Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post - Montana Support S- -Ks

Wrenchtraveller · 01-17-2006, 02:04 AM

I have to give my experience with air bags. They are designed to share the weight with your springs. If you inflate your air bags to bring your truck up to the same height as it was empty, then you have too much weight on the airbags and not enough on the springs and this will result in a mushy unstable ride.

I have been hauling slide in campers since 1974 so I know a little bit about this subject.
Trucks are designed to squat a little with a load. That is why most of them are higher in the ass end when they are empty. I had 00 F350 and I put Firestone Airbags on it. The instructions that come with these bags support this post.If I brought the truck up to the unloaded level, that whole unit was terrible to drive with a dangerous amount of sway.
By playing around with different pressure I found the pressure that made the truck handle the best and this pressure still allowed the truck to squat about 2 inches instead of 4 inches.

Look at your over load springs, they only work if your other springs sag down to them.
If you prevent this with airbags, you defeat the purpose of the overloads and let me tell you this, a truck with a slide in camper is much more stable being supported by steel leaf springs
than mushy airbags. People will almost always need upgraded adjustable shocks if they use their air bags incorrectly.

Let your truck springs work properly by taking the load and squatting down a bit.

In a perfect world, all pickups would have headlights that adjust to thier load height.

One last comment, my 05 F350 CC LB handled my 03 Okanagan Slide in Camper much better without airbags than my 00 F350 SB did with airbags. It was a dramatic improvement and it really made me realize how over rated air bags are.

Take care and I think the pin weight of most Montanas are designed for 1 ton trucks.

When I was shopping for my Montana at different dealers, I never had one salesperson ask me what my TV was and we always took the Honda Accord when we went RV shopping. I had done the research and I had installed and set up my hitch to fit the Montana but I never told them.

I joked with my wife that we should show up with a Ford Ranger when we picked up the Montana just to see the look on the salesman face. Take care, Don.

01-17-2006, 02:04 AM	#50
Wrenchtraveller Montana Master Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Posts: 1,568 M.O.C. #4890	I have to give my experience with air bags. They are designed to share the weight with your springs. If you inflate your air bags to bring your truck up to the same height as it was empty, then you have too much weight on the airbags and not enough on the springs and this will result in a mushy unstable ride. I have been hauling slide in campers since 1974 so I know a little bit about this subject. Trucks are designed to squat a little with a load. That is why most of them are higher in the ass end when they are empty. I had 00 F350 and I put Firestone Airbags on it. The instructions that come with these bags support this post.If I brought the truck up to the unloaded level, that whole unit was terrible to drive with a dangerous amount of sway. By playing around with different pressure I found the pressure that made the truck handle the best and this pressure still allowed the truck to squat about 2 inches instead of 4 inches. Look at your over load springs, they only work if your other springs sag down to them. If you prevent this with airbags, you defeat the purpose of the overloads and let me tell you this, a truck with a slide in camper is much more stable being supported by steel leaf springs than mushy airbags. People will almost always need upgraded adjustable shocks if they use their air bags incorrectly. Let your truck springs work properly by taking the load and squatting down a bit. In a perfect world, all pickups would have headlights that adjust to thier load height. One last comment, my 05 F350 CC LB handled my 03 Okanagan Slide in Camper much better without airbags than my 00 F350 SB did with airbags. It was a dramatic improvement and it really made me realize how over rated air bags are. Take care and I think the pin weight of most Montanas are designed for 1 ton trucks. When I was shopping for my Montana at different dealers, I never had one salesperson ask me what my TV was and we always took the Honda Accord when we went RV shopping. I had done the research and I had installed and set up my hitch to fit the Montana but I never told them. I joked with my wife that we should show up with a Ford Ranger when we picked up the Montana just to see the look on the salesman face. Take care, Don.