im thinkin about it and i just want some opinions.... airbags or hydraulics? which is better? which is cheaper?

 

Bags all the way


Less Maintanence / Less Mess / Less hassle..

 

same here bags..........
i like the way hydraulics do...with couple of batteries real smooth but love the sound of bags...

 

with lifts (hydraulics) you will have to cut into the vehicle. plus the vehicle being a unibody it has the potential to twist or warp your frame. bags are not cheaper by any means but as far as resale you'd be better off. plus unless you know how to fix hydraulics and know about the pumps, motors, dumps and etc i wouldn't recommend them.

 

Take it from someone who's had both....BAGS. For me in a box, there's no way I would put juice on a xb. In my Impala they were sweeeet, but in my blazer I went with air, my new box just TRD Springs(daily driver). Alot of upkeep, the fluid spraying, the batteries, wiring....etc. Trust me, go with the bags.

 

I'd say air. never been a fan of hydros after i watched a 50k+ lowrider burn up after a line broke and sprayed fluid on something hot. Not sure how it happened, but I know air isn't flamable.

 

air isn't flamable....

what can cause fire is a shorted wire and the sort. Compressed air can make a huge boom, even a tank with 150psi can cause a big boom as well.

Run bags. Why? Well.... bags and juice can actually be around the same price range. Bags are less mess, less maintence, a lot smoother ride, and easier install.

Juice is a mess, lots of maintence, uncomfortable ride (unless you running accumlators), having to charge batteries.

Only draw back to air is waiting for a tank to fill up.

Both have its problems of things breaking, but air is a lot easier to clean and fix.

 

hydralics + unibody frame = damage

 

I am idiot, it was a typo. I meant I like air because its leaks can't catch fire.

 

I say hydros I have had hydros on a couple of civic's never had to cut into the body. I dont know why people give opinions of something they know nothing about.If you go to red's hydraulics they have all you need basically all you do is remove your sruts and replace them with cylinders. if you want to run mini coils or for a smoother rideyou run accum. If you get hydros the benifit is speed and accuracy. Basically its up to you. Cost is about the same and hydros are not that messy if they are installed correctly

 

if its about speed, he can get his tank filled w/ nitrogen. accuracy, last i checkd what's accurate about lifts? i used to have hydraulics on my 84 regal homie. i know all to well about them. and red's hydraulics huh? figures u being in chicago biting our west coast flava out here.

 

haha. biting the west coast flava.

 

hope you won't miss the " sporty ride "
airbag suspensions are not (currently) made for "spirited driving"
it comes from the fact that the lower you go, the less air pressure (spring rate) there is
so you cannot maintain a low ride height with stiff suspension
it is a conundrum i have battled with for many years
and don't really see a solution
any ideas???

 

I have driven many thousands of miles on Juice and had it in many vehicles. I have never had ANY damage caused by Hydraulics. I had everything from a juiced toyota pick-up to a juiced civic.
The simple truth is that hydraulics are a little more maintence. The trick of it is that the Lift/Drop is far greater than bags or air cylendars for this application. You can bolt in your juice set up pretty easily to a car lke a scion. The simple truth is that a scion, any model, has a MacPhearson strut front. Which means that the strut is a structural part of the suspension, it does more than just hold up the car, it holds the wheel aligned.
The benefit will be never hearing that annoying air compressor run. Hydraulics can be tuned, with accumulators, to ride like a caddy at any hight. As you raise your vehicle with air you up the pressure effectively increasing the sprig rate. I have had many friends tell me that their ride simply rode better when it was skipping off the pavement with bags. All of my friends with juice drive their cars mildly loweed or at stock hight to save tires and because it rides nice. You can still slam it when you park but you have the option to get the vehicle up above your tires.
I would juice my car rather than air. And when i go to sell it, No one will know it was ever there.
Just a little education for y'all

 

I too would say bags.. 1st off you dont get that pshht sound from a hydro. Secondly like said above they are messy and a hassle.. I used to belong to a local car club a few years back and I knew a kid who had a honda cr-v (he had neither bags or hydro) he went to a show and there was another kid with the same truck he had hydros he was showing off so much that he busted a hydro shock arms and leaked oil all over the place.. The bad part was the show was in Philly the kid lived in NY he had to get the car back home some how other than driving...

 

yeah, gotta go with the bags here too. :D

 

still say bags. everyones input is good as far as our friend making his decision. i disagree however with rented saying no one would know that lifts were ever in the vehicle. first you need a battery rack welded to your frame. my homeboy had a nissan sentra lifted and yes the battery rack was welded in the trunk and there were holes cut in the trunk for his rear cylinders. bottom line....less maintenance with airbags. you can still lay low and have a nicer ride when your driving.

 

From an observer's perspective (I've neither had drop nor so much as had an interest in the technicality), hydraulics are more "classy" than bags. I see bagged trucks around all the time, that makes it more "typical". Me and my friends criticize bags for how they "perform". When a vehicle drops on bags, its a little more "bouncy" than when its hydraulics. We prefer crisp, smooth motion. But that is just from the perspective of an "uneducated" on-looker.

 

Just drop it with springs and be happy.
Bags will fail sooner or later. You can juice it and just run a couple of swicthes (front and back)
Or you can weld and weld like I did but there is always a change something will twist.
I don't think fire is a major problem it's wrecking your interior with motor oil.
With spings you can get your XB down 1.5 maybe 2 inchs and everything works. Then you have all this money to spend on some other part of the car without the worry of a break down (airs bags or juice)


This is with a 1.5 drop in the front and a 1.8 inch drop in the back before I juiced it.

This is with the hydraulics installed and is as deep as you can go without mods to the gas tank filling system.
I can sky the back end but you have to watch the front end or you will rip out the brake lines
Good Luck

 

Ill pick the bags...