Air bags, finally.

[penner]

Finally decided to install air bags on my Chevy Trail Boss. I ended up going with Timber Grove bags . I will be mounting my Ocelot shell to-day for our trip west. I have a few questions since I have no experience with bags. What would be a good starting point for pressure? Do you just measure and inflate to the same height after the camper is installed? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. Glen.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Glen, my procedure is to measure the wheel well height before loading the camper, then after loading the camper and gear, inflate the bags until the wheel wells are back at the original height.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Glen as WS said. I also use that same method
It has worked well easy way to check.
I have exposed aggregate cement on my parking area
so I place a piece of 2x6 next to the wheel and measure from there.

Have a great trip west.Where are you headed?

Frank

 

[penner]

Frank . We are leaving in a week to visit my Sister in Edmonton and then on to Anchorage to meet our Daughter and her Hubby . Have a few weeks planned with them and when they fly home we will carry on. Hoping to do the Dempster and then start working our way back home, with another stop in Edmonton. Probably around 8 wks but we'll see. Approx how much pressure would you have in your bags ?

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

I usually keep 25/30 left and 20 in the right.
That seems to keep it level.
Sounds like a great trip.

We sure miss Alaska,Denali the Kenai area.
We enjoyed driving home by way of the Cassiar.

So much to see.
Have a great trip.

Frank

 

[veryactivelife]

Measure from the center of your wheel hub to the top of the wheel well opening while unloaded, then duplicate that measurement with the camper on and loaded.

Dean

 

[pvstoy]

Different ways of measuring height.

If I wanted to know how much the springs were compressing with a load then measuring at the center of the rear wheel hub to a known reference spot on the fender. will give you the squat of the spring. This is good when you are having custom springs made and want springs to support the load and be back to unloaded weight.

But IF you wanted to know how much total squat the load will cause you are also measuring the squat in the sidewall of the tires. Measure from the ground at the center of the rear wheel axel to a reference point on the fender. Then you can bump up the air bags to bring the reference point at the fender back to unloaded height that includes the springs and tire squat.

But in my case I have a flatbed and have not taken the camper off to measure the squat. I used the four corners of the camper measuring from the ground to a known trim edge that went all the way around the camper. With this measurement I was able to adjust the airbags so the camper was relativity level front to back and side to side.

The camper and truck just needs to be level enough but not necessarily dead nuts accurate. As long as the rear is back up and putting load carrying capabilities back onto the front axle. Doing this is a very good benefiting having a safer handling vehicle in steering and braking.

So pick the measuring method of choice, any one will get you in the ballpark. Close is close enough.

Cheers,

 

[rubberlegs]

Just be aware that air bags won’t affect the weight on either front or rear axle.

 

[michelle_east_county]

Remember that most vehicles and especially trucks are engineered to sit high in rear when unloaded and lower to varying degrees when loaded. Since the at least the '80s and maybe further back, even 1-ton pickups have relied on rear leaf springs that are a little soft but with a high arch for load carrying so they're not too firm when empty as most are most of the time. Rear end sag to the point of them looking low in rear can be a problem for various reasons but there's no need to use airbags or add leafs to bring the truck higher than level with a load.

 

[AWG_Pics]

Remember that most vehicles and especially trucks are engineered to sit high in rear when unloaded and lower to varying degrees when loaded. Since the at least the '80s and maybe further back, even 1-ton pickups have relied on rear leaf springs that are a little soft but with a high arch for load carrying so they're not too firm when empty as most are most of the time. Rear end sag to the point of them looking low in rear can be a problem for various reasons but there's no need to use airbags or add leafs to bring the truck higher than level with a load.

This is what I do. Just level the load and don't fret too much about after that. I do check them now and then with a tire gauge I keep under the driver's seat.