Airlift suspension ride quality

[NXTLEV3L]

I have a 2022 GT California special that I installed air lift suspension on over the winter, I have been tweaking with it a couple months now, and unfortunately I am a bit let down by the ride quality that the system gives. I have set the shocks from 15 clicks (middle setting between hard and soft) to all the way full soft, and while it did improve, it is definitely not as smooth of a ride as it was with the factory struts in the front and shocks/springs in the rear.
The other thing is that air lift advertises over a 5” drop, which I was thinking meant you could drive it at ride height (which was 28.5” fender height before I started) and drop all the way 5” from there, which would have put me frame on the ground at 23.5” fender height.
But all hooked up where I sit now I am at 30” at 125 psi max pressure, and 26”completely aired out at 0 psi. It is actually at 26” when I have 50 psi in the rear and 35 psi in the front bags. It seems the car weight in enough that until I get more pressure than that it won’t even start to raise the car from the bump stops (or whatever is inside the bags) so my daily driving pressure is about 55 psi front and 85 psi rear to get me to 28” ride height, that way I have 2” travel for compression and 2” for extension in the suspension.

I guess what I am getting at it is I would like to know:
-if anyone else has had the same experience with airlift being a more stiff ride than factory base GT suspension
-has anyone had the same experience with only having 4” of travel from max to minimum bag pressure?

Thank you.

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[Pistol_91]

The wheels on your car are probably limiting the travel distance. Why's it matter how much it travels? The whole point is to air out right?

I used to ride at 40-50 psi in the front and 60 in the rear and it rode great.

The higher you crank up the psi, the worse it rides. I believe they recommend 40-60 psi typically, but I'm pretty sure 85 is too much.

When I had drag radials on and couldn't air down under 90 psi in the rear, it rode and drove like complete shit.

If you can't get the rear lower you need better fitment on your wheels.

 

[DB83]

According to the manual the recommended front pressure is between 35 and 55. The rear is 70.
I installed a 10mm spacer in between the rear bags and lower control arm, so that i can run the rears at 67 psi, with the dampers 10 clicks from full soft, and still have a decent amount of wheel clearance and travel.
Same in the front. Installed a 10mm spacer between the strut top, and chassis of the car, and run the fwd system at 48 psi. The ride is "adequate". I had KW V3 in before, and can definitely say the ride quality on those was much better.

After the summer, i'm going to try and install bags on the KW V3 dampers, and experiment with pressures and damper settings to see if i can come up with the golden setup for air.

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