I’m curious how lowering it to access would help. I thought that would not affect wheel drop since the air suspension is just responsible for lift, not downward travel. If you want to limit the amount you have to Jack, it’s better to put in off road height, put some wood under the jack, and then you’ll just have to jack up a few inches. There’s no point in doing all the work to jack the body up when the air will do it for you.

 

I don't know if it does. I had tried it I'm off-road height, normal and access and they just made it easier to get the jack under. I noticed that normal vs access height the wheel arches and tire still had about the same amount of distance between them before the tire lifted off the ground.

The thing that really seemed to make the difference was ensuring it was shut off by leaving it for a while.

 

So, if the height between the arch and tire was the same when the tire lifted off the ground, then it shows you might as well start with the car as high as possible. All you’re doing is doing the work to lift the car with the jack when you could let the air do it first. The wheel will drop the same distance from the arch before liftoff no matter what. It’s just less work for the jack. I switch wheels twice a year, and it’s so much less work if you start at full off road height. Many videos on this topic on YouTube.

 

You can very easily jack up the vehicle from under the control arm. In many situations thats the only possible way to get the wheel off the ground safely. Just make sure the jack is placed under the meat of the control arm and you'll be fine.

 

Ugh… I wish I’d read this yesterday as I blew out my jack as I extended it too far. The but that bothered me is that I jacked it before with no issues…. Rather than mess with it I just took it to work and used a big jack to lift it. The suspension still sagged in locked access height so I’ll have to try the tip about leaving the door open next time

 

Can someone explain this idea of a locked access height? As far as I know, this suspension has no mechanical ability to limit downward travel. No matter what setting you have it on, or whatever you do with the door, the wheels will drop until they hit max extension as far as I can tell. Is there really a way to limit downward extension?

 

No. I don't care how many doors you leave open or what mode you use, the air suspensions will drop when you jack the car up or lift it. "Locked" access height only prevents the car from defaulting back to normal height at low speeds (up to 22 mph, any faster and the car will warn you to slow down first, then cancel locked Access and go back to Normal height anyway), such as when driving in a low overhead garage. It can't / won't prevent our air suspensions from extending and wheels from dropping when you jack the car up, or put it on a lift. Start from any height you wish (the manual doesn't specify, but off-road height would save you some work since the car does a bit of the initial lifting, and you will also have a little more clearance to position your jack properly.)

 

Thank you. This thread had me scratching my head with all this stuff about locked access mode. Made no sense to me as I’ve changed wheels several times on my Defender and the wheels always drop all the way no matter what. Starting in off road mode makes everything easier.

 

The locked access mode is really just a method to require a second button push to raise the vehicle -- so you do not mistakenly lift it when within a parking garage. To my experience, it has no other purpose nor effect.

Umbertob is correct. The suspensions will at all times attempt to touch the ground. No way around it.

Enjoy !!!