So hooked up this morning. With the way the hauler was loaded, had right about 3k on the pin. First thing I noticed was that the front side of the overloads was not engaged. Since I hadn't aired the bags yet, I knew it was on it's internal bumper. I guess it is taller than the factory bump stop. I wasn't happy about this as this means as long as these bags are installed, the overload is no longer in play. I wanted to supplement it, not replace it. Anyways, aired up 50 lbs on each side which brought me up to almost unloaded height. This took both ends of the overloads out of play so my next fear was on a good bump, would the end of the overload that was still able to contact it's stop slap it and jar the truck? Well, nothing left to do but hit the road and see if $270 and a days work was worthwhile. At first I was very happy. No slapping of the overload and seemed more stable. After about an hour though, I found my favorite section of 495 here in MA. About half the bridges are only survivable at 45 MPH or less. Anything over that and my head about hits the headliner and the wife braces for impact. Well, with my fancy new airbags installed I found my bald spot wearing a little thinner and there was no napping for the bride. Same as before.

So, to wrap it up.... Small bumps and stability improved. No change in unloaded ride. However, the reason I bought them, whooped out bridges, were the same bouncing, rocking, and rolling. Ah well, at least the deal was good and I did get some small improvement. Just not what I was after. I suppose I could air them up further but the back of my truck is already so tall that I am going to have to lift my rv to get it level. Will try 75 lbs on the way home and see how that does....

 

Thanks for the review. Out of curiosity, are you still using the standard shock absorbers?

 

Bilstein's since 1000 miles. 3 of 4 stockers were blown when they came out with that mileage, lol...

 

I was really hoping you had a favorable experience. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

with my 250 srw and ride rites I still had a bounce on the really bad bridges so I don't think it would have been any better with them as opposed to airlift.

My pin weight was 3K and no overloads.

 

Sounds like the lower mounts need to be moved down to allow the bags and overloads to work together... If that is possible for your setup given the block overload tangs.

 

If only... Not possible though...

 

Anything is possible. You have several options:

- cut tang off factory block and come up with new lower mount
- replace spacer block with one that doesn't have tang and get new lower mount.
- get a block fabricated with the lower mount in the right spot.
Ford Fabricated Lift Blocks
you can get an air bag mount instead of a tang - just call and discuss.
- Fabricate your own block with the mount in the right spot.
- Call airlift and see if they will swap the bags for the non-jounce style (or buy them)

Get under there with a tape measure and you will see what you need to do. You may find that the bag is too short extended to move the lower mount down to where it needs to go. In that case you can get different bags or daystar cups
Daystar™ - Driven by Design

It appears that the 88396 kits comes with #58494 bags (88396 instructions say 58437 which are the non-jounce style in the 57396 kit, so likely an error)

#58494
ext height = 8.25
comp height = 2.7
travel = 8.25 - 2.7 = 5.55" <-- !?!!!

You truck has about 5" of axle uptravel. To get the overload/bag to work together you will need to put lower mount where the bag is already at full extenion at ride height. This will prevent the axle from having any down travel and will have a negitive impact on ride and control.

 

GREAT POST!

 

Just going to the 58437 bag from the 57396 kit will help, as the compressed height is less. See the pfd I attached in the previous post.

#58437
ext 9.1
comp 2.3 (0.4 shorter than 58494)
travel = 9.1 - 2.3 = 6.8 (well, better but not good)

If you truck is similar to mine the lower mount needs to go down about 1-1/4"

 

Guys, while I appreciate your thoughts and I'm sure they are well thought out and would be successful, they are the VERY LAST THING I am interested in doing. I bought a complete kit to solve a very rare issue while towing. Just buying it and taking the time to install it was more than I really wanted to do since I only wanted help dealing with 5-7 bridges on a regular route I tow on. The truck was 100% fine in every other situation. So, spending one more minute or one more dollar re-engineering it is absolutely out of the question. I'll use it as is until something on it fails. Then I'll cut it off and put the factory stops back on and pretend it was all just a bad dream. I don't mean to be harsh, but I thought a complete kit was well tested and 100% application specific. I no idea it would be a trial/error/fabricating situation. If I had known that, I would have run in the opposite direction.

Oh, and the bottom line is this. I really don't care that the overload is out of play. What I'm disappointed in the most is that the bags did nothing to cure the excessive bouncing on these certain bridges and all the fabrication and mount moving won't cure that...

 

I never towed my current fifth wheel without Ride Rite airbags because I installed them the week before I picked the trailer up. I have towed it locally with minimum pressure in the bags, but at low speed it is no big deal. I started out with 45 psi and although that kept the truck fairly level, it did bounce pretty bad on rough bridge approaches/departures. I tried 50 and that was better but still had the bounce. For about a year I have been running 55 psi and that is starting to raise the rear of the truck more than I wanted, but it did ride better.

Last week I installed a 2" leveling spacer on the front of my truck and now I have a little more room to play with the rear ride height. Last weekend we made a 40 mile trip with plenty of rough road to get an idea and 60 psi rode much better than anything else I have tried. Until this coming Saturday, I'm still running the weak factory "Rancho" shocks on the truck. I hope that a new set of 9000XLs will help with the bounce. More air pressure helps with the problem, but ultimately it is the strength of the shocks that allow the bounce to continue. My biggest concern about your setup would be that you seem to be continuously stuck on the internal bump stop in the airbags. That has to make for a rougher ride due to the limited suspension travel.

 

Hi Matt,

That's great news that more pressure may be the trick. Will def try on the way home Saturday. And, I think you misread my post too. I'm not always on the internal stops. The only time I was on them is when I hooked up to the fiver before inflating the bags. Once I had any pressure in them at all I am off the stops. I am also not on them when unloaded with the bags empty...

 

Sorry, I was interpreting that you were on the stops when loaded even with the bags inflated. Nonetheless, that still isn't giving you much suspension travel. Hopefully higher pressure will help, but I'm betting you will still need a more aggressive shock to completely cure it.

You didn't mention what model Bilstein that you have. If they are 4600s, that may be part of your problem. I'm getting ready to try the Rancho 9000s (install tomorrow) because I couldn't pass up the shocktober deal, but ultimately with >3000 lbs pin weight, I'm guessing that a heavier remote reservoir shock like the Bilstein 5160 may be necessary. No matter how much spring you have, it takes a lot of shock to dampen the bounce of that much weight on one of these trucks.

 

Bilsteins are 5100's. Like I said, I'm not going any further as the truck is 100% perfect towing this weight except for a few very rare bridges. Yet another reason to move out of MA LOL. In over 5k miles, other than on 495 in MA, I've never had an issue on any other road in 7 other states and Canada.