Broke my add-a-leaf, anyone running airbags up front?

[Jake_IN]

Wow, that broke right off in one clean snap....hardly any rust in there indicating a fracture from before.

Yeah i noticed that too and had/has me puzzled. Of course Rough Country never got back with me after 3 emails and 2 phone calls I figured they might be interested by this sense at the time the spring was less than a year old. Guess not...last time they get my money.

 

[Goofyexponent]

Ok, this is about all I know about air ride systems.

PRime-X is the way to go, smoothest ride for the buck and strength.

Mind you this is in a big rig.

With that said, I think that if you were to cut the front springs off, you could have a major failure and the track bar would be taking a lot more abuse...any little wear in that track bar's bushings could spell and interesting ride over teh guard rail, or oncoming traffic.

As far as ride quality and height, you can install limiting valves and ride height valves. They simply have a little piece of rod that goes to teh axle....if you load the truck up, it pushes the rod up, allows air through teh valve and into the bag until the truck sits level again. Once the load is out, the air in the bag will lift the truck, pull down on the rod and let air out of the bag...levelling the truck again. That's the route I would go if I ever went full air ride. Less PITA, but you need an air system on the truck...wether it be electric or a mechanical belt drive compressor. Air ride generally does not suck up a whole lot of air, unless you dump the bags and re-inflate, or are on rough uneven ground, then teh valves will be rilling and emptying the bags quite a bit.

Now, with air ride there are more pivot points and bushing to wear out, if one or two goes bad, tires start to wear unevenly. It has it's down sides, but the plusses outweight the negatives in my opinion.

I wold go with a 4 link setup front and rear, with track bars....adjustable. Make at LEAST the top link adjustabe to compensate for larger tires and whatnot down the road.

 

[F-SERI-ouS]

i have an '08 SD with a complete air bag set up. i will try and post some pictures later. i do not think that you will have a change in ride quality unless you do a 4-link rear. this is because if you just add air springs to the leafs, you will still have the leaf-sprung suspension when the air spings are aired down. as for the front, there is a huge difference in the stock coil-sprung my '08 has, and the stock leaf-spring my '94 idi has. the '94 does not have a "trac(tion)" bar as my '08 does. the actual leaf spings hold the axle in place from moving left to right as much as they provide suspension. on the '08 the coil spings only purpose was to provide suspension, which is where the trac bar came in to hold the axle to the chassis so as not to move right/left. the '94 has what might appear to look like a trac bar, but it is for the steering. it does not actually hold the axle to the chassis as an actual trac bar does.

in short, putting bags on the front axle of a 4x4 and cutting off the front half of the leaf, will DEFINITLY not work. to better quote Jake_IN, it has failure written all over it.

by the way, my '94 is an f-350, so it has the d-60, not the d-50 ttb. not sure what differences the suspension/steering setup may have comparted to the f-250/ttb.

 

[rhkcommander]

will the airbags up front absorb some of the bounce? My rancho shocks are more for offroading I'm guessing . Stock 2-leaf otherwise.

There were some things you can stick on the front of the spring eyes where the leaf spring bushings go to help absorb some too, i forgot what the heck they were called though. They kinda look like a shackle lol

 

[Jake_IN]

What about building a radius arm similar to the coil sprung setups and just using an air bag on top of the axle, similar to where the coil spring sits on F-150's? Thats kind of what i was meaning when i said chop off the front half of the leaf spring. Basically take the setup below and swap the coil spring for an air bag.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Goofyexponent]

What about building a radius arm similar to the coil sprung setups and just using an air bag on top of the axle, similar to where the coil spring sits on F-150's? Thats kind of what i was meaning when i said chop off the front half of the leaf spring. Basically take the setup below and swap the coil spring for an air bag.

You must be registered for see images attach

It can be made to work that way, however I believe it will have a stiff ride even with all that work. My reasoning behind this is now you have a solid mount pisot at teh end of the radius arm, as well as a solid mount pivot at the TTB pivot. It might soften the ride some, but not to the extent you wold think.

Well Jake, it's time to hack that D50 our and get a D60 out of a 350 and go hog wild on this air ride!!!

 

[Goofyexponent]

KW had it right in the early to mid 1980's with their pantened 8 bag suspension. No part of the axle is hard bolted to the frame in a weight taking manner. Litterally the only weight transfer to the axles are through the 8 air bags.

There are torque rods to center the axle, maintain caster, camber and left to right movement as well as those large torsion bars to maintain body roll, but this is the SMOOTHEST riding air ride you will EVER find hands down. Unless you can levitate, you won't beat this!

http://www.truckparts.org/images/products_full/lkq_truckparts/43291_1.jpg

 

[Jake_IN]

KW had it right in the early to mid 1980's with their pantened 8 bag suspension.

I agree with ya there. I got to run a T-600 for a little while and it was a nice ride even bobtailing. Especially compared to the International 9600 I usually run. Hmmmm wonder how hard it would be to fit 4 air bags and all other necessary components under the front of my truck

 

[Goofyexponent]

It's do-able. Anythign is with the right coin and a good head on one's shoulders. I would LOVE to have an air ride, dana 60 front axled F350 CCLB....I mean I could do it, but the money factor is the problem for me. 4 linked, panhard bar and dual medium travel air bags....say about 8-10 inches.

 

[F-SERI-ouS]

ok, someone is going to have to show me how to upload pictures. i just tried and i was unsuccessful.

well jake, you can certainly put bags in the place of those coils. the good news is that the ttb you have is attached to the chassis directly and also by the radius arms. so the only fabrication you will need is going to be a spacer like what i have for my bags. if you convert to the d60 though, you will have to fabricate ALOT MORE, trac-bar, diff radius arms and such.

i do have a question for you though. the pics you have show a 5-lug bolt pattern. is taht the truck you are putting the bags in? does it have an IDI conversion? or is the idi the other pick up in your sig?

 

[Jake_IN]

i do have a question for you though. the pics you have show a 5-lug bolt pattern. is taht the truck you are putting the bags in? does it have an IDI conversion? or is the idi the other pick up in your sig?

haha I'm sorry i should have said something about the picture. Thats just a generic picture i found that best illustrated what i was talking about. Sorry about that.