- Hey guys, if you are just watching this,
this is the launch date for BBS.
We have partnered with BBS
to give away a set of BBS whizzes,
this is absolutely awesome,
we are so stoked to do this partnership with them,
it's going to be incredible.
We have a new T-shirt design,
it's got the old classic boy on the front,
and we got the iconic BMW on the back,
and we're doing a donation,
so every time you pick up a shirt,
we're doing a donation to United Way,
that's going to be our charity of choice
for the month of September,
we are so stoked
to be able to do this with BBS,
we hope you guys are too.
So if you're interested in picking up a T-shirt,
or if you want to be lame and send in a postcard,
description link below
is going to tell you all about it,
you can pick up a T-shirt
with the link,
and of course, guys,
don't forget, enjoy the video,
have fun, we hope you take part
in this months giveaway, good luck.
(air whooshing) it's the future.
It's the thing.
The thing that all the cool kids,
not me, that are doing.
But it's like, the stuff.
And it is just
the best, you can even argue
that it systematically makes
absolutely everything look fan, look better.
Minivans, not a problem, right?
Mini Coopers, looks like a trendy toaster now.
Big, old German cars
that look like a wet piece of cardboard,
not anymore bud,
because it's slammed on the ground,
and looks classy.
I'm Alex, Alex set of Fi in the IG,
and today we're going to be talking about,
so you wanting
to bag your car.
(funky music)
Bags are for groceries.
That's too easy bro,
you need to struggle
to get the fitment that you want.
You ain't really about that lowlife
if you're on air.
I don't know if I'm supposed to be like a,
skateboarder from the 70s,
or what sort of voice I was trying to sound like,
either way, not really any good.
Bagging your car,
and for the sake of sounding somewhat like an adult,
installing air suspension,
has been an extremely common topic
in the interwebs these days.
Everything from mini-vans
to all-off meta car builds,
have been introduced to air suspension,
and it usually results in people
absolutely just (bleep) lovin' it,
like a (kisses) like a warm Cinnabon on a Saturday morning
with your coffee.
Like installing air suspension for your car
has been a thing for a while,
originating all the way back to the 1950s,
which we talked about in a previous history episode.
Air Lift Suspension was installing
air suspension cups all the way back in the day,
by patenting a rubber air spring
that was inserted into the cars factory coil spring.
The air spring would then expand
and essentially prevent the OEM spring
from ever compressing completely.
And while there were others out there before Air Lift,
they were the ones that really kind of
coined the technology and pushed it
into the automotive scene.
Air suspension setups would then be used
to prevent squatting during circle track racing,
drag racing, and everything in between.
It worked so well that
Air Lift even used it to sell at the drag strip,
and install it for people,
as long as the put a nice little itsy-bitsy logo
over there in the back fender of their car,
so that they could get pictures back in the day.
'Cause they knew marketing.
Over time, air suspension would leak into
all facets of the automotive community.
City buses would have the (imitates air release) trailers,
hell yeah bud.
They could have the (imitates air release) too.
Semis, guess what they could do?
(imitates air release)
Building foundation supports,
the works, yep, they could also,
well not really do
(imitates air release)
but they could,
like they did the thing,
I would imagine seeing like,
a sky scraper lowering out,
(air releasing)
it'd probably be the tightest thing ever.
The technology was pretty versatile
and worked for pretty much everything.
As the 70s came around,
air suspension pivoted,
and moved from strictly function
to like a looky-looky thing.
Lowriders would start playing around with it,
and the air strut systems,
in comparison to the normal hydro setups.
Because of the 70s lowriders,
and the 90s mini-truck scene,
they single-handedly were probably
one of the most influential reasons
that air suspension is as popular as it is today.
Just sayin', next time you see a slammed S-10 owner,
just give the man a hug.
Air suspension would take a sideline
due to it's cost for a while
until the market eventually began to expand
past the the one to two companies
that offered kits in the past.
AccuAir, D2, UAS,
and Air Lift,
would begin competing in all the same space
as the only Highlander,
and they're still doing it to this day.
So you want to bag your car.
Put the old groceries in the struts,
all right, so let's,
but let's just,
we'll get into it, okay?
Bagging your car in the simplest of forms,
is probably one of the most beautiful things
you can do to your car
without having to do anything else.
And I'm not even joking,
seriously, stock cars on air,
even with the massively tucked setup,
inherently, probably the second-most
beautiful thing in the world.
And it looks so much better.
Like, look at a Ferrari slammed on the ground.
Look at a Bus on the ground.
A van on the ground.
That paired, you know you get some whizzin' tires
paired with your air suspension,
dial in your fitment,
you're ready to rock and roll, son.
You're ready for all the car shows.
And you can dial in your fitment a lot easier.
Air suspension at the start,
is quite a convaluded thing to get into,
though it's not necessarily the simplest,
not a lowering spring,
and here's why,
air suspension has multiple components
that makes the whole thing run as intended.
You have your air struts,
you have your lines,
management system, ECU, which is the brain.
Wiring harness, height sensors if you get that kind of kit,
and a few other goodies,
like, I don't know, a tank.
All of these parts work interchangeably
to allow your car to go up and to go down.
If you don't care about
routing things nicely or cleanly,
then air suspension is super-easy.
However, we don't want your car
to look like a burnt toaster oven
that just exploded,
and that's what happens when you don't tuck your wires.
To start it off at the top
it's important to know what your setup is going to be,
like in terms of an overall setup look.
All right, are you gonna be running your tank in the back?
the frunk, maybe the behind the front seats?
From there you wanna get a mock-up
of what your wiring is gonna run throughout your car,
where the line's going to go,
all that sorta good stuff,
because if you don't think about that
it's gonna be a hot mess.
But don't be nervous,
because if you do it the right way the first time,
it'll run like a dream.
Once you figure out where it's all going to run,
it's time to disassemble your car
to make it
all run where you would like it to go
without you actually seeing it.
But here are
just a few pro tips
if you are looking for a couple from.
Don't force your air lines into tight spaces,
they will pinch,
and inevitably your bags won't inflate
as fast as it needs to,
and you'll have some weird kind of funky (bleep)
goin' on with your car
as you try to be cool in the parking lot.
Test that everything works
before you completely reassemble your car.
It's very important that you test things
before you just tuck everything back together again.
You'd be very surprised at some of the simple
mistakes you're gonna make the first time you do it.
Don't forget to re-torque your struts,
and there's foot-pounds, no duggas.
Don't do duggas.
Alignment is crucial, post-installation,
otherwise you're not going to enjoy it that much,
and you're gonna eat through tires.
Air suspension, too,
is a continuous maintenance thing,
not a one-time done sorta deal,
like lowering springs or coilovers,
because there's just more to 'em.
Air suspension kits are now made
for practically everything.
The difficulty in finally pulling the trigger
for people like you and people like me
when it comes down to bagging your car,
is the insane amount of options
and companies that all offer somewhat
of the same thing.
Here's a power-hour offer of information
without getting you into the nitty-gritty,
in case you're wondering what the differences are.
Air Lift Suspension was one of the first companies
and coined a lot of the air suspension kits
you see out there to this day.
They have a multitude of kits.
You have pressure-based systems
that are gonna be based on how much pressure
is each air bag in each corner of your car.
You have a height-based system as well.
The height-based system,
instead of looking at the pressure of air in your bags,
looks at the actual height of your car to the ground.
This is actually going to be a little bit different,
a lot of time height sensors are more sophisticated,
but as a result you have a more dynamic ride quality.
A lot of times,
with height sensors though,
it can be a bit tricky
and it's usually more expensive.
They even introduced a 3S kit,
which is their entry level air suspension kit,
which instead of using a normal controller,
you can actually just use your phone,
because you're a trendy kid, right?
You got the iPhone XS maxed,
you can put that baby right in the center console,
don't even have to worry about a controller,
it's nifty, that's what it is.
AccuAir, on the other hand,
specializes predominantly in air management solutions,
versus just full kits,
even though they do have kits available.
AccuAir has some pretty incredible stuff, too,
in their pocket,
but their biggest differences are between
their normal companies,
it's that they have always been about
the height sensor game,
and they don't even actually believe
in the pressure talk,
since pressure doesn't actually
have anything to do with overall ride height.
They also have a fancy as (bleep) ENDO-CVT system,
the CVT, which stands for compressor valve tank,
is an all-in-one system that massively cleans up
the overall air suspension kit
that would be in your trunk.
It's a bit more pricey, all right,
but it's a bit more cool,
and actually when you consider it
versus the independent parts that you'd buy,
it's actually just as affordable,
if not cheaper.
AccuAir partners with other companies to offer struts,
but doing full kits just isn't
their overall thing just yet.
When we went to visit AccuAir,
we saw just how gnarly the tech is
that AccuAir uses,
and it's pretty much the bee's knees.
And they're one of the ones
that a lot of people think of when you look at
the highest-end that you can get
for air management solutions.
You have other companies like UAS,
or Universal Air Suspension,
or D2 that are also involved in the air suspension game,
that provide air suspension kits
for all those off meta-style air suspension kits.
If you get something that's not common,
you probably find yourself looking
at a UAS or D2 kit, I promise.
(air whooshing) So you want to bag your car?
Well I have two to four questions for you.
One, do you have potentially
three to four thousand dollars?
That's a toughie.
Are you willing to take a few risks
and work with, (scoffing)
dare I say, electrical?
Are you ready to really be that cool?
If you answered yes,
then bagging your car is probably for you.
It' is a little pricey,
it is a little funky,
but it's honestly one of the most popular
things that people are doing right now
to their car if they're looking for something
that spruces up how it looks.
It actually has some functionality,
it allows you to drive your car
instead of being slammed on the ground
and crying when your oil pan freezes off.
Or falls off.
Maybe not freezes.
I don't know,
winter's coming, it's on my mind.
And I'm sorry.
The electrical can be scary,
but companies like AccuAir and Air Lift Performance
have made it insanely simple to do
with color manual instructions
and massive print-off forms
that make it about as stupid-proof
as you could possibly get.
Air suspension allows people the same versatility
that coilovers do,
with function and all that sorta good stuff,
you can pretty much do just about everything, you know?
But it does also offer some stuff
that coilovers don't.
Such as dynamic drive height,
slammed stance when you want it, you know,
it allows to more easily dial in their fitment.
It can be a bit pricey, but it's,
you know, you pan to play.
You just, that's just kinda how it goes
with air suspension systems.
At least for right now.
And if you do it right the first time,
even if it is a little bit scary,
and you follow the instructions,
you will be golden, skipper, I promise.
So what do you think about air suspension?
Drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts.
And if you're looking for air suspension or not,
be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com,
because we have Air Lift and AccuAir,
yeah, all that sort of good stuff.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
let us know also in the comment section, of course,
what you'd like us to talk about next,
otherwise I'm gonna run outta things to talk about.
We will see you guys later, peace.
(funky music)