Matty Rich
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2021
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 16
Yup. I did it. From what I’ve read, most said it’s not possible and others will probably call me crazy. But I added additional air bags to my 2500 with air ride.
There was numerous reasons why I wanted to do this. Main reason being the redundancy in case I have a failure of the OEM bag while on a trip pulling my trailer.
Other reasons to help get rid of sway and also additional support to take some load off of the OEM bags.
Most will probably chime in and say I’m overloaded if I need a second set of bags.
Per my sticker 10k GWVR, yes I’m overloaded. But not my axle or tire ratings. And I’m totally comfortable my setup.
During this project I also upgraded the front and rear shocks to Fox 2.0’s, I also changed out the front coils to Thuren +1” coils and a Thuren track bar.
The truck rides phenomenal now and tows even better.
My biggest issue prior to these modifications was sway with pulling my fifth wheel. I had previously installed a Hellwig rear sway bar. It maybe fixed 20% of my problem but also just made the ride harsh.
After reading some posts on here and other sites I realized that the issue is the location of the OEM bags on the 2500. They are installed more inward towards the centerline of the truck; not on the outside closer to the frame like leaf springs on a 3500. Again causing me lots of sway and instability.
Everything I did for the install is completely bolt on, no major modifications at all. I can probably unbolt everything in about 20 mins. It was very easy, just took some trial and error to see what worked best.
I went with AirLife 5000 Ultimate because they have internal bump stops.
I also ordered adjustable rear sensor links to make adjustability of the OEM bags easier.
Also picked up some other small hardware bits to extend the sensor mounting points away from the frame to give them clearance for the new bags.
I was able to access the air suspension control module via ALFA OBD; from there you can see data in real-time. I was looking to see how much pressure was in the OEM bags and then I’m able to compensate how much air I want in the 2nd bags without the ECU lowering pressure of the OEM bags. Make sense? Lol. The idea of this whole project is the secondary bags are there just for a little bit of extra additional support mainly to the outer parts of the axle to get rid of sway and body roll. And the secondary bags did just that.
Overall I’m extremely happy with how it came out and how the truck rides now.
But most importantly I’m more confident that I can travel without worrying about an OEM bag failure.
Attached is a pic of the setup.
There was numerous reasons why I wanted to do this. Main reason being the redundancy in case I have a failure of the OEM bag while on a trip pulling my trailer.
Other reasons to help get rid of sway and also additional support to take some load off of the OEM bags.
Most will probably chime in and say I’m overloaded if I need a second set of bags.
Per my sticker 10k GWVR, yes I’m overloaded. But not my axle or tire ratings. And I’m totally comfortable my setup.
During this project I also upgraded the front and rear shocks to Fox 2.0’s, I also changed out the front coils to Thuren +1” coils and a Thuren track bar.
The truck rides phenomenal now and tows even better.
My biggest issue prior to these modifications was sway with pulling my fifth wheel. I had previously installed a Hellwig rear sway bar. It maybe fixed 20% of my problem but also just made the ride harsh.
After reading some posts on here and other sites I realized that the issue is the location of the OEM bags on the 2500. They are installed more inward towards the centerline of the truck; not on the outside closer to the frame like leaf springs on a 3500. Again causing me lots of sway and instability.
Everything I did for the install is completely bolt on, no major modifications at all. I can probably unbolt everything in about 20 mins. It was very easy, just took some trial and error to see what worked best.
I went with AirLife 5000 Ultimate because they have internal bump stops.
I also ordered adjustable rear sensor links to make adjustability of the OEM bags easier.
Also picked up some other small hardware bits to extend the sensor mounting points away from the frame to give them clearance for the new bags.
I was able to access the air suspension control module via ALFA OBD; from there you can see data in real-time. I was looking to see how much pressure was in the OEM bags and then I’m able to compensate how much air I want in the 2nd bags without the ECU lowering pressure of the OEM bags. Make sense? Lol. The idea of this whole project is the secondary bags are there just for a little bit of extra additional support mainly to the outer parts of the axle to get rid of sway and body roll. And the secondary bags did just that.
Overall I’m extremely happy with how it came out and how the truck rides now.
But most importantly I’m more confident that I can travel without worrying about an OEM bag failure.
Attached is a pic of the setup.