"Official" Firestone RideRite + Lift Thread

What is your weight variance? Is it stock weight, but sometimes loaded?
Or do you have constant load?

It's not just about a bumpstop, it's about actual bump travel, you NEED it.

 

the rear of my truck is stock minus a camper shell. it sits level and thats where id like my truck to stay i do not like rake on my truck at all. my truck gets loaded down normally every other weekend with either moving motos around or helping out with family/friends. doing an add a leaf will raise the rear end of my truck which im not wanting. with helping out with family or helping friends out ive had to tow a good amount of weight every now and then so id like to have a set of bags so i can adjust how much i need depending on the load. we have ran them on our larger 3/4 ton trucks and 1 ton trucks and they were great thats why im wanting them on my tacoma.

 

You're making a mistake by comparing air bags on 3/4 or 1 ton trucks (with shocks inboard of leaves, thus outta the way) to a Tacoma. They're totally different animals, Tacoma suspension geometry compromises the air bag system.

With shell, you're rear is lower than stock. Firestone setup will have zero bump travel with your shell and lower rear height.

I'm a designer for over 2 decades, I can see all the details and understand why the Tacoma design is compromised, and why air bags are great on domestic trucks.
Refer to my post #945 for why domestic trucks are great with airbags.

 

All this talk about post 934, and all Im going to say is the fact that there are no internal bumpstop in these air bags.... shocks would be hard bottoming out first (how did upper and lower shock mounts look on that truck?), the pics shown have a much thicker more leafs than stock leaf pack.

The pics in 934 show a truck so insanely overloaded that was likely blasting through very rough terrain at a high rate of speed... if the truck had regular bumpstops bad things woulda happened just as easily.

 

With cap, tools, me & fuel I’m typically running at least 700 lbs or more. Sometimes it’s right up to max payload 1200 lbs. That’s the beauty of bags, with 65 psi I can carry that heavy load without bottoming and maximum pressure is 100 psi so there’s more top end if I want added insurance if the road is going to be rough. However, with that much load I always take it easy anyway for the sake of the rest of the running gear. I certainly wouldn’t hammer it down the road like it was empty. I’ve had the bags for about 6 years now and as long as I air them up properly bottoming just isn’t an issue. At first they were a bit leaky so I switched to compression fittings with brass inserts and nylon ferrules and that’s not a problem anymore. I use a 40 oz paintball bottle which feeds some solenoids switched from the dash and lasts several months (I use them for nail guns also or I’d probably just go with a small compressor). An added benefit is being able to raise/lower the tailgate for loading and unloading.

 

You can break anything if you use it wrong or beef up one part which focuses stress on another. If you drive such that even with the bags properly filled you are still bottoming then you need something different. For me, on pavement and from no load right up to max payload they’re all I need without adding the weight or expense a leaf pack designed for 1200 lbs would require or the long travel needed for serious off-roading. I’m not taking 15 sacks of concrete to Baja.

 

The crappy stock tacoma bump stop doesn't have much more material than rubber of a compressed airbag..... I also would be interested to know how many bent frames were trucks with either Daystar cradles or T'd airlines. I can definitely see how either of those could cause problems.

My airbags have been on for more than 7 years now.

 

thanks for the info man it helps me out a lot!

 

Changing your suspension can be a rabbit hole. Most things you do affect how much travel or what ride height you have. That applies to leaf pack changes too. It can get expensive to upgrade shocks, brake lines, hangers, bump stops etc chasing that rabbit. I don’t need off-road articulation so no cradles(and no cradle slap either) but if it’s still resulted in less total travel I haven’t noticed save for now my axles float near the middle of whatever travel is available instead of hitting the stops too frequently for comfort prior to the installation.

And adding leafs isn’t lift?

 

it really is and ive been there before on my last tacoma this one is just simple so not doing anything crazy this go around lol

 

LOL.

The GVWR on these trucks isn’t great, and they’re not light from the factory.

Slapping a ton of extra weight on them and bombing around off road is going to do damage.

That truck was grossly overloaded like most “overland” vehicles and it shows.

 

Since someone deleted my post with actual measurements in it, trying to answer a direct question, Here are the measurements so anyone reading can understand and make educated decisions before purchasing this air bag kit.

Measurements:
Stock 6-lug rear lift height measures 8.25" from top of axle tube up to bottom of frame rail, I measured and confirmed on dozens of stock 2nd and 3rd gens at this height.
At this stock height, there is exactly 5.31" from top of main leaf to the lowest point of bumpstop frame bracket, where Firestone kit mounts up to.

Available space at stock height: 5.31"

Firestone upper mounting plate thickness: .19"
Firestone 6766 bag fully compressed: 2.8"
Firestone lower mounting bracket height: 1"
Daystar cradle thickness (if used): .75"

Total Firestone kit height fully compressed: 3.99"
Total Firestone Kit + cradle fully comp: 4.74"

Therefore, if you desire to keep rear at stock height, you will be using up 3.99" of the available 5.31" space, leaving you with 1.32" of actual bump travel at true stock height.

3rd gen DC at dealer with low miles on it

Stock lift height measures 8.25" top of axle to bottom of frame rail


Available space at stock height 5.31"

 

This previous picture you're referencing had daystar cradles so the airbag wasn't mounted (secured) at the bottom.. high speed whoops could cause the airbag bottom to miss the cradle which would allow the airbag to be pushed off to the side (so no airbag there to act as a bump stop) and the daystar cradle edge was smashed against the frame.

 

Removed my post questioning @ARCHIVE measurements as I am not stock height.

 

What I haven't seen discussed here is the fact that the air bags are a variable rate spring. My truck usually sits well at 12 psi each (bags isolated from each other). Daily it has several hundred pounds of tools in a cross bed box and a 3/4" thick (100 lb) "stall mat" to keep the crap I toss in there from going through the plastic bed. The 12 psi was developed by simply driving the truck around T-town and some highway journeys without the odd pothole "bang". The ass isn't a mile high - roughly where it was when it first came home. I took the truck to Lowes and bought some cement blocks and pavers for my wife's garden project - threw straps over them to avoid an "off load" situation. Ride height was lower - didn't measure - but adding my own weight showed it still had some bounce.

For my own information, got into the console - dug out the pressure gage and checked the bags ........hmmmm. Bag pressure was now over 55 psi. fired up the compressor and added some axle clearance. This is exactly the "tuning" I wanted out of the bags.

What has been missing in this discussion is the fact that the bags change spring rate as they collapse. At any given bag starting pressure, the load changes as the axle moves higher - and it is not the sort of change exerted by a flexing leaf spring (or abruptly crushing a rubber block). I don't think you could easily damage the frame by just adding cargo weight so long as you took the time to re-pressure the bags to get your desired axle clearance. This has an assumption - that you aren't stupidly adding something that weighs as much as the truck and ruins the bearings.

 

Finally completed my installation yesterday.
Due to other priorities, I've been running with only one side completed for the summer and towed like that with no perceivable problem.
(I do use a WD Hitch) I will say, having both sides installed is a BIG improvement buzzing around town !

I was secretly hoping that I was going to bump up the pressure on the drivers side and negate the Taco Lean.

Not so.

How come ?

 

Do they fill independently? Not gonna touch the lean otherwise and some is up front anyway.

 

Filling independently or together is an installation option from my recollection.

 

Yes, correct.

I did them independently.

Adding more air to the left seems to raise the whole bed.
No matter how high I go, I still lack 1/2" on the drivers side.

 

That’s how I set up mine but I use a bottle of HP air as the source and switch the solenoids from the dash.

That’s really odd. I definitely have independent load leveling.