# beetles on air



## carboncomposites (Feb 21, 2010)

how many beetles on air are around?


----------



## 01 (Sep 9, 2009)

*FV-QR*

ive seen 3, 2 done right. one done wrong


----------



## SMG8vT (Oct 8, 2004)

*Re: FV-QR (01)*

Give me a month and there will be one more.


----------



## carboncomposites (Feb 21, 2010)

cool interesting


----------



## FastAndFurious (Feb 2, 2002)

*Re: (carboncomposites)*

can we get a pic of the one done wrong


----------



## MellowDub (Dec 2, 2009)

*Re: beetles on air (carboncomposites)*

this guy's is pretty gnar...
http://www.drfsupercenter.info...wNTk2


----------



## SoCalDubber (Jul 21, 2004)

*FV-QR*


----------



## carboncomposites (Feb 21, 2010)

lets see em...Ive been shopping for my beetle..I have the air ride and im currious to make a beetle on air thread.


----------



## J.Owen (May 31, 2001)

*Re: (carboncomposites)*

mine un-notched. I'll let everyone else post there's.


----------



## EuroGruppe (Aug 10, 2005)

nice looking beetle man.


----------



## FastAndFurious (Feb 2, 2002)

*Re: (EuroGruppe)*

heres some i took yesterday

















and my car from yesterday


----------



## SoCalDubber (Jul 21, 2004)

*FV-QR*


----------



## carboncomposites (Feb 21, 2010)

up


----------



## Bazmcc (Jan 11, 2005)

Anyone got any pics of 'REAL' beetles on air?


----------



## FastAndFurious (Feb 2, 2002)

*Re: (Bazmcc)*

u talking about aircooled beetles?


----------



## nopreppies (Jun 1, 2005)

*Re: (FastAndFurious)*

i think i have some pics on my computer with aircooleds but most guys wont go air due to you can be on the ground without it


----------



## j a y (Jun 16, 2003)

bringin the bagged bug love (aircooled of course)


----------



## Audi S-Line (Oct 20, 2008)

this i my wifes beetle running on coils, but got the air now, so that will be rebuild shortly. With 19's Bentley rims


----------



## 246617 (Jan 19, 2006)

Royalaird and myself built this one last year. Full custom setup similar to Radikalbugz.


----------



## j a y (Jun 16, 2003)

any details on your rear setup? I'm still not happy with how mine operates - car must be rolling to work right, and takes crazy pressure. makes it hard in certain situations

some pics from yesterday


----------



## SMG8vT (Oct 8, 2004)




----------



## SoCalDubber (Jul 21, 2004)

What air setup is on the Green NB?


----------



## 246617 (Jan 19, 2006)

j a y said:


> any details on your rear setup? I'm still not happy with how mine operates - car must be rolling to work right, and takes crazy pressure. makes it hard in certain situations
> 
> some pics from yesterday


We used 2500# firestones, but you could probably use a 2600# and get away with using less pressure to get more lift. To get high with a 2500 you need to use a decent amount of air. It takes some fine tuning, and its good to get the right joints if you are making yours on your own. I used some stuff from the rock crawler community to make it work right. 

I couldn't find any pics of the setup in my photobucket, but this is the exact setup we ran in the back.

Pics des Radikalbugz


----------



## SMG8vT (Oct 8, 2004)

SoCalDubber said:


> What air setup is on the Green NB?


HPS fronts with firestone rears from AAC.


----------



## royalaird (Aug 22, 2007)

Here are some pics of my bug BEANS did a great job figuring out all the ****. 




















Rear


----------



## j a y (Jun 16, 2003)

i like your setup there.

i bought the bolt in kit from airkewd (and its a total piece of crap). I spent more time tweaking it than it would have taken me to build it in the first place. reason i went with the kit is that my undercarriage is all painted, and i didnt want to deal with that.

can you raise the car without moving? what PSI does it take


----------



## Aloha-boy (Mar 9, 2001)




----------



## 246617 (Jan 19, 2006)

j a y said:


> i like your setup there.
> 
> i bought the bolt in kit from airkewd (and its a total piece of crap). I spent more time tweaking it than it would have taken me to build it in the first place. reason i went with the kit is that my undercarriage is all painted, and i didnt want to deal with that.
> 
> can you raise the car without moving? what PSI does it take


I can't see lifting the front of a car with airshocks..... I've heard the airkewld rear setup isnt too bad, but for the front I think the way to go is the single bag with through rods. Everyone has their preferences though. 

You are limited with the airshock on the front also. By the following: limited on how narrow you can go (which for some people can become a big deal depending on if they are running disc brakes, and also if running an aftermarket wheel) 4.5" narrow coupled with a disc brake kit, and some Raders would put you right out near stock width again. So its nice to be able to go 6-7" narrow if need be. All in preference though....

The lift with an airshock is a bit sketchy to me, but I've never tried them on a bug. I know certain airshocks are intended to "help" not be the actual support altogether. 

One of the plus sides (only plus) of airshocks in the front that i see, is that you still have independent movement of the front arms. With the single bag setup the arms are connected with a solid .75" bar of tool steel which means that both sides move together. This is kind of nice as it decreases body roll, but can sometimes be a pain when you live in an area with a ton of hills. Pittsburgh being one...... 

Guys are now making double bag bug beams so that one would have the independent movement of each wheel. Though it involves installing a rack/pinion steering setup. 

$0.02

When you ask if you can lift the car without moving, what do you mean? You should be able to lift the car whether its moving or not. I'm a little confused on your question. Different cars take different PSI to lift. Its all in what you would consider "ride height." Each different car I've built has been done differently according to the owners preferences. By welding the top bag brackets, and also the position of the bag you can get different lifts, and different PSI. I think on Zack's the front would be all the way up at around 90-100, and the back was somewhere around there...... maybe a little more... I think a 2600# would be perfect in the back with the setup I made, but the 2500 worked just fine after some tweaking.


----------



## j a y (Jun 16, 2003)

dammit - starting writing a reply and it got wiped..

the front seems to be working out well for me, after some tweaking. I extended the trailing arms and also extended back and up the upper shock mount to give better leverage and dial in my travel. If anything, i need to add in some over travel limits to prevent going too high.

the rears.. when the rear is lifted, the bags go off axis and i feel as though i'm wasting alot of the forces. It all has to do with the geometery of the brackets, which can't be changed easily.

i'm a newb when it comes to air, but i would have to supsect that this is not correct. Airkewld offered me little help in resolving this.

air down










air up










it takes about 140psi to get the back up, and the car must be rolling to overcome the friction of the tires and the camber change. Seems a bit crazy to me


----------



## 246617 (Jan 19, 2006)

Yeah, that rear needs help. We were having the same issue, as I think a lot of people do. Due to all of the extreme angles with lift, camber, toe and the design of a swing axle. You can go from +20 degrees of camber to -20 degrees with 9-10 inches of travel so theres a fine line having everything lined up. I made the connection points adjustable so we could slide the mounting position of the bag. Once we had it in the "sweet spot" then I welded everything up. It took some trial and error. As for your setup I wouldn't roll on it like that too much if at all... That bag isn't going to last long and if you do get it lifted up it may give out on you at 140 psi. Not safe. Its hard for me to tell where your top and bottom mounts are.... Is everything bolt in? or did you have them welded in? Any room for adjustment? Looks like you need to slide the center of the bottom mount point on the bag forward to get the center points closer to being inline....


----------



## royalaird (Aug 22, 2007)

Listen to BEANS he knows his ****.....


----------



## j a y (Jun 16, 2003)

royalaird said:


> Listen to BEANS he knows his ****.....


yeah i hear ya..

step one is to throw this **** in the dumpster. F airkewld forever 2k10

going to try and reuse their swing plate mounts as they are half decent, but fabricate everything else up top

i took the bags out tonight, and they have a crazy permanent set to them. which is probably why i thought things were lined up, but they were no where close


----------



## 246617 (Jan 19, 2006)

Sucks to hear..... Post up if you have any questions or need direction. 

I have plans to fabricate complete kits for a beetle (have templates and basic design complete), but I haven't moved forward with it yet...... Kit would include scratch built beam, narrowed tie rods, bolt on rear setup like I posted up on the last page. That one was weld on, but I have a design that would make it bolt on, ready to go. 

If there is enough interest I would move forward..............


----------



## royalaird (Aug 22, 2007)

I can provide all air products such as bags and management also at low prices to match these setups


----------

