Air Ride-Why don't more people do it
 

My kidneys are sore from the pounding they take every day. I drive my truck as a daily driver-regularly cruising thru town & on the hiways. After I put these bigger tires on, i noticed a change for the worse in the quality of the ride. I don't plan on changing out the tires for balloons, but have been thinking about going with air ride.

Lots of looking around & I've really only found Kelderman as a viable source. They are pricey & not very common. I was wondering why? They seem to be a viable alternative to metal springs...but since they are not very common-there must be more of a reason ( other than price )

If I could get my hands on one, i'd go chinese on it & reverse engineer it to build my own. There's not that much metal in there & its the geometry i'd be after....

Price, price, price... oh, and it is a very involved and complicated install. I am watching one go in right now at the shop I use.

That said, I would love to have one. If it is anything like the air ride in my Range Rover, then it would be amazing.

on kelderman's website, they show those 2 yahoo's from xtreme 4x4 putting one on. I know that tv magic is great and all, but it looked to be a simple ( maybe time comsuming ) but simple....

I would pick someone other than Kelderman. From what I have seen, they use cheap heim joints, too small of heim joints, steering is a mess when raising and lowering as well. you can take a kelderman and put it on a lift with suspension fully deflated, raise the lift and the steering wheel will move 3/4 turn.

how much air pressure you running in those tires? I have 37" toyo MT's and only run 45psi. Rides like a caddy. People tell me all the time they can't believe how smooth my truck rides for being so tall.

right now i am running 60 or so in the front. I tried with lower pressures, and it does feel better, ( slightly ) but the tires always look flat. it takes a lot of air to finish rounding them out.

i am going to buy some bilstein shocks soon and i'll try dropping the air again-to see if it makes it managable.

As for the quality of Keldermans quality-who else do you think would be better?

I have a link saved at home that I will get ya when I get off work.

or you can make your own system. You can get Peterbilt bags for $140each and buy about $1200 in steel and another $500 in misc. parts and be in it for cheap compared to an off the shelf kit. I have been thinking about it a lot since we are chopping my frame in half this winter. I finally decided to take the plunge and stretch the bucket

is it the http://www.trex-tech.com/trexairlift.html
i found it while i was searching dtr.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...p-t245989.html

yup that is it.

Air ride is a show truck thing. Concept is great. Dont get me wrong. The problem is that the bags will break. And its usually out in the middle of no where. I'm speaking with experience of helping a guy get out of a bad area that had an air setup on a ford. Looked cool as hell. The ladies liked it when the big truck went up and down like a monster truck. But, unless your strictly a highway guy, I wouldn't recomend it.

I'm sure the tires you have are really nice, but have you thought about trying some different tires? The dodge 4x4 2500 or 3500 is really a nice ride compared to anything Ford with leaf springs up front. Ride in a 94-97 F250 and you'll have a new definition of rough.

Lower your pressure to around 45 or so and maybe 40 in the rear since your running 35" tires. bigger tires need less air. Sixty is way way too much. I dont even run that much with my toyo A/T 285s. And i tow heavy too. Not to mention you'll wear out the middle of the tire really soon.

Good luck! Try to find some people that have air rides and pick their brain before ya drop the change on one. Shocks will help. I really dig my monroe gas magnums/grandes or what ever they call them. definetly worth every penny.

I always wondered why someone didn't come out with a more basic usiable kit for the rear of pick-ups... Why not come up with something like the current overload style bags, but then pull out about half the leafs in the pack, and install a very good traction bar. Seems like it would soften the ride, but still us alot of the factory suspension points. But you might have to look into a rear sway bar..

No, it would not raise and lower 12"s but add in a nice leveling valve and on board air and you should have a pretty nice set up for an everyday truck...

Try Carli or Thuren or Lorenz suspension. They claim to make your truck ride much better.

if you search there are companies that offer air bag set ups like what they have in tractors but really pricey and not sure how much better it would ride, i found one that replaced everything out back and would level automatically like in a tractor it was like $3500 not installed , and no additional lift

or you can add an air ride seat Industrial seats has them for dodge

I purchased these tires with the rims-dick cepek wasn't my first choice. I wanted to go with some toyo AT's, but they were another hundred buck more a corner. money talks.
I'm gonna drop the pressure today & see what its like on the ride home. I jacked the pressure in the tires cause they always looked low.

Some bilsteins are in the near future-cause this rubber is still at 80% or so.

I am more of a hiway man, but the reliablility of the airbag systems has always been in my mind. I am in the heavy equipment mfg business & have seen lots of air systems on big rigs & trailers. They are all bullet proof-unless you go thru mud & rocks, pooch your air dryer, sun rot your airlines ect ect.