Air shocks vs coilovers

TacomaJD · May 17, 2018

They are easier to tune (For crawling) in that you can adjust top and bottom n2 pressures to get it to "good enough" without having to fawk with valving and oil weight/volume as much as you would on air shocks, or spring rates/lengths, oil, and n2 pressure in coilovers.

ORI's out of the box are more plug and play than either of coilovers and airshocks. But they are also nearly 50% higher than Coilovers and double or more than the cost of a set of Fox 2.0 air shocks, not counting what you spend on a n2 fill kit. N2 fill kit would probably still be needed for air shocks, but you could get by without it for coilovers unless you plan to revalve and mess with the oil in them too.

For as light a buggy the OP has, I'd throw some 14"-16" Fox 2.0 airshocks on that sucker and make it work. I've seen too many rigs work with them on it. Adding the sway bar as mentioned before isn't a bad idea either. People talk **** about sway bars as being bandaids for bad suspension geometry but I never heard anybody talking **** about JohnG's sway bars when he went up some **** few others could. :****:

POR · May 17, 2018

TacomaJD said:
They are easier to tune (For crawling) in that you can adjust top and bottom n2 pressures to get it to "good enough" without having to fawk with valving and oil weight/volume as much as you would on air shocks, or spring rates/lengths, oil, and n2 pressure in coilovers.

ORI's out of the box are more plug and play than either of coilovers and airshocks. But they are also nearly 50% higher than Coilovers and double or more than the cost of a set of Fox 2.0 air shocks.

I honestly don't know or hear of many people tuning their air shocks most just bolt on and charge.. really what I hear the most of is swapping the oil in them and switching to tranny fluid. At least out west that's how we roll. I've know numerous guys swapped to ori's and bitched and bitched about tuning them.. once tuned they love them.. except for the whole your good until your not good and topple down lol.. they don't have that feel you get when your pushing your limits of suspension like you get with air shocks and c/it's but sway bars rrally help with getting that feel back.

I totally agree with you with the op using 2.0 air shocks.. best bang for buck really.

Sway bars in no way are to help with bad suspension, they make good suspensions great. Look at red dot cars Kevin uses sway bars and ori's... Wod runs sway bars front and rear on everything nowadays

TacomaJD · May 17, 2018

POR said:
I honestly don't know or hear of many people tuning their air shocks most just bolt on and charge.. really what I hear the most of is swapping the oil in them and switching to tranny fluid. At least out west that's how we roll. I've know numerous guys swapped to ori's and bitched and bitched about tuning them.. once tuned they love them.. except for the whole your good until your not good and topple down lol.. they don't have that feel you get when your pushing your limits of suspension like you get with air shocks and c/it's but sway bars rrally help with getting that feel back.

I totally agree with you with the op using 2.0 air shocks.. best bang for buck really.

Sway bars in no way are to help with bad suspension, they make good suspensions great. Look at red dot cars Kevin uses sway bars and ori's... Wod runs sway bars front and rear on everything nowadays

I've seen several of the rigs out west work awesome on air shocks. The Got Propane toyota, some of the AZ Undertakers, etc.

I fought air shocks on my old Toyota rig, which made me hate them at that time, but looking back there were other factors contributing to my problems. Initially it had 18" Fox 2.0 air shocks in rear and leafs up front. I eventually swapped in some 16" Fox 2.5 air shocks in the rear with only about 4-5" of shaft showing (which also lowered it down a bit from where it was with the 18's, then had the front end 4 linked and ran 14" Fox 2.0 emulsion coilovers. My rear suspension geometry may have been out of whack, my rig leaned quite a bit, but much less so after swapping to coilovers up front and the 2" shorter Fox 2.5's in the rear. Was a much different rig then. I never bothered with fine tuning any valving or oil in either, so there was definitely room for improvement, but it was "good enough" at that point for me.

skipnrocks · May 17, 2018

Re: Re: Air shocks vs coilovers

TacomaJD said:
Cost, I'd imagine.

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That was my first assumption but their comparable to coilover in cost so I thought maybe that wasnt it.

dwa2469 · May 17, 2018

POR said:
dwa2469 said:

I have them and if you are crawling they are great and easy to tune. As far as back order, I think you are correct.

Can you explain how they're easier to tune? Everyone i know that are running ori's like them, but they also like air shocks and coilovers as well.
I'd still run a sway bar with ori's.

Click to expand...

I said easy not easier. Like Nick said packaging is one advantage, you do not need bumps, limit straps or sway bar. My father in law and I both run ORI's and we have both had good luck with them for the style of riding we do, they ride comfortable and are easy to adjust.

Eddyj · May 18, 2018

clemsonjeep · May 19, 2018

2.5 air shocks will be just about as much as a set or 2.0 emulsion coilovers.

2.5 air shocks will ride much better and require much less nitrogen charge to support the same amount of weight therefore the unloading and such will be greatly reduced. Good suspension geometry combined with the 2.5 air dhocks would be nice.

2.0 air shocks are cheap and serve their purpose, but as everyone has been saying if you want them to perform the way your suspension should for a multipurpose trail rig then you're gonna have to spend some time with them.

ORI's....well they're ORI's. They're expensive, you usually have to wait to find a set, and they're still air shocks. They also require a different mounting width so options for spare parts goes down of that matters to you. Just about everything else that's been said is true too.

Coilovers...you can spend as much as you want here. I've been educated over the last year working with Ryan at Accutune to get a good setup on my rig. No doubt he knows his stuff. The reason I initially approached him is I had been looking to swap from my 4 2.0 air shocks to coilovers and I was going to buy a set of 2.0 emulsions. This was a decision I was making simply based on what I could find the cheapest. If you look around you can probably find a set of 4 coilovers with springs and a swap out deal for around $1,500 shipped. Will that work...yes...will you be happy you spent $1,500 on them... probably not. One of the issues with coilovers on a really light rig is they still use a nitrogen charge so if you use an emulsion style shock the nitrogen and oil occupy the shock body so in order to tune them to your rig and find the right spring rate you'll be having to drop the nitrogen charge too low. So what I did was go with a set of remote reservoir shocks which increases volume and makes it possible to set them up better for a lighter rig. Mine are currently at 125psi and I have some pretty light spring rates. Last time I weighed my rig it was at 2,800lbs. By the way I'd like to see yours on the scales at 2,000lbs...that seems really light for your setup since I'm using a lot of the same parts.

Feel free to ask more questions...don't mind helping at all.

clemsonjeep · May 19, 2018

One of the big advantages to coilovers is you have springs supporting your weight...so if you lose nitrogen charge you're not screwed.

scooter60 · May 19, 2018

clemsonjeep said:
2.5 air shocks will be just about as much as a set or 2.0 emulsion coilovers.

2.5 air shocks will ride much better and require much less nitrogen charge to support the same amount of weight therefore the unloading and such will be greatly reduced. Good suspension geometry combined with the 2.5 air dhocks would be nice.

2.0 air shocks are cheap and serve their purpose, but as everyone has been saying if you want them to perform the way your suspension should for a multipurpose trail rig then you're gonna have to spend some time with them.

ORI's....well they're ORI's. They're expensive, you usually have to wait to find a set, and they're still air shocks. They also require a different mounting width so options for spare parts goes down of that matters to you. Just about everything else that's been said is true too.

Coilovers...you can spend as much as you want here. I've been educated over the last year working with Ryan at Accutune to get a good setup on my rig. No doubt he knows his stuff. The reason I initially approached him is I had been looking to swap from my 4 2.0 air shocks to coilovers and I was going to buy a set of 2.0 emulsions. This was a decision I was making simply based on what I could find the cheapest. If you look around you can probably find a set of 4 coilovers with springs and a swap out deal for around $1,500 shipped. Will that work...yes...will you be happy you spent $1,500 on them... probably not. One of the issues with coilovers on a really light rig is they still use a nitrogen charge so if you use an emulsion style shock the nitrogen and oil occupy the shock body so in order to tune them to your rig and find the right spring rate you'll be having to drop the nitrogen charge too low. So what I did was go with a set of remote reservoir shocks which increases volume and makes it possible to set them up better for a lighter rig. Mine are currently at 125psi and I have some pretty light spring rates. Last time I weighed my rig it was at 2,800lbs. By the way I'd like to see yours on the scales at 2,000lbs...that seems really light for your setup since I'm using a lot of the same parts.

Feel free to ask more questions...don't mind helping at all.

I have ridden with clemsonjeep on numerous occasions and have watched his rig with both air shocks and coilovers. The difference is obvious by just watching it perform and handle. The thing appears to handle like it is on rails and works incredibly well in the rocks where it is at home. That little Sami will flat embarrass rigs with 3x the power and 3x the money in them and the coilovers only made it that much better.

I have given a lot of thought in to switching to coilovers from my ORI's simply from his experience with Accutune. Not sure if I am gonna make that move but if I did, Accutune would be my first and only call. My 2 cents.

poolman · May 19, 2018

I have given a lot of thought in to switching to coilovers from my ORI's simply from his experience with Accutune. Not sure if I am gonna make that move but if I did, Accutune would be my first and only call. My 2 cents.
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I agree 100% everyone I talk to including Chris (the Toyota you just finished) loves ORIs. Apparently I don't have the right tune because he and everyone I ride with pretty much loves these things. Me well................

TacomaJD · May 20, 2018

Re: Re: Air shocks vs coilovers

poolman said:
I have given a lot of thought in to switching to coilovers from my ORI's simply from his experience with Accutune. Not sure if I am gonna make that move but if I did, Accutune would be my first and only call. My 2 cents.

I agree 100% everyone I talk to including Chris (the Toyota you just finished) loves ORIs. Apparently I don't have the right tune because he and everyone I ride with pretty much loves these things. Me well................

I haven't seen your rig in action but in pics it always looks tall as ****. Reckon that has something to do with it? Maybe lower it by adjusting shocks down or modifying mounts? Just spitballin' here...

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poolman · May 20, 2018

It's not tall. 2nd lowest one in our group on 43s next to redline diesel.

TacomaJD · May 20, 2018

Re: Re: Air shocks vs coilovers

poolman said:
It's not tall. 2nd lowest one in our group on 43s next to redline diesel.

Belly height? Seems like I remembered it looking like it sat up high, I could be mistaken, wouldn't be the first time. Lol

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