ProOutlaw Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Marc_W Have you looked in to Tuff-Tow or SuperSprings? http://www.tufftow.com http://www.supersprings.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSport Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 Yes you will lose some of your towing capability. I just tried to tow a 5600lb car trailer and it put the rails on the bumpstops. The trailer was empty and the lowering kit is a ground force kit with the rear leaf flipped upside down. I am doing airbags this week to gain back my loss of capability.Wizard Hey Wizard, How did it feel just riding on the bumpstop ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evandostert Posted June 23, 2004 Report Share Posted June 23, 2004 A 28 foot Grady with twin engines. Left my truck sitting on the bump stops. With that much weight it is not that bad of a ride. Just don't stop short without the trailer brakes connected. It scraped my frame going over a speed bump. These are not HD's The engine is great but forget the suspension when towing heavy weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low03SS Posted June 25, 2004 Report Share Posted June 25, 2004 The same shop that lowered my truck ordered my airbags today. The kit has Firestone airbags and the installer is a wiz at doing air suspensions on all kinds of rigs. I will let you know exactly what kit and the #. It will be installed later this week.Wizard That is my setup. Having the air bags is nice. Did you get the onboard pump as well? My pump is mounted under the hood on the passenger side near the firewall and the control is in the glove compartment. Here is a shot of the air bag: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted June 28, 2004 Report Share Posted June 28, 2004 ProOutlaw... No, I never saw either of those products... they look pretty cool. I ended up going with that "Roadmaster Active Suspension", which seems to act a lot like your second link. When I get them this week - if they don't work out, I've got a line to a good weight-distributing hitch in the next town over from me. $350. Ouch! There goes my cam and converter-install fund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico750sxi Posted June 29, 2004 Report Share Posted June 29, 2004 Mark W, Can you give us some info on the "Roadmaster Active Suspension ", like a link or anything? Let us know how it works for you too. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSminneapolis Posted June 29, 2004 Report Share Posted June 29, 2004 i ordered up the firestone air bag leveling kit the other day. says it takes 7-14 days to show up. i'll get some pics of the install and such. and yes i am doing this one myself. Firestone Bags Compressor #1 Compressor #2 i went with #2 for the compressor. but they might ship me #1, depends on the lead time. i want to get everything here so i can bring it down to KS and install it there for everyone to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haynss Posted June 29, 2004 Report Share Posted June 29, 2004 i ordered up the firestone air bag leveling kit the other day. says it takes 7-14 days to show up. i'll get some pics of the install and such. and yes i am doing this one myself. Firestone Bags Compressor #1 Compressor #2 i went with #2 for the compressor. but they might ship me #1, depends on the lead time. i want to get everything here so i can bring it down to KS and install it there for everyone to see. hmmm....it will only hold 3000 lbs..thats only about 100 more lbs of cargo if we include you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted July 3, 2004 Report Share Posted July 3, 2004 Just got the SS back with the SportRite load leveling airbags. I was told that they dont have to have any air in them at all. I will probably leave a few pounds in them anyway. They look great(pictures to come later). The ride is no different and cant wait to tow the trailer to see how it does. Wizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 Yeah, I got those Roadmaster springs installed a week or two ago. At first, I LOVED them... but after taxing my suspension with this vacation where I towed the trailer 500 miles or so - something is very awry with my suspension. I'm not sure what it is. So yeah... at first, the springs were AWESOME. The truck cornered nice and flat, and the rear suspension felt nice and snug, without being harsh, if that makes any sense. They DID raise the rear of the truck about an inch or so. I didn't think I'd like the stance, but I did. The truck followed the contour of the road a lot better than before. It didn't float and loaf from side to side when riding on uneven roads. Now, after the trip here with all that tongue weight on the truck, the springs seemed to have settled down to about stock to .5" over stock, and I've got some real weird handling quirks. When I encounter an uneven section of pavement, the front corner thats in the dip, DIVES. It dives like you just got a flat tire. It dives so much that you have to crank the wheel to the other side to keep the truck going straight. It's very... **VERY**... annoying. I've been tweaking my torsion bars on a daily basis to try and tune this crap out. Seriously, my family thinks I've totally lost it, I'm compulsive/obsessive, and that I need counseling. I've been messing with the front end on the truck since I got it. Been through three alignments now in 18K miles. The thing just handles like s*** no matter what I do. I've got my end-links set rather tight right now. I'm not sure if that would cause this. I was figuring it would help. How tight do you guys set yours? I'm about ready to lower the dang thing onto the bump stops at each corner. At least it'll ride nice and flat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 Also, I should mention that I used a 800lb weight-distrubuting hitch for the trailer, which was carrying about 650lbs of tongue weight. The hitch took part of the load off of the rear axle, and distributed it to the front. I'm not sure if something with the hitch caused these problems. I'm going to do a complete reinspection of EVERYTHING one of these next few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico750sxi Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Let us know what you find please. Do you think all this is caused by the Roadmaster springs? They DID raise the rear of the truck about an inch or so. I didn't think I'd like the stance, but I did. I don't like that, is there a way to lower the spring rate on the roadmasters so it doesn't raise the truck? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 The more I think about it, the more I don't think the Roadmaster springs have anything to do with this. The littlest thing will set me off on a tangent about the handling of the truck. That, and I had a rough day today in general. Sorry about the above rant. I may have adjusted the t-bars incorrectly when I had the last allignment....... so the front end might not be running the correct geometry when it goes through it's range of motion on uneven roads and what not. I did give the truck a little spanking earlier tonight, and it DEFINITELY corners nice and flat. A lot better than before. I just need to weed out my front-end funny-business to be completely happy. I'm not sure if you've seen the Roadmaster springs, but here's the site: http://www.roadmastersuspension.com As you can see, it's just a coil spring that holds the leaf in it's natural curved state. The coil has a threaded rod coming out of each end. Each attaches to the mounts - one on the axle, the other at the leaf spring mount area. With the rear suspention completely unloaded, you wind up the rods to put preload on the coil. When you're able to slip a quarter coin between the coils - you're good to go. I supposed you could only use a dime, or "a quarter minus a few turns", but the instructions DO warn about not using any less or more preload. Well, actually, now that I think about it, they only warn not to use MORE preload. They say that if you use less, the springs won't work to their full potential........ or something like that. Once the brackets are installed, the springs themselves would be a 5-10 minute job to remove from the truck - without having to lift the truck/wheels off the ground. To reinstall everything correctly, you'd either have to get the thing up on a lift, or use a jack, jackstands, etc, and remove the rear wheels like I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico750sxi Posted July 15, 2004 Report Share Posted July 15, 2004 Thanks for the link, I actually watched the video of Dave and Earl(forgeting his name but he looks like it could be Earl) installing them that is available on the ROadmaster site. And thanks for the info, I just may get them. Good luck getting everything else straightened out with the front end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted July 19, 2004 Report Share Posted July 19, 2004 Just got back from a 5 hour drive with 3 race bikes in a trailer. Also a 750lb Harley in the bed of my truck. I put 40lbs of air in the air bags and couldn't believe how awesome it all worked. I love these things. Well worth the $. Wizard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.