m.i.k.e.

How long have you had them and how big of a trailer do you tow. Did they get rid of the sag completely.

ccc150

I have the Firestone bags on my 13 SCAB and just got back from pulling a 34' toy hauler 4,200 miles. I am sold on this product. Kept it at 50psi for a while, then dropped to 40psi which seemed to work better. I will continue to experiment to find the sweet spot.


After the experience of installing them the first time, a second time would not take more than 2 hours.

xcntrk

I use Firestone bags with Air Lift wireless compressor setup. Love the bags! Use them for more than just towing; when you're full up hauling a load of payload in the bed, I throw 20psi in them just to level off.

BCMIF150

With a properly adjusted WDH and a trailer that is within your trucks capabilities, you shouldn't have any sag.

xcntrk

No offense, but that's just not reality. When you're dealing with over 1k lbs of tongue weight there's going to be sag on the soft 1/2 ton suspension regardless of how well it's distributed. Not to mention most have at least some cargo in the bed while towing contributing to the sag.

NorthernYankee

There will always be some sag...when you have the stock rake you will be "level" with the WDH. But if you have a Leveling kit installed you will will see sag in the rear even with a properly setup WDH.

I put 30psi in my bags before I hook up and this gives me the stock rake back, then I hook and am back to level.

brulaz

When you drop the trailer's tongue on your hitch, a big chunk of weight is lifted off the front axle and put on the rear axle, in addition to the tongue weight. The purpose of the WDH is to return 50% (Ford's recommendation) to 100% (others) of that weight back onto the front axle. That still leaves the original tongue weight on the rear axle causing some sag.

You never want to tighten up your WDH so much that any of that tongue weight goes onto the front axle. Removing all sag that way will screw up your steering badly. Of course NOT returning 50-100% of the front end weight lifted off will *also* screw up your steering, but in a different way.

Bags do not redistribute weight from the rear axle to the front axle like a WDH does, but they do add a useful stiffening to the suspension, like an extra leaf does (and other suspension upgrades). They also reduce sag.

Oldsmuggler

Your a genius

Engineer Guy

There's some good Science and Procedure posted above. I see a couple of things going on in the responses.

One 'Clan' is speaking of their experience while towing a 'Static' Load. The same Trailer, sorta loaded the same way most every Trip.

In contrast, my use of Air Bags over many years was with varied Loads. I tow an empty Utility Trailer. I towed it maxed out with Doors and Windows for our Solar Retirement House. I tow it partially loaded.

I tow my lil 15' 'Play-Mor' Camping Trailer. I tow it with the 30 Gallon Water Tank up front under the Couch filled [or not]. I tend to balance/load it up with my Camping 'stuff', and then crank up the ITBC Braking Power. I've up-sized to a larger [heavier] Propane Tank, and Battery.

My next acquisition for us 2 + big Dog will be an 18' Nash Camping Trailer next year. It comes with a new WDH. Otherwise, I'll recycle the WDH off the un-moved 31' Avion Trailer I lived in while House building. I don't use/need a WDH now, given the Air Bags. I know it would help - and I won't argue that point - but I don't muck with it. Currently, ~300 lbs. of Camping Trailer Tongue load on the Truck back end is a non-issue with proper Air Bag inflation/compensation. According to Firestone, 1 PSI of inflation compensates for ~40 lbs of added Payload. There's not much 'Porpoising'.

Last, loading up the Truck Bed with Furniture sans Trailer while we move Houses requires Air Bag inflation for Headlight aiming.

RedOne

We have had the Firestone air bags on our truck for over three seasons now . We usually only put 20 psi in them for our camper. Works great and highly recommend. Then again my load one inch forward of being centered over the rear axle and not hanging on the *** end of the truck.