Air bags are in
I decided on the Firestone air bags over the Airlift air bags because I like how the firestone air bags sit centered on the leaf pack (and centered on the axle). The Airlift brand places the airbags a couple of inches behind the center of the leaf pack. My one concern with the Firestone airbag placement is that the jounce stops are completely removed. Hopefully they are tough enough in the event that bottoming out occurs. I’m sure that there are thousands of both style of airbags on the market and my concerns are unwarranted.
Took 5 hours. Yes, I’m the slowest mechanic on earth.
The first thing that needed to be done was to remove the “locating tabs” on the flat side of the Lock-N-Lift spacers. One set (one set = two spacers) of Lock-N-Lift spacers adds 2 inches to the length of the air bag system for vehicles with 2 inches of lift over stock. The tabs that need to be removed are only used if 2 or 3 kits are put together for vehicles with 4 or 6 inches of lift. The instructions say to use a hammer to knock off the tabs but I felt that a small saw would give me a smother finish.
with tabs
tabs removed
Showing the inside surface that gets locked to the inside surface of a second spacer.
I did need to make one run to the hardware store. A new longer bolt was required to attach the air bag to the lower bracket. The bolt that came with the air bag kit wasn’t long enough to fit through the thickness of the Lock-N-Lift spacer and the bolt that came with the Lock-N-Lift spacer didn’t have the right shaped head to be used with the lower bracket of the air bag kit. The closest thing I could find to what I needed is called a plow bolt. 3/8 inch x 1 ¼ inch did the trick.
Left: Bolt that came with air bag kit
Middle: Bolt that came with spacer kit
Right: Plow bolt
Showing how new bolt sits in bottom bracket
Showing how it looked stock. The jounce bumper needs to be removed.
Assembly completed
Now all I needed to do was run the air lines. I positioned the Schrader valves in the location of the license plate bolt holes.
30 psi raised the back end up 1 ½ inches to get it back to the height is was at before the camper was put on. I used my mountain bike shock pump to fill up the air bags. 350 pumps each to get to 30 psi. I will probably use my compressor next time.
The stability has improved significantly. Enough so that I will be able to leave the anti sway bar off.
Thanks to kcowyo for his insight on this project.