What exactly is air suspension
 

So I use my truck for just about everything from towing to offroading to trying to get home early on the freeway. I wanted to get some nicer suspension and my friend was telling me about airbag suspension that you can adjust the level with a compressor.
I was wondering if people could give me a summary of what exactly are the benefits of getting a nice set of front/rear air suspension.

an air ride suspension uses an an air bag or cylinder to act as an adjustable air "spring". more psi = stiffer ride, and increased ride hieght from spring, lower psi = softer ride & lower ride height. for towing they sell "helper springs" which are add on air bags to your stock suspension which help level your truck when towing a heavy load. however doing a full air ride suspension would mean completely removing your stock front and rear suspension in place of these air bags. the process is actually pretty involved as you will need to mount an air tank, compressors, hoses and fittings, and valves to adjust the pressure in the air bags. when done correctly air ride suspensions offer a more comfortable ride than your traditional spring suspension. navigators come with an air ride suspension stock, and ride amazing.

all that being said, not sure if air ride suspension is what you're looking for...for one, the suspension is awesome if the truck is destined to be a pavement queen, but from what you said thats not the case. if you have a general purpose truck with towing and offroading air ride suspension would actually be a downgrade....

Is there any products or style you'd recommend. I want a tight better handling for pavement but decent for offroading I dont know much about suspension so maybe im asking too much in one

honestly I havent heard of too many guys usaing an all air ride suspension offroad....there are just too many parts that could break or go wrong out on the trail, not to mention you wont get the same clearance and suspension droop with an air bag suspension...for example, slam specialties have bags rated for the weight and psi the bag will be undergoing in an f150, and they state that the airbag has a useable stroke of 11 inches! that sounds amazing to get that kind of travel, but you have to remeber that this is from the bag being completely collapsed (aka your truck being on the ground) to full extension (at which point your air bag would be so stiff it will not have any play in it and provide a very stiff and uncomfortable ride). i think if you are looking for better than stock preformance both on and off road coilovers might be a better choice to consider

I use this: http://www.autoanything.com/suspensi...A2968A0A0.aspx

along with the coil spring bags. They go inside the coil springs and they work great. Takes away the trailer hop when I'm towing and I have that on my expedition.

Couple that up with this: http://www.autoanything.com/suspensi...A2966A0A0.aspx and it makes for a smoother ride without breaking the bank.

Front/rear air suspension is extremely rare on a pickup. In fact, I've never seen such a mod. That would require replacing the springs with air bags.

Almost always when someone talks about air suspension on a pickup, they are talking about air bag helpers in the rear suspension. Sort of fancy overload springs. The air bags don't replace the rear leaf springs - they are in addition to the rear springs. They don't change unloaded ride at all because they are deflated to allow the stock suspension to do its thing when unloaded. Their purpose is to raise the rear of a heavily-loaded truck back to normal unloaded stance, so the headlights aim down the road instead of up to the stars - and in oncoming drivers eyes.

The simplest and least expensive install would be just the air bags added to the rear suspension. You pump up the air bags for heavy loads, and let out the air for unloaded cruising. You can use the air compressor in your garage or at a service station to add air as needed.

A bit more expensive is the same air bags but with an on-board air compressor used to pump up the air bags when needed. Add a controller and the controller will maintain the PSI you dial in. You could dial in 5 PSI for unloaded cruising and 75 PSI when loaded for bear.

The most common air bags are Firestone RideRite air bags, but other brands are available.
www.riderite.com

Im deciding if I want to put a suspension lift or just a leveling kit with lifting blocks in the rear. If I go the leveling kit and lifting blocks route, will this hinder me from being able to put overload bags on my truck?

No. Airshocks are considered air suspension, but don't have the extra towing capacity that bags do, but will help with it. I wouldn't ride with more than 10 psi when your not towing. Using bags or air shocks to lift it will make it ride to rough.

no i dont plan on using the bags as suspension. they will strictly be for towing. but i have been told that with lifting blocks in the rear, it will keep me from being able to bolt up the overload bags properly. i didnt know how true that was.

kinda what the set up will look like... (Pic 2)

generic Result below.... (Pic 1)



Air bag suspension is a pretty common mod in the lowered truck world, but as I stated earlier, not as common in a truck that retains all of its functionality on and off road