What is the best way to lower a vehicle? Airbags, Hydrolics, or standard lowering kit. Pros and cons for each?

Answer 1

There's several different ways.

Air bags: Useful on trucks because they can give you more cargo capacity (you'll note that dump trucks and other heavy haulers use them). They have a pretty comfortable ride and you can adjust the height with the push of a button. The disadvantage is that they are expensive and not quite the best at handling.

Hydraulics: They can dance or sometimes even hop. But the ride quality isn't the best (in fact, hydraulics without springs are downright bone-jarring), and, again, they're expensive. Badly installed hydraulics can even damage the frame.

Lowering springs: Make the car sit lower and stiffer. Best combined with a set of good shocks. You can't change the height, and the ride is more harsh, but a CORRECTLY SELECTED set can make for great handling.

Cut coils: The poor man's lowering springs. Can work if you don't get out of hand. A badly done set can make the car have a bouncy ride (so can lowering springs with the wrong shocks). Or it may make the car much more prone to bottoming out.

Coil-overs: Like lowering springs, but you can adjust the ride height - with a wrench or other tool. Often seen on race cars.

Drop spindles, lowering blocks, and similar: These move the wheels or axles lower relative to the body. Often they don't change the ride quality, but they can make it much more prone to bottoming out if you lower it too far. Blocks are pretty cheap, but only work for leaf springs. Drop spindles are nice but expensive and not available for everything. Some cars have similar options you can do by flipping suspension parts upside-down or adjusting the alignment settings.

Coil spring clamps, heating and collapsing the springs: I wouldn't touch those with a ten foot torque wrench. Often dangerous.

However you chose to lower the car, be sure to have it aligned afterwards. In some cases, this may require a camber kit.

Answer 2

the best is a standard lowering system because airbags can go out and leave your car dragging the ground and hydrolics are bad to get stuck ut there is also a bad thing about a standard lowering system which is it stay that height and you cant raise up your car to go over high spots in the road so its reall just according what you need.

Answer 3

The standard lowering kit is the cheapest. Hydraulics take a lot of space and if you got the money. Airbags, are definitely out.

Depends of the money you have to spend.

Answer 4

air bags are better than hydrualics....accomplish the same goal with a lowered parking stance without a more radical suspension modification or taking up the room for a extra battery or two to be hooked to pumps...a good suspension by Koni or etc...is good, too...coilovers, struts, and springs with shocks.

Answer 5

Drive it in the snow. Park it on the beach at low tide and wait for high tide.