fittings?

[arsetard™]

what fittings will i need to bag my whole truck. im useing the art Triangulated 4 Link w/CoolRide™ in the rear and coolride front for a nova if that helps. what is a good place to buy the necessary fittings? also is 50' of 1/2" line enough?

[SLAMnoma95]

just by telling us your rear setup does nothing....you need to sit down and figure out exactly what you need to run the airline from the tank to the valves to the bag...that means sitting down and figuring out what each orifice is....for example, if you have 1/2" ports on your tank, 1/2" fill valves, 3/8" dump valves and 1/2" bag ports you would need a 1/2" to 1/2" male to go from tank to fill, then a 1/2" female tee to connect the valves and bags to each other...on one side of the tee you would need 1/2" male to 1/2" male to go from fill valve exit into tee, then on another tee side you would need 1/2" male to 1/2" compression fitting to run the airline to the bag, which would need another 1/2" male to 1/2" compression fitting to connect the bag to the airline from the tee.....then on the final side of the tee you would need a 1/2" male to 3/8" male to connect the other side of the tee to the dump valve

thats just an idea to show you how you gotta plan it out...find out your orifice sizes, then figure out what fittings you would need to connect them all...if you REALLY want, find out all your orifices and ill help you figure out what fittings you need, SLAMnoma95 on AIM


and btw...best guy to go to for fittings is Low White X on AIM also known as y2k xtreme on this forum...he beats his competition by prolly 30% easily...and taps his own tee's if need be

[arsetard™]

1/2" tank ports, 8 GC 250 PSI 1/2" Valves i dont know what the port size is on the bags... that why i listed them. i don know what i need for the lines that go to the guages.

[arsetard™]

i plan on ordering this stuff from suicidedoors.com is there anything i should know like quality and compadibility wise about the stuff i picked out
Viair 380 Compressor (Chrome) $189.99
8 GC 250 PSI 1/2 Valve $319.92
Airline 50 Feet (1/2") $29.99
Airline 50 Feet (1/8") $7.99
175 psi Pressure Switch $18.99
8 Port 12 Gallon Air Tank (1/2" ports) $59.99
Airlift Easystreet 200 PSI Single Needle Gauge $14.99
2 Airlift Easystreet 200 PSI Dual Needle Gauge $59.98
4 Toggle Switches $19.96
Heavy Duty 30/40 Amp Relay/Socket $11.98
Amount $733.78 USD

[SlammedDime]

Well everyone has their own preference how they wanna run valves, so no one can tell you what fittings you need. We can help you out along the way with finalizing it all, but the initial list of fittings can't really come from anyone but yourself. I made these nifty lil diagrams for people to use, so they at least know where they will need fittings....

www.bagginit.com/tech.html

[arsetard™]

i really have no idea what im doing

[SLAMnoma95]

....well then i dont think its time to be baggin a truck


i can run through an air plumbing setup in my head now and name every single fitting needed, IMO if you cant do the same then you're prolly not ready to install air ride...not to sound like a dick, but you should really UNDERSTAND everything you're doing before you jump into it, cuz if you have a problem, youre gonna need to troubleshoot it yourself

[arsetard™]

that what im doing i have a basic understanding but id like to know exactly what i need. im trying to learn. im not exactly jumping into it because it will be atleast a year before i can affore everything i need.

[SlammedDime]

Ok. I"m gonna put somethin like this (maybe a copy of it) on bagginit.com, so I'll just type it up now. I have links to the pages on bagginit.com where you can find information related to what I'm talking about.

I'm going to start out by saying, that no one can tell you exactly what you need other than yourself. Everyone does things differently.

First you have to decide what type of air setup you want to install. If you want a 2, 3 or 4 path system (http://www.bagginit.com/basics.html). By this I mean, do you want to have only front and rear control, independent front control and dependent rear control, or independent control over each corner, respectivly. Most people choose the 4 path system, due to the inexpensivness of valves these days.

So you have your chosen your type of system. Great! Now you have to determine how many valves you will need. For each 'path', you will need two valves (http://www.bagginit.com/basics.html). So for a 2 path system, you will require 4 valves; 3 path system = 6 valves, and 4 path system = 8 valves. If you plan on doing more than 8 valves, I assume at this point you have some sort of knowledge that is beyond this. If not, I guess you can keep reading and you can apply what I have said to add more valves for faster performance.

Ok, I'm going with a 4 path system, therefore I will need 8 valves. I chose the SMC brand valves, mainly because I know they are industry trusted, and I don't have to worry about them failing anytime soon, and they can take a small beating Now I have to decide how many tanks I want to run. I chose to run two 5 gallon, 8 1/2" ported air tanks from Air Lift. Beautiful little suckers. After I've chosen the airtanks, I'll have to decide if I want electric compressors, or an engine driven compressor. I've chosen to power my system with two Viair 450c compressors. Great little compressors that get the job done as long as used correctly and according to manufacturer specs. I will also be using one pressure switch for the compressors. (http://www.bagginit.com/facts.html#compressors)

After all that is outta the way, I have to decide what airbags I want to use. I've chosen the Firestone 224c airbags up front, and some Airlift 2B7 Extreme airbags in the rear. Both brands are excellent in my opinion, and I'd be happy to run either on any truck I ever build. The Firestone bags come in three different port sizes; 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" NPT. Woah!! What is NPT?? NPT stands for National Pipe Thread (the american standard). That is the type of threading that will be on everything you purchase for your air system. Airbags, valves, tanks, compressors, and fittings. The Airlift 2B7 Extreme bags only come in 1/2" NPT ports. The dual ported bags have two 1/2" NPT ports on them. (http://www.bagginit.com/facts.html#bags)

For my valves, I have two valves with 1/2" NPT threads (my front fill valves), and the other 6 valves have 3/8" NPT threads (rear fill valves, and front and rear dump valves). I'm not interested in hopping, just to have a decently fast system. And this will do it for me. (http://www.bagginit.com/facts.html#valves)

The Viair compressors come with a leader hose with a 1/4" NPT threading on the end of it. The pressure switch has a 1/8" NPT threading.

Now its time to see how many fittings I'm gonna need. I used to take a piece of paper and just start drawing on it to see what I'd need, that was until I decided to do myself a favor and make these nifty little sheets (click for full size versions)

With these two sheets, I have a 'drawn' out diagram for four bags, 8 valves, and two tanks. Now I can decide how I want to connect everything together.

1) We'll start with the airbags and the valves first. The sheet is divided into four sections for the bags and valves. I'll make the top two my front bags, and the bottom two my rear bags. My firestone airbags have 3/8" NPT ports, and the airlifts have a 1/2" NPT port. So I've gone ahead and filled in 3/8" and 1/2" in their respective spots on the sheet (see the diagram at the end of this section for a labeled diagram with my filled in numbers, as well as a number on the sheets corrosponding to these instructions)

Okay, now you may be a little confused by this diagram, so let me explain it really quick. I'll just do one of the four squares as an example. You have your airbags, and your valves. Kinda self explanitory. But what is all the other stuff? Well, in order to connect the valves together, we need a tee (http://www.bagginit.com/facts.html#fittings). Not an airline tee, but an NPT threaded tee. We will connect the valves to the tee via nipples. The fill valve can then either be connected to the tank via another nipple, or we can 'remote mount' the valves elsewhere, and run an airline from the tank to the fill valve. You'll also notice some little boxes with 'Straight" or "90°". That refers to the type of bend the fitting has in it. If its a straight fitting, it has no bend. Look at the types of fittings via the link above.

2) Now that you have a basic understanding of my diagram, lets move on, putting it all together. Lets move onto our tee. I've chosen to use 3/8" NPT threaded tees. You may ask why, since I have 1/2" NPT valves. I'll tell you, it doesn't matter. The flow diameter (the diameter in which the air has to flow) is far greater on the tee, than it is inside the valve. You don't have to worry about a loss of speed by running 3/8" Tees with 1/2" valves, and it is actually much cheaper to do so as well.

3) We have our tee size picked out, so now we can decide what size nipples we are gonna run to connect the valves to the tee. Remember what I said earlier about what size the threading was on my valves? If not, go back up a few paragraphs and refresh your memory. For example, since all of my dump valves are 3/8" NPT, all I need is a 3/8" x 3/8" nipple to connect the valve to the tee. For the 1/2" Fill valves i have up front, I will need a 3/8" x 1/2" nipple (yes they do make different sized nipples).

4) I will be running all 1/2" airline on my truck, so I have gone ahead and filled in those values as well on my diagram

5) Now that we have all of that out of the way, lets move on to the fittings that will actually have airline connected to them. I have chosen to run my valves 'remote' from the air tank (they will be mounted on the frame somewhere, not on the tank). Lets start with the airbags. I know for a fact that I will have 90° elbows on my front bags and rear bags, so I can go ahead and check the 90° box on all four airbags. You may not know, or may change your mind, so you might want to check both boxes, and order one of each, that way you at least have some extra fittings too (always a good thing).

6) Now the only thing left to do on this sheet here is decide what type of fittings will connect the valves to the tank, and the tees to the bags. For my front bags, I will be using all straight fittings at this point, so I've marked that box on the two front bags. For the rear airbags, I will be using all 90° fittings, mainly because it is easier to work with for me. So I've marked that box on the rear airbags.

Wonderful, we're just movin right along here. It aint so bad after all, is it

Lets move onto the tanks now. These may be a little easier or harder, depending on how many ports your tanks have. By this point, at looking at all of the fittings via the link in the paragraph below #1, you should be a little familiar with whats available. If it turns out that you don't have enough ports, then you may have to introduce a tee onto some of your ports in order to make one port, into two. There are other ways of doing it as well, that is just one suggestion.

Let me also 'introduce' this tank diagram. You will notice that there are 8 boxes, for 8 ports. Within each box, are little descriptions with checkboxes next to them. These descriptions are of commonly used fittings on the tanks. You will also notice there are two checkboxes to the far right, with descriptions NPT and Tube. You will want to use NPT if you are using a bushing or nipple or something like that, as illustrated below, and you will want to use Tube if you are connecting an airline to the tank via this port. Pretty simple, 'eh?

7) As stated prior, the compressors have 1/4" NPT leads. But the airtank has 1/2" ports. What do we do? We use a bushing. It converts the 1/2" port into a 1/4" port. We will need one of these on each tank (one compressor per tank).

8) Because I live in AZ, and its really hot most of the time, I've chosen not to run drain cocks on the bottoms of my airtanks. If you live in colder climates, this is something you do not want to do. You should run them, unlike me. I will mark them on the sheet here just to illustrate what you should mark if you choose to run them. I will need one for each tank. Most drain cocks are 1/4", so we will need another bushing to convert the 1/2" port to a 1/4" port.

9) I only want to run one pressure switch. Its easier, more cost effective, and works just fine if wired properly (http://www.bagginit.com/tech.html) The pressure switch has a 1/8" NPT threading on it, so I'll need a 1/2" x 1/8" bushing for it.

10)Now we need to decide how we're gonna get the air from the tanks to the valves. I'm going to use two ports off each tank. One port will be for the front, and one for the back. This way, my drivers side has one tank, and my passenger side has one tank (you'll understand why in #11). I've marked this on my diagram now. Remember, I'm running 1/2" line, and will also be running 90° elbows on each of the 4 ports I'm using for the airbags.

11) Because I'm only running a single pressure switch, I will need to connect my two airtanks together so they share the same air supply, thus creating a 10 gallon air supply to power my truck. I'm only going to use one airline to connect them together. If possible, you want to connect it atleast twice, but because of what I have chose to do, I deam it unnessary. The way I have planned how to utilize my airtanks, as described in #10, each side will have its own air supply, but they will still share. That sounds retarded, but read on. When I hit sides, I normally hit 'em up front, and leave the back be, I don't know why, I just do. The way I have planned it, each front corner will effectively have 5 gallons of air to use. Maybe you think I'm crazy, but believe me, its better than what a lot of people do; giving one tank to the front, and one to the rear, considering the front uses a lot more air to lift and play with. Because of the tank rack I've built, I am running a 90° on each airtank to connect them together.

12) Now we still have 5 ports left, 3 on one tank, and 2 on the other. Easy, we plug them. I prefer to use an allen head plug. It looks a lot cleaner on the install. Some people choose to use extra ports or other purposes, like air tools, or have one ready as an emergency fill valve, or something of the sort.

While we're on the subject, let me clarify some stuff. Just because you have 1/4" ported bags, doesn't mean you have to run 1/4" line. It will be just as fast as 1/2" line (if you get DOT fittings. Hardware store fittings suck, and should not be used on your truck). Take a look at the flow diameters of all of the valves, airline and fittings I have on the facts page of bagginit.com and see if you really think you'll be slowed down at all. (http://www.bagginit.com/facts.html)

I hope this has helped. I know it is quite lengthy, but it is well worth it. I would also like to add that when you order your fittings, order a few extras, because I can gauruntee that you will probably change your mind about something, or need a spare somewhere.

[SlammedDime]

I also forgot to mention that 50' of 1/2" line is plenty to bag a truck, and for fittings, look in the phone book for some fluid power places, or big rig supply shops. That will be the cheapest. Just make sure you get DOT fittings, and before you even ask, NO hardware store fittings are not suitable for air suspensions

[SlammedDime]

- I'm suprised no one commented on my nice 'how-to'... haha

[DimeBag]

holy god. thats the most indepth single response to anything in this thread ever. that should be a damn sticky or something

[JMew03]

damn that helped me alot

[pimpxtreme]

[pimpxtreme]

i just ordered the front bag special from jason, and i was gonna have a friend who is bagged help me with all this. Now i might be able to figure it out. Thanks a lot.

[arsetard™]

thanks for the replys.

is there like a fitting kit i can buy or do i have to just buy them seperately?

[rcmaniac]

That was a nice How To .. Reminds me, I still need to get a drain cock.. I don't even have a water trap or anything.. :-x

Hopfully the tank lasts me approx 2 - 3 months till I get ready to re-do my air management and get new tank(s) & compressor(s)..

[SlammedDime]

That was the whole point of my post, to pretty much show you that buying a fittings kit isn't worth it, because it may not have everything you need or want

[arsetard™]

im just doing a babic fbss with the valves on the tank 1/2" 3/8" dump 1/2" ports and line

[IceDime]

OMG that was awesome dude. I was gonna pm you about my fittings but I think I can do it on my own now. Slammeddime you are the man!

[V8Blaze]

i just bag'd my truck last weekend and it works great in all. But that little write up is kickass slammedime

also the thing with 5 gallons per side and running one side off a tank and not one tank to the front/back, is pure ****ing genious. Ill have to remember that one

[IceBreakerG]

Thanks a bunch SlammedDime. This post has single handedly made me feel like i have the confidence to bag my own truck (with a little help, i can't weld for shit lol). But i'm really glad you put this how-to in here. I also think it should be made a sticky, this is A+ information. Now we need a how-to on how to wire the valves to a 10-switch switch box lol.

[lowho75]

Very Informative!

[rockinguitar876]

this is really old but