Firestone Airbag Lift Spacers
Firestone Airbag lift Spacers Project After installing heavier springs on the rear axle, the Firestone Air Bags no longer sat on the spring, but had about an inch and a quarter space between them. I...
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I am confused a bit, are you making it level or are you bringing it back to the empty hight, and if the latter was that level or a little high in the back like trucks should sit so they are level when they have the load on?
This truck is setup to ride level unloaded. If I put 2000 pounds of concrete in the bed, it drops down but is close to level. If I put a 3000 pound TC with another 500 pounds of our stuff in it, the truck will drop a couple inches even with those big springs which I am pretty sure provide more weight carrying capacity than adding a pair of Timbrens with bump stops. The left side of the TC seems to be heavier and causes a slight left lean. The airbags allow me to compensate for ride height and to correct the left lean. I get back to a pretty level, normal ride using the airbags. Headlights aren't pointing into oncoming faces.
Did you custom set the springs, so it rides level empty? Stock, the rear aways sits a bit high, so adding beefier springs would typically increase that. If so, why didn't you keep the normal spacing?
^They could vary we’ll be and likely are stock type replacements.
some Super duty’s of that era had a heavy front spring package. Call it a snowplow package or whatever. Came from the factory “leveled”. And rode like a lumber wagon. Had a bunch of early superdoodys in the fleet with this package. Looked like a 2” front port basically.I used the factory shackles all around. Looking at them, you could see they were clearly heavier than the supplied shackle frame mounts that came with the rear springs. No effort to modify ride height was made.
I put in the heavier springs and airbags could hardly manage the weight of the TC and our stuff. Stock, unloaded, it rode fairly vevel but the front left rode about an inch and a half lower. The front left spring had weakened and has a visibly different, flatter arc than the front right. I do have a rear spring installation video showing all that detail you can watch if you want. I also have a more recent 3 leaf front spring with newer details you can watch too. Unloaded, the truck sat pretty high in the rear. Loaded with the new front springs, it sat sat nearly flat, level, front to back, right to left. The left seemed a bit lower.than the right, half to three quarters of an inch. Installing the airbags with spacers, requires less air pressure to achieve complete level. Unloaded, the truck rides nearly flat, half an inch lower in front. Empty, its a solid ride and can sting like a bee, loaded, it floats like a butterfly.
Thank you to "The Greatest" for the quote!
ahh ok, I was hoping with heavier springs you wouldn't need them, setting up the springs is always the best option.
