"Official" Firestone RideRite + Lift Thread

Pictures of said wench? Big girls need loving too.

 

Mine (014) has the stock springs and single overload. Un-pressurized the Daystars close the clearance by an additional 3/4 and you don't want to drive it that way! The standard Firestone bags DO NOT have internal bumpstops. I have a heavy tool box in mine and 5 psi won't do it either - and I'm just talking about the standard Tucson potholes. I methodically raised pressure until the truck wouldn't bottom in ordinary daily driver conditions - 15-20 psi worked.

 

i chopped up my brackets and freed myself of the extra bolts and brackets.

 

This method works good with the All-Pro u-bolt flip:

 

interesting, its that a retail product or custom? @Fox2011PM

ive tried similar things with the tc plate but didnt have so much luck

 

We cut it on the water jet where I work so...... dunno what the charge would be for a commercial product.
The laminated 3/8 and AllPro 1/2 plates are strong enuff so far........

 

I am currently building/modifying my mounting plates very similarly to yours.

 

@inesshell I like it, but my question is, do you have to remove the ubolts and ubolt plate in order to remove the cradle? I like our setup because you just unbolt the 2 bolts from the ubolt flip plate and the entire cradle can be removed if you ever needed to (like I have had to do several times to check my leaking bag). I simply air down my bag and jack the truck up under my hitch and it puts enough separation to remove the cradle easily. I do however like how the above setup seems all integrated and therefore probably pretty stout. I'll stick with the way I have it for now, looking to put my focus into changing up my bed setup, as you know

 

Without revisiting all the past 25 pages, anyone simply bolt on the leg extender and not weld it? After having the ride-rites sitting in my garage for the past 4 months I'm finally getting around to installing these and can't f'n wait! Waiting on extenders. They come pre-drilled with 2 holes. Sufficient?

 

reason people wed because those predrilled holes only work with stock leafpack with some small room for aal etc., nothing aftermarket. Either you weld to suit your leafs properly or drill/tap new holes

 

I bolted mine on, but cut the length to fit. Thing about welding, if you change your leaf pack, it's less trouble to change the extender if it's just bolted on.

 

On the single 3/8 plate support I made, I also made some matching holes in the Daystar cups so there was clearance over the U-bolt threads. The thread length was cut back to only be (1) thread over the flanged nut. So you have room for 3/8 +3/4 total of nut and thread sticking out of the All-Pro base plate. When the truck is jacked up, the bag rises up out of the cup - and a single center nut releases the cup for removal - then you can retorque the U-bolts.


The combined strength of the 3/8 and 1/2 inch plates welded together are sufficient to not require the "downleg" to the axle tube. If there was anything I would most like to change - the center of the Daystar cup and the bag mount above are not centered. I used the same center offset as the Firestone bracket - and it isn't quite far enough toward the centerline of the truck. Second-most item I'd like to change - the stupid "push-on" plumbing arrangement - its just too prone to leaks and incidental damage.

 

You can grind a weld off pretty quick and re-use that same extender too.

 

After reading all of the positive reviews of the Firestone/Daystar combo, I was all ready to place an order. Then I saw this warning from a few years ago:

Firestone Issues Warning on use of Daystar Air Bag Cradles
https://www.truckspring.com/blog/po...r-air-bag-cradles-with-ride-rite-air-bag-kits

Is this just Firestone lawyers covering the corporate backside?
Anybody know of an actual failure with this combo?
Should I just suck it up and do it anyway "at my own risk"?

 

Its one of those moronic "cover your ass" corporate statements. To go along with that - for ages, they "forgot" to tell users that the inside down leg brace to the axle would not (in many cases, even stock) touch the axle tube. ooops

 

Just weld an extension onto the leg so that it does touch. The kit is for stock leaf springs.

 

hey man - realize this is an old thread, but how did you mount the cradles on top of your ubolt flip? Wouldn't the bolts get in the way? It's hard to tell by looking at the photo. Thanks!

 

i dont run that setup anymore, if you look back one page from latest you will see how i did it

 

I just built some brackets to mount the cradles over my u-bolts.

I will get some pictures posted (meant to do it over the weekend...)

 

@inesshell and I are running the same setup. I have had mine like this for some time now and it's held up great. @inesshell's brackets are prettier though. Mine are hack jobs, but they work