Ever notice how things start to head south when they age? No, we’re not referring to aging Snowbirds heading to Yuma or Miami for the winter. We’re more concerned about the drooping rears of aging motorhomes or tow rigs that lug stuff in any direction.
Our ’99 F-350 Super Duty “fell” into this category. Our SD’s rear went south after 180,000 miles of hauling a slide-in camper and dragging an 8000 pound enclosed car trailer over the past nine years. Although equipped with Ford’s camper and towing packages, which included overload springs and a rear anti-sway bar, the workload had taken its toll. The old girl needed a little pick-me-up and Air Lift Company of Lansing, MI had just the thing(s).
Air Lift is a family-owned company that has been providing air bag support for saggy vehicles since 1950. Today, their focus is on air support for tow vehicles, RVs, ambulances and other heavy-duty applications. The company offers various kits for different vehicles with varying weight capacities. For our 1-ton Ford they recommended the Super Duty Series air spring kit designed for 3/4 and 1-ton pickups and SUVs with leaf springs — providing up to 5000 pounds of load leveling support. The air springs are adjustable from 5 to 100 psi, but they do not increase the maximum Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) or the designed maximum payload of your rig. They only enhance your suspension’s ability to deal with the weight it is designed to carry — something that’s tougher for steel springs to do as they fatigue with age and high miles.
So why not just install new springs instead of something that essentially seems like a band-aid fix? We considered this, but the springs were not completely shot, and there are other benefits to air bags. We didn’t realize how beneficial until our first drive with them installed. Our loaded Ford’s ride improved tremendously. Before the bags, our truck rode on its factory overload springs that gave a harsh ride. With the new air springs, the suspension is up off of the overloads and literally riding on a cushion of air. It corners flatter as the bags provide more roll stability. Other benefits include a level ride going down the road (we had to re-adjust our headlights) and a level truck when camping with the trailer attached and loaded — something we do often.
For getting air into our bags we went with Air Lift’s top drawer system. The basic way to go is with two lines and two Schrader valves (one to each bag) that you fill manually with a compressor, or at a gas station, and then check and equalize with a hand held gauge. This setup is simple and works, but air pressure will vary with temperature, altitude and/or changing loads. Continuous manual adjusting could become a pain to where you wind up avoiding the process, and hence not benefiting from having an optimally adjusted system. Air Lift’s SureSet Automatic Leveling On-Board Compressor System takes care of everything. The initial installation is a bit labor intensive compared to installing just the bags, it took us three times longer to install the SureSet than it did the bags and brackets, but since our initial adjustments, we haven’t touched a thing. We just completed a two week, 2000 mile trip from 5000 ft to sea level, 60 degrees to 100+ degrees, trailer on and off, and never once needed to adjust the SureSet manually. The system senses its surroundings and adjusts the air in the bags automatically to the pressure you program into the dash mounted digital controller.
Our only regret is thinking of all those miles we drove without our Air Lift system. This product is truly one of those “wish we’da done it years ago” scenarios. We look forward to many smoother, more controlled, sag free south-bound trips to come... or east, west or north!
SOURCE
Air Lift Company
www.airliftcompany.com
Photo Captions:
001: The complete Super Duty (PN57215) air spring kit for 3/4 and 1-ton pickups and SUVs with rear leaf springs. The brackets are nicely powder coated and all hardware is zinc plated. Two sizes of u-bolts are provided for regular or overload spring mounting applications.
002: In the basic assembly the upper bracket bolts to the side of the truck’s frame rail while the bottom plate is clamped via u-bolts to the truck’s leaf springs. No disassembly of the leaf spring is necessary. The air springs are manufactured much like a tire with layers of rubber and cords that form and hold their shape. The end caps are made of Zytel nylon which claims to be stronger than steel. The air goes in through a 90-degree swivel fitting in the top.
003: The first step is to figure where the upper bracket needs to be mounted on the frame. For this the truck needs to be empty, so we took the camper off for the installation. There needs to be no less than five inches and no more than eight inches between the two brackets and spacers are provided to help achieve this measurement. We didn’t need any as the basic assembly was a tight fit on our truck due to the overload springs.
004: After the upper bracket mounting location is determined, four holes are drilled through the truck’s frame on each side to mount the brackets. The bottom bracket simply clamps with u-bolts over the leaf springs and sits atop the factory u-bolt spring plate. Since our truck had factory overload springs, the short u-bolts were used to clamp the bracket to the overload spring. Without overloads, the longer u-bolts would be used to wrap around the entire leaf spring pack.
005: The SureSet kit: at the top is the cassette sized digital controller. Below, to the left are the transducers and their manifold. To the right is the compressor, and at the bottom, lots of air line and the many wires that need to be run.
006: The compressor and transducers cannot be mounted near exhaust or engine compartment heat. Since our truck is not a hard core ‘wheeler, we made a mounting plate that bolts to existing holes in the outside frame rail and positions the equipment roughly below the shotgun seat. Being exposed to snow, ice and mud doesn’t seem to be a problem according to the instructions, just no heat. For hard muddin’ or rocks we would recommend a more protected location.
007: Mount the digital controller on the dash so it is out of the way yet easy to read and adjust. By pushing the (+) or (-) buttons you can raise or lower the air pressure in the left or right air bag. Once you’ve adjusted the truck’s ride height to where you want it, wait 10 seconds and the memory is set. The system will maintain those settings under any conditions until you punch in different ones.
