Towing with air bags

Grumpyyyy · 09-29-2011, 05:01 PM

Anyone have a suggestion on shocks that would help with the bounce up that you get from bags... Maybe mono tube shocks upside down anybody tried this ??

Ray,IN · 09-29-2011, 10:43 PM

If you tow a travel trailer and have a weight-distributing hitch, air bags are strongly discouraged by every hitch manufacturer, because they cause this exact problem. Lower the bag pressure to about 14# and see what happens. I refer you to the bottom of page 3 of this Airstream pdf.

Grumpyyyy · 09-30-2011, 06:05 AM

Thanks Ray,
It's a 5th wheel and it's only when I'm on pretty rough roads, just trying to take out some of the up lift I get when hitting a hard dip other than that it rides good

Ray,IN · 09-30-2011, 07:44 PM

My bad, I thought you had a TT (your picture should have been a clue). I got tired of our truck bouncing along too. I went to Sears and bought a set (4) of Rancho 5000 shocks. They make a huge difference, and they have a lifetime warranty, including labor if you have them installed. Sears has replaced the rear, and fronts once in 60K miles. BTW, OEM shocks are good for a maximum of around 20K miles.

Franka548 · 10-01-2011, 01:53 PM

Don't know if you have helper springs on your set up, if it is a one ton then it has them, and you might be just touching them on the spring pads with the air bags. This will give you the bounce that you are talking about. I had that trouble on my '97 dually, the 5er that I had was not heavy enough to set the helpers on the pads, they were just touching, and the bounce was pretty good over the rough roads.

Frank

JIMNLIN · 10-01-2011, 08:46 PM

I had Timbrens and had much the same suspension issues with a short compression stroke and a violent rebound. I dropped the Timbrens and went with Supersprings and the adjustable Rancho 9000 shocks. Now the trucks rear suspension has the proper compression and rebound length.

Agree with others the bags have too much pressure and/or the overloads are just comming into play on the compression stroke. Doing so can make a wicked/rough ride.

Osborne · 10-10-2011, 04:38 PM

I jst to my very first trip with 11,000 lbs empty w airlift 5000 bags with 60 lbs of air and it seemed to ride fine to me. Maybe I dont any better,lol

wingnut60 · 10-10-2011, 09:50 PM

"BTW, OEM shocks are good for a maximum of around 20K miles."

Dead on, Ray. I went almost 50k on my 450 with fake Rancho shocks, and none of them had any rebound/compression control. Replaced with lifetime Bilsteins.

Joe

ridahog · 10-16-2011, 08:34 AM

I went with the adjustable Rancho 9000 shocks and removed my after market helper springs on my ford F250 (came with them when I bought the truck used). It was over kill since I put air bags on the truck because I needed to level out my truck camper from side to side. Since I switched from a T/C to a 5er I didn't carry that 3200# of dead weight. Truck is so much better now especially when I'm not towing. Before I was just bouncing over bumps.