Towing With Air Bags.

Use two things to set your pressure.

First A pressure guage. DO NOT EXCEED BAG RATINGS this is the only use of the guage.

Second a ruler.. Unhooked with the bags set to where you normally have them for running to the store for a loaf of bread.. Measure bumper height.. Hook up. load up and inflate to same height or recommended max pressure whichever is LOWER.

NOTE if you use a load equalizing hitch you may need to re-adjust it as you inflate.

Sounds like 1L243 must be out pogo sticking around in his bouncy ball truck and camper...

schlep1967 wrote:
I had a 2008 2500 dodge. I put Firestone air bags on it. But first I read the manual. What I figured out was I already had a 3/4 ton suspension on the truck holding the weight of the camper. I don't recall now the exact numbers but the manual said x amount of air pressure supported x amount of weight. It worked out that if I ran with about 22 lbs in the air bags it supported the additional weight and towed level. When winter came and the camper was not being used they got aired down to 5 lbs and the tires went down to 40.

Sounds like you had it "Just Right".

1320Fastback wrote:
I measure the hight to the top of my bumper unloaded. Hook up trailer and after WDH is put on inflate the airbags to get the bumper back to the same measurement.

No idea if that's correct but works for me.

NO, that is not correct. Unloaded you are not on your overloads and by doing what you are doing you are still off your overloads.

I had a 2008 2500 dodge. I put Firestone air bags on it. But first I read the manual. What I figured out was I already had a 3/4 ton suspension on the truck holding the weight of the camper. I don't recall now the exact numbers but the manual said x amount of air pressure supported x amount of weight. It worked out that if I ran with about 22 lbs in the air bags it supported the additional weight and towed level. When winter came and the camper was not being used they got aired down to 5 lbs and the tires went down to 40.

I measure the hight to the top of my bumper unloaded. Hook up trailer and after WDH is put on inflate the airbags to get the bumper back to the same measurement.

No idea if that's correct but works for me.

^ I agree, what OP is saying doesn't add up, even though he said 60psi "feels" better.

An OG F250 should have pretty stout springs, not like the "standard" F250s of the early-mid 2010s. Had a 2012 and 2015 F250 that rode well, but a relatively soft initial spring rate.

Regardless, OP seems like a 1 and done 'er with his thread...

1L243 wrote:
I was curious on what kind of air pressure your running in your airbags?

I have a 1999 2WD 7.3 F250. I tow a 10,000 pound bumper pull Toy Hauler with 1220 pounds of tongue weight. I use a 15,000/1500 pound WDH

I have had my air bags on for several years and with 5 different trailers. It's hit and miss on the right air pressure. Typically I have ran 35 psi. But recently I experimented with 60psi and I have to say the truck felt much better. I have Air Lift bags which go up to 100psi.

At 60psi my truck is more level. I tend to get a 2 inch squat after connecting the WDH and running 35psi.

Anyway chime in if you run air bags I would be interested to hear what your running.

Something amiss here..

2" rear squat is nothing, no big deal, that by its self is not harmful in fact that means you may have just barely "leveled" the bed which is perfectly fine.

Pickup trucks by design are setup to have the rear of the vehicle pitched higher than the front end and when loaded will drop to level or slightly below level (squat).

With your Diesel engine you are plenty heavy on the front end and very little weight on the rear axle when unloaded so 1K lbs - 1.5K lbs hitch weight isn't going to unload your front end much if any.

WD is about the idea of pushing some weight towards the front axle in order to restore any weight removed from the axle when a hitch load is present. Some vehicle configurations may already have excessive weight on the front end to start with.

You may not need WD and you may not need air bags either and you may be adding way to much WD along with having the airbags push the rear up to high.

I would suggest hooking up without WD and airbags deflated and measure how much change you have on the front and rear height.

Then compare that to hooking up WD without airbags inflated..

You can have too much compensation running both..

If you trying to reestablish the original unloaded height and looks when loaded, don't, you do not want to do that.

As far as making the truck "ride better", following that idea may end up with way too much WD and airbags which while it may make it seem to ride better can affect your vehicles handling in a negative way.. Its a heavy truck with heavy duty springs, its a heavy truck towing a heavy load, it is not a "Cadillac" and will never ride like a "Cadillac".

I tow a 7K TT and a 10K open flatbed trailer, have never felt the need for airbags or WD and I have more than once had well over 10K on the flatbed and have done that with the F250s I have had over the yrs.. All of the F250s I have had, never saw more than 1/2" height increase on the front without WD..

The only F250 I had that sagged more than a inch or two on the rear axle was a 2013 when Ford for some reason chose extremely soft rear springs, was a lot of complaints on rear sag for that yr..

This may not be relevant, but when I had air bags on my older 1500 Ram, i found out that if I went over 20 or 25 lbs that it stiffened the rear suspension to the point that it created a fulcrum point that caused the truck to porpoise. In my opinion, getting the truck back to level is not important.

I saw a newer 2500/3500 RAM LB Yesterday towing a 32' 5er. The rear of the tuck had at least a foot between the top of the tire and inside of top wheel well. The RV was at least 8" high in the front. I couldn't tell but I gurantee he also had 80psi in the rear tires.

I can just hear him now "why does my truck ride so rough" ?????