Community Forums

gridfighter · 01-28-2015, 03:55 PM

I just go my Air Ride kit today (air tech suspension ) on Ebay I will be installing it this weekend .
I am pleased with what I seen so far it looks like good quality stuff .

I have spent just under 1000$ for the kit with the upgrades I added afterwards

I added the multiport pre wired valves all the tubing's and water trap
I have a picture of the original kit that was like 680.00
I will post pics of the set up as I am installing it and let you know if it was hard or not to do it my self

I realize this is not meant to bolt on my RV ,i will need to make this work

My hope is to have a softer ride

I read from a other poster that he was thrilled with the changes it did for him

so I decided to gamble it

it is cheap enough to take a chance ,it is only the work to do so that will make me disappointed if this fails .
I am leaving for Miami in 3 weeks so I will have a chance to test it out

24 h drive for me so I can play with the pressure on the way
I was told the other guy is keeping it at 30 psi and it did what he was hopping for .

I have the set up with control in the dash on all individual bags

I will post the pics of what i do this weekend

Gordon Dewald · 01-28-2015, 04:03 PM

What are you putting it on and what was the air ride designed for?

gridfighter · 01-28-2015, 05:02 PM

fleetwood storm 32 ft
It is more like a universal kit
I took frame mount of a Dodge Ram as those will work for what I am doing .
all this will do is get the rid of the knocking and shaking in the dash
I am not going to rely on any of it for load
my suspension does that already
i took 2600 psi bags and hope to just get a softer ride
I don't think there is something that is made for this .
I will do it my self and will let you know how it feels .

I have no idea if this will improve or not ,willing to test it and share my results
I am sure i am not the only one that research this and found very little info

LouieL · 01-28-2015, 08:22 PM

I don't think you will gain what you are looking for. In order to get that soft ride you will need the bags to do the work. In order for that to happen serious modifications to the suspension work need to be done. Spring rate must be reduced and recalibrated shocks must be specified.

I have gone through this with my F53 Coachmen and it's not worth the money. I have looked into this extensively.

BTW..2006+ Ford F53 Motorhome Chassis 2-Stage Front Air Suspension | Kelderman

gridfighter · 01-29-2015, 03:23 AM

I will soon find out and will not sugar coat the results .
I used to drag a Fifth wheel Raptor 40 FT on a Ford F350
after I added the air bags at the back it did exactly what I am hoping to get here .This is why I decided to gamble even so 80% of the posters tell me it will not work .
My unit drives perfectly ,the only thing i don't like is when the road is rough how much it shakes in the dash area .

Thanks for your input and thanks for the links
just the pictures are helping to see the way they set them up
I looked through them and this is very helpful and you saved me lot of work already .
I had in mind the front would be harder but after seeing the pics ,it will be going much easier .
2600$ for the front only is much more then i spent .
If I do get some results ,for like 900$ I have all 4 wheels done and control in dash .just out of curiosity ,you said you research this allot ,but did you try it ?
I think even so I fail ,It will be good for people that want to try it ,nothing like knowing from the source .
If it did nothing ,I will let everyone know so they don't waste their time

Steve N Sal · 01-29-2015, 03:40 AM

I know it's probably a money thing but the kit I believe you need to soften that ride is made by Kelderman. It's more then adding air bags to a system to make her ride better. JMHO

LouieL · 01-29-2015, 07:51 AM

I understand your way our thinking. Good luck and post lots of pics.

gridfighter · 01-29-2015, 03:43 PM

Just starting to figure how I will mount everything .
before I start ,I want to make sure everyone that will read this realize I am no expert and probably know as little as anyone else
Do not take my way thinking it is the right way .
It is how I am doing hoping it will work .
one more thing is I am french ,so the wording I use is the best I can
please be forgiving on spelling and poor word choice .

I found where I will mount everything out of the weather
on my storm 32H ,I have a compartment used for the propane tank
above is a weird size shelf that is only good to store a broom
It has 6 and 1/2 inch high but like 6 ft deep
This will work for what I want and is dry

since the room is too tight to work in there I will pre mount and pre wire it all outside and slide it in place once done
since my eight is 6 and a half and the tank is like 7 and a half in height
so I will mount everything on a aluminum plate that has 6 inch wide
I will be able to flip the set up on the side to slide in the tank then re straight to slide in the multiport valves

here are few pics that should give a good idea

gridfighter · 01-29-2015, 03:50 PM

here is the way I will set it all on the plate
with the plate the tank is 8 inch high
leaving like 1 inch on to
all the rest of set up is low enough to not have to worry
by mounting it all on a plate it will be easy to remove and re slide in place
for now the drain valve might be hard to reach so the sliding will help

I am setting the 2 compressors at the end and keep the multiport valves by the access door

gridfighter · 01-29-2015, 03:52 PM

the pictures need to be rotated ,I will make sure this does not happen again
hard enough to figure it out the least I can do if post them straight up

gridfighter · 01-30-2015, 01:03 PM

done with the multiport and compressor set up .
I had to build a bracket to hold my water trap but everything else was bang on from factory .I really like the place I purchased the kit from .
I wish I had a diagram for the wiring .even so it is common sense ,I think they should put it in as a reference
the pressure switch need to be hooked and I am pretty sure the 2 compressors will draw too much amps to feed through the pressure switch .
I will need a relay
I added a gauge for the pressure in the tank ,I don't want to rely on pressure switch only
I will bring power from a dash switch next to the air gauge to the pressure switch then to the relay to feed power to compressor
correct me if i am wrong but I think this should work good

Tomorrow I am installing the bags and will wire it in on Sunday

I had to go to the truck center today for a fitting
and I had a chat with the master mechanic to see if I was doing all this for nothing , and here is what he said

The ford chassis used on those RV where not design to carry so much weight ,the suspension bottom out in rough road condition ,He said the rubber stopper hit all the time on those and the air bags will stop this .
he said I wont need much air to raise it a bit and stop that knocking .

tomorrow ,I will look to see if there are sign of the rubber stopper hitting
but like many said ,the ride will not be much smoother with what I am doing ,for real change ,I need to convert to full air ride conversion and remove the leaf spring
the kit is 3K
no idea how or what it is and will not spend more money on this anyway

I noticed the leaf spring to be arc the opposite way like downward a bit
maybe he has a point that the suspension is weak

will find out when i go under
will bring it in the shop tonight and let it warm up

Gordon Dewald · 01-31-2015, 11:37 AM

Looking forward to the progress. It seems to be going well.

gridfighter · 01-31-2015, 05:32 PM

I am done with installing the bag supports today
I took 7h with the help of my niece
She is only 15 ,but has done so much welding on a jeep she is rebuilding in my shop . I decided to ask her to modify my support .
While I was getting the location ready and measurement done
I knew they would not fit but chose some I could cut and make fit .
Result is not pretty but strong and working great

after speaking with the truck center guy ,he told me the preferred riding height is 5 inch .He said to install with 4 inch squeeze .I needed to make sure they would not be too much pull on them if my auto level pulls the wheel of the ground and I ended up having only 1 inch stretch once lifted completely

I had to make the front bottom support wider to fit over the spring
and the front top support had to be cut in 2 then weld on top of each others .It looks weird but I don't care as long as it is strong

gridfighter · 01-31-2015, 05:41 PM

here is a picture of what it looks like at the front
and a picture of the back top support
the back one since it was against the frame back and top
I just welded it on the frame
I did the work with the wheel on, and it was a bit in the way but allowed us to do everything we needed