Airbaging queeries

can any one tell me how the front air bags work on a hilux with a torson front end and if there is a lot of moding to set it up

with torsion bar setups the torsion bars connect to the lower control arm and hold the truckup off the ground. there is a shock that runs in bewteen the upper control arm and connects down toward the lower. in order to bag these truck in the front end, you need bag plates for trucks with torsion bars. its a pretty universal kit as far as materials go because there are other trucks that use torsion suspension in the front. those trucks use the same method as the toyotas. at least the older trucks (pre taco). you will first start by removing the shocks and torsion bars so the arms move freely up and down to get all your measurements. the bag plates will be welded to the frame in between the upper and lower control arms. you will want to use a plate on the lowercontrol arm to give somethign for the bag to sit on. you will also need to gusset the bag plates to keep them from wanting to flex up and down and left to right. each truck varies a little bit as far as where to put the plate but that is something you'll have to figure out with a measuring tape and just looking at it visually to find your exact or optimum location of the plate placement. some people will also run shocks, i dont because the front end is heavy eanough and i have some pretty thick bags that keep it from bouncing. its all personal preference though. here are a couple pictures of my front suspension of my 88 pick up. on my particular setup my bag plates were posisioned so that when aired all the way up my bag sits straight up and down. when it collapses however, the bag is flattened at a funky angle. doing it this way you could possibly loose a little lift out of the front but i still get plenty. also, when my upper bag plates were installed they were left a little long so the plate would bottom out on my uppercontrol arm. this was done to limit the front end from going up as high as possible because of my steering linkeage. its also done for the reason that if i need to put my truck onto a lift, it can be done without harming the bags (because my wheels willbe supported by the bag plate versus hanging from the bag) you may see other trucks bagged in the front where their upper bag plates angle upward. this would get you the maximum amount of lift for the application (there are some other little tricks to get morelift but we wont get into that) when the bag is collapsed the bag will be flattened eavenly and run parallel with the lower control arm but once aired up it will air up with an arc motion. seth (twistedminis) front suspension is set up this way with the upper bag plate at an angle. here are a couple pictures to shed some more light. this truck is mine with the plates straight out. sorry for the quality they were taken from my phone.

in this picture you can see where my upper bag plate hits my upper control arm.


be sure to trim out or cut anything away that would hit the bag and replate it back in. in this picture you can kinda see behind the bag there is a flat spot thats where some trimming happened and it was just plated for added strength.


here is the bag plate looking at the lower control arm

thanks mate that has shed some light on it for me. soon ill put some photos out of my low-lux

could you also tell me if its better to have 4 ling 0r 2 link or just stock with bags on the back

4-link.

yeah, a forward 4 link all the way. stay away from 2 links and reverse 4 links.

yeah thanks man you can call me stupid could you please explain the a bit more of why to stay away from them and whats a reverse four link

there is a lot to this topic so im gonna sum it up the best i can. a forward facing 4-link is when the upper and lower bars face forward toward the front of the truck. they would mount to your axle and work like a swing arm on a motor cycle. only its built for a car. there are a few different types of 4link systems, parallel 4link, triangulated, reverse, and three link. first off the the parallel system would have both upper and lower bars running parallel to each other as the suspension moved up and down. using a system such as a parallel one it would require the use of a panhard bar which is another link that mounts to the axle horizontally to limit the latteral movement of the rear end and keep it from moving side to side. a triangulated 4 link system is where the lower bars run parallel to ground the upper bars are set up in a triangulated fashion \/ <---like that. with the upper bars triangulated like that it not only keeps the rear end in place front to back but left to right so there is no need for a panhard bar with this system. (the strongest geometric shape is a triangle. a triangle is the only shape where it is braced from all sides at all times, no matter its position) as far as 4link systems go, a triangulated 4-link is the best link system. a reverse 4 link is a link system that is placed in the rear of the truck and holds the rearend from behind the axle. it too has triangulated upper bars and parallel lower bars but the problem with this link system holding the rear end from the back of the truck which defies the law of physics. its just plain wrong. end of story. some will argue the fact that they work as long as you install it correctly, but i maintain that that particular link system is just plain wrong for various reason (braking, steering, accelerating ect.) moving on to the three link system. a three link system is also known as a type of 4link, wishbone, and a threelink. it is designed facing forward just as a forward facing 4 link but instead of having triangulated upper bars this has a 3 link bar which has a triangular shape to it that mounts at 2 points on the frame and one point on the axle or vise versa...its kinda hard to explain this one, ill show you a picture of mine below. the plus side to this system is that on toyota truck in order to use a 4 link parallel or triangulated, the gas tank will either have to be relocated or you'll have to put in a fuel cell. the beauty of a three link is that the upper bar can be designed around the gas tank so it can stay in its stock location only moved up a couple inches so it doesnt drag on the ground. a three link like a triangulated 4 link doesnt require a panhard bar either so that is a plus. for the actual designing and a some more information on suspension set ups and designs there is a link below. go to that and read the article it will explain bag placement and the different link systems a little further in depth than what i have.

here is a picture of my three link system. it allowed me to keep my gas tank in its stock location. the lower bars are placed parallel to the ground as the upper three link bar (trailing arm) is placed on top. its triangular design keeps the axle from moving laterally as well.







here is that link i was telling you about.---V

thanks that made things a lot clearer for me is there a lot of mod required to install the 3 link and do you think a it would fit under a flat tray on my truck there is now photos of it on the site

Taking this from another of my posts, but this is why reverse 4-links are bad.

[quote]I know there has been much confusion and conflict surrounding the mystical 4-link or was it 3-link or maybe 2-link… Whatever you prefer, I will talk about each of them and their advantages and disadvantages. I must warn that this may upset some of you and many of you will probably disagree with me, I am not here to piss anybody off. I have revised my rear suspension setups so many times I have lost count. Simply put… If your truck works now and you are happy with it, don’t go out and cut the back of your truck off because I said it’s wrong. This is only meant to help our industry to the next level. Also I will not talk about any airbag, spring or shock locations.
First we will answer the question of running a forward, reverse or the curious 2 forward-2 reverse system. The answer is much simpler than you may think. It doesn’t matter if it is a 2, 3 or 4-link if they are run backwards it’s bad. The most obvious problem would be mechanical. The drive shaft runs to the front of the vehicle and pivots either at the transmission or at the carrier bearing and a reverse system connects to the rear and follows a completely opposite path, causing the drive shaft to “plungeâ€