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JohnM

wrote:
I have never used air bags before (the lifting type), but I think my
latest project would benefit from them.

I have a "chassis dyno" in the shop, and it uses two ramps that you
drive the car up, then once the drive wheels are on the dyno rollers,
I lift the ramps up with floor jacks to be level, and place stands
under the ramps. Once the car is in place, only the non-drive wheels
are on the ramp, so the lifting load is easily manageble with a floor
jack on each ramp, lifting them each evenly. I would estimate the max
load the air bags would EVER see to be 2500 lbs.

The problem with using the floor jacks is... quite simply it is
clumbsy, and can be slow.

Here are my obsticles. The ground clearance is about 4" where the
lifting must occur, and the distance it must lift is about 14" total,
or 10 inches from the lift point.

As far as I know, this would eliminate any hydraulic bottle type jack
because of the stroke required.

I googled "lifting air bags" and have contacted a couple of companys
for some initial pricing info, but I suspect it will be expensive. I
can live with the jacks if it is priced out of my league, but I need
to investigate this fully before I abandon it.

So, does anyone out there have some positive advise, of HELPFUL
pointers of things I might be overlooking? Maybe some resonably
priced vendors, or applications that may work also?

Thanks for the interest!

Air bags from a semi suspension will go nearly to 4", without the
regular gear that goes with them. There's also smaller airbags for cab
suspension, I believe they'd do what you need. And there's in-between
bags that are intended as helper springs for medium duty trucks, a
friend of mine put a set on a truck for about $250. If you want the name
of those, I'll give him a call.

John