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.