Air Bags & Campers

I've had either steel overloads, elastic overloads, or air bags one at least 11 of our trucks used for personal or my businesses use and hands down, air bags are vastly superior as they are fully adjustable to the load or unloaded and ride like floating on air because that's what it is! The others have ZERO adjustment to varying loads when installed. A light load in the bed with people riding in the rear seat is like being on an unsprung buckboard and it was a constant complaint.

With air bags, using the onboard compressor with controls for each side is as good as it can get. Had 3 trucks setup this way with Air-Lift System bags and it gives infinite control anywhere anytime. Load first and then set inflation as needed whether with the onboard compressor or use the exterior fills. 100 psi gauges, if gauges are installed, are a min as driving over bumps in the road alters the bag's psi constantly as the axle bounces. The bags themselves are capable of 250 psi pressures (my Air-Lift bags are) for short terms without any damage but do not inflate them to over 100 psi idle when loaded. Inflating to over 100 psi will create pressures of even over 200 psi on large bumps and can or will bend the bag's mounting plates or brackets and ruin the bags.

W.E.BGood, I bought these 2nd hand off the truck forum. There's no return. I also bought the compressor 2nd hand also. I'm pretty well committed. :)

But I wanted a separate compressor and tank anyway. I want air on board so I can air my own tires up & down as necessary and just to have in general. It won't be designed to run anything more than that, but it'd be nice to have and I bought the stuff almost half off new. Couldn't turn that down.

As for plumbing, I'm going all electrical and relays. It's a bit more expensive, but then I can leave all the air connections outside.

myowneq...IF you don't yet have the Firestones or can't get a refund on them, consider the AirLift 5000 with remote. I have one on my Tundra.

You have an on-board pump mounted under the bed, and a wireless remote in the cabin (clips on the visor) with digital readout that you use to set the airbag pressure, from 5 to 100 lbs. There's NO plumbing to the inside for gauges, no tubes, no connections, no leaks, no worries.

The pump sensor will continuously and automatically adjust the air pressure, either running the pump or venting air, based on the change in load, even with as little as with me getting in or out of the cab, and I weigh only 175.

Regards, BGood

Unless you are hauling, in the bed, something that tends to get one side a lot heavier than the other, you will find better to plumb together.

Also, seems like most want to air the bags up so ride returns to original ht. I found that results in a very rough ride. All the additional wt is then carried by the bags. I have gotten to where I air them up so that the pickup returns about 1/2 way to MT height. That way, the additional wt carried is shared by the oem springs and the bags. Works for me. Better ride too.

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the delay to be out. Just transitioned from work to home. Unusually long this time.

I just figured I would never go that high on my pressures. Closest I come to maxing out is hauling gravel 20 miles from store to home. Someone told me 50psi is the most they put in theirs. So I figured a small range gauge would be good. But ya'll have given me lots to think about. I'm pretty much sold on the bigger range, a 0-150 for tank and another for air bags.

I'm still back and forth on plumbing. I'm leaning toward plumbing together. If I don't like it, I can easily add the components to plumb separate.

myowneq from Louisiana:

You are correct that the pressure will increase if you air up before putting a significant load on the rear axle like a truck camper. I load the camper and then air up my firestone rite rites. Measure the fender wells or rear bumper of the camper on each side to determine how much air in each bag to have truck level side to side and front to rear. I have overload leaf springs and I have found the best ride is with 1 end of each overload on each side engaged on the stops. On my setup I run ~35lbs on the drivers side and 65lbs on the passenger side. Trial and error will help you! Mine are 15 years old and still work great. Check the mounting bolts to the frame as I've had these work loose.

Why would you not get a gauge that can read at least as high as the max pressure rating of the air bags?

I put a 3200 lb. load in my stock GM 2500HD and there was no squat at all. Later added a Superspring on each side for heavier loads. Even a 1/2 ton should be able to handle 1000 lbs. without needing air bags.

Air pressure will increase with ambient air temperature and with elevation. If I was planning to run at 50 PSI I would want a gauge that could read up to 100 PSI.

Important also to have separate fills for each airbag as you do not want an air bag that is supporting a heavy load to be having its air pushed over to the air bag on the other side that has less pressure on it in turns. Not a problem when towing a trailer but can be with a very heavy load in the bed.

I have a set of Firestone RideRites on my F250 and have the sides plumbed together. I don't experience any extra rolling on turns. I think having them plumbed separately is important mostly for truck campers which tend to roll a lot. With a center-point hitch like my trailer uses, I don't have any problems with them being plumbed together.

Relative to the psi variations with weight, I think some of the early posters were thinking that weight doesn't seem to affect tire pressure. That may be relatively true, but there's a lot of differences between tires and suspension air bags. An air bag doesn't have the stiff sidewalls of a tire, so significant addition weight on air suspension airbags does cause significant pressure increases compared to a tire.

My Firestone bags are rated for 100 PSI loaded. I never pump more than that in the bags after I load up and then don't worry about it until I reconfigure my load.

* Realized I typed this backwards to what I was thinking and corrected it *