Ride Rite Air Bags

path1 wrote:

Colo Native wrote:
Just wondering what others have done.

What I did...

One fitting for each side. Reason, so air can't bleed one to another when cornering.

Each air line terminates where I can fill with small compressor, right from cab. Under my running board side step, by drivers door.

Get a "tube cutter" to cut air lines. My pocket knife made rough cuts and I had a couple small air leaks. Nice clean cuts at 90 degrees will save hassles of messing with small air leaks later.

I put vinyl tubing around air line if there was any chance of it rubbing on metal.

I know some people have air pumps, air tanks and gauges in their trucks. They can push a button left or right and pump starts and gives psi level and all. But for me, airing up with bicycle pump is the way to go. Mine are only 1/4 inch airline so there is not much air volume needed anyways. About 8 or 10 strokes does me fine. Maybe 14 or 16 if real heavy load in pick up bed.

I don't air up to a certain psi. I air up till I'm level. I sometimes have load in pick up (fire wood or whatever) so filling to a certain psi didn't make me level. I just put a level on rail of pick up and pump till level.

http://www.amazon.com/Ridgid-23488-Scissor-Style-Plastic-Tubing/dp/B0019MLSLS

I didn't think of this at the time, but I saw a guy that mounted his air valve pretty slick. He picked up an old eye glasses case from junk store for couple bucks. He mounted his air valves inside the eye case and that was mounted where the gas cap is. Pretty good IMO. Easy to reach and out of the weather.

exactly what ^^ said.

This is my 4th truck putting the bags on. I did 2 separate valves to prevent the air from being forced side to side and put the valves in place of the license plate screws on all 4.

Dave H M wrote:
I have run with a T for 18 years (two different vehicles) with nary an issue. I don't do much flat track racing while hooked up though.

To me that transfer of air and whatever is urban legend taken all the way to the ozone level.

BTW, I drilled a hole in the bumper adjacent to the license plate. i air up before leaving and air down at the destination.

Urban legend like a sway bar is. Until you have a truck that rides totally on air and run it both ways then you wouldn't understand

I have run with a T for 18 years (two different vehicles) with nary an issue. I don't do much flat track racing while hooked up though.

To me that transfer of air and whatever is urban legend taken all the way to the ozone level.

BTW, I drilled a hole in the bumper adjacent to the license plate. i air up before leaving and air down at the destination.

I installed mine with separate lines, valves at the license plate.

spoon059 wrote:

transamz9 wrote:
It's not just in turns. Just a light wiggle of the steering wheel running straight down the road shifts a lot of weight when you are loaded. When running the bags together the pressures will always equalize. The small air springs you guys are using fluctuate greatly in pressures with the slightest little compression. When one side loads up more than the other it will lift the other side when running them together. When running them separately one side loads up the spring will gain pressure holding the load up better and the other side will hold the same or loose pressure not lifting up on the lighter side as much.

And yet in 4 years of towing I never had a SINGLE issue... towing with a half ton "grocery getter" none the less. I was either super lucky, or the Tee fitting in the air bags isn't nearly as big of a deal as some people make it out to be...

Didn't one time say you were going to have an issue. Just stated a fact that you were not getting the full potential out of your bags.

Fulltimer50 wrote:
I put my separate fill connections in two rear license plate holes.

That's where I located my ONE fill valve, just to the right of the plate. It worked well, easy to add or release air or to just check it.

Dan

transamz9 wrote:
It's not just in turns. Just a light wiggle of the steering wheel running straight down the road shifts a lot of weight when you are loaded. When running the bags together the pressures will always equalize. The small air springs you guys are using fluctuate greatly in pressures with the slightest little compression. When one side loads up more than the other it will lift the other side when running them together. When running them separately one side loads up the spring will gain pressure holding the load up better and the other side will hold the same or loose pressure not lifting up on the lighter side as much.

And yet in 4 years of towing I never had a SINGLE issue... towing with a half ton "grocery getter" none the less. I was either super lucky, or the Tee fitting in the air bags isn't nearly as big of a deal as some people make it out to be...

spoon059 wrote:
I used a Tee fitting. If you are going so fast that you have to worry about air dumping from one side to the other while turning, you shouldn't be towing or hauling. I got tired of trying to adjust the bags perfectly right, and if you have a WDH and unequal pressure in your bags you can put more strain on one WDH bar than the other.

I never had a problem with the Tee fitting. If I have a load in the bed or am hauling the trailer, I'm not taking turns fast enough to worry about the possibility of body roll.

It's not just in turns. Just a light wiggle of the steering wheel running straight down the road shifts a lot of weight when you are loaded. When running the bags together the pressures will always equalize. The small air springs you guys are using fluctuate greatly in pressures with the slightest little compression. When one side loads up more than the other it will lift the other side when running them together. When running them separately one side loads up the spring will gain pressure holding the load up better and the other side will hold the same or loose pressure not lifting up on the lighter side as much.

I have a little different set up than what you are doing but what I have is a tee plumbed in with a valve to where I can run the bags independently or together. When towing especially on winding curvy back roads I have them running independently. It gives a more stable ride and the truck responds better. When running empty or light or on uneven ground I run them together. It allows the rear axle to osculate better and gives better traction.

Personally if I were doing the helper bag set-up what I would do is have one fill but I would put a valve on one side of the tee to separate the bags while in use.