Soft Leafs And Air Bags?

[GAllen]

Has anyone ever had softer and/or fewer rear leafs installed and used Ride-Rite type airbags for supplemental weight carrying capacity when loaded. I spoke with some spring companies today regarding this. I can't take the rough freeways around here, and since I bought the truck for towing stability and not weight carrying, I thought this might be a reasonable solution to the problem. I told the spring guys to replicate the rear springs of a F-250 keeping the ride height the same. If I sell the truck I'll install the old spring pack. What do you think?

 

[Bob4x4]

Call Carli suspension in Orange... ... ... he is working on this type set-up now. 714 273 0278



Bob

 

[betterthanstock]

Has anyone ever had softer and/or fewer rear leafs installed and used Ride-Rite type airbags for supplemental weight carrying capacity when loaded. I spoke with some spring companies today regarding this. I can't take the rough freeways around here, and since I bought the truck for towing stability and not weight carrying, I thought this might be a reasonable solution to the problem. I told the spring guys to replicate the rear springs of a F-250 keeping the ride height the same. If I sell the truck I'll install the old spring pack. What do you think?

I've run mine at first with one less leaf, then, two less leafs, then no overload springs, (all the time with Firestones), then I added some expansion chambers for the air bags. That cured the rough ride. Then I re-installed a third leaf, and no overloads. Expansion chambers are 2 inch PVC tubes about 4 ft long, clamped to the underside of bed, with T's into the air lines, and 5/8 200 psi hose connectors to allow for fast response.



The problem I have is more axle windup without one leaf and no overloads, so I am looking for some trac bars. Also, I drove to L. A. a couple times, and the freeways there are horrendous. It jumps like a basketball with 315 tires. I had to get off the freeway and move the Ranchos 9000 to a very soft setting to make it tolerable.



I tried to find those "velvet ride" shackles, but they were not available at the time I did that. Those may be a much easier solution than what I did.

 

[Bob4x4]

The velvet rides are not enough for LA



Bob

 

[betterthanstock]

Well, maybe the only thing that works is a 200 pound weight welded to a 2x2 tube, inserted into the hitch when driving empty. You want it as far back as possible. That should smooth the heavy axle jumping over those joints.



I personally think that the road commission of LA is bought by the auto repair shops, to keep those rough joints in all new construction. LA is the biggest car market in the world, and there is some serious auto repair money to be made. For the 84 olympics, they ground over the joints, but now they are back as bad as ever, even in the new freeways. Other cities (portland, seattle) grind that concrete smooth.

 

[geusterman]

My 10 cents: the heavy slab on the bottom of 3 gen makes up for longer softer springs when loading heavy. I replaced mine with a KORE mini-pak for a nice ride on deeper bumps. The Fox shocks KORE sells (Race) melt washboards and help on freeway bumps. Adding weight to the rear goes a long way. On my 02 I used the Kelderman rear air bags (leaf springs become a swing arm) and really softened rear ride but did not hurt capacity. 02 springs pretty rough stock compared to 3 gen.



I would like to install a couple of Sport-Ride type narrow bags per end of overloads on each side to deal with ride height issues (my truck is level empty). This way I would not have a 100psi brick between axle and frame but air between springs and frame... basically an adjustable overload stop. Anybody heard of this? Sorry to deflect the conversation a little... too close to what I am working on. Thanks, George