Shock charging questions.

L

LT.

Well-Known Member
Location
Los Alamos, New Mexico
How do y'all charge your shocks with nitrogen? I have been looking at some kits at Poly Performance but, I really want the best. Everywhere I look I really have yet to see anyone commenting on this. Anyone have any opinions?

LT.
 
I just have a N2 tank and regulator from Jake at Airgas, and a hose from Hose & Rubber. Nothin' special.
 
You can just take your shocks to BHR or Tera and have them charge your shocks. Or see if any of your friends have a tank. There's lots of them floating around. If you're running air shocks I can see the justification for buying your own tank (but you could get away without). If you're running coilovers just charge them and leave them alone, you don't really need your own tank.
 
I am running coil overs with remotes and I have never owned a set before. Taking the shocks off is more work than I think it would be worth. Taking the shocks off is a lot of work and I don't own all the equipment needed to extend the suspension far enough to get them off. Since I live here in New Mexico I am having a hard time finding anyone else locally who runs them also. I was thinking that since it is only a few hundred dollars that it may be worth owning a charging station just in case. I don't know.

LT.
 
If you dont have the equipment to extend them to take them all the way off, I would just pay a shop to charge them. They could help you get to full extension and thats how you have to charge them.
 
They need to be charged while fully extended, so if your suspension is not capable of fully extending the shocks, you need to take them off.
 
have you tried any tire shops? some tire shops have nitro tanks and its cheap to get them filled up
 
It's a good thing I asked. I did not know that I had to have them fully extended before filling them. Dang. I guess I will have some thinking to do. Thanks y'all.

LT.
 
mierdota said:
have you tried any tire shops? some tire shops have nitro tanks and its cheap to get them filled up
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I don't think those tire shop nitrogen tanks have enough pressure to fill a coilover or air shock. Could be wrong about that, but I was under the impression that they were limited to tire-ish pressures.
 
I've got a couple of newbie questions since I'm thinking about getting some air shocks myself. Can you run air in them just to check the ride, ride height, and all that? Then charge them to a similar pressure with the nitrogen? What are typical pressures in these things? And then you also have the issue of fluid level in these to effect ride height and ride. Pardon my ignorance.

I work in the gas pipeline business and our field techs use nitrogen for instrument calibration. Instrument span is 0 to 1500 PSI so when the pressure in the calibration bottle gets below 1500 PSI they just turn the bottle back in for replacement. No credit is given for the remaining 1499 PSI (and whatever volume that equates to). :-\

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.
 
bryson said:
I just have a N2 tank and regulator from Jake at Airgas, and a hose from Hose & Rubber. Nothin' special.
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this is exactly what i did and with the advice from RME ers.

I think if you own air shocks you should own a tank. but forget the fancy expensive stuff in the plastic suitcase. just an ugly bottle will work. i found out i needed my own tank by wheeling in moab and the shrader let go and went about a million yards. without a tank to air up, the suspension was utterly useless on that side. now i carry a spare air shock as well and you can't put it on with it charged.

i'm in el paso and wheel a lot in new mexico and i've seen rigs all the time with air shocks.
 
Sumo said:
I've got a couple of newbie questions since I'm thinking about getting some air shocks myself. Can you run air in them just to check the ride, ride height, and all that? Then charge them to a similar pressure with the nitrogen? What are typical pressures in these things? And then you also have the issue of fluid level in these to effect ride height and ride. Pardon my ignorance.

I work in the gas pipeline business and our field techs use nitrogen for instrument calibration. Instrument span is 0 to 1500 PSI so when the pressure in the calibration bottle gets below 1500 PSI they just turn the bottle back in for replacement. No credit is given for the remaining 1499 PSI (and whatever volume that equates to). :-\

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.
Click to expand...

You could run air, but since pressures will go up to 500 PSI that won't work with most normal compressors. A very lightweight rig might use pressures under 150, but not very many.

You can definitely use a 1500 lb tank for quite some time. All you'll need is the regulator and the hose.
 
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