newbie needing help,air or hydraulic

[billy62]

hi everybody,im rick from bradford west yorkshire,just discovered your site,been recomended by somebody from max hydraulics at the begining of jan,he seemed to be having some problems and said you guys migth be able to help,as mentioned i am a compleat newbie

i am currrentley working on a lamorghini countach kit car and need to fit some kind of lifting system so i can drive it over speed bumps,the car sits just under 3.5 inches of the ground,(from my findings so far i am led to believe there are a couple of options)i could do with some advice on which is best?
                where i can buy the kit from?
                and any fitting sugestions, including do i need an all round system
any advice would be very much  appreciated , cheers

[catboy]

the rear has some good clearance, as it kind of comes upwards at quite a steep angle from the rear wheel..  I think you might get away with just the front unless you have a problem with grounding out the middle of the car on some big speed humps?!..  Why so low? a friend of the family has a countach and doesn't have an issue with speed humps and things..

i think the new lambo superleggera has a lift only on the front, so it might be enough for you too..  I guess if you are just lifting to get over things and don't want to actually ride on the lift mechanism, replacing the dampers with a hydraulic cylinder linked top to bottom for normal driving would work, but im sure others will have better ideas..

my thinking is based around you not wanting to drive superfast and mostly using the car for posing as its so low, hence not necessarily needing perfectly set up dampers..  you could replace the dampers with a small hydraulic cylinder, then fit a valve linking the top and bottom ports (head and rod end) together, or at the flick of a switch connecting the head (top) to either a pump or the tank (based on the position of another valve).

If you fiddle around with orifices you could create enough restriction on the line between the top and bottom of the cylinder to create a damping effect, however you might have some problems with the cylinder locking up due to the volume ratio between head and rod end..

Im not sure Ive explained that very well, but I will add a little diagram and people can comment on whether my brain is still fried from the free champagne last night, or if im finally making sense again

[catboy]

its a shite picture, but im just going home for the weekend now...   hopefully you understand a little about hydraulic symbols, and its detailed enough so others can comment on my lunacy/genius  

the sticking point would be whether there is enough damping, and if the cylinder completely locks up; the volume in the head end of the cylinder will be bigger than the rod end (because the rod takes up some volume) hence over bumps it might lock solid once any flexibility of the hoses and or oil has been taken out..  you could get around this by replacing the adjustable orifice next to the cylinder below the first valve in the diagram with a small accumulator to give some more "ride control" and fiddle with pre-charge to adjust the damping..

Ill be back on monday with more hairbrained scheme's!..

b

[billy62]

hi ,thanks for the replay catboy,im studying the hydraulics option but not fully understanding just yet ,the car presently has spax 400mm coilovers ,im interested in the friend of yours that has the countach that rides over the speed humps with no probs, may be im looking att the wrong solution although i do fancy been able to lift  and lower the car cheers

[catboy]

countach's aren't that low from memory..  i have a really low 911 currently running cup-car race settings and ride height and it easily clears speed humps..
hydraulics would be good but you need space for another battery and the pump..  if you go the air route though, you need space for a tank..  its a bit of a quandry! might be worth looking at what citroen do on their older cars (I think they just add oil pressure to the accumulators or something) as thats quite a compact system, although fitting it onto a countach replica running presumably a renault transexual and either a rover v8 or maybe jag v12?..   might be arkward!..
good luck

b

[fatdaddy]

think I would go air.
a carefully positioned small sleeve bag [would only be pushing in adition to the standard coils so effective weight would be very low] that just lifted the required bit at full inflation and did nothing the rest of the time.

3 gall tank would be more than enough for one [maybe two lifts] with a standard comp/pressure switch to top it up after.

[billy62]

thanks guys ,where do i start to look for this kind of kit,cheers

[ant]

http://https://www.universalairsuspension.com/

http://http://www.easystreetair.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=55

[billy62]

thanks once again, you guy have give me a lot think about,the car is running on renault /ford running gear and renault 3litre v6 engine,cheers

[ant]

get some pics up, i wanna see it

[catboy]

daddy always knows best

[billy62]

you guys are going to have to help me out ,how do i list  photos on the forum

[catboy]

i think you just host remotely and then add the link by hitting the Img button at the top of the reply window, and putting the URL for the image between the little tag things that appear..    thats what i do anyway

[fatdaddy]

nedds to be on the net first.

hover over the pic, right click, click properties and copy the adress.
paste the adress in your post between

you can load it onto our gallery

lowriderforums.com/gallery

[smoked]

i had my Z4 on KW coilovers. although it was corner weighted, the lowering was done on a 'wind them down as far as it will go, then slowly raise it until the car will move!' i cracked to front bumbers (BMW M-Tech at 700 a piece paint) and beached it twick on those seed bumps wi the flat in the middle!! an air lift for speed bumps in a lambo gaillado type style woulda bin ace, but i didnt really care it was an awsum entry drift motor.

im curious bout the coutach, i've driven real one, and needed two feet to press the clutch and both hands and one foot to shift gear, i rapidly ran out of limbs!!!