supr

Bilsteins will make a huge differrence. I think air bags will also help with the ride, being adjustable. Some weight in the bed will also help. Good reason to add a transfer tank. Lower tire pressure, maybe 35-40 psi will also help with no load.
My 2002 3500 rides better than my 2000 Nissan Frotier 4x4, but it is 2 wheel drive which also helps.

wyokaboy

Kattom, Did yours bolt right up. Could u post a picture of the bracket. I just sent a pair back becauseI think they were missing the bracket that mounts to the frame. Thanks

KATOOM

Yes, they easily bolted to the frame. All I had to do was remove the factory bump stop and the Timbrens mount used the original bolt holes. This is the best picture I have. Hopefully that helps you out. Also, Timbrens couldn't be any more helpful so hopefully you called them directly before sending them back. They have great customer service and will do whatever to make your setup work.

wyokaboy

Yes I did call. I bought through Amozon.com so I'm exchanging them first. The brackets that i got looked nothing like that. Thanks for the info

Kevin

DryCreek

We have installed the Timbrens on the wife's '03 2500 2WD. They have been great, and we haul some heavy loads with it. Just this last week I removed the spacer from them. They had been in contact with the rear axle and the ride was very stiff and unforgiving. It would beat you to death when unloaded. After our last trip to Louisiana to visit our son, the wife insisted that the spacers come out. After unhooking the trailer it was not comfortable driving around town after five hours on the road.

They really are maintenance free. I would recommend installing them without the spacer first to see if you get the load handling you expect. it will save your kidneys and back!

They are also quieter than the stock two-leaf overloads on my '01 2500. not rattling and thumping with medium sized loads.

KATOOM

I have the Timbrens sitting about 3/4" away from the axle and my ride is fairly forgiving, but still very "truck" like. Not enough to bother me.

But I recently acquired a 5th wheel with a pin weight in the 2500-3000 range. I'm not sure how to measure the exact pin weight or I'd post it. The truck actually handled the weight very well but sat lower than I'd care it to look. I know most of that is because of the 2" leveling kit so the squatting I'm noticing is more an illusion than not since the front is higher than normal.

The only issue I cant tell is if the Timbrens are taking the shock of the trailer bucking as good as airbags would because the 5th wheel bucking can get annoying on bumpy roads. The only way to know if airbags would be any better against bucking is for someone to post who has had both.

Don T

With my Firestone air bags and under hood compressor I just add the air I need to give me a good ride .they carry the weight of my fiver and when I disconnect the fiver I dump air till I like the ride.I had those rubber timberlines and hated them, the ride sucked when I was not hauling the fiver. Air bags with the controller is the way to go I think for the best ride.

KATOOM

What didn't you like about the ride with Timbrens? How was your truck set up with them? And did you contact Timbren and have them send you another set or did you just get rid of them? Just curious because as much as I like my Timbrens, the unloaded ride is fine until I hit a decent bump where I then feel the firmness of them which can be harsh. If airbags truly offer a smooth unloaded ride when there's no air in them then I may consider changing. But I have to admit, its hard to beat never having to mess with the Timbrens, and no air lines, and no expensive compressor.

C Schomer

Most guys say they can't feel the bags with 5 psi in them but I could. I put a lot of time and effort into making my dually ride as good as possible and I was super sensitive to every little thing while getting it that way. I got to wondering why they recommend 5 psi min. and the only thing I could think of was to keep the bellows in the bags from kinking on extension/rebounding. The entire 9 yrs with airlift on my 97 and 7 yrs with ride rite on my 03, I've left the bottom center bolt out and ran 0 psi when empty. That way the suspension can't possible stretch the bags on rebounds and there's no pressure until they get compressed. It was more work but the icing on the cake was making an expansion tank out of 2' of 3"pvc and connecting the bags to it with 3/8 air line. That gave the bags a MUCH more favorable compressor rate - empty and loaded. Those bags are absolutely undetectable now and both brand of bags have been absolutely maintenance free. The compressor is a non-issue to me cuz I have other things that need air - rancho 9000s (which are equally as awesome as the bags) for tuning out bad roads and the PRXB e-brake. I would do every single one of my mods over again in a heart beat! Craig

KATOOM

Thats the kinda good honest posts I love to read. I tend to go overboard on issues as well whereby solving a problem that would otherwise go unnoticed by most people.....until you show them the difference.

Thank you for the opinion. Because how sensitive I am to changes, if I spent the time and money to change from Timbrens to airbags only to feel them back there.....I'd be more than unhappy.

C Schomer

Oh yeh... about the bottom OL's. The weight of my hauler bed put the main springs just above the bottom OLs and they were constantly thumping so the first thing I tried was to remove the OLs. That plan backfired, big time. I don't know if my 2wd drive has shorter travel than a 4wd but without the OLs, the truck was bottoming out on the air bags, hard. So I cut about 8-10" off the ends of the OLs and put them back in. So then, without having the full length of the OLs, I could still feel it bottom out on the bags. BTW I was using a RR crossing from hell for my proving grounds. Then I got to looking at the bottom bag brackets and they were built high enough to clear the brake line on the left side of the axle. I bent the brake line out of the way and cut the brackets down and gained another 3/4" travel for the bags. That was the coupe de gras - perfection! I had plenty of travel without ANY hard rebound. The very last mod was the PVC expansion tank. I took it one step at a time and evaluated what was needed next. This truck is my one and only vehicle and it was worth putting that much work into the ride. My last gasser was a 96 Ram 1/2T SB and my dually rides better now than that 1/2T did. Most guys won't go as far as I do but I get tunnel vision and fully possessed when I see something I can improve! Good luck! Craig

KATOOM

You wouldn't have happened to take any pictures of your ingeniousness?

HMX-1

These are my Firestones ..... they were put on when I first got the truck and it's an '08, and the only issue I had was with the dual needle gauge from Firestone, which I replaced with AirLift's WirelessAIR kit.

KATOOM

I'm not sure why airbags dont install like Timbrens. Drilling the frame certainly stops me from "just trying them".

SOhappy

No drilling with Firestone Ride-rites, just replace the bump stop.