Air bags and axle wrap

I’ve had a hellwig helper spring installed on my 2013 for about 10yrs. It eliminated axle wrap altogether and helps with sag a bit when the bed is loaded. Ive been doing more towing/hauling lately and decided I want air bags and cradles and planning on ditching the hellwig springs. Will air bags have the same cure for axle wrap? I was hoping to soften the unloaded ride by eliminating the helpers. I’ll add that I don’t off-road, my truck is a daily driver and weekend tow/hauler.

I did see a very old post on another forum about mounting a helper spring upside down and ahead of the axle - the theory was it would help axle wrap but not increase load capacity or harshen the ride - any truth to this?

 

Nope. You need new leaf springs. The factory ones just straight up suck on these trucks. And after 12 years those leafs are guaranteed shot by now. None of those helper springs can fix that. Air bags basically just replace the bump stops, they do nothing for axle wrap. And they will make your unloaded ride quality significantly worse.

Better leafs will be smoother when empty, reduce axle wrap, and provide more load carrying capacity and stability when loaded up. Unless you are going from 0 weight to 1000lb+ often, you wouldn't need air bags with better leaf springs. Even if you do, better leafs will give more arch and up-travel which means you have more room for air bags so that you aren't riding on them as much even when empty.

The more leafs = the more progressive the resistance. More progressive = smoother ride when empty and more load capacity when hauling. But more leafs usually means more expensive. That being said leaf springs are very much a "buy once, cry once" type of purchase. If you cheap out, you will be disappointed and will be looking to upgrade again soon. Also you want full military wrap on the ends to reduce axle wrap. So basically Deaver or Archive. I wouldn't go Icon RXT in your case because they have no overload springs which would be useful for when you are loaded right up. And anything cheaper won't have full military wrap or as many leafs.

 

I agree that they cannot help with axle wrap but I have not had the experience of poor ride quality with the airbags. I am running the Firestone air bags with cradles. Of course ride quality is a subjective thing, some people criticize the Taco for riding like truck...go figure.

 

I also have airbags, and the ride is terrible unless you have a bit of air in them, and if you don’t have enough weight for that air, then it gets bouncy

 

Thanks for feedback - I should have stated, already have purchased the air bags and cradles. I do load up 1000lb or more in the bed, not every weekend but often enough to justify the bags. What I’m hoping to accomplish is capability to haul about 1k lb in the bed while towing about 1.5k lb in a trailer at the same time. I’ve not attempted this yet because 1k in the bed is already pointing my front end skyward and I know added tongue weight would exasperate that problem. I think the bags should solve for this, but was hoping to ditch the helper springs that are currently preventing axle wrap at the expense of some unloaded ride comfort.

Anyone seen or tried this upside down helper spring in front of the axle trick? I saw it shared by a Nissan guy on a Toyota forum. A bandaid for sure, and I know some will discount it just for being that, but seems like a decent stop gap between now and new leaf pack some day. Not sure if it works.

 

Some people do that when they go to chevy 63's. It apparently works?

No experience with it myself

 

Bags and cradles are installed. I did remove the Hellwig helper leaf altogether not many miles on it yet, but thus far haven’t felt axle wrap with about 7 psi in the bags. Overall ride is better vs the helper springs which made the back end a bit bouncy.

Anyone try to use an aftermarket tpms system to monitor? The kind that replaced the stem cap. I did buy one so I can have the front set on the bags and the rear set on the trailer, but with such low pressure in the bags changes in psi from even temp difference overnight is enough to trigger the % change threshold and it alarms. So works, but far too annoying. Can’t seem to find one with no alarms at all, just want to see a psi #. Looking for simple, valve stem cap type.