hey have any of you guys tried these shocks on a sidekick? I am thinking of installing them, so i can stiffen the ride for road driving, and soften it for light offroading, what ya think?

i havent tried them on sidekicks, but my boss has a suburban which has them, they wrok great, he uses them more for towing tho.

do you know if they wold work on a sidekick?

Air shocks should not be used to adjust the carrying capacity of the vehicle. A shock is designed to create energy into heat and to dissipate that heat. Energy comes from the cycling of the suspension.
To add, the air shock is only as good as the mounts it's in. All stock shock mounts are not designed for weight carrying. If the air shock is used as such, imagine the impact on the suspension if/when the shock blows out.

If not an air shock, why not air bags? You can replace the steel coils with air bags, or place an air bag into the coil. Air bags are designed for such a thing.
For the front, lots of imports have air struts.....

i don't want the air shocks so i can tow,  want them so i can vary my ride quality by stiffening and softening my ride

yea but don't air shocks just change the height of your ride I WOULD THINK THEY WOULD BE SAME STIFFNESS JUST AT DIFFERENT HEIGHTS. MAYBE WOULD GIVE YOU MORE SHOCK TRAVEL WHEN ALL THE WAY UP  :-/

you are thinking of airbags, those do change ride hieght since they replace your springs, what i wish on using are like normal shocks but you can change the presssure of the air in them to make them stiffer or softer

ya i think springs are the only thing that change the height,
shocks just adjust how fast they return to their original position.. soooo maybe for heavy loads it could help, just making them stiffer so it doesnt bottom out over bumps right away... but stiffer is definetly hard on the mounts, im sure they can take the stress though as long as they arent being used to physically lift the truck

Andrew

basicly all i would use them just to mnake them stiffer, so i have a better onroad drive, then if i come to do some ofroading, i can adjust them and soften them for the trail

basicly all i would use them just to mnake them stiffer, so i have a better onroad drive, then if i come to do some ofroading, i can adjust them and soften them for the trail

In that capacity, I'd say yes, the air shocks should work for what you intend to do with them, in theory. (Rancho has done this with the RS series. They even provide a compressor and manual valves to bleed them from driver's seat.)
Do note, that the spring holds the weight of the vehicle at a certain static height. If the air shock has 0psi, the shock is just sitting at whatever length the coil makes it. Adding psi to the shock, at some point, the shock will start to increase the coil. That's what adding air does.
Think of it like a balloon. If the balloon has no air in it, it's flat and winkled. By adding some air, it will still be flat but not winkled. Then adding more air, the balloon will get out of shape by expanding. Same with the air shock. At some point, the psi will expand it to extend the coil from it's static height.

alot of the imports use air shocks that can adjust heigh becuase they use coil overs

but shocks CAN raise and lower the truck..ever watch monster garage monster nation 1?? 4x4 gt40?? =) lol

nitrogen filled shocks are what are usually use..like..bigfoot =) alot of monster trucks use coil overs or just straight 2 huge shocks

some how i think the shocks we use in our zuks and the shocks they use on monster trucks are a lil bit different heheheh, i need to see exactly what i need, my dad says that the shocks i have on the zuk now are already too stiff, but i don't think so, i think they are too soft, i get way too much roll on turns and stuff

hey forget the air shocks go to j.c whitney and pick up a set of air bags. there r only $67.95 for the set. i deon't know if that includes air line. to install them u just slide them between the rear springs. they r called Loa-Assisting air adjustable springs in the catalog. the catalog # is 434J-04 on page 83 top left corner.

the problem with those is you need 2 sets, then you need the compressor and cylinder and control unit which are the costly parts, those are used for heloping the car when loading alot of weights in, which i am not doing

i have mine linked just like airshocks but i added a presure gauge and ran the bleed line into the cab. i have a $15 bicycle compresor to add air and i bought them to give a stiffer landing when jumping becuse my suspension kept bottoming out. they actually work great for my purpose.