Air Ride

[tonga3]

I tried posting this in the suspension forum but had no luck. And no luck on a search either. So my question is has anyone disabled the auto level suspension and installed aftermarket shocks? If so whats involved and will the rear end sag with regular shocks instead of the air?
Thanks in advance

Andy

 

[mrboyle]

There shouldn't be any probem replacing the air shocks with non air shocks. You won't have any problem with the rear end sagging, you will just loose the ability to level the vehicle when loaded.

 

[liquidx9]

actually, your rear end will sag with regular shocks. any truck with air ride is going to have the softer 2door rear leaf springs. i know monroe makes replacement shocks in the $150/piece range. since you have a 99, you only have rear air ride, your front shocks are regular ones... anymore questions?

 

[tonga3]

So I guess I can't get away with putting bilsteins on without getting the rear springs re-arched or add a leaf.

 

[snocross1985]

Originally posted by mrboyle
You won't have any problem with the rear end sagging.

Nobody wants their rear end to sag

 

[liquidx9]

you could go to a junkyard and get leaf springs off a relatively new 4door and throw on bilsteins

 

[BBQMAN]

Don't do it!! I did and am now looking for something else or to put the old ones back on. I got the Edlebrock IAS shocks. The whole thing sits lower and the rear sags. I was also told by John V. (from EE) that the Edlebrocks aren't recomended for replacement of the air ride shocks.

The main problem is that the front totally bottoms out on large bumps and the tires run up into the wheel well and have rubbed a large open slot inthe wheel well plastic. When I go over a large bump the front also looks like a mexican mobile with hydraulics because it bounces so much. These shocks just don't have enough dampening and forget about carrying much weight beacuse the rear will sag even more.

I'm not sure yet which way I'm going to go but I'm deffinitely getting rid of the IAS shocks. I'm going to try to find out if the Rancho 9000's might work with the Ford air system instead of getting their controller.