hi has anyone here used air over leaf in theyre 56

 

What is air over leaf? In addition to leaves or instead of leaves? The only thing I can contribute is I have Firestone Ride-Rite air bags to assist the rear leaves in my non Ford.

 

I also have the Firestone air bag assists on my F-350 dually.
Am I correct in assuming you want bags on the trailing end of the rear leaf springs, or are you talking all the way around? What are you trying to do, slam it?

 

You do NOT want the air bag overloads for main suspension. Go to a class 8 truck wrecking yard and snag some off of a Pete or Freightliner. Lots of talk about this on the H.A.M.B.

 

My pusher motorhome has half a leaf spring with an air bag doing the heavy lifting on the spring.

 

its a small airbag bolted in or welded between the frame for a smoother ride for those pickups with no weight in the back ,,

 

That would be an overload air bag and not "air ride", I think that is where you had us guessing. A lot of guys use them and I have them on both ends of my '02 and may add them to the rear of my '55, time will tell.

 

IMO, the trick is to remove leaves to get the ride height lower and then take the weight off the leaves a bit with the air bag and recover your ride height. Then you are mostly riding on air.

Switching to all air ride without springs is slick, but remember what all the leaves do for you. Not only do they hold up the vehicle, they also locate the rear end or front end. So without the springs, you need locators.

 

I saw a 56 at a car show done this way. He had only 4 leaves in his springs and had the air bags.

 

My non Ford late model pickup comes from the factory with a cushy ride which is nice. But, as soon as I add any weight to it, it hits the bump stops.

Firestone makes a Ride-Rite kit specifically for my truck because of this. Bolts right in where the bump stop goes. I bought the on board compressor so I can adjust as needed without stopping to find air. Works great and I still have the stock leaf springs if I lose air for some reason.

Air-ride also makes kits like this. I think there are universal kits as well if this is the route you want to go.

 

i have springs with leaves removed in the rear the front is old volare , i cant find a shock that rides and works well on my truck so im thinking of adding the air over leaf kit it looks fairly easy to install and hopefully will help it ride better

 

You might want to talk to the folks at Posie's Rod & Custom. When I bought a set of their Dual Flex springs for the front of my '50 F2 they suggested that I might want to add air bags to the front if I find that I bottom out against the stops too much. Basically they would act like cushions. I've had no need to do this yet but my use has been very limited.