capri on air using truck idea ?

[messenjah]

hi guys ,

so the problem with putting a capri on air is you need to 4 or 5 link it and use airbags in place of coilovers as far as i can see and no one makes a link kit for a capri so its adaptation of an escort kit or bespoke. the problem with this is you have two dirty great boxes where the rear seat squab should be....

i saw this online and find myself thinking would this not work for any leaf sprung rear end ?







please point out if I'm being a special case.


thanks


Andy

[wodge]

That's interesting, I have air helper springs on my motorhome but I'm not convinced on these as I would imagine they put great strain on the leaf spring. They also don't allow for any drop, just a reduction in sag. I can't see why it wouldn't work or shouldn't work but I'm not qualified or experienced enough in anyway to say for definite. I guess that actual design only works when the spring hangers are on the side of the chassis rails rather than underneath. I'm not familiar enough with Capri's to know that though.

[bortaf]

That's pretty mutch how LDV made ambulances, they removed the rear leaf spring and used the front mount as a pivot point for the axle using a rather large square box tube that bolted to the axle as per the old LS set up and added an airbag on top of the axle with a welded on top bag seat on the underside of the chassis, appart from needing an air tank all the rest of the system consisted of a small pump in the engine bay and a manifold to split the air between bags or tank, simple and that carried 4 ton all day long for 180K without issue.
Have a look at ambulance conversion, i've ripped a few out and used on recoverys and campers.

[Battles]

I don't think these are designed to do what you're trying to do (assuming you're trying to get serious lows).
I looked at some videos as bortaf suggested and it looks like the range of movement might not translate to being very low without a big overhang at the rear unless you can change the distance between the axle and the airbag bit, or maybe the important distance is between the other mount and the airbag?
Something to do with angles and maths I guess, which are both beyond me...

Is it a cheap system? (I doubt it but I thought I should ask...)
Cheap enough to buy it and maybe try and mod it to fit and change the angles?

[sb]

Its not about the pivot point its the bag mounting point. Currently with the bag mounting beyond the hub from the pivot its a 1.5:1 height change. So if the bag compresses 45mm the hub will move 30mm.

If you mount the bag straight above the axle that would be a 1:1, if you mount it between the pivot and the hub you could increase it further. But the closer to the pivot mounting the more work is required due to leverage.