Air Springs

[oldgeek]

OK,OK, I know that the purpose of these are to improve ride and handling while towing or with a load. But I cannot help but to think of how good the ride was in my Mercury with air springs. Can these be adjusted so to take the load while normal driving and not be bouncy or a jolt at every bump or crack? While I wouldn't be heartbroken for achieving a Rolls Royce ride, my expectations are just a tad less.

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[alwaysFlOoReD]

OK,OK, I know that the purpose of these are to improve ride and handling while towing or with a load. But I cannot help but to think of how good the ride was in my Mercury with air springs. Can these be adjusted so to take the load while normal driving and not be bouncy or a jolt at every bump or crack? While I wouldn't be heartbroken for achieving a Rolls Royce ride, my expectations are just a tad less.

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I think you would have to get rid of a couple springs first. Then the bags would be taking the place of the removed spring capacity. The shocks are what control the bounce and bump. You would have to tune the shocks for the ride you want, probably not possible with stock shocks.

 

[oldgeek]

I am aware that air shocks, not springs, can be tuned. Can they be tuned for a better ride, or do they go from firm to really firm depending what you need for the load?

 

[RonD]

Unhook the 2 shocks on the rear

Push down on bumper/bed, that is the best ride you can get with those leaf springs
If its stiff then you need different springs, lower load rating

Shocks/air bags can stiffen up ride, but can't help an already stiff ride

Pickups are rated, in this case, for 1,000lbs more weight, 1/2 ton, so are "over-sprung" in most cases
Some come with lower rated leaf springs and then an overload spring on each side, this costs more but did come with some Rangers

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

^^^
Basically what I was trying to say. If you put in bags and want a softer ride, you need to get rid of some springs. And there are shocks that are tunable with a twist of a knob. I'm not sure how the whole thing would work together but that's the best I can come up with for basically stock components. If you want you could go with an Ori shock, which is like an air shock but more complex. It takes the place of the springs and shocks in one package. Its used in off road applications. Again, no personal experience.

 

[don4331]

@alwaysFlOoReD : I think you mean get rid of some leaves, not springs

The limit is you pull all but the main leaf out of the spring back - that will be a cushy as you can get. Then use the air bags to restore load carrying capacity.

That's basically what the 5.0 Explorer Unlimited had - soft springs and air shock to level/restore load capacity.​

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

@alwaysFlOoReD : I think you mean get rid of some leaves, not springs

The limit is you pull all but the main leaf out of the spring back - that will be a cushy as you can get. Then use the air bags to restore load carrying capacity.

That's basically what the 5.0 Explorer Unlimited had - soft springs and air shock to level/restore load capacity.​

That's what I meant. Thanks for clarifying .

 

[rubydist]

You can take all the leaf springs out, build a 4 bar linkage to hold the axle in place, and then get air springs to support the vehicle. Most air springs are non-linear, which is part of why they make a nice ride - they have a lower spring rate for small deflections and as they compress the spring rate increases. However, that works much better for a car that has a fairly limited range of weight. For a truck that can have a large amount of weight variation, just an air spring is not a great choice (unless its just a cruiser/show vehicle).

 

[don4331]

Given the big rigs often have just air spring and a lot of guys with F-450/550s pull their springs for air suspensions to improve the ride, not to mention Ram is doing it for their pick ups, there must be something to it...