Helper airspring control

I'm trying to figure out a robust solution to having independent pressure control to my helper air springs (rear right and rear left) but struggling to find a source for what I thought should be easy....

So, Airlift's WirelessAir ( ) is a pretty slick system which does everything I want, except that I already have an onboard air compressor so I don't need the dinky one included in the 74000 kit. I also don't really need the freestanding remote, an app on my phone will work just fine. Looking through the installation manual (https://www.airliftcompany.com/content/manuals/MN-1092.pdf), looks like if I could buy replacement parts

-72710 Wireless manifold and
-26897 Wiring harness

I would be set, I just need to stick a normally closed, single acting solenoid valve where the compressor is supposed to be wired.

The problem is, I cannot find any distributor who is willing to sell me just those 2 replacement parts, and Airlift themselves isn't responding to my attempts at contacting them.
Is anyone on here a distributor for Airlift? or does anyone have any other similar options I can consider? Now that I know wireless controls with fully waterproof chassis mounted manifold options exist, I'm hesitant to consider running extra wires and plumbing into the cab just for this (plus I'd need to find a place to stick a gauge, switches, etc)

thanks

 

I personally installed the Gen 1 system as a stand-alone system because I couldn't find an easy solution as you suggest. My truck now has 3 compressors (dual ARB and an AirLift) Here's a pic of the part you may be referring to (Gen 1 edition):

 

unfortunately right now it's looking like I might have to buy the whole kit and basically just eat the cost of the compressor I won't use.
Have you considered just using the ARB compressor and eliminating the little airlift one?

Otherwise have you been happy with how the gen1 system works?

 

Actually, I don't think I'd like to use the ARB dual for the airbags because it's such a monster. I like the small compressor to be always on (demand), and I can adjust the pressure on the fly. The dual compressor is much louder, has a 1 gallon tank, and I only turn it on for on-board air and the front locker. If my Air Lift Gen 1 stopped working, I can always manually fill the bags at the Schrader valves using the ARB. But for now, the Gen 1 works great. I'm actually in process of installing a relay for the Gen 1 from my aux fuse panel, so the compressor turns on when the ignition is on. Right now, it's always hot unless I pull the fuse or switch the breaker.

 

I have a gen1 WirelessAir system installed. I installed mine on the side of the bed forward of the passenger wheel. I routed my compressor air intake into the cab. I pulled power from the nearby 7 pin hitch cable so I didnt have to run wires up to the battery, ignition switch, etc. (its already fused and switched power)... There are a few options from Curt and Hopkins to do it, I used this one (

$65 Hopkins Towing Solutions 41157 Endurance 5th Wheel Wiring Kit, Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007M5QH4Y) which happened to be on sale at the time and cut off the unused 7 pin connector... (there are other models with less stuff that you dont need, but sometimes the more extensive kits are cheaper)

Been happy with it, no failures/issues/etc or anything have occurred for me.

I had intended to install a single compressor to drive the WirelessAir and tire inflation, but just have not bothered... (had a couple schematics drawn up with solenoid valves to allow both functionality from a single compressor).

I rarely inflate/deflate tires, but inflate or deflate airbags pretty often. (even with pretty soft florida sand, just hasnt been all that needed)

Be aware that you will hear the WirelessAir (at least on 1st gen model) run for a few seconds pretty much once or twice every time you drive. When going over uneven terrain, it will inflate and deflate very often, and may become irritating to you, so have an easy way to disable it like a fuse you can easily reach to pull out... if this might be an issue for you.

 

I'll look into pulling power from the switched trailer harness as you've done. Good Idea! It may free up space on my fuse panel (I may need to switch from the 6 to the 12 anyway - this damn website). Although, I will have a cab-over and a fishing boat using the harness too. The always hot power will only be charging the camper battery while on the road, so I don't think any minor compressor use will be too much demand on the system...

 

BTW, if you toss up more details of your proposal, I will happily give some suggestions and throw rocks at any schematics... Alot of the details would depend on how you currently have your current compressor wired and controlled.

Forgot to mention, I NEVER TESTED IT... but my previous conclusion was that you would need only need to replace the supplied air compressor with a 12V solenoid (assuming your existing design supplies pressure all the time with some type of pressure switch on your existing installation) to get a functional system. I dont THINK you want to supply full pressure to the AirLift box all the time, only when it is commanding pressure.

The AirLift control box has a lot of control logic built in (Checking for leaking bags or compressor failures, etc...) so it can be easy to trip that logic with a modification unless you are careful.

If you try to do this, I would recommend also including a needle valve in the supply line (in place of the supplied compressor)... Remember that the existing design assumes a small compressor only, and it will probably operate a bit neurotically (excessive overshoot) with very high flow rate.

 

yup, a simple normally closed solenoid valve in place of the compressor should work just fine (as you mentioned, flow control wouldn't be a bad idea, not sure what frequency the airlift system controls at).
with a tank you shouldn't have a compressor run too often.

 

Sorry, incompetence Edit required

The tail power to the 7 pin is on a 30 amp fuse, but battery charger to 7 pin is on 40 amp (which is the one that would be logically pulling from)


So I wasnt too concerned, but I dont remember how many amps their compressor is, but pretty small by comparison...

 

eventually got a quote of
72710 - $391.98 USD
26897 - $68.40 USD
+ shipping and tax.

which ends up within dollars of just buying the entire 74000 gen2 wirelessair kit.... so i just ordered the whole kit.
I'll be trying to sell the compressor off i guess.

hope it is as reliable as i want it to be!

 

I had same result, I had a compressor sitting around still that I had never gotten around to putting on my 1st gen. Whole kit was same price as the parts (when shopping around)

 

finally ended up getting this all sorted.

using this arb twin under the hood


I stuffed a tank here


placed a solenoid with flow control behind the tank


placed the manifold here


to have individual control of the springs


regardless of what Airlift officially states in responses, their controller has an option in the duty cycle settings of the compressor to set it to "tank".
*shrug*
works great!

 

Thanks for the update.

Been awhile since we discussed this, so now instead of commanding the pump to turn ON, Airlift controller just opens the solenoid, right?
Do you think the flow control needle valve was necessary?

The stress analyst in me thinks that tank is REALLY close to exhaust components.... probably fine but definitely a little close for my comfort.

 

exactly.
as for flow control, with 150psi in the tank I was getting a little overshoot on single corner adjustments (example: if the target pressure was to raise to 20psi, the bag pressure would spike to 23psi before the dump valves would open to bring it back down to 20psi).
not really a big deal but it is a "waste" of energy to do that, and I had a handful of the flow control valves laying around so it was just an easy fix.

The pic definitely makes it look worse than it actually is for clearance, but yea it is close. I don't have secondary cats adding more heat to the area so I'm not particularly worried, I can always add a heat shield easily too. Or relocate those exhaust tubes to sit closer to eachother/driveshaft.
I'll keep an eye on it for a while for sure.

 

So you did end up with a little bit of adjustment on the flow control, but not much?
So would you say that you would consider the flow control as optional? (especially as I think single corner adjustments are definitely the minority for me, 99.9% of the time its just both sides up or down...)

Bet pumping up the system is FAST compared to the little Airlift compressor...

 

Oh for sure optional. Especially if you have a slower flowing valve which is probably the case unless you played with bagged mini trucks in your past like I did and have a bunch of valves laying around (I used the slowest one I had)

I never even pulled the little airlift compressor out of the box, but i can't imagine it's particularly fast.