"Official" Firestone RideRite + Lift Thread

One other thought: Does it seem odd to anyone else that the airbags are not designed to be centered under the frame rail and over the leaf spring. Why is it designed to hang half off on the inboard side? The air valve is the only reason I could see but that could have been designed to feed in from the side rather than on top.

 

Anyone else who installed these have the same space between lower bracket and axle?

 

Yes, I just installed the Firestones on my 2013 DC 4x4 Sport (bone stock) and the lower bracket did not come down to the axle (exactly as you are describing and pictured). Completely stock springs, no lift (3 springs + overload). There is about 3/8" gap between the axle and lower bracket. I called Firestone and the young kid almost didnt believe me. After about 5 minutes of explaining to him how the older 05+ Tacomas had 2+1 leaf systems, he eventually just said "well, its fine, dont worry about it". Which I find hard to believe, i think he just didnt want to deal with it. He said I could "make an extension, and bolt it on there"..... Yeah whatever.

 

I had the same gap on my 2014. And I also had the same thought as to why the bags are not centered with the frame but oh well as long as they work lol

I also towed my mower on the trailer the other day (zero turn dixie chopper) used to hit my bump stops and it towed horrible. But after installing the airbags it pulls wonderful!!

 

I have a block in the rear 1" and it sits in the right place, but not worried. Everything lines up and has had 0 problems in 20k+ miles of constant towing and carrying dirtbikes and loads.

 

Bit the bullet today and ordered a set of bags and cradles. Figured I was sagging an bunch with the trailer fully loaded. More for piece of mind on my upcoming 3700mile trip from Alaska to San Diego

 

I had mine installed about a month ago by an offroad shop. There was a gap just as you describe. They called Firestone and spoke to one of their tech support guys and told them to weld in a support.

 

If you get the daystar cradles there is zero gap

 

Not talking about gap between air bag and cradle. See post 162 - gap between axle and lower bracket. It has to do with the thickness of the leaf pack. Looks like the bracket is designed to rest on the axle but there is a gap of about 1"

 

I have the Daystar Cradles and the gap was about 3/8". I have '15 DCSB 4x4 with a 4 leaf pack.

 

I just finished installing Firestone airbags on my Tacoma. I didn't buy the kit because I have a U-bolt flip kit installed and I removed the bump stop brackets when I installed Icon hydraulic bump stops. This was a nice project for me to practice a little TIG welding, so I removed the hydraulic bump stops and fabricated some mounting brackets. I hate to get rid of the hydraulic bump stops because they are awesome, but with a new shell on the back and flexy/saggy Deaver leaf springs, the back end just sagged too much with light to moderate loading so I had to do something.

I ordered a pair of Firestone 6781 airbags from SD Truck Springs for $261 and some air line and fittings from a local supplier for about $40. The 6781 airbags are identical to the ones that come in the popular kit, except they have two mounting studs on top for more secure mounting. These 6781 air bags do not have any internal bump stop. I've seen diagrams of some air bags that have an internal bump stop, which seems like a nice extra safety feature if you hit a really big pothole going 50+ m.p.h. on forest service roads, but maybe I worry too much. I don't know if the 6397 air bags that come in the kit have an internal bump stop, but I suspect they do not.

With no air pressure in them they are 6" tall, so that's the distance I wanted to start with between the mounting bracket and the bottom contact plate. I decided to leave the bottom of the air bags disconnected from the bottom plate for better suspension down travel. I think the bottom contact plate is big enough and located properly to allow this. I also made sure that the top bracket and bottom contact plate are parallel so the airbags don't squish out to one side. I might end up getting some Daystar cradles later if it seems necessary, but so far I think my design will work OK. It would have been a lot easier to fabricate the lower contact plate in combination with a new u-bolt flip kit, but since you can't re-use u-bolts I had to work with the existing setup. I also had to drill a 5/8" hole in the frame for the big bolt, but I'm not too worried about it.

For the air line, I fabricated a little bracket near the tow hitch to hold the fill valve and isolation valve. It looks OK but I would prefer something more hidden. I put the isolation valve to the right of the fill valve so I can fill the two bags simultaneously, then close the valve and add a few more PSI to the left side to correct the "taco lean" and leave the valve closed to isolate the bags for better roll stability.

About 10-12 PSI lifted the back about 1 inch, which brought it back to the height before I put a shell on the back and just the right height. It's nice knowing that I can load a bunch of shit in the back and with just a few pumps from the bicycle tire pump the height will be right back where I want it.





With zero pressure in the air bags:

 

The iso valve is badass!

 

Just a heads up to anyone thinking of buying an air ride setup: IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING OTHER THAN A LIFT BLOCK LIFT KIT (AAL, NEW LEAF PACK, ETC) THIS KIT WILL NOT WORK WELL AT ALL! I discovered it the hard way and had to buy all new longer hardware and make spacers

 

Not sure about the specs on the 6766's, just checked the specs and the listing I found showed a Compressed Height of 2.80", an Extended Length of 7.0", a Max Diameter of 6.40" and a ride height of 4.5-5.5" Just looking at the bags they appear smaller than the ones on my 1st gen Tundra. From simple measuring the compressed height is right. with no air they are under 6" in diameter so I would guess the 6.4" diameter might be right also. What site did you get you specs from? Here is the link to the page I found.

http://www.truckspring.com/products...ng-268C-Style-18-NPT-Combo-Stud__FIR6766.aspx

Also, I had a long discussion with the Tec at Firestone yesterday....his view on the cradles was that they had not had an issues with them (in fact he said Daystar had contacted them in regards to using them in their offered kits)...according to the Tec, Firestone's main issue is that they want the bag secured at both ends for safety / liability reasons and the cradles don't seem to affect the longevity of the airbags. I've run the cradles on my Tundra for quite a few years with zero issues. Before the cradles I kept breaking the lower mounts / bolts as they had an issue with the TRD Tundras (mainly because the mounts connect in front of the axle over the spring rather than over the axle tube).

 

Firestone being lazy / cheap, or both? The top of the bag is pretty well under the frame, but the springs are slightly outboard. It seems they set them up like this so you would not have to modify the bump stop bracket on the frame. Seems they could have extended the plate a bit more inboard and added a support leg on the inboard side. One of those "it works so why bother" type of engineering things?

 

So I can't run these bags with my OEM 3 leaf with a 3 leaf progressive AAL? Is that correct?

I was hoping to maintain that and add the bags, not switch out my AALs for bags.

 

I currently run All Pro standard duty 3" lift leaf pack. I routinely haul ~900lbs in the bed.

I had tons of sag and poor handling as expected with the lift springs and this load.

I added Firestone Air bags with plastic spacers and run around 17-20psi to get back to normal/unloaded ride height.


Before All Pro standard duty 3" lift leaf pack with ~900lbs load:





After same setup but added air bags w/ spacers: (much better handling and comfort)







I also drilled and tapped some steel plate extensions with a half moon slot cut out for the axle. This way the bracket sits on the axle with no gap.








This setup works excellent fully loaded down. Unfortunately unloaded even with 5 psi, even down to zero it has a harsh and unpleasant ride. I've tried about every psi without much luck.

I recently heard about the Daystar cradles and the good results people had with an increase in unloaded ride comfort.

I am thinking about giving them a shot to see how they work out.

Does anyone else here run 3" lift leaf packs and run air bags? If so what setup are you running unloaded and how is the ride?

Thanks

 

The link below has another source of airbags and they have internal bumpstops. The 6" bag has a max length of 11", and 7" bag 12", so there may not be a need for cradles. I was going to buy a used firestone kit and put these bags in for more working length, but have not got there yet.

http://www.theslamstore.com/category_s/109.htm

 

I'd be interested to know the same. Plan to use a 3 leaf progressive AAL and airbags. I thought they would work just fine together.

 

I did as well.