Suspension Airbag Durability?

[Buliwyf]

My Airlift bags are mounted over the springs. The best place to reduce roll. They can be stretched and have no damage. They also run well with 0psi and have internal jounce bumpers. I usually remove them for hardcore offroading (never).
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But for your little truck, I'd just replace the rear springs first, then add airbags. If you have coils. The bag just gets shoved inside the coil!

 

[seanz0rz]

on my 4runner, I have the airlift bags in the rear coils. They have been there since 09 or late 08. They work great! Levels me out when I am fully loaded, and I frequently dump them to 0psi (they say not to go below 5) so they don't limit my offroad travel (they do a bit, but that is a special case for my truck)

no pops, tears, leaks, etc. they are solid!

my only gripe is they are not long enough for my lift. I have to use 2 spacer blocks. Some day I will find some that only require one spacer or none at all.

 

[RMP&O]

I'm looking to strengthen the rear suspension of my Pathfinder, as currently it crashes over bumps and sags way too much with a load. So I'm looking into suspension airbags, as I want to keep the stock height. The only kind available for me are in-coil 1000lb capacity units.

My questions are:

Do any of you have experience with their long term durability? -I have one friend whose airbags tore when off road, but on the other hand, the 5k ones on our Ram have held up fine and dandy, so I'm unsure.

Can you attain a smooth ride with them? I have rear Bilstein 4600s which I popped in but a few months ago, the ride quality is very good now, minus the crashing over bumps of course, which I'm hoping will be eliminated by the bags' installation. I do not want a bouncy, truck-like ride.

I'll probably think of more questions, I'll be sure to post them here.
Thank you!

Yes I have long term experience with air bags.

I had two different brands and sets in my 04 Tacoma. Each set did a trip to Panama and back with heavy loads, the Taco weighed 6,000lbs. The first trip was 15,000 miles and the second 10,000.

The first set were Airlifts and total junk. They have a plastic cap on the air bag that will break and form sharp edges. These sharp edges will cut up the air bag. I wouldn't touch anything from Airlift if I was you. I ended up plugging the holes with a tire repair kit during the first trip. I even had a new set of bags sent to me in Mexico half way through the trip. Those also got cut up and full of tire lugs. They also were mounted lame, between the leaf spring and the frame. With this first set of air bags I had Deaver off the shelf leaf springs. Since these were not made to suit my weight, I had to run 75+psi in the airlift bags. It sucked.

The second set of air bags I bought Firestones. Much much better design. The rubber is at least double the thickness and they caps on the airbags are steel and not plastic. We custom mounted these between the axle and frame, where the bump stops go. When I put these in I had upgraded the leaf springs to a custom Deaver pack that was built to suit the weight of the truck. This resulted in only having to run 25-40psi in the Firestone bags. Ride was also excellent. On top of this, I had zero problems with the Firestones on the second trip.

One thing to note about airbags though. They are not going to allow your suspension to flex to it's max. If flex is your goal and what you are after, I wouldn't use air bags.

Firestone next to AirLift.

Mounted Firestones

BTW, super easy to find leaks in the airbags, simply spray them with a bottle of soapy water and look for bubbles.

Cheers

 

[Wyowanderer]

I've had a set of Firestone bags on my 1984 Ford F150 for nearly twenty years and well over a hundred thousand miles with no problems except the cheap air brake fittings and lines that came with them. Maybe a year after I installed them, I replaced the lines and fittings and hoses with barb fittings and high quality rubber air lines, and I've never had a lick of trouble since. I'd say that qualifies as durable.
Whether they're right for your rig is another issue.

 

[Allof75]

on my 4runner, I have the airlift bags in the rear coils. They have been there since 09 or late 08. They work great! Levels me out when I am fully loaded, and I frequently dump them to 0psi (they say not to go below 5) so they don't limit my offroad travel (they do a bit, but that is a special case for my truck)

no pops, tears, leaks, etc. they are solid!

my only gripe is they are not long enough for my lift. I have to use 2 spacer blocks. Some day I will find some that only require one spacer or none at all.

Ok this is just what I'm looking for, so you used one of the spacer blocks from airlift to make it reach with your lift?



And to others- the kind I'm looking for are the in-coil type. So unless there's a conceivable way to use the cradle type, then I'm solely looking for the in-coils. I know the cradle types are durable :sombrero: Used them for the last 30k on the Ram....

Anyway, I'm primarily concerned with tearing of the airlift 1000s when used off road. I'm still on the fence, so any and all reviews are greatly appreciated.