Reddog1 wrote:

~DJ~ - Your installer may do great work, but that does not mean they cannot make a mistake. As kcabpilot posted, airbag installation instructions give you a dimension range. If brackets are too close, low air pressure still loads the bag. With no air, too close could damage the bags due to them being used as a bumpstops.



This has been my experience.

I cannot see how you could level your truck from unloaded to loaded, without something adjustable. Lesson the drop yes, raise it back up after loaded, no. To use the overload springs, the truck has to squat until the spring rate catches the load. It does not raise back up.

I have used factory overloads, after market overloads, added leafs, raised and lowered overload brackets, I am not basing my observation off what I have read. I have had loads (without airbags) that just short of touching the overloads, that is a bumpy ride.

Maybe someone can show me a steel setup than can be raised up by pushing a switch?


Wayne

~DJ~ wrote:

Thanks for all the replies. The bags were professionally installed by our hitch center. I have had lots of work by them and they are very good.

This time when I took the camper off I let all the air out. Great ride now. Wish I had went with the Stable Loads first. Apparently that is all I needed.

Quote:


OK, let me just say the Stable Loads lessened the drop to the point that I no longer needed anything additional to keep my truck fairly level when loaded. And with zero air in the bags it rides GOOD!!!

Aktravler wrote:

I find that I adjust my bags differently almost every trip, as the camper weighs differently due to loading and the particular roads we are traveling.

Can we assume you don't have the in-cab control and just put a specific poundage of air in?

If you do that, how do you know HOW much air you need?

When folks post the poundage they use we are all different due to different factors. That is WHY they are adjustable!

I feel that if you have the bags without the ability to change the pressure, you are not using them they way they are designed to be used, making them less than correctly functional.
My truck rides best with the camper on, it rides like a truck though, not an auto whether loaded or empty.

kcabpilot wrote:



DJ - Regardless of who did the install it sounds to me as though it was done improperly. Maybe they used a frame lift? You need to lift the truck with the axle loaded at your empty weight. You pump the bags up to the dimension given in the instructions with the frame mounts installed and as I recall that's somewhere between 20 and 30 psi. You then mark and drill the holes in the frame.

So, once installed, there is NO WAY that 5 psi can alter your empty load ride. The 5 psi is only in there to prevent the bags from bottoming out and 'possibly' getting damaged. As others have said, there's virtually zero chance of that happening when your empty but it's a good idea to keep that pressure in there because it is after all a pickup truck and you do load stuff in there and you might not remember to put some pressure in the bags after picking up a load of bricks at home depot and then hitting a big pothole on the way home.

the 5 psi thing is just a precautionary thing and the in cab load controllers have regulators that make sure you always have it.

My line is this - if you don't like air bags that's fine, don't use them but don't trash them here because properly installed they perform just as well as any of the other solutions and many of us feel that they provide an enhanced level of control over varying situations and even though they might not be the 'perfect' solution for this 150 year old live axle/leaf spring suspension we are using they do a pretty darn good job.

providing they are properly installed....