Air bagging the CAB?

[Colorado Ron]

Ive been thinking of this mod for a while and wanted to run it by you guys to see if Im missing something. I was thinking of air bagging the cab and front end on an F150. So from the core support to the back of the cab. I think if you air bagged this whole setup it could work. Am I missing something, besides a cushy ride?:smiley_drive:

 

[AFSOC]

Cool idea. Might be hard to execute on a light truck though. I would be fearful of the steering not having travel to compensate for cab motion. A whole subframe would be needed isolate the bagged cab from the frame. You would also need to go to an electric fan. Sounds ambitious but interesting. Do you have the kind of time this would take to execute? LOL

 

[Colorado Ron]

Not sure why you need a whole subframe? Couldnt you just replace the factory mounts with airbags and call it good?

See here:

same concept but mounted where factory body mounts would go.

 

[bronconite]

Sounds like a lot of fab work but if you want it, do it. Lets see. You'd cut the original body mount brackets off the frame. Fab up new, larger ones to accommodate air bags and mount them lower on the frame so you don't end up with an 8" body lift. Now the center of your new body bushing(air bag) has been moved outboard so you'll need to weld a bracket to the body to move it's mounting point outboard also.
Am I anywhere close to what you were thinking?

 

[proper4wd]

You would need a subframe to keep the structural rigidity of the whole thing together. Otherwise, the body will be trying to flex in a lot of different dimensions because it has freedom of motion at each body mount. You need to tie it all together so that it will all float as an assembly on the air bags, instead of each corner or body mount trying to flex in a different direction.

The body wouldnt last long if it werent tied together on a subframe- I'm betting you would see stress cracks and wrinkles in sheetmetal after a few thousand miles.