Air shock with springs, good for high speed?

I know air shocks are popular on lightweight rock buggies and aren't recomended for street use or high speeds. But after reading about how they work it seams like they could be a good addition to a conventionally sprung setup.

At the very least they can be filled at low pressure and act like a conventional high-end shock, right?

And if needed they can help support the truck. As the regular leafs/coils will do most of the work the shock would only see a very light-weight vehicle.

Also, the an air spring tends to have an exponential spring rate. Tuned correctly this could act a lot like bumpstops by increasing resistance shortly before bottoming out. Not quite as good as hydraulic bumps as they are an additional air shock themselves with additional hydraulic dampening and exponential spring rate.

What do y'all think? If it's already in the budget to get high quality shocks, why not get the air shocks for the added versatility?

Not sure where your going with this,but something like a "Fox" air shock is COMPLETELY different from a stock replacement air shock.

RCP Phx said:

Not sure where your going with this,but something like a "Fox" air shock is COMPLETELY different from a stock replacement air shock.

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Just to be clear, I was talking about Fox shocks. Thanks for pointing that out.

I think you're on the wrong track and should look at air-bumps instead.

Looks like my idea isn't too far out as they do make coil-over air shocks:

http://truck.hownd.com/product-1448-fox-racing-shox-20-coil-over-air-shock.html

See now you're talking coilovers.. and not using air shocks + coils.

Might seem like the same difference, its not.

cal said:

See now you're talking coilovers.. and not using air shocks + coils.

Might seem like the same difference, its not.

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Ok, so quite winking and elaborate :eeks1:

spring rates, valving, etc.

I don't think you could configure an air shock to work with a standard coil and still do its job. Either it would be so weak that it'd be useless until it compressed, or so stiff it'd be like driving a buckboard.

think of an air shock as a spring that dampens - not a dampener that suspends...

the air shock gets its ability to support weight from its large shaft diamiter, and the difference in pressure inside the shock VS the outside environment...

the larger the shaft diamiter, the more area there is for the force to act, the more weight it can hold...

note that most nitrogen charged shocks have relatively small shafts - my Bilstein 7100's have 14mm (approx 9/16") shafts, where Fox Air Shox have 1.25" shafts...

Fox coilovers have 5/8" shafts...

So, running them at a low pressure - will still act as a spring - the last set of air shocks I dialed in were running at 165psi - my Bilstein shock abosorbers (not air shocks at all - I have coils) are at 200psi to keep the oil where its supposed to be...

There is some new debate as to using air shocks with the valving shims removed as a spring, then using a seperate, more easily tuned shock as the shock its self... Im interested to see where that goes...

discussion on air shocks as springs here:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8354683

more reading on air shocks here:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PR-Airshox/index.html

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=929148

XJ_ranger said:

think of an air shock as a spring that dampens - not a dampener that suspends...

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What's the difference? Are you saying that they don't work well at dampening?

Far as I can tell they're just a shock with a large shaft. The large shaft shouldn't hinder dampening ability.

If a traditional spring carries most of the load would air shocks work on a daily driver?