airbags and stableloads

ah64id wrote:
I know several people who have put the 5100's on with great results with a TC..

Personally I won't ever run the RS9000 again, all hype in my experience (several sets on multiple rigs, thou never a TC.. had long since abandoned them before a TC hit the family).

X2 regarding Bilsteins. Chose them when many on Cummins, Dodge and this forum members highly recommended these shocks.

There is no disputing that the 5100 series is a great shock for just about all situations that involve a truck. All except hauling a heavy camper. Call Bilstein and ask them what they would recommend. I did call them after having serious sway with my 5100 on my 2012 Ram 3500 SRW. Take a guess what they told me?

Yes they rode great when not hauling my camper. However, the trick for me was to instal the RS9000xl and run them at 3 when empty and then crank them up to 10 when loaded with the camper. Huge difference!

Based on my own experience I would NOT recommend Bilstein 5100 series shocks.

My experience

I have the exact same truck that you have, with both upper and lower stable loads and Rancho 9000's. I added uppers first and they did nothing to raise the back end, but did eliminate some sway. Then I added the lowers and it lifted the back a little over an inch, so now I have about 1 1/2" of squat with no water on board. With full tanks and loaded to go, I'm back to about 2". This is pretty good, but I am interested to see how the bags work out for you because ideally I would like some adjustability.

As far as the stableloads damaging the lower overload, I can't see it happening on our trucks. That spring is incredibly thick and tough. I think the stable loads would get destroyed before the spring. They seem to be made of softer steel. Time will tell. Springs are not that expensive, so it's a cheap fix some day in the future if necessary.

I added Rancho 9000's last. The stock shocks had 46,000 miles on them and it was not ideal. I set the back's at 9 and the fronts at 6 and the ride is much more stable. When road condition cause the load to sway, it now recovers with one move instead of wobbling. Don't know if they will last based on some reports from others, but I'm happy with them now. All the shocks I researched had reports of failure, so it's hard to know if these are more or less reliable than the other choices.

Please let us know how it works out with the air bags.

sky_free wrote:
I have the exact same truck that you have, with both upper and lower stable loads and Rancho 9000's. I added uppers first and they did nothing to raise the back end, but did eliminate some sway. Then I added the lowers and it lifted the back a little over an inch, so now I have about 1 1/2" of squat with no water on board. With full tanks and loaded to go, I'm back to about 2". This is pretty good, but I am interested to see how the bags work out for you because ideally I would like some adjustability.

As far as the stableloads damaging the lower overload, I can't see it happening on our trucks. That spring is incredibly thick and tough. I think the stable loads would get destroyed before the spring. They seem to be made of softer steel. Time will tell. Springs are not that expensive, so it's a cheap fix some day in the future if necessary.

I added Rancho 9000's last. The stock shocks had 46,000 miles on them and it was not ideal. I set the back's at 9 and the fronts at 6 and the ride is much more stable. When road condition cause the load to sway, it now recovers with one move instead of wobbling. Don't know if they will last based on some reports from others, but I'm happy with them now. All the shocks I researched had reports of failure, so it's hard to know if these are more or less reliable than the other choices.

Please let us know how it works out with the air bags.

I put my upper stableloads on almost immediately after I got my first TC. Brought the rear end up maybe an inch or so. I would be ecstatic if I could get 1.5-2" of sag reduction just from the lowers. I just don't know if its going to be worth the cost. I know I can get them for 180 shipped from Amazon, but I would like to have them dealer installed. I know people will say its an easy install, but I know can't do anything worthwhile with hand tools and do not trust myself tinkering around with the rear suspension of my tow vehicle. Would rather just pay for professional install and have peace of mind while I'm driving through the mountains and not worrying about my rear end falling off.

Anyway, only place in town that has the lowers in stock is the dealer who is doing my bag install and they are priced at 242.00 at the shop (!). My airbag installation is being squeezed in on Tuesday and all the RV shops here are booked solid well through June, so if I don't get the lowers and have them installed on Tuesday with the airbags I'd be waiting for July to get them put on (this also rules out me buying them from Amazon and bringing them into the shop since I need to have them delivered by Tuesday and the free shipping from Amazon to Alaska is sent Parcel Pool which takes about 2 weeks from date of order).

Kind of leaning towards just skipping the lower stableloads and just using the Firestone airbags in conjunction with the existing upper stableloads that are one there. I was thinking about it last night and I gather the point of these is to preload the overloads because in many instances they won't even engage with a load in the bed, but I am just about at my max payload hovering around 4500-5000 lbs. in the truck bed. Shouldn't that be enough weight to sufficiently engage the overloads? Are the stabeloads even necessary with a weight that large?

In terms of return on cost, I would be paying 242 + ~100 bucks or so in labor for install on the lowers........ Rancho is having their summer sale and I can get a 100.00 rebate and order a set of 4 9000xl's for about 300 bucks. I think the shocks would be a more apparent upgrade in ride quality than the lowers for the price, still hoping someone on here has a 350 with the uppers, lowers and airbags and can chime in on the ride.

thejustin wrote:


Kind of leaning towards just skipping the lower stableloads and just using the Firestone airbags in conjunction with the existing upper stableloads that are one there. I was thinking about it last night and I gather the point of these is to preload the overloads because in many instances they won't even engage with a load in the bed, but I am just about at my max payload hovering around 4500-5000 lbs. in the truck bed. Shouldn't that be enough weight to sufficiently engage the overloads? Are the stabeloads even necessary with a weight that large?

Yes, but raising the back with the bags will disengage the lower stock overloads at some point and possibly result in too much sway. You may be able to get as much lift as you want with the bags without disengaging the lower stock overloads without going to lower stableloads if you inflate the bags just below the point where the lowers are disengaged. Maybe you should take an incremental approach and do the airbags first and see how it works out without the lower stableloads.

I did find that the lower stableloads are much more complicated to install than the uppers. It's not difficult, but there are lots of parts and figuring out how it all goes together from the instructions and pictures was a challenge on the first one. After the first one was done, each additional one was easy and only took about 15-minutes. I'm an engineer with moderate wrenching skills.

Airbags, when plumbed independently, will reduce sway.

ah64id wrote:
Airbags, when plumbed independently, will reduce sway.

Definitely going to get them plumbed individually rather than doing a single T fill valve. I really don't have any sway at all with the camper. My primary concern is just lifting the rear end back up a few inches. From what I am reading I just need to be careful to not overinflate the bags with too much pressure else I will lift the camper off the stock suspension and induce some unwanted sway.

After I get the truck back on Tuesday I plan on going for a drive and doing some real world testing to see if I can nail down the perfect psi number for my particular rig and camper. Want to have all this ironed out before fishing season starts in June!

My recommendation is to have the bags at 5 psi, and measure the height of the rear wheel wells. Then load the camper, start adding air to the bags get so it's 1-2" lower than empty, assuming no level kit.

I think you will find that is a good mix of weight on the bags and weight on the springs.

One thing, don't prefill the bags with a loaded psi, it could easily overinflated them once loaded.

Get the bags at the pressure you want loaded and then record, then you can unload and see what the pressure drops to. That would be your empty pressure.

With my load of about 3K on the rear axle I know that 10 psi empty gets me about 25 loaded and I am good for full weight, 7 psi empty gets me 15 loaded if I don't have a full camping load.

ah64id wrote:
My recommendation is to have the bags at 5 psi, and. measure the height of the rear wheel wells. Then load the camper. Adding air to the bags get so it's 1-2" lower than empty, assuming no level kit.

I think you will find that is a good mix of weight on the bags and weight on the springs.

One thing, don't prefill the bags with a loaded psi, it could easily overinflated them once loaded.

Get the bags at the pressure you want loaded and then record, then you can unload and see what the pressure drops to. That would be your empty pressure.

With my load of about 3K on the rear axle I know that 10 psi empty gets me about 25 loaded and I am good. 7 psi empty gets me 15 loaded if I don't have a full camping load.

Thanks for the tips. Interested to see how this all works out.