Air Bags For Trucks With On-Board Scales: Caution

[LD50]

After reading through this, I decided to jump on the Pacbrake airbag system. Normal msrp is $430 and Stage 3 had them on sale for $290. Install was very straight forward with no mods needed. One thing I hadn't taken into account was the Husky wheel well liners I had installed. Not a big deal. It was easy enough to trim them with drill and cordless skill saw.

Up to this point, I had been running RAS since it was probably a week old. Those were adjusted to reduce most of the sag when I tow my boat. The boat has a hitch weight of about 550-600 pounds. Night and day difference. I was so used to having the RAS that I had no idea how much they were affecting ride quality. With the airbags deflated, I can't even tell they're there. YMMV if you're going from nothing to running airbags though.

Different systems probably produce different ride characteristics as well. Mounting inboard of the frame rails as opposed outside of the frame, directly over the springs could be one of those factors. Some also vary as to whether or not they have internal jounce stoppers which could play a big role as well.

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[OleMustyBag]

My experience was opposite, I had the Firestone kit and the install was easy. I decided to add the level sensors after to adjust the headlights and ran into problems with the airbag placement. I had to fabricate some brackets and turn the sensor sideways to make it work. After looking at the pacbrake kit I would go that route if I hadn't already had them installed.
Hers some pics

 

[FirstFord]

My experience was opposite, I had the Firestone kit and the install was easy.

Good for you - I'm glad to hear it! It sounds like Firestone has gotten their act together. The intent of my original post was to warn people that Firestone's product specific to the Onboard Scales equipped trucks was released to the market prematurely - it wasn't "ready for prime time". I knew that the P/N was a new release for Firestone, and I got one of the very first ones, if not THE first one. Firestone engineering confirmed that the parts were not made to print. This was the reason for all of the strife that I went through during installation. In a follow up post, I also predicted that Firestone would eventually get things sorted out, and it sounds like they have. If that's the case (and it sounds like it is...), then the reason / intent for the original post has expired.

Very nice fab work on your level sensor brackets!

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