Air lift suspension for a pickup

[Bill Dufour]

I am considering adding a air bag suspension load kit to a pickup. Simple with no onboard compressor. I know they require 5-10PSI at all times. Do they have to be topped up from time to time. how often? I would only add pressure 3-5 times a year for heavy loads. So will I have to keep an eye on them all the time to make sure they do not leak down?
Bill D,

[Adam Herman]

I have had the Firestone ride rites on my last 2 pickups and like them a lot. I do not worry too much about the 5 to 10 psi minimum and when I think about it, I check them by giving them a little squeeze. I opted for the set that mounts outboard of the frame and has a smaller load capacity on my current truck. These let you retain the stock jounce bumpers and help to protect the air spring from bottoming out. I had the other type on my last truck. They improve the handling when I have a trailer or my slide in camper installed. particularly in controlling roll when i have the camper, as the weight is up a bit high.

[Tom M King]

I've had them on several pickups, and bought one when I bought the 1 ton dually, but never got around to installing it, and have never needed the help on this truck. I still have the bags, and compressor that fit an 01 chev. If they'll fit what you have, make offer.

[Bill Dufour]

Thanks for the offer but I have a ford ranger so I do not think it would fit. Do you know the make or model # of the bag kit. Firestone no longer makes the kit for the ranger even though many places have it listed.
Bill D

[Tom M King]

I doubt a kit for a dually will fit a ranger. I remember the bags are bigger than the ones I had in a half ton.

[Mike Cutler]

I am considering adding a air bag suspension load kit to a pickup. Simple with no onboard compressor. I know they require 5-10PSI at all times. Do they have to be topped up from time to time. how often? I would only add pressure 3-5 times a year for heavy loads. So will I have to keep an eye on them all the time to make sure they do not leak down?
Bill D,

Bill

I had an Airlift system on my 2001 Toyota Tacoma for about 10 years. It was used to level the bed while hauling a horse trailer. Mine had the automatic leveling system, but I didn't really use it to it's maximum advantage. After awhile I knew how high the bumper needed to be to return to 19", and level on the hitch, for towing our trailer. I also used it to level the bed after loading a bunch of roofing shingles in the bed, and heavier bed loads at Home Depot.

The bladders do not require 5-10psi at all times. I'm sure mine had some positive pressure in them, but not that much. That's actually a lot by the way.10 psi would really jack the back end of that truck up with an empty bed and the ride would be very harsh.
I would inflate them when you need them, and deflate them after use. Mine usually had about 1-2psi in them when deflated, maybe. I never overtly kept track of the bladders. They're pretty beefy bladders by the way.
Any positive pressure in the bladder is working against your shocks, and compromising their effectiveness.

The bladders are sized to the type/size of the vehicle. Your jounce bumpers will come off, and the bladders will install between the frame and axle where the jounce bumpers were removed. The system you want to install will have quick connect tubing that will be routed along the frame and "Tee'd" to a common point just behind your rear license plate, or receiver. There you will install a normal schrader valve to fill the bladders.

As an aside.
I installed them based on reading some of Tom King's articles on safely towing horse trailers. I loved my Tacomas, but they were a pretty lousy tow vehicle for a horse trailer. Even when just towing my Brenderup trailer, and skinny Thoroughbred on board.
I have a Sierra Denali now with a factory tow package.

[roger wiegand]

I have aftermarket air bags on my F350 dually. I keep the pressure at ~20 lbs when not towing/hauling, which is what he manufacturer recommended. I add air perhaps 3-4 times a year. I have a pressure gauge in the cab and onboard compressor, so it's pretty easy. They get jacked up to 70-90 lbs when in use with the camper and trailer in use. The ride is pretty harsh if I try to drive unloaded with that much pressure in the bags.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, I'll add to your horse trailer story by mentioning that I'm perplexed at why folks in the equine world rarely caught on to using WDH (weight distributing hitch) to better balance the tongue weight across the two axils of their tow vehicle. "Leveling" is fine (my Grand Cherokees has load leveling AND a full air suspension), but it doesn't do anything for insuring that the load is balanced front to back. This is particularly important for braking and steering...even more so when there's a "live load" aboard. (It needs to be noted that WDH cannot be used with trailers like the Brenderup and other Euro trailers that have inertial/surge brakes)

Air bladders on pickups are most effective for gooseneck or 5th wheel towing situations and for handling load in the bed better. They are less valuable for anything that's bumper-pull off a hitch receiver for the reasons I stated in the first paragraph. Yes, they will raise things up, but they don't move the effect of that lever on the back of the truck forward. Many vehicles have actual specifications for when WDH is required for towing...buried in the manuals that many folks don't read. For my vehicle, WDH is required for tongue weights that get much above 350 lbs to the max limit of 720 lbs. And yes, you can feel the difference when towing. DAMHIKT!

[Mike Cutler]

Jim

I've seen some WDH type hitches on bumper pull trailers. Not many though. I think by the time you need to consider a WDH, people have moved onto a B&H, or gooseneck style trailer.
My Tacoma was a 4WD extended cab version and that Brenderup would drop that bed at least 7". It took a little bit of trial and error before I arrived at the correct drop of the receiver and using the Airlift system to get it back to the trailer spec for tongue height and my Toyota having it's normal height back. I was trying to prevent the "oil can effect".
Our needs were minimal, and I knew pretty early on that we would probably never trailer our horse more than 50 miles, and primarily on secondary roads. The exception would be an emergency run to Tufts. So I adapted my Tacoma as best I could.
I told my wife that now that we have a truck with a towing package and all of the correct equipment, we should look at another trailer. She likes her B'up though.
I've seen folks at events pulling bumper pulls horse trailers with Rav's , smaller jeeps, and even vans. Vehicles smaller, and with less power, than my Tacoma. I don't know how they're doing it. I thought my Toyota with a Brenderup was sketchy enough.
It's nice to have a better tow vehicle now.

[Bill Dufour]

I found a kit online for $225 so i ordered that. I will add a tee to keep it simple with one fill port by the license plate.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, that's pretty scary that the Brenderup dropped the back of that Tacoma so much...the tongue weight on Euro trailers is very low. That's required by the laws over there because the majority of folks only have very modest towing vehicles. Böckmann is similar with tongue weights sub 250 lbs. I towed the lightweight TrailersUSA 2h BP with my Grand Cherokee (Hemi, factory tow, air suspension) and it was great with just one loaded, but...I. Did. Not. Like. It. with two loaded where the tongue weight headed north of 500 lbs., even though I was a full ton below my limit. If I was hauling more than once or twice a year at that point, the WDH was a no-brainer, but both horses are now sold and so is the trailer.

BTW, there's someone with a one-horse Brenderup in the area that tows it with an older Subaru Forester. THAT turns heads!

[Mike Cutler]

I found a kit online for $225 so i ordered that. I will add a tee to keep it simple with one fill port by the license plate.
Bill D.

Excellent. I think you'll really like what they do for your truck.
They're super simple to install, but it's kind of a dirty job.

[Mike Cutler]

Mike, that's pretty scary that the Brenderup dropped the back of that Tacoma so much...the tongue weight on Euro trailers is very low. That's required by the laws over there because the majority of folks only have very modest towing vehicles. Böckmann is similar with tongue weights sub 250 lbs. I towed the lightweight TrailersUSA 2h BP with my Grand Cherokee (Hemi, factory tow, air suspension) and it was great with just one loaded, but...I. Did. Not. Like. It. with two loaded where the tongue weight headed north of 500 lbs., even though I was a full ton below my limit. If I was hauling more than once or twice a year at that point, the WDH was a no-brainer, but both horses are now sold and so is the trailer.

BTW, there's someone with a one-horse Brenderup in the area that tows it with an older Subaru Forester. THAT turns heads!

Jim

I hadn't had much experience towing before the horse and trailer came along. I'm still not really good at it, so I err everything on the side of caution and safety. That inexperience is what lead me online,at that time, to read articles about towing, and towing horses, and I found the articles that Tom King had written. Good articles.
It surprised me that it dropped the back of my Tacoma so much also. I wasn't expecting that. By the time we got done with the initial the trip back from the Equine Affair in Springfield Mass, to home, about 80 miles, the day we bought it, I knew something wasn't right. The trailer and truck were "inch worming"on the highway. No way it was going to get better with 1100lbs. in the back.
I've seen the Subaru's towing horse trailers also. Maybe the dynamic geometry of those vehicle is much different than my Tacoma and they can do it safely. I hope so.
The B'up Solo is an odd looking little trailer. We have the Baron TC.

[Jim Becker]

I'm thinking that Tacoma had a really poor rear suspension!

[roger wiegand]

Slightly off topic (it does use and air bag), but if you tow you should consider an AirSafe hitch. The transformation in comfort and ride both in the trailer and in the cab is amazing. The first time I drove my organ trailer with a hard hitch for 600 miles I felt as though I'd been beaten with a stick for 12 hours, and the organ was badly bounced around. With the AirSafe I barely know the trailer is back there. I've left a half-full coffee cup on a shelf in the trailer and found it unmoved a thousand miles later. Any delicate cargo (like a horse) would benefit immensely. The hitch I have is set up for weight distribution, with 1600 lbs on the tongue (and a 3500 lb camper in the bed) it was essential, the air bags on the rear axle couldn't compensate.

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