Is the anyone out there with some experience installing air bags on a 95 F350? Should I remove a leaf? Should they be installed inboard or outboard the frame rails?

 

I had a set of Firestone Ride-Rites on a '95 F-150. They mounted outside the frame rails, which is where I think you'd want them on any truck to add stability. I would also strongly suggest not plumbing them together. If air can move from one side to the other it won't help stability as much either.

Just my thoughts on removing leaves from an F-350 since mine was a half-ton. It would soften the ride but reduce stability and load capacity. Of course the air bags will give you all of the load capacity back, and probably more stability than you lost as well. So I think it would be a win-win, softer ride empty, no loss in capacity and more stability loaded.

Only downside to air bags in my experience is that they do reduce wheel travel. Generally not an issue on a street driven truck. I was sure happy with them on my F-150.

 

Hey nothing special do you use the truck for towing or load capcity?

 

Legal disclaimer: I do NOT recommend people do what I did with my F-150.

After I bought a half ton truck my family decided that a camper was a better deal than a tent. Since we vacationed with a Jeep CJ-5, either the camper had to be something the Jeep could tow, or something that could tow the Jeep. We drove the Jeep from Minnesota to Colorado once (without pulling a camper) and knew that wasn't an option! So we got a slide-in camper for the pickup and flat-towed the Jeep.

Since it was only a half-ton we bought a light-weight pop-up camper (pic of it on my current F-250 in my avatar, better pics in the "Toys" thread in my signature). It weighs about 1100 lbs, so I was legal carrying it with the F-150, until I put my family and a weeks worth of camping gear in it.

Even without the gear it wallowed like a sick pig with the camper. The air bags made it handle the load like an F-250. It drove and handled quite well like that.

BUT, as any air bag manufacturer will tell you, adding air bags does NOT increase your load capacity. What I was doing wasn't legal and I don't recommend it. I eventually traded it in on an '08 F-250 Crew Cab which didn't need air bags to handle the load fine.

I haven't added air bags to my '02 F-350 or my '97 F-250 either. With my light weight camper they haven't needed them. But if you are loading any truck near it's limits, especially if the load is high, like a camper, air bags certainly do add stability.

 

Here is a link that shows the rear kit options for a '95 F350: 1995 Ford F-350 Pickup Air Bag Suspension Kits | Air Lift Company

 

I've put Firestone air bags on 3 rigs: 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 2005 Ford F-150, and my 1996 F-250.

They all installed exactly as the directions indicated - no problems at all.

On my 98 Jeep (my first install) I plumbed each bag separately - a mistake in the sense it was a real hassle to find an air hose and air up, air down. I added a Firestone compressor kit under the hood right away.

My other 2 installs all used Firestone air compressors mounted under hood. I didn't mess with dual controls as my use was based on towing. I just wanted to lift the bag of the rig so headlights would air true. I tow a 28' aluminum sport fishing boat with about 900lbs on the tongue and a 26' RV.

As a side note, in all 3 rigs the ability to tow was improved dramatically. For example, when I tow my 26' RV I no longer use the sway bar or the load equalizers. It tows straight with no sway even in crosswinds.

An unexpected benefit on my 250 was the improved ride when empty. I keep the air bags at 5 lbs when not loaded. They took the harshness out of the back end rebound over bumps. Much better ride. BTW - I added new shocks all around before the air bags as my old ones had 18 years and 60K miles.

 

On my F-150 I had the bags plumbed separately. As I said earlier, I thought that was important to provide stability. If they were plumbed together air could transfer from one to the other, which would mean the truck could lean over without compressing the air at all. I don't know how significant the effect would have been since I never tried it with them plumbed together, but it's at least a real issue, just maybe one that isn't real significant.

I did not have an on-board control system, but I did have an on-board air compressor. So I could just hook an air hose to the compressor fitting and put the air chuck on the Schraeder valve for each air bag 9one at a time obviously). That system worked very well for me.

I could see the onboard controller being convenient, but I never had to change it very frequently, so it wasn't worth much to me to get that. Likewise, I could just about see not having an on-board compressor, as long as you have a compressor in your garage. But there are enough times that I ended up wanting to add air after I got to the lumber yard (for example) that I don't think I'd have been happy without the ability to air them up wherever I was either.