Air bags

I stuck my F 250 in the barn and bagged it before I ever hooked to the fifth wheel. i like running close to level on the highway.

if i am like hauling fire wood on the flatbed, I just let her squat. It does fine on the overloads.

That is just my preference.

About 1.5 inches ago... When would YOU consider them?

If you have the camper package with the upper overload springs, you just need the Torklift upper StableLoads to engage that spring sooner. If you do not, I would suggest Timbrens or SuperSprings to get greater spring rate. Bags will help some of that sag, but 3" worth of sag will be hard on the bags and most likely make your truck mushy and porpoising.

I tried Timbrens but found Torklift Lower Stableloads to ride better on my 2011 F250. I also added home made Upper Stableloads which helped even more. Squat is about an inch now. I have a relatively heavy pin weight of 2800lbs though.

The upper StableLoads will help squat the most. The lower ones help sway more. With upper and lower StableLoads, I had no trouble carrying 4000 lbs of camper in the back of a F250.

I have the camper package on my F250. When I would hookup the 5th wheel the truck would settle into the helper springs. I added air bags earlier this year and saw a noticeable improvement in the ride. Now my truck sags only slightly with about 40 lbs. in the bags. I put enough air in the bags so I'm just off the helpers. The truck is level now and I had to lower my hitch so the 5th wheel is level.

Interesting. This past week, I had to make two trips to LV to pick up - drop off my daughter at the airport. I stopped counting the number of pickups pulling 5ers that their headlights were lighting up the top of telephone poles.

If the rear of your truck is sagging 3", you better bet that your headlights are way up there and blinding everyone coming towards you.

Air Bags or other devices to get your headlights back down to normal setting is a must!

Ron

Bedlam wrote:
If you have the camper package with the upper overload springs, you just need the Torklift upper StableLoads to engage that spring sooner. If you do not, I would suggest Timbrens or SuperSprings to get greater spring rate. Bags will help some of that sag, but 3" worth of sag will be hard on the bags and most likely make your truck mushy and porpoising.

I do have the camper pkg.

grampscamper wrote:
I have the camper package on my F250. When I would hookup the 5th wheel the truck would settle into the helper springs. I added air bags earlier this year and saw a noticeable improvement in the ride. Now my truck sags only slightly with about 40 lbs. in the bags. I put enough air in the bags so I'm just off the helpers. The truck is level now and I had to lower my hitch so the 5th wheel is level.

Which brand air bags? Do you have a on board compressor?

Colo Native wrote:

Bedlam wrote:
If you have the camper package with the upper overload springs, you just need the Torklift upper StableLoads to engage that spring sooner. If you do not, I would suggest Timbrens or SuperSprings to get greater spring rate. Bags will help some of that sag, but 3" worth of sag will be hard on the bags and most likely make your truck mushy and porpoising.

I do have the camper pkg.

If you look at the perches in relation to the springs, you will see that it takes quite a bit of spring deflection on the main pack befor the overload spring engages. using a taller pad will kick in your overload sooner allow for less sag.

Here you can see the upper and lower StableLoad on my F250:



This camper is about 4000 lbs when loaded with gear and water and you can see how level it sits:



I did use Firestone air bags at around 50 PSI in addition to the StableLoads when I connected my 8000 lb enclosed trailer using a WHD on a 2.5' receiver extension:







For those that decry I am overloading, The Sterling axle handles 9750 lbs, Vision 19.5" rims handle 4500 lbs and 245/70R195.5 tires handle 4805 lbs. I was about 7000 lbs on the rear axle with the camper and 8000 lbs on the rear with the camper and trailer. GVW was over 12k lbs and GCW was over 19K lbs even though GVWR was 9800 lbs and GCWR was 23.5K lbs.