I just put on Airlift airbags on my 3500 and am finding that it is preventing the load from being carried on the overloads.I have done a fair amount of googling and am not finding people with my particular issue, could just be me?When I bought my camper in Ohio, it loaded up nicely and the truck sat with the frame perfectly level. I was happy with how it rode for the most part but some of the harder bumps on 90 felt like I was hitting the bumpstops so I was hoping to get a little extra cushion. I read some of the various options and didn't want to mess with the suspension (engage overloads earlier, etc), just wanted the option to raise up a little bit if the situation dictated.I added the airlifts, which install in the place of the bumpstops and am now finding myself in the situation where the upper and lower brackets plus airbags are fully collapsed/pancaked with 5psi and the overloads are just barely touching the stops on the frame. Fully aired down, I am also no longer level when loaded up which means I will always have to block up the front when parked. Now it looks like if I want to use the airbags, I will need to put some extensions on the overloads which will put me even higher in the rear for normal travel. I have no interest in raising the front to compensate for the additional lift in the back, not sure what my options are even if I did with a 2wd.Has anyone gone on this journey and have any suggestions?

I use Energy Suspension bump stops. They are taller than stock.

Air them down a bit until it’s riding on the overloads. More stable than riding on mostly air. How much air you putting in? 4500lb camper on original 175k mile shortbed 2500 springs With lower wedges = about 50 psi for me. Guessing you need maybe 10psi or close to that. If that’s too low, then upper stable loads of homemade uppers out of hockey pucks work.If it’s not engaging the lowers, lower stable loads or homemade wedges. Sounds like you didn’t need much help with the suspension in the first place. By the time you do theses things you may not need or want the bags at all....craigslist is the answer for that.

Not sure how no air makes it ride higher than before unless you were actually on the bumpstops before. But anyway, nothing wrong with a little rake to the trucks stance. And I’ve rarely camped anywhere that didn’t need a few blocks to level up so I wouldn’t worry about it. Or maybe I just don’t find level campsites.

I’ve been using upper Stable Loads with Firestone air bags for many years. Put just enough air in the bags so the Stable Loads are in contact with the over load springs. For my rig it’s about 20 lbs.

You will have a really bouncy ride and more sway with the load taken off the overloads, I went through that on my 2013 2500HD and ended up going with helper springs instead. The problem with that is the unloaded ride is rough. The air bags also raised my rear about 2” making loading and unloading at the upper extension of my jacks.

Airbags not working with overloads | Good Sam Community

jimh406
Explorer III
Jul 16, 2020
I use Energy Suspension bump stops. They are taller than stock.
Grit_dog
Navigator
Jul 16, 2020
Air them down a bit until it’s riding on the overloads. More stable than riding on mostly air. How much air you putting in? 4500lb camper on original 175k mile shortbed 2500 springs With lower wedges = about 50 psi for me. Guessing you need maybe 10psi or close to that.
If that’s too low, then upper stable loads of homemade uppers out of hockey pucks work.
If it’s not engaging the lowers, lower stable loads or homemade wedges.
Sounds like you didn’t need much help with the suspension in the first place. By the time you do theses things you may not need or want the bags at all....craigslist is the answer for that.
Grit_dog
Navigator
Jul 16, 2020
Not sure how no air makes it ride higher than before unless you were actually on the bumpstops before. But anyway, nothing wrong with a little rake to the trucks stance.
And I’ve rarely camped anywhere that didn’t need a few blocks to level up so I wouldn’t worry about it. Or maybe I just don’t find level campsites.
bigfootgrey
Explorer
Jul 16, 2020
I’ve been using upper Stable Loads with Firestone air bags for many years. Put just enough air in the bags so the Stable Loads are in contact with the over load springs. For my rig it’s about 20 lbs.
S_Davis
Explorer
Jul 16, 2020
You will have a really bouncy ride and more sway with the load taken off the overloads, I went through that on my 2013 2500HD and ended up going with helper springs instead. The problem with that is the unloaded ride is rough. The air bags also raised my rear about 2” making loading and unloading at the upper extension of my jacks.
WyoBull
Explorer
Jul 16, 2020
I have not had that problem with my 2017 F350 and I have Torklift upper Stableloads in addition to Airlift 5000 Ultimate air bags.

I am wondering if it is a Dodge Ram issue as I have not heard of this before with the Super Duty's? My camper weighs 3600-3800 lbs fully wet and when I put my camper on my truck, I set the airbags to where my overload springs are just past engaging the upper overload spring. For my camper, that means putting about 35 lbs of air in the bags.
BigfootBill
Explorer
Jul 17, 2020
Thanks all. I am going to take some measurements and then pull the airbags. With the airbags fully aired down to 5psi, sitting on their internal bumpstops, the camper already feels quite a bit more unstable than before, before putting air in and getting off the tips of the overloads. In order to fix this, I see needing to do additional improvements (more money) in order to try to get back to where I was stock.

I have the first camping trip coming up next week so I am going to go back to where I was before, fully stock and see how it rides loaded up with water and family. I believe in the future I will be looking towards aftermarket axle bumpstops, hydraulic or other progressive design and overload extensions or adding a third overload/helper spring to each side.

I do like the idea of an adjustable spring rate, which you get with airbags. From my initial searching, I could also get that with torklift lower stableloads but would need to lift the camper off the truck to pivot them out of the way when I got to where I wanted to stop for the night. Not ideal, but nothing ever is.

My last option is to modify the current airbag brackets to try to get more compression room so that they are not flat when the truck is level but I'm not sure there is enough room based on their design.
BigfootBill
Explorer
Jul 17, 2020
WyoBull wrote:

I am wondering if it is a Dodge Ram issue as I have not heard of this before with the Super Duty's?

I am thinking it may be a 2wd issue. I had gotten the numbers from airlift when I was researching what bags to get and both the 2wd and 4wd models had the same minimum size, when fully compressed, but the 4wd had 2 more inches of travel in the bag. It is my understanding, without doing any actual research, that the 4wd has the rear blocked up to maintain the same truck rake or angle that the 2wd has, while the front is higher due to the design. This means that the distance from the frame to axle is larger in the back when the truck sits level, as the front is higher.

I am still not sure if this is actually the case, however, as I would guess I need to raise the front about 2 inches to make the truck level when the airbags are sitting on their internal bumpstop.

Maybe the question I should be asking is how many people are actually level in the camper when they pull into a level parking spot.
ticki2
Explorer
Jul 17, 2020
I think you have hit upon the right solution . The issue is the 2wd suspension . The front is lower than a 4wd so there is no way to raise the rear without being too high in the rear. They make simple inexpensive coil spring spacers for the front coils that will give you about 2" lift . As far as being level for the campsite I would not be concerned , it is rare to find a perfectly level campsite so you will most likely do some blocking regardless of you trucks stance .
Geo_Boy
Explorer II
Jul 17, 2020
Timbren makes a front kit for your truck, https://timbren.com/i-30497575.

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Airbags not working with overloads

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