I'll start in that the dealer wanted $ 500 for them installed.
so onto the internet i search of air bags, their are 2 kinds of no drill install for the new body Chevy 1500
they are air-lifts and Firestone ride-rite , i chose the ride-rite's because the go between the axle and frame, the air-lift's on on the spring pack and the frame behind the Axel. i think over time it will stretch or bend the spring pack, so i got the Firestone ride-rite.
found the Firestone part number for my truck and Goole it. eBay seller was $ 299 so i thought about it over night. Goole it next day and found a place in Utah for $ 240 shipped to my door. ( air-lifts were 189 best price i could find before i decided which kind to buy )
on the install it's kind of straight froward type of project. first problem was getting the jounce bumpers off. it is a 10 millimeter bolt inside the jounce bumper. i asked the dealer and they could not tell me the size of the bolt ) i sprayed penetrating oil 2 days before, their is a access hole on the frame.
then you attach the upper bracket,
then the lower bracket with the air bag bolted to loosely so you can lineup the holes in the top bracket, their are 2 hole in the bottom bracket so the you can get the bag straight up. in the picture you can see how it's attached to the axle with j-bolts,also their is a hole drilled in top to keep the emergency cable out of the way.
also on the side (driver ) you will notice the the brake line is right on the bracket , i was worried the over time in would rub a hole in the line, so at the top is the bracket that holds the lines,so i loosened it up and but wasters under it to raise it up so it's not rubbing. thinking about it now i should of just filed down the corner of the bracket 1/4 inch or so.first i was going to wrap it in rubber. ( blue strip in picture ) sorry that's the best picture of the brake line on the bracket,the picture you can see the brake line at the top of bracket --left side of pic
next i put in the air connector in the top of air bag
( yellow brass ) this is the only picture i have of the connector as you see the airline is installed but that was the last step in the install.
so in this picture you can see the brake line at the top of the bracket , emergency brake with nylon tie on it.
ok now on to were to put the inflation valve, i see people here that put then in the wheel well, so i chose that, was thinking about the gas cap location but i was having a hard time running the line over the muffler and then i did not want to drill over the gas cap, don't want to go kaboom , so wheel well is was, then i needed to drill into the wheel well, so coffee brake again to think... this is what i came up with. i took some flat stainless steel, junk that i had , you never know then you need something like this.( cane from a broken resettable fuse for a big machine )
this is it with the line installed. also you can see the brake line holder that i raised on the frame with washers in this picture, I need to get longer bolts because the washers only let the bolt grab about an 1/8 of an inch of threads .
now I'm done
picture from the back with the finished product...
feel free to ask any questions .
EWARE ! They caused my truck's frame to split twice.
Same truck , same bags , same mounting.
Had the frame repaired, bags removed, & 60000 miles trouble free with my heavy Bigfoot & Supersprings
With those bags , the entire weight of the TC is balancing on that bracket and the frame will split in two after you hit a few potholes.
Neverhappy wrote: EWARE ! They caused my truck's frame to split twice.
Same truck , same bags , same mounting.
Had the frame repaired, bags removed, & 60000 miles trouble free with my heavy Bigfoot & Supersprings
With those bags , the entire weight of the TC is balancing on that bracket and the frame will split in two after you hit a few potholes.
I think the Y2K models had the old C-frame technology. The 2007+ 1/2T's have fully boxed frames. Hopefully that solved the problem.
I have the same (Firestone) airbags on my 2008. Most of my camping is off-road and no problems yet. Still, I agree with what you said so I take it easy when going over bumps.
fishfinder, Colorado
'08 Chevy K1500 Ext.Cab 5.3L/3.73
'03 Phoenix Pop-Up Truck Camper
'98 Four Winns 18' Fish & Ski Boat
