Sagging rear - Airlift 1000 system versus stiffer coils and Bilstien B6.

[ijerez]

Hi -

I periodically go camping and load up the car.
I have a cargo hitch and noticed rear start to sag.

I’m looking into an airlift system. Has anyone ever used that or an alternative?

I don’t mind also putting on stiffer coils and shocks but don’t want to lower the rear.

Price point is under maybe 500-600 or so depending on the payoff: i.e. How much sag it takes away over stock springs.

if anyone has a good coil setup please let me know. I’m decent at wrenching just have not done anything to that car yet. About 40k miles on it.

Any info would be great!

 

[scotman]

You are not alone in wondering how a system like this could be used for load leveling on a Fiesta. I live pretty close to the Airlift company and consulted with them about the best configuration of their product for the Fiesta.
I measured my coils and assessed how much room would be needed to make a functional setup for the Fiesta and got this combination of components from Airlift company.
The first box was the 60904 air spring kit. It doesn’t include a control kit or gauge.
The second box is the Airlift 25804 control kit, aka the onboard compressor.
The third box is the 25804 load controller which allows you to add or remove pressure from the bags as needed from the driver seat.
The last two images are a of a spring bag being stuffed into a rear coil for a Fiesta. “Stuffed” is the best description of what it takes to get the bag into place in the spring.You could just install the Airlift spring bags and save the expense of getting easy adjustment. But I don’t like not being able to see what the air pressure is when I am using the Airlift system. My brother and I have installed and used similar air spring load leveling systems on other vehicles in the past.
Knowing what pressure the bags are at is really important to know if you expect to get the full benefits of having them. You could also get a highly accurate dial pressure tire gauge like is used in motorsports to check the pressure levels. I prefer the ease of having an onboard compressor and being able to adjust it accordingly from the driver seat at any time or place.
The Covid lockdown and restrictions at the time I was working on this put this project on the back burner. And when the company I worked for decided to shut down our office due to the lockdown, I had to leave it alone until my situation improved. Things are getting better now and at some point this summer I will be able to get this done along with four other projects or installs that I had in process at the time of the international debacle.

 

[scotman]

As far as comparing air springs to a pair of Bilstien B6 dampers and higher rate coils, I would say that you would end up with a much harder ride with the B6 and high rate coils during normal use. The great advantage of the air springs is the ride can be returned to normal when you are not carrying the load of camping gear. One of the nicer features of the Fiesta is the very compliant ride quality of the stock suspension.
There’s a discussion thread in the suspension section of the forum that specifically looks at the Bilstien for the Fiesta. The heavy duty construction of the B6 is what separates it from the all the other high quality dampers on the market. I have been enjoying the B6 on my 2011 hatchback.
If you actually go ahead with the air springs I would recommend getting a new pair of rear shocks because if the current ones are not working properly you will notice a much harsher ride with the springs under pressure and the load in the back. Just be sure to adjust your tire pressure to something in between what the tire pressure label on the door jamb says and the what the maximum inflation pressure is on the tire sidewall.

 

[Handy Andy]

IF the Air suspension seems workable for the long term, you can also just put in a fixed rear spring pair on the back - just use a length or height and stiffness you can work with.

IF you can - read this thread -
https://www.fordfiesta.org/threads/...be-between-st-and-other-trims.7396/post-16194

Found a set of springs from MOOG that fit the outline bottom seat and works for holding the upper seat cushion - but lifts the vehicle up by about 1-1/2" to 2" rise - for me this works for the area I live in; being in Michigan and subjected to winters fury and lake effect snows that can add a considerable amounts of accumulation and provides its own level of challenges. So take the concepts for what they are worth.

That rise may not work for you - you may encounter a noise from the rear shocks reaching full extension before the car is finally at the peak of the rise of bounce during some driving conditions. Can damage those shocks, for it also requires a lift spacer to be applied to the shocks to the rear to help reduce the extension rise top-out bang heard during some rough driving conditions - I used Amazon to find a spacer kit to help with the shocks but the company that did this type of conversion kit was in a country that is now a part of Russia and so no longer does provide business for the world market. You can make spacers yourself using rubber sheeting (1/4" - in plumbers supply) and cut and auger to fit in layers to help with finding the right lift and can even install bearing spacers to provide the lift - the rubber sheeting provides more noise reduction and some level of comfort from noise you just apply that sheeting to where the upper shock mount bolts mount to frame and sandwich those rubber sheets between the frame and the spacer for each bolt - use a thread length suitable - their pitch? May vary from year to year for they "stamp" and die in a thread that can change in model years as they have made several changes to their body styles between 2011-2013/2014 years.

The Front struts also will need to be refitted and may be beyond the scope of this thread but your font stock struts can be lifted using simpler hardware - for you remove the "puck" and pound out the studs and install longer bolts and you can even make do with muffler flanges to provide the bulk spacing needed to lift the front nose. This becomes the more permanent solution and is not everyone cup of tea for raising the height of the nose can cause issues with sway bar throw and their stability End Links it uses and it's ability to rotate thru is range to provide some bounce against the sway or uneven pavement (again, a factor of living in Michigan rust belt - for pavement is possible - smooth pavement surfaces are a luxury).

That thread can be found here...
https://www.fordfiesta.org/threads/front-anti-sway-bar-end-links-choices-of-types.8797/post-23708

There are methods but there are the drawbacks to each one, for the air suspension kit is great and for most cases can be left installed as needed for camping - not sure of the long term life expectancy though. Part of this thought was to help make the Fiesta I own

• - the lifting method I used, more permanent and have encountered very few problems with this
  • - for if you go too-high in the back, you're nose can scrape and you can get a nasty road rash and even suffer fog light and headlight damage from the friction and force of the bottoming of the nose due to the rise angle from the rear - Radiator and AC condensor can also get jolted from this.
  • - If you go too high for lifting in the front you'll hear clanging from the sway bar and it hitting the top stop (over rotation clearance issue) and if you're not careful with height - the sway bar end links can also be damaged.
  • So I chose a given lift of height, made the mods for the front struts and use the rear spring upgrade and - made the change permanent.

So; if you choose the Air kit, you just install and ride with it and adjust as needed - just not sure of how long the system will stay sealed to help you along the way as the miles add up. The concerns I had with airlifts were from the trailer and load shift on the tongue weight and how the vehicle will rock or bounce (to a point at times you may want to take Dramamine to help with motion sickness) when you travel on bumpy roads and entry into an out of parking lots - you may have sway control on the fronts, but you didn't have sway control from front to back to help reduce the bouncing and load shifting when you accelerate and brake in stop start traffic or in emergency stop conditions while trailering.