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Old 05-26-2021, 04:09 AM   #23 (permalink)
JulianEdgar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vekke View Post

Main reason why most people don`t install air suspension is the cost. Ready set price tag is 3000-5000 euro range on aftermarket units. So paypack time is long. If you build it yourself it has no TUV approval and is illegal. We had self made air suspension system in our CityCab project car and it did not work very reliably. Ofcourse if you are able to write the control code yourself it would have been propably ok solution.

Lowering car with steel spring set will get you the efficiency gains cheaper and payback time is reasonable. Ofcourse if its new car cost is not so big thing if you plan to keep it long, but most ecomodders drive older cars here as they are more efficient and cheaper to run.
Sure, air suspension is not cheap - but it's very unlikely to be 3000-5000 euro in most parts of the world and on most cars.

In my book on custom air suspension (one, incidentally, that almost no one has bought), I use a second-hand compressor from a BMW, air tank from a Porsche Cayenne, off the shelf Firestone rear springs (all really cheap), custom front struts (not cheap and not easy), programmable PIC modules (cheap and easy, but not as good as the programmable ECU I then went to), Range Rover height sensors (cheap and easy) - and so on.

Unless you are considering the aerodynamic advantages alone, I don't really think you can compare air suspension to lowered steel springs. In terms of ride, handling and versatility, air springs are in another world compared with lowered steel springs.
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