Airlift 5000

I wanted extra support when towing my 1800lb teardrop and 3000 lb boat. My local shop suggested the Airlift 5000 kit with Daystar cradles. I made it clear that I wanted to retain the stock ride quality when the airbags were not in use. Well…the ride is awful when the bags are at the minimum 5 psi when not in use for towing. I’m amazed just how bad the ride is. Feels like there are no shocks. There is just not enough suspension travel. I’ll probably need to remove them and eat the cost. Just a heads up for anyone else. I usually read and study up before making a move like this. Whoops.

 

I'm at 28 psi with minimal load. 5100. Lt235/85/16@40psi. Mainly city. Definitely better than the old hitachi. 5psi for me was horrible. Try bumping up 5psi at a time till you reach a sweet spot.

 

The problem might be the leaf springs, air bags are meant to work with health leaf packs and yours are likely toast from prior loads.

I've had really old airlift bags and they only rode rough if I forgot to let the air out. I used to run 5psi empty and ran 50lb heavy/overloaded.

 

I second this thought. I installed the RideRite bags. Min pressure is supposed to be 5 psi. Ride quality was terrible. Like OP, I thought I made a bad mistake. Started playing with higher pressures, and found 12 psi to be my sweet spot unloaded. 25 psi with RTT and gear. 32 psi for trailering.

 

Appreciate the replies. I’ll give it a try at different PSI. So far I’ve tried 5, 10, 15. The only modification I’ve done is replacing the OEM OR shocks with 4600s. I’m at 25,000 miles, 15,000 of which are highway, and about 5K total of towing. Are you guys using the Daystar cradles as well?

 

No cradles for me.

 

Ok so it seems after trying 8,12,15,18 and 20 psi that around 18 is a good spot. But...that raises me by around an inch in the rear. Is that ok for 4600s? Or too much extension?

 

What shocks do you have? With my 4600s and 18 psi I’m at about a 1” lift. Maybe I need to drop it down a bit. I can’t seem to find info on here or the interwebs about the 4600 being able to handle any kind of lift.

 

I give no weight to shocks' recommended lift rating and instead compare actual measurement specs.

If you had a 4600 rear in one hand and a 5100 rear in the other, you could measure and compare each's extended length, to each's compressed length, after pushing the shafts all the way in. That gives you the top end and bottom of the travel range.

If both shocks are the same physical measurements, then they work the same with the same lift amount. The valving and size, and therefore the ride may differ, but the lift amount the shocks state is irrelevant.

 

Yeah they're basically the same, but the 5100s allow for adjustment depending on lift height. I'm trying to decide whether taking 1 inch of upward travel away from the 4600s will cause issues with some off road use. Nothing crazy (rarely if ever getting onto anything requiring only 2 or 3 wheels touching), but some pretty rough stuff to get to good spots on occasion. I'm not crazy about the extra rake I gave the truck, but at this point the ride is tolerable with the airbags at 15-18psi.

 

The air bags being inflated more will do nothing to change your total droop. At full droop, your airbags will be off the cradle
Lifting higher increases your uptravel, and decreases your down travel

 

I adjusted the bags down a bit to 15 psi which puts it in about a half inch higher than normal. I’m gonna call it good there and deal with a slightly rougher ride

 

OK I give up. These things have to come off. I’m not happy eating the cost of installation but I can’t drive this truck like this. I haven’t even tried it off road I can’t imagine what that would be like. I’m getting bounced all over the place on anything but a perfectly smooth road no matter what psi I use. I think these are more suited to someone who constantly has a load or trailers very frequently.

 

I came to the same conclusion myself. My airbags were on for less than 2 days, tried every pressure, etc. They rode HORRIBLE, hopefully this post will help others from getting them like we did

 

Yank the cradles and use the original hardware before you throw them out entirely

 

Will do

 

What was happening at 5psi? Too much bouncing or a hard clunk when going over bumps?

 

0-5: hard clunk on every imperfection…almost like hitting the bump stops all the time, and feels like I’m riding on no shocks at all
5-10: A little better but a very firm ride and pretty rough especially over any kind of bump
10-20: not quite as rough; very firm and actually felt sporty and almost tolerable enough to keep them but hard bumps still on anything other than a very nice newer road, and roads with undulation are almost comical… it gets into a bouncing pattern and I’m almost coming out of my seat

25-30: a little better but then the rear is 1-2 inches lifted and not compatible with my 4600s and non-lifted front

 

I have the 5160s on mine. 1" block. Stock springs.

 

That’s why I ended up with the Roadmaster active suspension. Saw all the airbag complaints. And I think it rides better than stock.