I've been looking at ways to improve ride quality. My idea is to start by removing some of the rear leafs to reduce stiffness. Then add a system like this

http://www.ridetech.com/productinfo/airoverleaf.asp

or

http://www.ride-rite.com/


Do you guys think this will help? I was thinking that maybe I could pull three leafs out and run positive pressure in the bags all the time.

 

If ride is what you are after, you could pull all the leaves but the main leaf and run the ride-rite kit with an on-board compressor and auto height adjuster. The problem is, you would need to add a torque-bar of some sort. You might be able to get away with pulling every other leaf in the pack, and using the air-bags to get capacity back for when you wanted to load the truck.

I have the ride-rites on my truck, and am happy with the kit. They work, and do not "slap" under light loads like regular overload springs.

 

Alec, did you remove the factory overload when you installed the air bags?

 

I've had a few set's of airbags in the past and I never felt they helped ride quality at all. They are too complex for my liking. As far as an overload system I now use Timbren load boosters on everything, but they just add capacity not improve ride, but that is all the airbags do in my opinion.

 

I had ride-rites on my old truck for load purposes. One side developed a slow leak which was annoying . The other one somehow got a chuck of rubber ripped out of it, it still held air but made me nevous under load. I'm out in bush quite a bit so in my case they didn't work that great.

 

I was considering the same thing to improve empty ride but need a system to prevent axle troque resulting in wheel hop. Another member mentioned he took out his short leaves and added used longer leaves. I was also thinking of doing this and then adding Timberlins for the overload capacity.

 

What is a torque bar? Is this something that keeps the axle from twisting under accelleration. I'm limited to as close to $250 as I can get. I'm needing to get rid of the jouncing, quivering. Especially over speedbumps and potholes. I was going to get the velvet ride shackles but it seems it will be a while yet. Its really hard for my wife to use the truck. We've just be doing the best we can.

I will probly never pull more the 6k again and only rarely load more than 2000lbs in the bed. Could I pull 2-3 leaves install the air levelers to normalize capacity capability and be OK?

Will this signifigantly improve the ride?

I'm in a bind and don't really have the time to expirement.

Thanks all you guys for helping me.

 

Would something like this work for a torque bar?

http://www.powerstrokedatabase.com/read.php?id=178

 

That is exactly what you would need. I wouldn't take too many leaves out without adding a pair of these. But like he said they need to be much longer. I have the firestone air bags and I like them, I have to manually air them up or down, no on board air for me. If you don't keep them aired up they will loose air over time, like months. If you check them every few weeks you may have to add a couple psi so its not that bad. The bags also act as a sway bar of sorts so it gives you some extra stability also. And I like that I can adjust my ride height easily with any load. When I installed them they didn't really help the ride much if at all. I keep about 20psi in them when empty, and with my 28' travel trailer with 50psi the truck is level.

If you were going to take leaves out I would only take the shorter ones out, and maybe add one longer one to try and minimize your axle wrap. Unless of course you build your self some traction bars/torque bars.

 

So the consensus is remove some leafs for ride improvement
add the bags for load handling
torque bars for axle wrap/ wheel hop.

 

My truck did not have helper springs (it is a 3/4 ton). I just mentioned the "slap" because it was something I considered when I bought the air bags . . .

Air bag helper springs will not improve your ride -- unless you soften the stock springs by removing leaves, which I think was the initial idea?

If you can afford a torque bar, then I really would remove all leaves but the main leaf, and add air bags. The leaf & torque bar will align the axle, the bags will hold the weight and give a softer ride, if you keep them aired appropriate to the load.

I just took a quick look at the link you posted. The 3 pt top link is an okay idea, though the swivel joints are really not up the the kind of wear that the link will experience as a suspension part. The geometry that he designed is not okay at all -- it looks to me as though he is confusing a 4-link design and a ladder bar design:

In a four link design, you create a modified parallelagram that in this case would keep the axle pinion at the same angle throughout the entire range of vertical motion. Ladder bars are usually fixed with a solid mount to the rear axle, and mounted well ahead of any other suspension point, so that the arc of their travel is kept small, since the pinion angle stays fixed in relation to the ladder bar.

In this guy's design, as you compress the suspension, the link tries to force the nose of the pinion down, and "fights" against the alignment provided by the leaf spring.

 

So basically you say 2 bars on each side running parallel so that the axle can travel up and down and not twist. The only thing I couldn't really handle myself would welding to the axle tube.

Or long traction bars starting well ahead of the leafs. I looked at the current setup and think this would work okay. Keeping in mind my truck rarely sees serious load.