Toyota Tundra Forum

When I was using them I was repossesing cars and it was nice to be able to back up to a car hook up, and air up as you're driving away.

As for the offroad, you loose a little flex. The rear won't compress as much and if the axle drops too much it will tear your bags.

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2008 Tundra CrewMax 5.7 4X4
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Mods- Homelink Mirror, Expedition One front and rear winch bumpers, PIAA 510 Ion fogs, Backup Camera, Lund Interceptor Bug Shield, Truxxx 3/1 leveling kit, 20% front window tint, 18x9 XD Monsters +18 offset, 325/60 R18 Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ's, DiamondDeluxe 3Hole Dogbox, Bushwacker Fender Flares, Custom Front Emblem, Weathertech front and rear liners, Husky center hump liner, N-Fab textured step bars

Great write up and thanks to the rest of you with your input and experience. Ive been looking at these for awhile, but think I'll go with Airlift. All my truck driver buddies said their rigs use the Firestone, but I've heard nothing negative about the Airlift and I like their load sensing SmartAir #25430. It has a delay before it makes any adjustments to alleviate drastic load shifts in corners. Although I'm thinking I'll do the install on the bags only to see how much I would need that onboard compressor anyway.

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"Yeah: it's funny when friends get hurt"

2008 Tundra SR5 4x4 Crew Max- Super White

OEM: TRD Package, Sunroof, VIP RS3200 w/ GBS, JBL Premium 12 Speaker Sound w/ Sirius
Aftermarket Add-Ons: KMC XD Monster Wheels w/ Kumho Road Venture MT KL71 35 12.5 18's, Truxxx 3" front/ 1" rear leveling kit, Amp Research Retractable Steps, PE Jackrabbit Tonneau w/ Explorer Rails & Overhead Rack, 15% Visor Tint, 35% Side Front Tint, Hayes Genesis Controller (flush mounted in pocket above shifter), Coverking Custom Fit Neoprene Seat Covers (for scuba diving and dirt biking protection)

I'm just so good that I make it look easy. OK, maybe not. I thought it was going to be harder than it was. After pulling out the gas cover, I saw how much room there was behind it and it turned out pretty simple. Wish I had left a little more hose behind it, but there is enough.

With the truck empty and the airbags at 5 psi, I am level at 40" front and back. At 10 psi, I am at 40-1/4" in the rear. Be aware that the OME lift lifted my truck more than the advertised 2.5". Mine was actually lifted 3.5" in the front.

So you are saying I shouldn't drive diagonal through the ditch again?

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2007 SR5 Crewmax 5.7L 4x4
Mods: nerf bars, Truxedo tonneau, radar detector power, 3M clear bra, fog lights, black billet grille, rear differential breather, parking sensors, Line-X, power tailgate lock, hood safety latch mod, one off driving lights behind grille, Pioneer NAV w/ OEM camera, Flowmaster 50 SUV dual/dual, blue LED dash lights, Volant CAI, Llumar tint, CompuStar Pro alarm, ProComp 6066 20" wheels, Cooper Zeon LTZ 275/60/20 tires, OME HD coilover lift, Firestone helper air bags, stereo cable lock, Tekonsha P3 brake controller
All mod descriptions and pictures © 2007-2009 by Toxarch. They may be copied only for personal use and the mods may be done for non-profit only.

It might not skrew anything up until they get a little older. I've never had it happen on any trucks that I've driven with them, but have read about a few people having them tear when fully extended. Maybe Allhitch will chime in if he's had any customers tear one yet.

Isn't that kinda like telling you to break your truck in slowly the first 500 miles!! LOL I didn't make it past 15 miles on the truck before I had it up to 90mph.

One more thing. You should be fine with a 2.5" lift. You should still have .5"-1" of rake. But if you do add the block, you will need to do something about the bag's bottom plate. Adding the block will lift the angled part of the bottom plate to be off the axle.

So Tox, where are the finished product pictures at? I want to see the whole truck with the new bumper, lift, wheels, and airbags!!

Waiting on a pair of fog lights to come in. And I still have to put in the parking sensors since they drilled the holes too big. I have an idea of how I am going to do it. Have some other stuff I need to take care of before that.

ya i was i was gong to either a add more blocks or have some one weld a bracket on to the axle in those spots but it looks like that wont be needed.

You know, I havent had anyone come back with torn bags, or anything like that on a typical install. I install them in contractor trucks, logging p/u's you name it. So they see alot of abuse. 2 bags have come back with wear holes in them, but both cases was a modded project. The fella had a 42 p/u he lowered and raised with light duty airbags and he built the brackets wrong so when the airbags were aired down they rubbed. I replaced his bags, and modded his brackets, now he should be good to go.

Another guy came in one day to get his wiring fixed up on his 1992 Ford dually. While I was under there I noticed he had airbags, and the shraeder valves were in the bumper, but they were badly damaged, beyond recognition. So I replaced valves and aired them up. Low and behold they held air. So I cleaned everything up, and when he returned I explained what I found and did. His response...... "I have airbags in that truck???" LOL he owned that truck for 9 years and had no idea it had airbags. The bags were completey out of air, yet they worked fine when I aired them up! So every situation is different. I wouldnt worry about most driving conditions doing any damage to your bags.

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Mods So Far...
285/70/20" BFG AT
Flowmaster Dual Exhaust
Go Rhino Dominator II Black Steps
Carriage Works Billet Grille
6" KC LongRange Driving lights behind the grille
Auto Open and Unlock/Lock Tailgate
Anytime Foglight Mod
2.5" Leveling kit for the front
1.5" for the Rear
Soft Tonneau Cover
White Knight Back-up lights
Color matched 2 of the pieces on the front of the truck
Color matched door handles
LED Interior, Cargo, License, and Marker lights

Tox has a great write up on the install of your Ride-Rites... I referred to it yesterday during my own. One thing that is puzzling to me.... perhaps I am paranoind. The destrcutions (instructions) show the bags mounting with the alignment pin towards the front of the rig. I tried every way I could to make that happen..... but the top plate would not align for the combination bolt to fit through the hole in the frame if set up so the alignment faced forward. Thus the bags mounted with alignment pin on top plate facing towards rear vs. front. Firestone suppport says it should be towards front and that if it doesn't I should flip the to plate. Thought I did that the first time....but when out and loosened a bag up this morning to check if I was insane.... and sure enough NO WAY to get the top plate to accomodate the alignement pin on the bag (top plate) being towards the front. My bags seem to be sitting nice atop my leafs. Do you think the fact that our installs don't explicity match the instructions... and some anonymous firestone tech's email response..... is a problem?

Here is Firestone's response to my query:
From: rrtech
To:
Subject: RE: Ride-Rite Tech Support Question
Sent: Jun 4, 2009 5:06 AM

The leg of the lower bracket should go to the inside of the leaf stack
and the upper bracket should be positioned so the combo stud is rearward
and the alignment pin is forward. If the bag seems misaligned this way,
you may have the upper bracket upside down.


Sincerely,
Ride-Rite
Tech Support
www.riderite.com