Front Suspension: Hydraulics

Give me a few hours, I gotta charge the batteries for the digital camera and then I will post some. Strangly enough I do not have any pics of my front setup.

Ok finally got a couple pics of my dawg. I didn't get any with the wheels off abut these should give you a good idea. Man I didn't realize the dawg is so dirty in the engine compartment! It was out at our show sitting in the dust and man it looks nasty. Apperantly I have some detailing to do! You get the picture anyways... Here ya go. Any questions feel free to ask!

i'm thinking of ditching my bags and getting juice. I was told by a FEW people that have had, and installed both, and they ALL say that the juice is more reliable (with correct equipment) and easier to install.


And with the sound system I am going to run, I will have multiple batteries anyway. 2 Orion 2100s and 2 Orion 225s drain a pretty healthy amount of current, especially at .5 ohms. So, I figured, I can run 6 batteries for a healthy supply for the juice, yet at the same time, I can tap onto that for the sound, just wired differently for the amps. I will be running on a higher voltage setup anyway for those sole reasons. You dont have to constantly run the pumps to fill the tank's PSI, just when you hit the switch, it is instant..so...I wont be running the pumps hard as well as the audio, so I think it will be good.

(16v @ .5 ohm on a 2100......death to most, 18v @ .5 ohm......seek shelter)

I have had juice since 95 and have tons of friends who have air ever since bags started coming in. I really cannot say one is more reliable than the other. They both have pros and cons and people who tell you one is alot more reliable than the other have just not used the best products in both camps. For many years alot of people in minitruckin thought hydros sucked because they were buying cheap quality stuff like reds brand hydros. Before I did my truck I spoke to more than a few people who worked on juice in a non automotive way for a living and talked to a few OG low rider guys and they all told me the same thing Buy good stuff. Hence I bought fenner pumps and have not had a lick of trouble with my pumps at all. (the same cannot be said for the reds pump I had for a week before I bought my second fenner) so it is all really about the install and the quality of the parts you buy. Do it right and you will have many years of happy dragging!

Here is my opinion on pros vs cons...

Juice Pros
1. Fast! Want it faster? Add another battery!
2 Provided you keep your batteries charged you can hit em as much as you like and no waiting for your tank to fill up. ( I know for me when I was driving my truck daily my batteries would usually last for about a week before needing a charge again and I played with my switches alot!)
3.Lots of lift! Depending on what size cylinders you buy, you can have mad lift even in the front. Yes I have seen the cantilever bag setups but generally in the front you can get more lift with juice. Again I say generally.
4.Dumps don't generally freeze up or get stuck in the cold. Your juice will get slower by just a little as the hydrolic fluid gets a little thicker in the cold, but I do not see the issues the bags guys have.
5. No worries about moisture.

Juice Cons
1.Hydrolic Fluid. It can be rather messy and if you are running accumulators as there is always some pressure in the line ( I learned that the hard way the first time I loosened the line on my front cylinder! ) Needless to say always keep an empty 2 liter pop bottle within arms reach if you are working on your juice. If you buy good cylinders with teflon seals you should not have much leakage at all if any. Especially if you lay your truck out when parked.
2.Blow a hose and finding a store that stocks hydrolic hoses is alot harder than finding air hose. Unless you have specialized tools you are not going to be making your own hoses either. Air line is just cut and push in to the fitting.
3.Gotta change the seals on your cylinders every so often. With teflon seals and if you bought good cylinders you should not have to do this very often, ( I haven't done mine in forever!) but never theless there is maintenance.
4. Charge the batteries! Again not a big deal and if you find yourself in a situation where you batteries are so dead you cannot lift just wait a bit or do what I do and always cary a set of jumper cables. You can use the jumper cables to by merely tapping the stud on the pump motor to get it to spin up the motor and lift so you can get your ride home.

Can only say i have been running hydros for MANY years on a Mazda and have to agree with ^ Go for the good stuff. It really does matter. Truck does a lot of shows, especially indoor shows. Judges are not big on puddles of oil on the show room floor. Have left truck setup for 3 days at a show with no leaks and atleast 1,200 pounds of hydraulic pressure in the lines.

Also now have a bagged truck. For a daily driver it's tough to beat bags with shocks. Ya want a play toy, go for the hydro's!

That's the pic I was looking for would you be able to lay out with the same setup and maybe some trimming of the control arm?

^ Yes. Original setup layed out with trimmed LCA. Current setup does not lay simply because I don't want to cut chrome LCA and don't want to scratch candy frame.

all post some pic of mine on monday of the front set up mine and Immortal1 are almost the same i lay out on 18's

Sweet, Thanx guys

No problem Jester if you have any further questions feel free to ask....And just for the record if you want to lay and you are using stock control arms you will definately have to trim out the upper arm as you can see in my pics. Yeah it sucks I did not know that till I had already chromed my uppers. But it was either leave it alone and not fully lay or cut it up and lay out...I say Hack it up and lay it out!