Shop Cars
"Air Ride has a total of 28 in-house project cars, and there are two simple reasons for having such an extensive collection. First, I feel the only way to develop a product is to have a car in front of you for an extended period of time. This means no customer-imposed deadlines, cost considerations, or squeamishness about hurting their car. Therefore, you must own the car. Furthermore, the development should not stop when the first system is shipped. We constantly evaluate and refine our products based on our experiences on the road and at the track. Since we are building the car anyway, we also take the opportunity to create installation tech and track-day articles and take photos for ads and various feature articles. It is a time-proven method of development, refinement, and promotion that we have copied from the pioneers of hot rodding and racing. The cars are much more a tool than a toy in these respects. The second reason for having so many cars in-house is that it's a great excuse to feed my personal hot rod habit. I love these cars because, as is the case for many of our customers, I grew up with them."
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Air Leaks
One of the most common snafus of an air suspension install is air leaks, but fortunately, a few simple tricks can help you avoid them. If the air lines are cut cleanly and squarely, and thread sealer is used on the pipe fittings, leaks are actually quite rare. "To locate a leak, the old-fashioned method of spraying the connections with soapy water works best," explains Bret. More likely than not, the culprit will be at one of the connections. "I don't think I have ever seen an air spring itself leak. It's always a fitting that is left loose or has no sealer. DOT-approved fittings are a must as well, since they have a built-in insert that supports the inside of the plastic tubing to seal it better than standard fittings."