these are of my dads homemade air ride on his 89 w250. the ones with the spring are facing the rear of the truck.

 

some more.

 

a couple more

 

this is where my camrea battery died I will add some more later.

 

Neat set-up. Looks a lot like the set-up Phillip did on his truck, over on CF.

Only thing I would want to change would be the Pan hard bar...seems a little small for my liking.

 

Does the axle still tend to want to wrap a little on acceleration with the front half of the leaves still there?

What was the reason for relocating the upper shock mounts?

I've given thought to a similar setup but a single piece of square tube from the front spring hanger to the air bag perch. I don't think the axle would have much of a chance of wrapping if the tube was of substantial size and wall thickness.

Looks great!

 

It could still bend. Remember your only working with 3" to 5" max tube size in the spring area. Your stock spring bushings are 1.25" dia X 2 13/16" wide. So there is one limitation to deal with. Then you have to deal with a spring mount that is not much larger than the OD of the spring end. This is the biggest issue. It doesn't allow much upward travel on an air ride. This would cause bottom out of the arm. Plus that rubber bushing will cause problems. It does not have enough give or twisting travel. BTDT and still fighting it.

On square box I would put weld slugs into the tube to control the chance of bending/ twisting.

 

There is no wheel hop so I assume no axle wrap I think cutting the springs in half would stiffen them if anything. I have no idea why he moved the shocks he was probably just copying the Peterbilt as much as possible.

 

I agree.

 

It has been together for over 10 years and has hauled a complete N14(around 2500lbs) for 600 miles with no problems on rough old Interstate 5
It does ride better.

 

I searched CF for his thread, couldn't find anything though. Does anyone have the link?


Thanks Much.

 

MKNITTLE .......... Thanks for the pics


This is a lot like what I plan on running. I was hoping to utilize some OEM components from either International or Peterbilt for the install though, rather than fabbing them. Then there could be a parts list created, and posted to share with others, who wish to have an air ride but don't have the fab skills or tools available.


Nothing I have found from any OEM is close enough to work with though. So maybe I'll just do the fabbing, then post some blueprints of the pieces so they can be used by other DIY-ers as well.

 

It's contained in his build thread..."my never ending project"

Here ya go....

my never ending project - Dodge Cummins Diesel Forum

 

Stick start reading on page 44.

 

Thanks !!!