valve placement

Where is the best place to mount the valves? I dont realy want to put them on the tank. Should they be closer to the bags or closer to the tank? Should i run each valve its own air line off the tank or just run 2 and t it?Thanks in advance

You should run each valve with its own line. If you tee the valves front and back, you'll get roll when the truck turns the corner. If the valve is closer to the bag, then it fills and drops faster. If the valve is closer to the tank, then you have more air in the line, making the bag hold more air essentially.

also with the valves close to the bags you don't have to fill 30 ft. or so of airline every time you lift your truck.

Ive thought about this many times, and this is what I have come up with. Hope Max doesnt mind me answering. If I am wrong please correct me. What characteristic you consider as "Best" may not be the same as someone else. So here are are my interpretations.

The overall speed of a valve/bag set-up is determined by the length of the air line from the tank to the bag when all other variables are kept the same. Response is determined by the length of air line that needs to be filled before the air can start to fill or deflate the bag. Volume of the system allows the bag to compress more as the air is pushed from the bag and into the airline between the bag and fill valve.
These are the basic concepts, and from here someone can decide what is "BEST" for them. The examples below are for identical systems and the only variable being valve placement. Same size line, valves, bag etc.

(1)For best ride quality, you'd want the fill valve at the reserve tank which gives the most air volume for that valve/bag combo. Dont forget that the air line is part of the bag volume when the valve is on the reserve tank.

(2)For fastest initial fill response, you'd want the fill valve as close to the bag as possible. The initial burst of air can start to inflate the bag and not have to fill air line.

(3)For fastest overall speed, you want to minimize the length of air line from the reserve tank to the bag. When the tank is in the rear, the rear bags usually fill faster. You can try to add a small reserve tank in the front, or even mount the valves directly to a small 1 or 2 gallon tank. Ive done this and it really helps.

(4)For the slowest dump speed you'd want the dump valve plumbed with the fill valve so the air can travel through its longest route through the air line. You can also add a length of airline to the dump valve exhaust port to slow it down.

(5)For fastest dump speed, you'd want to mount the dump valve closest to the bag with the least length of air line.

Hope that helps.

nicely put. i will bring up one thing i think was missunderstood he asked. about the valves needing their own lines. im not sure if he meant can you tee for the fill input or if he meant the output to the bag. tee'd after the valve will allow it to transfer air from one side to the other in a corner. resulting in alot of body roll. but, if its the fronts having one feed line and then spliting right before the valve, the only result there is a slightly slower fill since they share a supply line.

^^^ I think he is talking about a set up like my old one also:

Correct, if you tee the supply line before the valves it won't be any different than running 2 supply lines. If you looking for speed run 2 supply lines with the valves as close to the bags as possible. Also if you tee after the valve and still run a sway bar you won't have the terrible body roll like eveyone is talking about. On a secondary note if you are running a 2-link you won't have this problem either because the 2-link acts as a gaint sway bar itself.

I know from personnel experience that you want to mount your valves some where if there is a problem like you bend a stem or you bust a fitting that you can service them without having to put yourself in danger or the truck in danger. Meaning don't mount inside frame channels don't mount next to plastic gas tanks. Busting a fitting next to plastic gas tank and it shooting a hole in it while driving down the road and then the truck dumps at 70mph. It makes the brown eye grab things.

that last sentence made me laugh....

thats a clean ass valve setup. i like that. and yeah, 2 links are generally solid, not pivot, mounted at the axle...so it can really move side to side. not much air transfer. and leaving the front sway bar its not that bad with a good shock. my buddys 01 chevy was setup like that. he redid it without a sway bar when he bodied it. he needs to put more valves now for the front. rear is a 2link, so it doesnt make much difference.