Air bags

[J-KB]

I recently put airlift bags on my 2014 ram, and it has stiffened up to ride so much it is hard to drive with out feeling beat up, after I finish towing I leave 2 -3lbs in them and the ride is really rough, any ideas folks?

[Art-n-Marge]

I have Firestone airbags and they have improved pretty much all aspects of my truck's ride on my 2006 F250 LB. I used to deflate my Michelin tires all around to 55 t0 60 mph from the max of 65 in front and 75 in the rear to soften my ride when just driving around. I only deflate the airbags to about 10 lbs when not towing and that softened ride a bit. I no longer change the psi for the tires any more since I've lost 3 of them to tread separation (factory replacement warranty). So now I keep the fronts at 65psi, rears at 75, never deflate but lower the airbags to about 10psi. In my case, the bags have been great.

Do you have a short bed truck? Would that make a difference of more bounce? What is the psi in your tires all around? What are the tires? I had bad luck with Bridgestones bouncing me around, converting to Michelin or Goodyear tires helped. Maybe these make a difference. Also, aren't the later models much higher rated? Maybe things also got stiffened up because of that.

[JandC]

I run between 5 and 10 pounds in mine when empty. What causes me more of a "stiff" ride when empty is my max air pressure in the rear tires. If I am not going to tow for a few weeks I adjust my tire pressures down. My truck is a short box 4x4 plus it has a snow plow package, which I suspect also makes the front suspension a little stiffer. I really didn't notice much difference after installing bags (when empty).

[DQDick]

My truck is a couple of model years older, but I don't notice any difference if I let the air down to 5" or so. Any rough ride I get comes from me running 70' in the front tires instead of the 60' that's recommended on the door.