a question. Why did the airshock go by the wayside anyhow? What were the issues with these? Sounds like a great idea to me. I could see how if the air got more or less dense with heat and the shock dynamics could change but what else? Undesired height?

Monroe MaxxAir shocks specify 20psi minimum. I am not sure what the max is, but they are not made to create lift, but rather to restore stock ride height while carrying a load.

I think that a practical max pressure would be that which it takes to level an XJ with 700 pounds in the cargo area.

Bob

Never used air shocks, but I've heard stories about them tearing up the shock mounts.

Makes sense if you think about it, the shock mounts were designed to take the damping force of the shock, not that force plus a lot of spring force as well.

Probably wasn't a problem with 30-50 PSI that probably equaled 30-50 lbs of spring rate, but there were probably lots of people that pumped up way past that and tore up their suspension. People probably loading up the back of their vehicle with 1500lbs of cargo and trying to level it with the air shocks.

In the time of frivolous law suits, the company probably dropped them because they were to much of a risk for law suits. Any lawyer would argue, with engineering data to back him up, that using the air shocks changed the suspension handling characteristics and that was the whole cause of the accident, and the company, not the idiot that pumped the shocks up to 150PSI, is at fault, because they knew better.

I used to have mine set at 70 due to saggy springs, but I think minimum was 30 psi and max was a whopping 240 psi. I never had them past 120 psi and the ride was like doo doo. I took em out and just put Ultra's back there when I lifted it. I love em.

I've got a set of them on my truck, Monroe's. I think the max was 150psi in the instructions. I've never had better than 70 in them though. Had them for years without a problem.

I tried asking my Dad tonight: He's 84, his memory gets more convenient as time passes. LOL

Anyway I set the regulator on my compressor at 30 PSI and aired up, ride height came up about a half-inch. Both of my cheesey tire gauges agreed that they had 20 PSI. The ride was improved. I can hardly wait for new shocks!

Thanks for the input. I won't worry about over inflating them now. LOL

Dad has been using them on his XJ's since the mid 90's, I've had them on mine since '04, and Dad put them on my sister's in '05. We've probably put over 300k on them between the 4 XJ's that we've put them on. Dad's first set were Gabrials IIRC and after those sprung a leak and were replaced with Napa/Tennecco (Rebadged Monroe and the air limits are 20-120psi IIRC) ones that also have a nitrogen charged shock and airspring in one assebly and we've used them ever since. Dad has had well over 500lbs in cargo in the back of his XJ's while using them for track inspection duties when he was M.O.W. manager at a local Rail Road that involved some pretty severe off-road abuse (BTW, he has yet to crack a header on his Renix trucks and the current one has 281k on it), surface street use, and Toll-Way/Interstate uses. My Jeep had been used as my DD and a family flier for road trips (4 adults and their luggage at speed rangine from 25mph upwards of 80mph), as well as running product between the two franchise stores I work at (I'ver had to pull the lower cushion out on a couple occasions to have enough room.) My sister has used her's for some of the same situations I have. We have yet tear up a shock mount, and the handling changes seem a bit odd, but can actually be useful. Dad and I have found that 30-40 psi works best for the best ride/handling/load bearing. Oddly enough, I found running 35-36psi in my tires and shocks works well in most situations on my '98 Limited with 235/75/15 Wrangler SilentArmors all year around here in the Chicago area. Some of what I've noticed that at this pressure it has a little air cushion before before you get into the shock and spring which softens the ride a bit. When you have them plumbed to be fed off a single air valve they will share the air back and forth based on suspension movement. If you go into a right hand corner it will slowly bleed air into the inboard shock and will increase the rate on the right rear corner, which will allow for more (sharper) turn-in if you are making an immeadiate left turn (such as a chicane or some exit ramps) and allow the vehicle to take a tighter line through the curve. I've also noticed that when you get onto the gas enough to get the body to lean to the right, the single valve arrangement allows for an exaggerated lean until you get back off the gas. That also makes itself know in gradual, prolonged corners, if you're going through a right hand curve the truck will corner pretty level and can tighten it's line while of you're going through a left handed curve the air will get shoved into the left rear shock from body sway and "torque roll/lean" (sorry couldn't think of a better description) and the right rear seems to squat more than normal.