I just took my airbags off of my truck
When I purchased my new F150 I was afraid that I would not be happy with its load carrying capacity after driving an F250 for over 20 years so I immediately put on a set of airbags. The ride was so bad that my wife refused to get in the truck after a short time. After trying everything else that I could think of I broke down and took the airbags back off. Now the truck rides much better empty and not too badly with an 11,000lb trailer behind it.
I think that my mistake was that I bought the bags that Airlift advertises as their premium product but they are really intended for duallies, not F150's. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the customer service from Airlift. In fact they are excellent to work with. My only complaint is the ride. I may order their smaller springs some day that may be sized more appropriately for an F150. I may also do like Freightliner did on my DP and put ping tanks in the airlines to soften the effects of the airbags on the ride. I regularly pull near the max rated capacity of the truck and have noticed some shudder when taking off hard from a stop. I think is from axle hop but other than that no real loss other than the jarring ride. I did not have that shudder with the airbags on. I do use a load distributing hitch to deal with the tongue weight.
So my advice would be that if you are putting airbags on a half ton truck don't get the 5,000lb ones, get something more appropriately sized. Now I am pondering the best way to get ping tanks and how big they should be.
I think that my mistake was that I bought the bags that Airlift advertises as their premium product but they are really intended for duallies, not F150's. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the customer service from Airlift. In fact they are excellent to work with. My only complaint is the ride. I may order their smaller springs some day that may be sized more appropriately for an F150. I may also do like Freightliner did on my DP and put ping tanks in the airlines to soften the effects of the airbags on the ride. I regularly pull near the max rated capacity of the truck and have noticed some shudder when taking off hard from a stop. I think is from axle hop but other than that no real loss other than the jarring ride. I did not have that shudder with the airbags on. I do use a load distributing hitch to deal with the tongue weight.
So my advice would be that if you are putting airbags on a half ton truck don't get the 5,000lb ones, get something more appropriately sized. Now I am pondering the best way to get ping tanks and how big they should be.
