I received a pm from one of the guys on this forum with some good questions, thought I would share it.
Question:
Darren,
are there issues with system freezing up in the winter? When the ride is parked, does it always have to sit slammed to the ground? Whats the complete kit price. whats the added weight to the car with the kit? hows the handling compared to my KW V2's and Hotchkis sways setup?
Thanks!
Answer:
Not many problems with freezing up in the winter. The only time I have ever had a problem with that is with guys in Canada, where it gets 20-30 below. Those guys have used air brake anti freeze to help. Also mounting the valve above the tank or in the engine bay will help too.
When parked or storing for the winter you can leave it at ride height or fully deflated, doesn't matter.
The suspension components are probably actually lighter, so unsprung weight will be less. The compressor kits run around 20-40 lbs depending on which kit you go with. We also have aluminum tanks which are much lighter than the steel tank. A steel 5 gallon tank is around 22 lbs., whereas an aluminum 5 gallon tank is around 7 lbs.
I have never tested any of the KW stuff so I can't really comment on the performance differences. But but have had great results with pro-touring cars and street rods. For example we have a 66 Chevelle here with a stock chassis and all of our sway bars, tubular arms and double adjustable shockwaves. We took it to Putnam Park roadcourse and recorded sustained G-Force readings of over 1.1G on BFG KD tires.
If you are really concerned with performace I would opt for the double adjustable units. They allow you to control the compression and rebound individually which is necessary for a multi-purpose vehicle. Keep the Hotchkis sway bars on the car too. All of our compressor system are 4 way which will eliminate any air transfer, but the sway bars will further control the body roll.