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I had airbags on my Dodge 3500 (i was in the marine business )and a few jeeps.
If you keep the psi low when not towing you will not notice a diffrence with your ride - if you pump them up when not loaded you will have a very stiff ride.
I liked having them - much better then helper springs and will prob be installing them in my current truck - Nissan Titian. Much better ride and it is very nice to be able to level out the truck.
Have the HD Firestones on a diesel excursion. I keep them at about 12psi when not in use and they firm up the ride a bit, which is nice on an excursion. Once the trailer is hitched up, you can level up the truck perfectly with them.
Its a truck, I don't think your going to smooth out the ride without spending alot of money and reworking the whole suspension system. The air bags are not going to help the ride when your bed is empty.
How you can benefit from air bags will depend on what you're trying to solve. For a truck with a suspension that's already too stiff when empty, air bags are not going to help, they're only going to make things stiffer. You can adjust the air bags to determine how much stiffer, and raise or lower the front or back to level the truck if it's not evenly loaded.
I have an Excursion, which are well known to have too soft a suspension for a truck that size. Ford was apparently trying to soften the spring rates to make it a "Soccer Mom" vehicle. Before air bags the front suspension would bottom out going over moderate bumps, even on the interstate. I've put air bags on all 4 corners, and run ~15 psi unloaded to stiffen things up and prevent the bottoming out. I went overboard with this, as usual, but the convenience is great. I've got a compressor and 2 1/2 gallon air tank with inside controls and gauges for adjustment on the fly, and can adjust the ride and height very easily. Side benefits are that I've got air for tires and air tools, and if I want to get under the truck for something I just add air to all the bags til I have all the room I need.
Air bags was only one of several things I did to our truck to give me the towing capability I expected. If you're looking to soften the ride you might want to consider shocks. I'm using Rancho 9000 adjustable shocks. When adjusted all the way soft they provide a very comfortable ride when unloaded. 3 to 5 seems to give the best ride when pulling my boat. The highest setting is 9, so I'm nowhere near the limit on the shocks.
Bill
I have the Air Lift 5000# Wireless-Air System. It is sweeeeeet. Like Don said, if set at 5 psi, you don't even know they are there. Neat thing is the controller is wireless so you can operate it from up to about 100' from the vehicle.
I have the Air Lift 5000# Wireless-Air System. It is sweeeeeet. Like Don said, if set at 5 psi, you don't even know they are there. Neat thing is the controller is wireless so you can operate it from up to about 100' from the vehicle.
How much for that set up if you dont mind me asking??
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