Air Lift Buys Universal Air, Putting Two Big Names in Bagged Suspension Under One Roof

Two of the most familiar names in air ride now answer to the same owner. Air Lift Company has completed its purchase of Universal Air Suspension, the San Bernardino, California, maker of air springs and air ride parts, with the deal effective Aug. 3, THE SHOP magazine reported. Terms were not disclosed.

If you have bagged a car, a truck or a hot rod, there is a decent chance you have held parts from one or both companies. Air Lift is the Lansing, Michigan, company behind Air Lift Performance, the brand that sells full air suspension kits, air struts and the 3H, 3P and ALP4 management systems, and its website features customer cars as different as a Honda S2000 and a Chevy C10. Universal Air, which says it has been building air springs for more than 30 years, sells its own bags, the Aeroleaf bolt-on leaf spring conversion, tanks, valves, brackets and vehicle-specific bag and bracket kits.

Who runs what now

UAS president Zack Ratcliff is joining Air Lift as managing director of engineered solutions. Air Lift says he will build an Engineered Solutions Division and act as the strategic and technical lead for custom design, engineering and innovation across UAS, Air Lift Performance and Air Lift Suspension. Air Lift started integrating Universal Air's products, people and operations immediately, and says details on combined product lines, dealer support and structure will come as that work moves along.

Air Lift CFO Krista DeJonge told THE SHOP that "there are many synergies between Universal Air and Air Lift across our traditional load support line" and its performance products. Air Lift president John Aleva pointed at Ratcliff: "We believe Zack's expertise, vision and entrepreneurial mindset will have a significant impact," he said, on where the company goes next.

Two different roads into air ride

Air Lift has been doing this longer than most of the scene has existed. Its own history says the company was started in Lansing in 1949 by GE engineer Claude Pemberton and Don Perkins, and that its air springs ran on stock cars at races including Daytona and Darlington in the 1950s and '60s. As pickups and SUVs went mainstream, it built a big business in load support kits for towing and hauling.

The custom side came later. In the late 1990s Air Lift formed a division called Easy Street aimed at lowered custom vehicles, and the company credits it with helping popularize full air suspension in the mini truck world before it went on to develop air struts. The Easy Street name was eventually dropped for Air Lift Performance.

Universal Air comes at the same world from the parts counter. Its site calls the company a "premier air suspension manufacturer and distributor," and its catalog runs from its Air House 7 bags to welded aluminum, billet and acrylic tanks, VIAIR compressors and air management from Accuair, Air Lift, AVS and Slam Specialties. It also lists custom work, from one-off applications to prototypes and OEM suspension development.

The question for shops

That management list is the part builders will watch. Universal Air has been selling controllers from Air Lift's competitors right alongside Air Lift's own, and nobody has said whether that changes under new ownership. If UAS stays a multi-brand source, the deal mostly gives Air Lift a West Coast custom engineering shop and a deeper catalog of bags. If it slowly becomes another Air Lift channel, shops that build around Accuair or AVS will feel it.

For now, Air Lift's line is that the purchase expands innovation and product development across both its load support and performance sides. The people who bag trucks and slam show cars for a living will judge it by something simpler: whether the parts they already use are still on the shelf next season.

• Air Lift Company: Lansing, Michigan, founded 1949. Brands include Air Lift Performance and Air Lift Suspension.
• Universal Air Suspension: San Bernardino, California, air spring maker for more than 30 years by its own account.
• Effective date: Aug. 3, 2026. Price and terms: not disclosed.
• New role: Zack Ratcliff, managing director of engineered solutions at Air Lift.