Office Chair Legs Make Surprisingly Good Height-Adjustable Dampers

Even for the bastion of silliness that is YouTube channel Garage54, using gas cylinders from a bunch of office chair legs to replace suspension dampers seems pretty daft. But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

One of these, after all, is designed to prop up a human, and let’s face it, humans can be pretty heavy. Even basic office chairs tend to be rated to take well beyond 100kg, so if you used four of them, could you prop up the rear end of a car? The answer is yes.

It gets better, as the height adjustment still works. Taking automotive tomfoolery very seriously as per usual, the Garage54 team fabricated a big lever to enable the driver to actuate all four cylinders at the same time. The only caveat is you need someone pretty strong to lift the back of the car should they want an increase in ride height as opposed to a decrease.

To account for the movement of the solid rear axle, the cylinders were attached at the bottom using steering tie-rod ends. Since they’re further inboard than the original damper location, the car’s handling is now, shall we say, interesting. The office chair parts also make for a very firm ride.

See also: Someone Built An Articulated Lada, Because Why Not

That being said, the new suspension arrangement performed better than you might expect on a local test drive. It just about survived the experience, with one of the cylinders coming loose towards the end. In Garage54 terms, we can chalk this experiment up as a great success.