"Will This Work"

[410Fortune]

I have the same dream..........Only yours is in the garage!!

Keep it simple, manual controls, and just get really good at it with more time behind the wheel...I like

forget Joystick, you could use a six axis controller like the PS3 , just hold it in the air and lean the way you want to tilt! LOL

 

[Stic-o]

Some things I expect an air assisted system can do:

4.Move C/G (center of gravity) to counter a rollover

This would be the biggest reason for using this system I would
think

Winter, I thought of something like this before, but it was with weights instead of air to move the C/G around.

The Idea was to use some kind of ball in a gyro, so when gravity rolled the ball one way, the truck would air up the oppisite correcting your C/G.

 

[Dannyboy]

6. Act as a jack, lifting the wheel off the ground when replacing my front hubs (every trip)

well, you need to watch some early 90s rap videos and find out how they did it with hydros.

 

[BKennedy]

well, you need to watch some early 90s rap videos and find out how they did it with hydros.

Where did you get that picture of Colin when he was 16?:

 

[spotter guy]

Brian LOL......

Stic-o that's a great idea...I was playing with some pneumatics at work and found that if a vehicle is in motion the air would react after the fact. I think a joystick would be nice only because I could use it one handed and operate multiple axes at a time. For now switches *****es like Dannyboy sings it "all my friends drive a low rider"

 

[FROADER]

Where did you get that picture of Colin when he was 16?:

Don't be hatin'

 

[Stic-o]

Brian LOL......

Stic-o that's a great idea...I was playing with some pneumatics at work and found that if a vehicle is in motion the air would react after the fact. I think a joystick would be nice only because I could use it one handed and operate multiple axes at a time. For now switches *****es like Dannyboy sings it "all my friends drive a low rider"

Now when you say in motion...is that at street speed or our crawling speed? I think we're going slow enough that it could work, you would just need a manual override.

Don't be hatin'

WORD Colin...WORD!

 

[spotter guy]

Well here is what I did...When controlling pneumatics you have to start with a set (100 psi) pressure and that is stored in your tank. On a ram the bigger the piston the more weight it can hold and the longer it takes to travel or change. So with a 3" piston I can support around 700 ish pounds and if I flip the switch it takes roughly just under one second to start the move. Now the cylinder has max pressure and it will hop like the low rides do and to stop that you have to put speed control valves that slow down the travel speed to a comfortable rate. In total this is the delay I was talking about and the time jumps to around 3 seconds for movement. Now 3 seconds does not sound like a lot but you have not put in the fact that you have weight which future delays the reaction and a minimum volume of air is required to lift the weight. This adding more time to the reaction and I think that even at a slow roll (2 MPH) you may be on the obstacle by that time if using this system to help prevent a rollover. I do think there are ways to solve these kinds of problems I just don't know what they are yet. In addition to all this after you have moved on to another obstacle the system has to correct it self and that has a delay time as well. More importantly how much air do you need to carry on board to accommodate a continual adjustment? I don't want to sound like it can't be done because it can and I will I just don't have enough answers to spend the money so the manual control will get me started. I like the gyro idea and I am going to look into that much deeper. I have started doing research on auto-pilot flight systems to get started and there is just a lot of detail. As Brian K says this is me over thinking so I want to just start simple. I am very excited to let everyone drive this thing and tell me what they like for controls so I can make a complete system.

 

[Dannyboy]

How about a pendelum switch or something like the float switch that fills your tank in a toilet, when your truck leans hard to the left, a metal lever swings completing a circuit turning on the leveler, this kicks on the air, when the air pushes the truck back to level the pendelum swings back to center and disconnects the circuit turning off the air feed.

It's crazy concepts like that which make these things work. Dig into the little systems like the Escalade and even older Explorers uses to raise the rear of the truck when the rear end is weighed down. I think this setup will need something at each corner.
Is the air going to be use/returned to the same tank or will it have a compressor and cylce new air to fill the reserve tank?

Another system that may be worth investigating is the CTIS (central tire inflating system) in the H1.

 

[kert0307]

You should be able to get a faster response actuating the cylinders.

As for a switch, I would look into mercury switches. If you get two of them and attach them to the explorer in the same plane 90 degrees apart, it shouldn't be to hard to hook them up to electronic valves to level itself.

 

[Tbars4]

...If you do seriously look at how the "low riders" controlled their vehicles, you will find they used a hydraulic pump from a truck liftgate such as a "Tommy lift" and they controlled it by a electronic joystick...You can see in most of the pics of their contest that they even had them set up so they can be outside the vehicle when dropping and hopping...

...Pretty good response time too in order to bounce for height...

(swanders off back to the Vato's at the park)...

 

[mounty71]

Don't know if you've seen this guy on Pirate, but he uses air rams on his jeep too.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139642

 

[spotter guy]

Mounty71 thank you for the link. I have read through his hole set-up and on the 10th page AshmanXJ mentioned that he likes his ram system it would just be better with a C/O. There are a lot of issues when running rams and I am just glad I could read his tests so I have a better starting point. Thanks again.......

 

[IZwack]

I need some inspiration, update please!

 

[BKennedy]

I need some inspiration, update please!

Wow, I did not know you were born a middle class white kid!:

Or maybe, you should stop sneaking into little boys rooms at night and taking pictures.

 

[IZwack]

I'm as Caucasian as apple pie!
My skin is just dirty, thats why I look darker.

 

[spotter guy]

Finished the shock tabs today and still need to burn everything in. I will post some Pics. after next weekend when I am all done

 

[Paul B.]

I need some inspiration, update please!

IZ, I hope this is an divine anwer to your prayer's: Winter is working right now on the upper shock bracket's. The picture's are work in progress. The last photo show's the shock mount assembly which will be covered by sheet metal for weather protection.

 

[Paul B.]

These are picture's of the lower shock bracket's

 

[Rick]

Mmmm beefy