rear sagging fixed for now

[benlaud87]

I finished the install of my firestone ride rite airbags today finally. I had started last sunday but as soon as I got off the rear tire/wheel and drilled two holes I got called back in to work. The hardest part of the installation was drilling through the frame and the spacer.

I ordered these on ebay for 250 shipped and a set of lift spacers for 65 shipped. Turned out that the spacers werent even in stock but the company was selling them on ebay for some reason. I decided to just use the rancho bump stop extension block instead and drilled a hole through the center of it to attach the bottom of the airbag.

started off by cutting off the bump stop with a cut off wheel

I decided to put the air valves right next to the trailer hitch

had an issue with leaks to begin with so I took the air fittings off of the bags and used some teflon pipe dope on the threads. Seems to have fixed the issue, but I'll check on it again in the morning.

This also solved the bouncing I always noticed when driving. The ride is much better now.

 

[alrock]

Wow, very cool! Looking forward to hearing about the long term results as well.

 

[Hans3T]

:agree:

Thanks for sharing! Like Alex says, I'll be interested to hear how they hold up.

 

[06 H3]

looking good, I considered this option too. I guess you were sagging pretty bad seeing you had the bouncing problem. The rancho leaves ride really nice until they sag, from my experience the more sag gives more bouncing...I hate it when I hit a bump have the front end go over very smoothly then the rear bounces.

 

[benlaud87]

The bouncing was the worst part. Its pretty lame when you have a hummer and you try to avoid a speed bump because of the rear bouncing problem. Its much better now. Since these are designed for pickups that haul trailers or heavy loads I dont think there should be an issue with them atleast on the road. Looks like gfbh3t's are holding up. I thought about doing this before, but seeing his with air bags gave me the little extra nudge to just got ahead and do the mod.

The bags have held their air for 7 hours so it seems like any leaks have been fixed by the pipe dope

 

[alrock]

Glad to hear you've got the leaks fixed. I'm probably going the supercheap way and adding extended hangars until I eventually replace the leafs.

 

[gfbh3t]

Glad you like them. l have not had any leaks, or any other problems.

 

[benlaud87]

these are just driveway shots but I forgot to add a shot of the entire vehicle that shows the sagging fixed.

im looking for a shot that shows the rear sag I had, it really wasnt that bad compared to others i've seen. I thought I would prevent it from getting worse with the bags.