4XE AccuAir Build

[Dmitry]

Goal

Stock height for the best handling in daily driving and lifted Rubicon-like capabilities on mountain/rocky trails.

Started with the stock Sahara 4XE. This is my daily driver, so I decided not to change suspension geometry to keep on-road manners good.

Three reasons I am keeping tires at stock offset and stock width:

• On-road comfort - thinner wheels behave better on rutting road (less wandering and float).
• The roads get dirty here in bad weather. Tires sticking out of the fenders will make me dirty in no time and create havoc for the drivers nearby.
• Durability of the bearings.

The 4XE Sahara already has strong Dana 40 axles front and back. Electric motor provides plenty of torque. What's missing is the lockers and clearance.

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[Dmitry]

List of the parts installed

• OME BP-51 shocks
• ARB dual compressor
• AccuAir Suspension
• Dee Zee roof rack
• Hot Head Headliners
• Armorlite flooring
• 67-design bases for 4xe, magnetic phone mount
• XG Cargo sportsbar bags
• CMM Offroad mirrors
• Mopar-like tailgate reinforcement
• Vowswitch-300
• Cheap Chinese: mud flaps, door sills, sportsbar hand grips, dead pedal
• 33" tires for the winter, 34" All-Terrain tires for summer/trails

List of further planned stuff

• Some skid plates
• OffroadOnly SwayLoc dual-rate air-operated sway bar
• ARB RD245 Air Locker Differential
• Tailgate table
• Some storage solution in the trunk

 

[Dmitry]

Air Compressor

Central to the build is the air supply system. Quite a few things will be using pressurized air in some way:

• Tire inflator
• Suspension airbags
• ARB differential locker
• Dual-rate sway bar

I have started with the fairly standard installation of ARB dual compressor into the trunk cavity, using AAL mounting plate. Half-gallon tank fits there perfectly.

Wires to supply power to compressor. Used a single thick 12v wire from AccuAir kit and a thin wire from ignition (tapped into F22 fuse).

Routed and mounted the quick-release connector for tire inflation near the 12v outlet.
Had to move the wireless entry antenna box a little to make the nozzle fit.

 

[Dmitry]

OME BP-51 shocks

The BP-51 shocks have separate adjustable compression and rebound damping settings. Which should come handy for the air suspension. There is also a bypass, which results in a very smooth ride on-road. Installing them without extension brackets for no-lift setup.

The compressed length is just very slightly over the OEM shocks. Therefore, the shocks need very short bump stop extenders once the height of shock extension brackets subtracted from recommended bump stop height for these shocks. But I also need to fit 285/65R20 tires (nearly 34"). Ended up with additional bump stop height of 1" in the rear, 1.5" in front.

EDIT: One important thing. Sway bar links should also be replaced with the longer ones along with the shocks. This is extremely important in the rear, where 10" link should be used. The sway bar will hit the shock body otherwise.

 

[Dmitry]

AccuAir install

The AccuAir kit has a rather good installation instruction. Had no problems doing it all myself.

The parts that I have not used from the AccuAir kit:

• Air compressors. Already had ARB dual air compressor. In order to make it work with AccuAir:
  • Instead of connecting compressor to ignition wire, it should be controlled from AccuAir E-connect control box. The compressor fan will always-on otherwise.
  • Pressure switch should be short-circuited. The pressure will be controlled by pressure sensor on AccuAir side. This is safe since emergency over-pressure valve is still installed in ARB compressor.
• Shocks. I have OME BP-51 adjustable shocks already installed. These shocks I installed directly on OEM mount points, without the OME brackets (that are used to provide additional lift). That way, the expanded length of the shock match AA-3924 kit requirement perfectly (shock length is about 10mm shorter from maximum specified).
• Tank. The tanks provided in AA-3924 kit can fit in 4XE but will use trunk space that I am not ready to give up. The under-body tank in newer AA-4104 will not fit on 4XE (space is taken up by invertor module).

Customizations I made to the AccuAir kit to fit it on 4XE:

• The kit I have is AA-3924, and there were recommendations on the distance to choose for the height sensor arm which did not work for me. The newer kit (AA-4104) is shipped with the pre-set positions on custom control arms, therefore should not be an issue. For me, I had to adjust the length of the arm just slightly and follow the generic instructions on the height sensors manual instead (e_HEIGHT_12x18_Folded_Instructions_009_JF.pdf).
• The way the height sensors mounted on the supplied brackets do not allow front sensors to fit on 4XE, because of the additional wiring/tubes for the conditioner. I had to attach them to the opposite side of the mount bracket, as shown below. Due to that, the sensor on the left side ending up too close to the exhaust, and I added a hand-made metal plate as a heat shield. Beware that it also required to reattach the height sensor arm to the side closer to the sensor body. Care should be taken to ensure body and arm are not interfering across full length of travel.
• Tank and solenoids. Half-gallon tank was used instead of the two 3-gallon Endo-VT tanks provided with the kit. These had solenoids built into them, which I replaced with the AccuAir VU4 4-corer manifold. BTW, this manifold is already included in the newer AA-4104 kit.

Otherwise, the install is straightforward. I also installed bump stop extenders for the rear provided with the kit. Not 100% sure if needed, but likely they prevent over-compression of the airbags.


Final setup

Excessive wire bundles - these are from height sensors, I didn't bother to shorten those. Tube with dead-end - is for the future pressurized air consumers.

Below are some underbody pics on how the tubes are routed in the rear. Enveloped the tubes into soft heat-reflecting material where they come close to the exhaust.

 

[Dmitry]

Height adjustment in operation

Really happy

 

[Pressuregarage]

Sick

 

[4x4snowmachinejeep]

Sick

ditto...... nice

 

[Jazzyjl]

I have falcon shocks with the adjustable knobs… I wanted to keep them. But was afraid they may over extend, or bottom out with this kit…they are for a 2.5-4.5 inch kit. But want the convenience of air ride any recommendations.

 

[Dmitry]

Bottom out - not likely. The bump stop extension provided with the kit adds 2.7" to the bump stop. At least in the rear, not sure about front as bump stops integrated into the airbag in the front.

I don't know the extended height of the Falcon shocks. There is a chance they will over-extend the airbag, the instruction for my version of the kit (AA-3924) says:

"To prevent the rupture of air springs, it is strongly recommended to use the front and rear shocks provided in this kit only.
Maximum Front Shock Length: 26.125in. ± 0.125in.
Maximum Rear Shock Length: 27.72in. ± 0.125in."

Nothing about shock length in AA-4104 instruction. Better check with AccuAir.

 

[Dmitry]

Installed OffRoadOnly SwayLOC dual-rate swaybar disconnect. And routed the air-operated control via VoSwitch JL300 into the cabin.

Installed it upside-down to have air lines on the passenger side for easier routing. Not sure if it was a right decision as the clearance between the tire and air operated latch is very tight.

Had to add pressure control on the air line coming from AccuAir-controlled ARB compressor. The AccuAir operational pressure is 135-150psi. And SwyLOC max operating pressure is 125psi...

Anyway, SwayLOC works well - firmer than stock on-road and nicely comfortable off-road (unlocked).

 

[Digitac]

I like your setup. I’m considering copying your air install. Are you still happy with the Accuair? Is that 1/2 gallon tank enough for normal use? Any issues with using the ARB compressor for it? Thanks!
Digitac

 

[Dmitry]

Hi Digitac,

Yes, I'm still using it daily and also had a few long trips over rough dirt roads. Harsh winters here, no problem. Works very well, comfortable.
Only issue I had during this time is with the rear right height sensor, where the placement was not perfect, and the lever was touching something at full articulation. This eventually caused it to break, and I replaced it.
The only maintenance I did was emptying the de-humidifier (or whatever this water-separating filter is called) once.

ARB compressor - had no worries. I'd guess any compressor will be ok, if it provides sufficient pressure.

1/2 gallon tank is ok. It is not sufficient to go from the lowest setting to the top without engaging the compressor, so you'll have to wait a bit (as in the video above). But it is providing sufficient buffer for on-the-road height adjustments the AccuAir system is doing (if you decide to use this feature).

 

[Digitac]

That's great. Glad to hear it's working well, I hope I can do the same thing. Thanks for your reply!

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