Air Bags of F350

[Art-n-Marge]

I am now within weight margins for my 2006 F250 Lariat 4X4 CC SRW LWB by upgrading to a Ford F-350 suspension (as an F-250 I was overweight). All the Ford hardware is in place (overload spring, brackets and hardware) and I also replaced the wheels and tires to match the F-350 ratings and I did this to make my truck weight compliant for my Private use. If I want to use my F-250 suspension conversion to F-350 for commercial purposes, I would be required to recertify my truck (gets examined and a new VIN to denote the conversion), but I didn't want to go through that part of the cost. For example, I towed trailers commercially for a few months through all the western states but could only carry loads that satisfy an F-250 since I only had an F-250 VIN. This is the requirement in California and when driving in other states. Your state may vary.

The air bags will probably make the ride smoother and help raise the back end to lower the front end (especially for night driving not turning my headlights into highbeams). But if you are overweight, in your case, you'll need to get a dually since there's no way to increase an F-350's weight ratings easily. Both my wife and I noticed a big difference before and after air bags. Your configuration may vary. When I upgraded the suspension, we didn't notice any change except that we felt good the upgrade increased our weight ratings in our case. This can't always be done for all trucks, but 3/4 SRW upgrade to 1 ton SRW is typically springs, wheels and tires.

For air bag recommendations we went with Firestone since my fifth wheel hitch hardware didn't allow for installation of the Air Lift brand. There might be other brands, but I tried Air Lift first at CW but they sent me elsewhere to get Firestone because of the fitment problem. It cost a little more but they do fit and they are working great for us. We also got the onboard compressor and the in-cab controls to inflate/deflate from the driver's seat. The alternative is to locate the air nozzles somewhere on the truck (other's use near the rear bumper and use their own plug in compressor) but we opted for convenience any time or place where we happened to be.