Air Management help

I am trying to figure out what all I need to get to get my air ride up and running well. There are just so many choices out there and every company claims to have the best. So I thought the best choice would be to come to the people who are using these products on a daily basis.

I have the basic understanding of what I need, but I know that there are probably things that I am missing. I tried searching the forum for a shopping list of sorts for building your own air management kit. If someone knows of something of this sort and could point me in the general direction, that would be great.

Would it be better to just buy a kit, should I get valve manifolds, or loose valves and do all the wiring myself?

Thanks

First, set your yourself a budget and decide what you want to spend the most on. You SHOULD go with a manifold for the valves. Individual valves with all the fittings will cost you as much or more than an AccuAir manifold. And it would be a LOT LESS work. Even if you don't go with the entire AccuAir set up with ride leveling, I would DEFINITELY go with the manifold. Easy to install and well WELL worth the money. I would also throw in a water trap at the tank to just keep things clean and easy to maintain.

As for bags and what not, everyone is gonna have their personal preference. I personally love Slams and that's all I use. Bottom line, you're gonna get what you pay for. Most kits I've seen don't have everything you'll need, and from my experience I have noticed that before a build I may end up with different stuff from different dealers. Sometimes you can get tanks with certain port configurations from one spot and not from another, or they both may have them and one is cheaper. Do your homework.

Last but not least, do not be afraid to call these companies and talk with these people. Ricky from Suicide is really cool to deal with, Jason from AVS, Brian from Illusive, so on and so on. Every time I've had issues I've been able to get them squared away pretty quickly from a phone call.

Good luck with it all man.

Right on, thanks for the insight. I already have the bags on the way. I am looking at spending about $750-1000 for the rest of the stuff, most of that will be sunk into compressors and a manifold. I have a buddy that works in an industrial supply store, and he can get me the majority of the other things I need (air line, fittings, etc)

With the compressors these days, are they oil free or do they need routine maintenance such as oil changes. My only real experience with compressors are the ones I have with our 80 gal at the shop.

I am guessing that they are different, but clarification is always best.

Shoot me an email with the parts parts you need and I can work with you and lay out a custom kit tailored to your specs if your interested brian@illusivefabrications.com