I did it. I added air bags to my 2500 with Air Ride

[Matty Rich]

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.

 

[Brutal_HO]

Should have used daystar cradles.

 

[Matty Rich]

Should have used daystar cradles.

I have a set on order to try.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Nothing wrong with that setup should treat you very well i agree on the cradles.

Nice job!

 

[Matty Rich]

Daystar cradles got installed today.

 

[johanh13]

just a thought; what if you just tied into the stock air line on each side? that way you have have to mess with air pressure, you increase your capacity/stabilty. If a bag fails, take it off the air supply...

 

[Matty Rich]

just a thought; what if you just tied into the stock air line on each side? that way you have have to mess with air pressure, you increase your capacity/stabilty. If a bag fails, take it off the air supply...

That’s a great idea and it crossed my mind, but I decided to keep the system completely bolt on with little to no modifications to the OEM setup in case I needed to do some sort of warranty or sell it later on.
Right now I could pull everything off and you would never know it was on there.

I do have a separate onboard wireless air compressor for the secondary bags so making changes on the fly has been convenient and easy to try different things.

Also not sure how air suspension control module would respond to that.
I’m sure it would equalize the pressure across all the bags but I think it could also get weird very quick. For instance 40 PSI in the OEM bags will ride very smooth unloaded, but 40 psi in both sets of bags unloaded will ride very harsh. Also there is no way to set the pressure in the OEM bags as it’s all done by the control module and it is very active and always changing while driving.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

just a thought; what if you just tied into the stock air line on each side? that way you have have to mess with air pressure, you increase your capacity/stabilty. If a bag fails, take it off the air supply...

With how the air system is on those trucks a separate system as a back up is a far better idea in my opinion

 

[Ramsomair]

Hey Matty, I'm very interested in this mod. I sent you a PM.

 

[Ramsomair]

Did what Matty did and worked perfectly. Thanks for the tips Matty!

 

[ammdrew]

Thinking of adding sumo springs for similar effect. Not sure if the bed lower mode will work after though. Have yet to find someone who has done that. I may be the first…

 

[bobbo7915]

Thinking of adding sumo springs for similar effect. Not sure if the bed lower mode will work after though. Have yet to find someone who has done that. I may be the first…

i have a set that i plan on putting on this weekend, will advise how the bed lower mode works after install

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

Sounds like a fun project. I am curious about the Hellwig rear sway bar. The coil 2500 has a rear sway bar from the factory, does the air ride not have a swaybar? If factory equipped, is the hellwig stiffer than the factory one?

I agree with your comment that the swaybar negatively impacts the ride, that’s why both of mine are hanging in the shed. I have a coil truck and considered air bags but the sumo springs on mine seem to be handling everything great.

 

[BlueOx2500]

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.

How much did the 5er weigh on the pin and total weight when you had the issues before adding the additional airbags?

 

[BlueOx2500]

How much did the 5er weigh on the pin and total weight when you had the issues before adding the additional airbags?

I should add, my 5er is 1250' pin and ~9000' total. Had some sway the other day, but the wind was 25-30mph and gusty crosswind so I don't know if you can really expect anything less.

I'm now concerned about loosing a factory air bag(s) on my upcoming 2,000 mile round-trip (RV trip). Are they really that unreliable and if they do fail, are you totally screwed without your back-up mod?

 

[AH64ID]

I should add, my 5er is 1250' pin and ~9000' total. Had some sway the other day, but the wind was 25-30mph and gusty crosswind so I don't know if you can really expect anything less.

I'm now concerned about loosing a factory air bag(s) on my upcoming 2,000 mile round-trip (RV trip). Are they really that unreliable and if they do fail, are you totally screwed without your back-up mod?

That’s pretty low pin weight, and likely contributed to your swaying. Get that pin weight closer to 1800lbs and your tendency to sway will drastically reduce.

 

[BlueOx2500]

That’s pretty low pin weight, and likely contributed to your swaying. Get that pin weight closer to 1800lbs and your tendency to sway will drastically reduce.

Thanks, and I typoed it, not that it's much more, but the pin weight is 1350 - not 1250. Even still, guess it needs to be upped a little.

 

[AH64ID]

Thanks, and I typoed it, not that it's much more, but the pin weight is 1350 - not 1250. Even still, guess it needs to be upped a little.

That’s bare minimum, similar to 10% on a bumper pull trailer so it’s not as stable. 20% is a good goal for a more stable trailer.

 

[BlueOx2500]

That’s bare minimum, similar to 10% on a bumper pull trailer so it’s not as stable. 20% is a good goal for a more stable trailer.

That particular day I was bringing the trailer to the dealer for some work, so it was intentionally as empty as I could get it. Interestingly, I don't think I could even get the GD 270BN to 20% unless I literally put ballast in the bedroom. It just seems to be how they designed it being that the kitchen is rear and I don't really know where the potable water tank resides in relative relation to the center of gravity.