Firestone airbags not leveling F350
 

Installed a set of firestone air bags on a 2013 F350 dually this morning. Owner was pissed when he first hooked up his trailer, an easy 4" of sag when it was on. For comparison, his 2004 F350 dually sags maybe .5-1" with the same trailer, not sure what it weighs

We aired up the bags after i was done, to 85 psi and the truck still sits about 1.5"-2" lower in the back. Do these things really sag that bad? Anything else we can do to level the truck out with a load?

I'd consider something like a add a spring in the rear. 1" ought to do it.

Yeah thats what i suggested as well. At least the overloads arent touching anymore! around 2-3" of clearance from those and the stoppers now

Seems to be a theme since 2008 where the spring rates were soften for the unloaded ride.

I think they went too far for the 2011 and ups.

I am considering a 4" block instead of the factory 2" block, worst part is I should have done it BEFORE putting on the bags.

Interesting to hear this because my new 2013 F350 SRW CC doesn't squat at all with the 16K toyhauler on the fiver. I do have the snow plow prep in front so the truck is level to start with but with the fiver on I'm barely touching the helper spring - might be down .5 to .75 from unloaded, no more.

Wow, and this is a dually truck. Heres the exact same trailer on his 04...dont have a pic of '13 but the nose was sky high before, not terrible now but wish it was better. Should tell him to put the plow on the front, thatll level it

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...43232537_n.jpg

these new trucks are just big soccer mom trucks, this past weekend my cousin wanted to sod his yard at his new house. Said ill lend the F350 for the work, two pallets of FRESH sod in the bed and three pallets on my 16ft 8k landscape trailer and i was still riding REAR HIGH. Yet a brand new F250 diesel next to me only had one pallet and was sitting like the rear springs were busted! The guy was like "i should have ordered a F350 instead" i laughed to myself and just said "yea thats why i did" but we all all know that isnt the real reason

by the way your truck looks SICK

Just found this so so quality cell phone picture of the truck with the fiver attached. Not perfect because things are on level ground but I think you can see that there is almost no sag with the RV on the truck. No modifications to the suspension. 20" wheels with the Michelins. I think you can see from the wheel wells that the truck is level with the trailer on. On flat ground it is level - we measured sag at the RV dealer and it wasn't enough to write home about.

http://vtbryans.smugmug.com/Other/mo...7-47_HDR-M.jpg

not trying to start a fight but i can clearly see the rear fender gap is a good inch to a inch and a half less than the front

No offense taken. On level ground we measured between .5 and .75 sag. Not none but not enough to put us on the helper spring. In this photo the trailer is sloping uphill, the truck is sloping downhill. Like I said, not a great picture because the ground isn't level.

The Firestone kit provides 5,000 lbs of lift support at 100 PSI. Meaning that if the suspension wasn't at the original height with 100 PSI then he had over 5,000 lbs on the rear axle.

indeed..looks like it sat down about 3-3.5 inches from stock height

Maybe, but it doesn't look anything like the new trucks I've seen hauling smaller trailers that make it look like the front wheels are about to come off the ground.

That's pretty impressive for no airbags I think. Maybe he has the trailer filled with helium or something. :)