Air Suspension: DIY or Off The Shelf. Let's Find Out.

I designed a custom inexpensive air ride system. Then I just bought one.

[junitoortega]

My goal as a Mechanical Engineer is to have Matt's humor!

[brianb-p]

Stiffness in an air spring is not simply a function of the air pressure - it also depends on the air volume relative to the effective piston area. You can soften an air spring by plumbing it to an additional rigid chamber. That means that for the same vehicle weight, a higher ride position means *softer* springing (because there is more air volume and the same pressure); however, those convoluted style bags don't act as ideal air springs at all because the rubber resists both stretching for suspension extension and collapsing for suspension compression. This is why good air springs are of the rolling lobe (a.k.a. reversible sleeve) type.

RideTech offers both the double convoluted air springs like these, plus reversible sleeve and a variation of reversible sleeve which is tapered to change the spring rate progression, in both versions that mount over dampers and versions that mount separately.

[gabbermaikel]

i designed my own airride, and i did it the right way. You dont use pressure EVER as rideheight setting. Its completely ret*rded. The reason you talked about in the video, the lower the car the lower the pressure. But then someone gets in, or you load up the back of the car with stuff and now all of a sudden the pressure rises because the bags have to carry more weight. Want to guess what the air suspension is going to do? Its going to lower the car even more in the back even tho it was allready getting lower because of the weight you added there. So instead of the car going level again when the air suspension activates it wil actually lean back even more. So the only way to go is to include height sensors. Height sensors and pressure sensors would be best if the system looks at both and trys to get the pressure left to right equal at all times. If you use that you should prettymuch have the same corner weight on each wheel.

[brianb-p]

@4:06 A properly designed 5-link is not over-constrained - it is ideal. Just count degrees of freedom: there are 3 translational and 3 rotational degrees of freedom, and the suspension needs to move in one degree (controlled by the spring and damper), so the remaining 5 degrees must be controlled. All of the links of a 5-link locate in only one dimension (they are under compression or tension only, not bending) except the spring link (for designs like this that mount the spring and damper to a control arm instead of directly to the hub carrier), so if ball joints are used there is no binding. The bushing deflection occurs because they are not ball joints, and not perfectly parallel to the instantaneous axis of rotation of each link end.

The bending load mentioned in the construction of the adjustable link exists only because the bushings on the ends are not ball joints.

[mr_voron]

I’m currently in the middle of building a HomeKit controller for my unpowered sky light blinds. Project is about a month in now, I went from DC motor, to steppers, to now using a DIY servo motor. The code is getting insane and I haven’t even gotten to the PID parts. I should have just spent $300 on an OTS assembly but at this point I’m too far down the rabbit hole to quit and I’m learning a lot in the process.

[MarkBlance]

All hail the algorithm! Seriously, love your show and your humor style. It makes your videos enjoyable to watch. Seriously, thank you for not starting your videos with a scream.

[rmacoris]

It brings peace to my heart knowing that I'm not alone with lots of ongoing and unfinished projects... Also, good enough™ just made my day. Thank you Matt!

[Mrshotshell]

If you're welding sleeves into/onto tubing you should drill holes around the perimeter for plug welds. Or if you want to keep it in the jaguar spirit you could use rosette welds.

[cenariusbg]

this channel is one of the best on youtube. . You deserve 1.68 milion subs, not 0.168

[brentfellers]

I recently was designing an air ride system for a project...didn't know anything about how to do it.
Spent days and day designing circuits electrical and air, and trying to source individual bits and bobs
Ended up using a set of used oem bags and struts and purchasing a new aftermarket controller and valve bank.
NOTHING rides like air!
Love the channel SFM! 😃

[acopernic]

Definitely one of the best Podcast of the entire Youtube Channels. I buy a t-shirt Good Enough... why.. Because it is ... good enough.

[noahkatz]

@SuperfastMatt I just discovered your channel, lots of great stuff!

I believe what you said about air suspension at :55 is backwards; to raise the car you need more air volume, not pressure (the weight doesn't change).

A greater volume of air has lower spring rate than a smaller volume.

[havn]

I was binge watching the series instead of doing my german revision, guess i have to do that now, or i could watch something else of yours, i love your content

[ooklamoc]

Matt’s level of skill makes his good enough pretty darn good. Constantly impressed with the difficulty level of the projects he’s willing to tackle.

[BlackheartCharlie]

Another great video! I like the way you narrate the story and the decision making process. Much more informative and interesting than watching other "build" channels that just bolt together free parts from sponsors and never experience a setback. A project is never a linear path and it's kind of reassuring to watch someone change directions during a projects the way the rest of us do. ("All hail the algorithm!")

[brianhaygood]

Many factory air suspensions, like that on my 2001 Audi allroad, have a lower spring perch that is kind of pear shaped (as are many things on a 22 year old car), so the spring gets stiffer as the suspension gets lower. In the rear, they also have dampers that are adjusted by an air valve so the damping adjusts as the suspension adjusts.

[deviljz]

Sunday morning + iced coffee + Superfastmatt new release video = wife, leave me alone for 10:59 minutes!

[Eduardo_Espinoza]

Thank you for bringing back the old outro :)

[wilk]

@7:10 Thanks for the metric conversion, imperial units don't make any sense. I don't know how you can make anything functional with them. I mean what the hell is a volt? definitely can't be as sensible of a unit as a flarg.

[FLasHr]

I liked this video. but didn't share since most of my friends won't understand Matt's humor. Good Enough™.