Learn Me: Air Shocks, Springs, Coil Overs...

[deucestudios]

Due to some space constraints, I'm considering air shocks for the front of my suspension.
It will be Y link style radius arms with a panhard, need tabs for the uppers yet.
Not really any room for coil buckets, and when I picked up the rear, come to find out it was already kinda trussed, and had tabs I can use for air shocks, and no room for buckets.

Being a tight wad, I've never run air shocks or coil overs (on a offroad toy, I've had coilovers on cars, bolt ons though, totally different IMO).
I can wrap my head around designing a sprung suspension, then sizing and adding shocks per the cycle.
Would the steps be similiar with air shocks? Are they typically something a driveway hack can charge themselves?
For a full time off road toy, that will see rocks, logs, and all that fun stuff, what would be your preferred setup...
Any experience appreciated.

[MCTB]

The general consensus is if its going to be driven on the road more than the trail, air shocks are not that good. Apparently they heat up very very easily with extended cycles. You see them a lot on rock crawlers because they move so slow. As for charging, I think that they have a schrader valve and you can charge them if you have the right kind of air. I swear Ive seen pictures of someone charging one with an on board air compressor. It was either that or he had a tank of whatever they tank sitting in the truck.

Some good reading:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...lovers/Part_1/
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...lovers/Part_2/

Im about 95% certain my next truck will be a Scrambler and I will be linked and running coilovers. When you get ready to buy, call Poly Performance. Theyve got great prices and they all race and drive buggies and trail toys and can tell you what spring rates and heights would work with your set up.

[CreeperSleeper]

Air Shocks are great when they are on a light rig. I'm running Fox air shocks on the rear of my Toyota and they are great on and off road. It's also nice to be able to fill them up with a bit more nitrogen when the truck is loaded up. After this, the only time I would run a coilover would be if the weight of the rig demanded it.

[deucestudios]

I guess the thing with air shocks is if I was running down any of our craptacular PA roads at 50, the constant cycling would over heat them? Is that just gonna leave the thing real floppy or does it damage them. The build is gonna be for offroad, but I'd like to be able to drive it to Rausch, which is about an hour from me.

I'm leaning towards the air shocks, cause it's a 2.5L turd.
And the price compared to coils.

I guess my other concern is sequence of the build. I'm thinking I would set the upper hoops where they fit, and where they should work. Then cycle the suspension with no springs or anything to see what my actual travel numbers are, and pick a body length accordingly. Then just dial in the pressure to get the ride height where I want it to sit?

Morecars, I think polyperformace even lets you swap out coils, which is awesome, cause I can't imagine many people pick them right the first time...

Any issues with running an air shock front, and a (cheaper, and parts I already have) coils & shocks setup out back? Other than probably not getting anywhere near the travel the front would get...