Are Firestone Ride Rite air bags too small for E450 class c?
Hello,
Just curious if anyone else has installed the Firestone ride rite air bags on their class c and if they thought they made a difference. I have had them on for my rig for about a year now, and have never really been impressed. I installed them exactly as per instructions, and even at full pressure (100psi), I only see about one inch of lift at the rear wheel wells (from the ground to the fender above the tires). Maybe 2 inches at the rear bumper. I can't honestly say they make much of a difference in the ride at all. I installed them because I believe the leaf springs on my 2008 29' E450 rig have sagged a bit over the years. It drags it's tail on a lot of entrants/exits, and the ride is very harsh over bumps. My thinking was the leaf springs have sagged past the softer range of the springs and now sit deeper into the firmer range, causing a harsher ride. I hoped air bags might help raise things back up into the softer spring range, but they don't seem robust enough to do that. I had a Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup that I used to pull our previous tag along travel trailer. I put air bags (a different brand) on that truck and loved them. They could raise the rear of the truck several inches if I wanted. The thing that strikes me as odd is that the air bags for the 7klb pickup truck where larger and much more robust looking that the ones specifically ordered for my 12k+lb 29' RV. I was expecting the rv specific bags to be bigger and beefier than the pickup truck air bags, but the opposite was true. There is definitely room for larger bags. I think if they supplied bigger bags, even as just an option over the standard bags, they would be much more beneficial to rv owners.
Just curious if anyone else has installed the Firestone ride rite air bags on their class c and if they thought they made a difference. I have had them on for my rig for about a year now, and have never really been impressed. I installed them exactly as per instructions, and even at full pressure (100psi), I only see about one inch of lift at the rear wheel wells (from the ground to the fender above the tires). Maybe 2 inches at the rear bumper. I can't honestly say they make much of a difference in the ride at all. I installed them because I believe the leaf springs on my 2008 29' E450 rig have sagged a bit over the years. It drags it's tail on a lot of entrants/exits, and the ride is very harsh over bumps. My thinking was the leaf springs have sagged past the softer range of the springs and now sit deeper into the firmer range, causing a harsher ride. I hoped air bags might help raise things back up into the softer spring range, but they don't seem robust enough to do that. I had a Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup that I used to pull our previous tag along travel trailer. I put air bags (a different brand) on that truck and loved them. They could raise the rear of the truck several inches if I wanted. The thing that strikes me as odd is that the air bags for the 7klb pickup truck where larger and much more robust looking that the ones specifically ordered for my 12k+lb 29' RV. I was expecting the rv specific bags to be bigger and beefier than the pickup truck air bags, but the opposite was true. There is definitely room for larger bags. I think if they supplied bigger bags, even as just an option over the standard bags, they would be much more beneficial to rv owners.
