Air Bag Questions

[roadranger]

I've got a 2500 with the Camper pkg. overload springs. When I bought the slide in camper, the dealer installed air bags above the helper spring pack.



Right now, the truck and camper (3100 lbs onboard ready to go) has some sway pulling out of driveways/gas stations unless the bags have 75-80 psi in them. Problem is, with that much air in the bags, the rear end rides 5-6 inches higher up than the front end.



The biggest problem is that no matter how much or little air is in the bags, the helper springs NEVER touch down on their pads The rig will bottom out on the air bag mounts with no air at all in them.



Anybody else have this problem??



Should I remove the air bags, and let the helper springs do their work??



Will just the helper springs be more stable (sway)

than the air bag install??



Seems like the air bags are meant for trucks WITHOUT helper springs.

 

[JohnB]

I went to install bags on the same setup as yours. In reading the instructions, it cautions you to have 3 1/4 to 7 1/2 inches between mounting plates and use the amount of air required to give the original ride height. I did not want the unloaded ride height, but an just above level height. In order to do that you need at least 6 1/2 inches between plates to let the bags compress before adding air. The short of it is that you need to remove the over-load leaf and spacer to give yourself enough room to allow the bag to compress and not bottom before adding air. I didn't install because I don't need much if any more spring. I have a friend that has an overhead camper on a F350 and the dealer did the same thing as yours did--he is taking it back and making them do the job right.

 

[DocStressor]

The helper springs don't do anything if you add airbags except ruin the ride when running empty. You need to keep at least 10 lb in the bags when empty. The major purpose of the airbags is to raise the rear end of the truck so that more weight is distributed to the front axle. In other words, the rear end is not supposed to be level when you have a 3000 lb load in the back. The rear is supposed to be ~ 5 inches above level. I have about the same rig as you have. You need a set of Rancho 9000s to stop the sway. I realize this every time I forget to set the rear shocks to the "5" position after loading the camper and pumping the airbags up to 70-80 lb. In my experience, the airbags do very little to prevent sway, but they sure improve the steering by putting more weight on the front wheels. You need them on a 2500 with a heavy camper. The ride is unsafe with just the helper springs. I know this because I did my mods one at a time.

 

[KB0OU]

AIR BAGS

The air bags are not the problem, it is the installer, mine were installed incorrectly too, I put them in right and now they work very well. As mentioned above you need space between the bag mounts for the bags to work right.



Good shocks will help the sway.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Air Bags

I have Air Lift 5000 air bags and the factory Camper Pkg. overload springs. Unloaded the top of the factory supplied equalizer hitch is at 19", load the camper with 5 PSI in the air bags, the height drops to 15. 75". air up the bags to 55 PSI and the height returns to 19". That's the pressure I run in the air bags, since I don't want to put anymore weight on the front axle. I don't get the "bottoming out" feeling on rough roads.



Like stated above in the above postings, I can tell instantly when I pull out on the road if I have forgotten to set the Ranchos on "5" on the rear. The side to side sway is controlled best with the Ranchos.



Bill

 

[DocStressor]

Yeah Bill, that sounds right for a 1-ton. With 55 lb in the bags I still have around 6000 lb on the rear axle which is about the limit of E rated tires. I have to go higher in the back to get proper load distribution. Air bags are necessary for a "little" 2500 at or over the GVWR. They are nice on a 3500 hauling a camper, but not absolutely necessary. I guess that's why the sell 1-ton trucks.

 

[roadranger]

Thanks for the info, guys.



I do have the Rancho's and they are set on #5 in the rear. Guess they can control only so much sway when pulling out of driveways with deep gutters to cross. There is some crosswind induced sway also, but not much.



My main concern with the airbags is that raising the rear end up so much puts WAY too much weight on the front axle. So I'm thinking that if I remove the bags, the rig will settle down on the helper springs. This oughta work, as like you all said, it's the Ranchos that control the sway.

 

[Bill Stockard]

roadranger,



Yes, I'm surprised how little the crosswinds bother the truck/camper combination. We had a 3/4 ton F250 hauling our first 9. 5' Lance back in the mid-80s and it was all over the road in a crosswind. The truck didn't have the camper package, air bags, Rancho 9000s or dual rear wheels like the Dodge. I did install a heavy duty sway bar and new Monroematics, but that didn't help much. I've learned a lot since then!!!



We're on our second 11'+ Lance now and have been pleased with the handling on the 1 ton dually Dodges. I was driving with a 30-35 MPH crosswind a couple of days ago. I could feel some of the stronger gusts, but the truck wasn't a problem holding it straight on a narrow high crowned road traveling 55 MPH(the speed limit).



Bill

 

[roadranger]

Took the #%@*! bags off

Well, I finally took off the air bags... .

What a difference! The truck rides level, less weight on the front axle, handles much steadier down on the helper springs, and doesn't bottom out the suspension on big bumps like RR tracks. The Rancho's keep the sway at the same rate as with the bags on. I like it!



The 01. 5 2500's with the towing and camper packages have the same axles, brakes, and springs as the 3500 models, less the training wheels, but added Load Range E tires.



FYI: The Lance dealer mounted the manual fill air stems on the bottom of the fender just forward of the wheel well. While on a trip to Calif. , I caught an 'alligator' (piece of blown truck tire) on I-80 in Nevada and ripped out the right side air stem, deflating that bag. Had to deflate the other side to get the truck level again. While driving around with both bags deflated looking for a tire shop that could fix them, the whole weight of the truck was riding dead bottomed out on the air bag brackets, with NONE of the weight carried by the truck springs.



In removing the air bags I found that the upper brackets bolted to the truck frame were bent and the lower mounting U-bolts had been bent over and crushed. Seems that these bags are not supposed to be mounted above the helper spring pack, as there is not enough clearance room between upper and lower brackets.



Those of you with air bags mounted above the helper spring pak, BEWARE.

 

[Wiredawg]

Beefier anti-sway bar

You might try beefier rear anti-sway bar. Helwig's HD is much stouter than the stock one. Also, do you have a dual line kit or single line kit. Single line kit allowas air to transfer from one bag to the other in a turn. Made this mistake on my 96 gasser.



Wiredawg.