airbags

[bncinwv]

I did a little research since my curiosity has been piqued, and the general consensus I have reached is exactly what Hookman stated. Since the fifth wheel load is centered on the rear bed, the difference between the stand-alone lines versus the t'ed together line should not be applicable in our situation. If you use your truck for hauling other heavy loads that allow for the weight to be shifted to one side or the other, then I can understand the concerns. However, even in those circumstances, I think it would be dependent on the pressure of the air in the bags. My opinion only as always!!
Bingo

[jackel1959]

So here was my question to Firestone:
Question: I will be installing the ride-rite air bags on my truck and have considered using a "T" fitting so that when I inflate or deflate them I will have just one valve to deal with. But now I am concerned that doing this may affect how the vehicle corners, especially while loaded, by allowing air to transfer from one bag to another when the side load changes. Can you provide any insight on this for me?

And the response I received:
You can tee them together and you will be fine on corners. We have customers that do it all the time.

So me thinks I will do the "T" and if I do notice any adverse handling I can always go to separate lines and valves.

Jack

[nailbender]

Thanks Jack for checking with Firestone and getting a answer from the experts. Guess I was wrong again.

[kingdaddy]

Well...kinda depends on who ya talk to! I too was curious enough to call Firestone and the guy I talked to said that having a common air line ("T" arrangement) would indeed reduce the effectiveness of the bags due to air being able to move from the compressed bag to the less compressed bag.
Having shared that I have to say that he did not seem like a "tech guy" so I took his opinion with a grain of salt.
I continue to believe that although a "T" arrangement could produce that effect, it would be minimal with the type of loads a 5er produces (i.e. centered side to side and well distributed). I would be more concerned with a truck camper or if an unbalanced heavy load was in the truck.
For me, having two valves to adjust is a very minor matter and besides, it's just the way the guy did the install and it's working out great.

[maximo]

Bingo, as you say about air and fluid flow. If you have 10 gal of fluid in one rubber bag and 10 gal of fluid in a second rubber bag and they have a line between them you have a total of 20 gal. If you compress one bag to 5 gal the other bag will expand to 15 gal and you still have the same amount of gal. This just my simple mind working overtime. I do agree that with the weight being in the center of the truck bed it is no problem.

Frank

[bncinwv]

Frank,
I understand that part of it, the question is the amount of weight required to compress the 10 gallons to 5 gallons. If we have 5000 pound air bags inflated fully, it is going to take some major weight to compress one bag more than the other. I can see one bag losing a half inch or so compared to the other one, but you would never feel that on the truck. As I stated it is purely a function of the pressure. In addition, the air bags do not eliminate the leaf springs on the truck, they supplement them, so the leaf springs at some point come into play as well. I did some reading where if you have a salt bin loaded with a ton and some change of salt, that it may present a problem by shifting the air to one side in a turn, and I can understand that as well since the load itself is up higher in the bed and centrifugal forces come into play as well. This effect would be amplified if you were carrying fluid in a tank since the fluid can shift in a turn and exert a lot more pressure on one side of the truck. I do fully agree that the fifth wheel will not experience this effect due to the centering of the load and the application of the load at bed level. I will also add a disclaimer that I am just rambling and giving my opinion, this should not be taken as engineering advice as there is no one correct way to do it since one's circumstances can be different. I will repeat that I have the T-connector, and like it since I don't have to check the pressure in each bag. I guess another benefit is that if a bag gets punctured then the entire system fails and the load reverts to the leaf springs. On a separate system, if an air bag punctures, only the one side of the failure will shift to the leaf springs. I am sure that would result in the bed leaning one way or the other. Food for thought, so I guess int he end it depends on which side of the toast you prefer the butter on!! Interesting discussion, nonetheless, at least I "think" I learned something from it, since it did at least cause me to do a little research.
Bingo