Air valve on bumper?

5psi just to keep from pinching the bag, I never needed more than 15 in mine even towing heavy. I had to check your location to see if you had my old truck that I traded but it's not mine.

 

Nothing wrong with having the bags filled with a tee fitting and the pressure equalized between the bags. Not necessarily the way most install, but, if you don't have a need to have different pressures side to side, a single fill point isn't "bad". It is more convenient, for example, if you tow a trailer, to have equal pressure in the bags. I have a single fill point on my air bags and it works just fine for me.

 

Well, legally maybe. I had to air up to 60 with my sled, bed and cab fully loaded. That was using Dakar rear springs too. These pickups can handle quite a bit, just not the stock springs.

 

^^^This

And yes, I meant legally. Have any accident, and if they question the weight you will be 100% at fault - no matter what it is. Also, I hope your insurance guy never sees this.

 

"Be it water or air, a load shifting will not force air pressure to the side with less weight if you have a single line set up. It is simple physics! Yes, air will transfer from the loaded side to the side with less load, but the internal pressure will remain constant everywhere within the system. The actual air pressure in both the compressed bag and the extended bag will be exactly the same. The result is that you have a constant rate spring with each side having the same load carrying capacity." this is just another forum pi$$ing contest issue...ps Firestone sells air bag kits with a single fill option (electric fill), they apparently they don't share your legal opinion or safety concerns. In fact they do recommend the single fill option under some circumstances, such as towing.

 

Amen... Science wins. Always.

 

Assuming the legal comment was directed toward me - mine was directed toward the member who is driving around admittedly over GVWR. I'll admit that maybe I don't fully understand the physics of it, but in my mind it seems the truck would lean and pressure would shift. . My little brain can't fully grasp how having them on a T fitting would stop body roll. I was a biology major - not physics, though.

 

So am I to assume this setup is similar to air ride on cars where they like to slam it to the ground? Meaning, you have a gauges somewhere for those bags and either electronic or manual paddle valves/switches to increase or decrease the air into the bags?

Do you have an air tank mounted somewhere on the truck too?

 

I love my dakars. It was quite interesting when I got my 00 gsxr bike in my bed with the stock now it looks like a champ when I put it in

 

My buddy has 2 separate fill points on his Chevy 3500hd for his heavy loads

 

Jake,

I assume you bought this truck used? Air bags are a nice bonus feature! It's pretty easy to splice the line and add an isolation valve to isolate the bags from each other for better stability, or you could pay a shop to do it, it should be pretty cheap. A valve only costs maybe $5-$10. Just put the valve on the right side of the air fill valve, because Tacomas usually lean a little to the left you can fill both air bags together then close the valve and add a few more p.s.i. to raise the left side of the truck as needed.

 

There is a slight shift in volume between the two bags but, the volume shift is probably negligible as the pressure is constant within the system. The amount of compression on one bag has to increase exponentially as the volume shifts to the other bag - lot of factors at play here. In my application, I also have a rear sway bar which acts to stabilize unequal loading from turns, road irregularities, etc. Firestone "recommends", poor choice of descriptive grammar. Firestone, Air Lift et al, offer single fill options for their bags and "reference" the single fill application for trailer towing or other, where a need to regulate side to side loading is not an issue. As an aside - in a discussion with an Air Lift engineer, apparently years ago, their kits included a fill tee. They discontinued the option for two reasons: cost and by adding a tee they added three additional pressure connections that installers invariably screwed up.

 

personally i would do two seperate fill ports..... because a single one would be the opposite of an anti roll bar. Yes pressure stay the same in each bag and thats the problem. With two fill ports the outside bag will increase in pressure increasing in "spring rate" while the inner one will extend and loose pressure reducing "spring rate" thus helping out with body roll.

1 fill port and pressures equalized you get a relative reduced spring rate on the outside and an increased one on the inside.... this is not good.

Dont believe me try it out.... a t'd setup vs 2 fill ports.... sway with a load will be quite a bit more with a t'd setup.

 

You guys all talk like the transfer of volume (with a Tee in the line) is instantaneous side to side - somehow I doubt it shifts quite that quickly. For an instant, the outside bag (RH in a LH turn) gets a higher spring rate - and then it transfers some air. The piping and Tee act as an "orifice". Not the best arrangement when joined - but that's the way it works.

I like the balance valve idea myself - so when filling, all is connected. When driving the bags are isolated.

 

Ideal would be like stated a balance valve that gets isolated.

FYI the volume of air in the bags is so small that the "small" lines dont restrict airflow much at all between the bags.