Brad_UT
Well-known member
I think I may have finally gotten the front suspension dialed in this weekend. This a huge milestone in the build. If you remember, the Kelderman airbag suspension is NOT a lift kit. But, to run these tires with plenty of clearance you have to lift the truck, move the axle forward, trim the fenders, etc. Sounds simple right?
The problem is that each of these modifications create issues of their own. For example, simply lifting the truck will cause the axle to shift towards the passenger side due to the track bar geometry. It's not much, but it's enough to be a problem. Moving the axle forward about an inch will cause that same track bar to hit the front diff cover too. Both of these were solved for me with the Buckstop track bar relocation bracket. That is a key component which makes this work. I can't thank Ram5500Camperthing and Clinton at Buckstop enough for getting me one of these.
Lifting also meant the Kelderman air bags weren't tall enough. Firestone has a 2" taller version that is almost identical and works great here. Lifting also increases travel and that means that the axle will move forward/back as it goes up and down. That means the lower airbag mounts will move forward and back too. If the bag mount holes aren't drilled in the right spot, the bags will be angled instead of straight up and down. Here's an example of how bad it can be (fully compressed, before any mods, short bags = worst case):
What I needed to do is redrill that lower bag mount hole. To figure out how much and in what direction (remember axle moves left/right too), I hung a plumb bob and marked the position. (This is just a random position to give me a relative movement amount.) I cycled the suspension up and down (from 7" bag height to about 11-1/4" bag height) and recorded the positions.
So, we have a range here. The "normal" ride height is somewhere in the middle of these so to figure out how much the hole should move, I basically split the difference. The new holes will be 3/4" back and 1/4" to the left of the existing lower bag mount hole.
If you just drilled a new hole in these mounts, the bag mount flange bell thingy would hang over. I cut a plate from 1/2" cold rolled to fix that. It hangs over the Kelderman mount about a 1/4" on all sides which makes it easy to weld together.
The new bags have a stud sticking out the bottom instead of a threaded hole. I trimmed about an inch off the stud and there's plenty of room to get on a nut. You'll need a "crows foot" wrench to tighten it. Perfect harbor freight item since it only has to work once. =)
continued...
The problem is that each of these modifications create issues of their own. For example, simply lifting the truck will cause the axle to shift towards the passenger side due to the track bar geometry. It's not much, but it's enough to be a problem. Moving the axle forward about an inch will cause that same track bar to hit the front diff cover too. Both of these were solved for me with the Buckstop track bar relocation bracket. That is a key component which makes this work. I can't thank Ram5500Camperthing and Clinton at Buckstop enough for getting me one of these.
Lifting also meant the Kelderman air bags weren't tall enough. Firestone has a 2" taller version that is almost identical and works great here. Lifting also increases travel and that means that the axle will move forward/back as it goes up and down. That means the lower airbag mounts will move forward and back too. If the bag mount holes aren't drilled in the right spot, the bags will be angled instead of straight up and down. Here's an example of how bad it can be (fully compressed, before any mods, short bags = worst case):
What I needed to do is redrill that lower bag mount hole. To figure out how much and in what direction (remember axle moves left/right too), I hung a plumb bob and marked the position. (This is just a random position to give me a relative movement amount.) I cycled the suspension up and down (from 7" bag height to about 11-1/4" bag height) and recorded the positions.
So, we have a range here. The "normal" ride height is somewhere in the middle of these so to figure out how much the hole should move, I basically split the difference. The new holes will be 3/4" back and 1/4" to the left of the existing lower bag mount hole.
If you just drilled a new hole in these mounts, the bag mount flange bell thingy would hang over. I cut a plate from 1/2" cold rolled to fix that. It hangs over the Kelderman mount about a 1/4" on all sides which makes it easy to weld together.
The new bags have a stud sticking out the bottom instead of a threaded hole. I trimmed about an inch off the stud and there's plenty of room to get on a nut. You'll need a "crows foot" wrench to tighten it. Perfect harbor freight item since it only has to work once. =)
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