Front Air Bag Helper Springs

[timothyr1014]

imho....it's either those or a rebuilt bench every year($400)ea.
In a short wheelbase towtruck, any relief from bouncing off the cracks in the pavement is welcome

And in your line of truck abuse I would go for those as well...part of the reason for my cc was the ride over the long haul.

do you do recoveries out in holister hills? miss being out there

 

[towcat]

I have 980k logbook miles on one F450. I bought this truck in '93. The rest of my fleet is significantly less. when you're beat up daily, any relief is welcome to my weary bones.
I don't disagree with your comments, but my body is telling me differently

 

[timothyr1014]

I use to do otr....the game is very different when your in the seat 12 hours at a time...at that point $1400 is cheap for a little relief

 

[apextrans]

Apex, look into taller bags...from looking at the pics, going to a 2" taller bag would make it much happier. Another thing to keep in mind, shop around a bit...95% of the bags out there are firestones and they by far are the best (and its easy to spot a knock off)...as a ballpark I typically pay about $85 per bag, and $250 for a complete kit...I only say this because in apex case these is no sense in spending $250 for a new kit when what needs to be changed is only $160....the mounts and air fittings are universal.

Tim, believe it or not that was the taller bag. That truck has since been sold & I fabbed up my current rear setup because nobody makes a kit for OBS to work with a B&W Turnoverball hitch. Bought my bags for cheap off the site here & all went well.

I ran my front bags at about 60psi, granted they were stretched out, and had no trouble with eating tires

 

[TBigLug]

I came across another site I found when looking for bags in the past.

https://www.airbagit.com/

Being from MI I'd rather see people go with Michigan Truck Spring but I'm all about options.

 

[timothyr1014]

apex, the only time I buy a kit is when its 100% stock. somewhere I have a listing of every bag firestone makes that give you all of the dimensions and capacities...I have found that as soon as you start dealing in any modifications you end up throwing the kit numbers out the window...this even includes the ones that say things like "for up to a 4" lift"

 

[TBigLug]

timothy- did you ever find the list of the bags? I'd be interested in reading through that when modifying my truck this summer.

 

[timothyr1014]

i will dig it up....pm me an email address and I will PDF it to you

 

[apextrans]

"for up to a 4" lift"

Those 6 little words were the beginning of a world of aggravation. Those bags in the pictures were the tallest double bellows they offered without going into a medium duty bag. Medium duty would have rubbed everywhere.

Sorry to Hijack, being all stock, you will be able to accomplish your goal with a pretty good ride quality IMHO.

 

[timothyr1014]

sorry you had to experience that one the hard way.....

with a group i used to work with we were always trying to figure that out....when they say 4" did they mean 2" per side?

once you cross 2" to make it work right you either need to block it, or go med-duty.

 

[Diesel Max]

Sounds like the general opinions are that the Ride Rites will work well with my stock suspension. I think I'm going to order them and once I get them installed, I'll post back the results. Thanks for all the feedback from everyone.

 

[apextrans]

Yeah, I learned my lesson on that one. I made custom mounts for my PSD in the rear to work with the hitch framing. I have a slight lift in the rear but I made the top mount "adjustable" to keep everything at stock measurements & then adjusted my top mount down a bit to be sure not to overextend the bags. My pin weight it about 1300lbs & with 70psi in the bags, it's level & rides like a dream!

 

[pybyr]

for some unknown reason I've been a big fan of Kelderman kits over the years.
http://www.keldermanairride.com/productdetails.php?id=99FRDFRT

Towcat-- have you run the specific Kelderman that you posted the photo of and link to? Looks as if they have you remove most of the leaf pack except one layer (and part of a remaining layer for lateral stiffness) so that the leaf serves mostly only a locating role, with the air bag doing the actual load-carrying. Wonder if anyone has ever tried a DIY version of that-- seems like it might gain a lot of the air-suspension benefits with much lower cost than the Keldermans or a 4-link arrangement.