We have a large camper (18' roof line) that comes close to bottoming out the overloads and causing the front end to get a little light. The 23' boat connected at the same time causes more sag.

I started out a year ago to get this project done. Unfortunately, the "powers to be" re-arranged the schedule a bit when we had a major rear brake problem that necessitated raiding the "air suspension budget" in favor of a complete "rear brakes rebuild" project. Unlike the State and Federal Government, I was unable to go into deficit funding to complete both and we were also unwilling to give up any of our camping trips.

I had pretty much so decided on another brand, had actually begun the process of ordering when a person who had just completed his project, convinced me to take a 9th or 10th look at 5000 Ultimate's. What finally convinced me was the internal jounce that these have that will give a little cushion / extra protection in the event of an air leak or bottoming out.

They got here yesterday afternoon and I did the "parts inventory" and preassembly this morning. Other activities are interfering for the rest of today, so hoping I can finish up by Thursday evening.

THE PROJECT:
LoadLifter 5000 ULTIMATE with internal jounce bumper
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THE PARTS:
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THE VICTIM:
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PRE-ASSEMBLY, NEXT WILL BE MOUNTING:

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Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to have the time to finish the project up. More pics as the installation progresses.

 

Nice Project Jim, I'm going to subscribe, these might help me with my equipment trailer and the old F 350

 

Looking good Jim. Do you have a superhitch for your extension when you run the boat?

 

No, I made a hitch support that mounts to the rear bumper on the camper. I'm going to modify that this year - I think. The extension bar was custom made for me in 1989 for use on a similar set up.

 

I may add Air bags to my truck some day.

 

Jim, are you going with on board air?

 

That will have to be "Phase 2" Charlie. Too many other bricks in the fire for the "luxuries" right now, especially since I have to buy a set of wheels.

 

Today did not go well for Air Suspension Installation. My wife got carried away at Lowe's Garden Center yesterday, so I spent this morning transplanting and potting plants with her. Then there was a very heavy hanging basket that need special soffit arrangement and wind chimes.

On to "LoadLifter 5000 Ultimate" Air Suspension System and my pickup. Can't say I got my butt kicked, but I sure got a bloody nose. You know the part on the adds, and on the box and in the Instructions that say "simple installation", "one to two hour installation time"? Yep, you guessed it, they LIED!

Other than a floor jack blowing a seal and not lifting the pickup, the first part, taking the wheel off, went just fine.
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Someplace right after that Murphy arrived in grand form and started giving orders.

This pickup has a heavy metal strap that runs from one side of the pickup bed to the other. This strap is getting in the way of one of the upper bolts holes on the upper bracket. So the lower and middle bolt holes on the front side of the upper bracket is going to have to be used. According to the instruction book, this is a perfectly acceptable installation method. So moving on........

The way the springs are under the pickup, the area in front of the shackles is a lower elevation than the area behind the back shackle. When the assembly is set up in place the tolerance length is out of tolerance in two area's. Bracket spacing is to be even between 5 and 7". The distance between top and bottom brackets are 7 1/8" in the back and 7 3/4" in the front, so not only are they over extended, they are not level/even spaced front and rear. They included 4 spacer brackets in the box, and they don't level out the set up. Too much and too little. The bracket U Bolts are being a problem also.

So I had to fire up the acetylene torch, dig through some metal scraps and I found an old brace rod from some long forgotten piece of farm equipment, but it was the right thickness. Got it cut and on the drill press and got the holes drilled.

With this home made custom spacer made for the back part of the bracket, I had to cut one of the clamp u bolts down so that it would fit on the front with the OEM spacer.
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Finally got a satisfactory start. Have to finish the top bracket bolts tomorrow and run the air line and the pax side will be done. Then I can get the drivers rear done. With what I have gotten figured out on the Pax side the drivers side should go fairly smoothly.

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I assume the piece under the bed, and above the frame is for a fifth wheel hitch?
None of my pickups have that piece.

I like the kit. Looks well made

 

There is a goose neck hook up, complete with the swing down ball, in the pickup and I don't know if it was a factory special order from Ford or what. If it is post market, they went through a heck of a lot trouble getting that thing in there. They would have had to have pulled the bed and done some welding there as well as across the frame members. Which is O.K., looks like it is one heck of a reinforcement, and the instructions for the kit and the extra pre drilled hole in the bracket take that into account. They even enclosed some spacers for that purpose - well I think that is what those are for as they are not covered in the instruction but is the only thing that makes sense for their use. I just didn't think much about it until "I got there".
AirLift does make a special kit for pickups with a "Reece" 5th wheel hitch. I looked up the Reece and it is not even on the same planet when compared to what I have.

The major slow down problem I have is trying to get the bottom bracket level and at the right height to meet the tolerance of 5 to 7", which is requiring the custom manufacture of the spacer and then the u bolts to hold the spacers down.

Now that I know what I need to do and what I need to make, it should go pretty smoothly.

 

I like that setup, I used some angles in mine a while back, the floor was crushing between the supports. I have a new bed for when i restore the truck, so I'm going to put some research into that piece on your truck. i would love to have that on mine

You're as bad as me. more time spent on making sure everything is perfect, than it takes to actually do the job.
Sucks being OCD.......LOL

 

Well I'm home from the farm, air bags are installed and after 2 hours they still have 10PSI in them so I'm guessing they aren't leaking. No the soapy water trick is not going to happen. Those connections are all behind bracket flanges and frame members.

Charlie, here is the goose neck set up in my pickup...
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You can see the metal straps and reinforcement running from side to side, fore and aft.
I took a 3/4" sheet of plywood and cut a hole in it that fits over the hitch. It sits just a bit higher than the hitch set up and allows me to load the camper flush.

O.K., the last 2 laps.

The Weapons:
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Most of the "portable" tools.
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The drill press. Drilling holes in the custom made shims / spacers.
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The drill, Cobalt drill bits, a center punch and cutting oil. 3/16th Pilot hole first followed by the 3/8 drill bit. Much easier when I drilled the pilot hole, and remembered to put a fresh battery on the drill.
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Torch for cutting the stock that would be made into the shims / spacers.
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Custom home made Shim / Spacer in place.

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Air line attached, tightening bolts on the main assembly top bracket. NOTE: Being proficient at Yoga and distorted positions is beneficial. Remember to take watch off. Better yet, get a helper to put a wrench on the nuts on the back side of the frame while you ratchet from the wheel well.


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Passenger side done
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Driver Side to go.

What is interesting is that the measurements for the drivers side were different. I did not need to use a shim / spacer on the rear lower bracket mount at all. The supplied 4 1/2" U bolt fit just fine. I did have to the 5/8th custom - home made spacer / shim on the front lower bracket. Had to be very careful drilling holes as the ridged lines for brakes and the wiring loom sat right in the frame channel I had to drill. Managed to miss all of the lines and wiring loom.

The ridged lines made a for a big PIA trying to get the washers and nuts on the bolts, but after a long fight, skinned knuckles and elevated blood pressure, I prevailed.

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A couple of last notes....

The stock U Bolts worked on the drivers side, had to be "modified" on the pax side. Supplied shims / spacers worked on only one out of 4 applications and that was on the leading edge of the bracket on the pax side. I had to get the air bags in, set and do some measuring to get what I needed to make some custom shims / spacers, then take the bags out to get the spacer in and everything adjusted correctly.

In the pre assembly you get the top and lower rounds and brackets attached using (2) 9/16" bolt for top then bottom on both bellows. The "book" says not to tighten these down until after the unit is installed on the pickup and been properly adjusted. Well, I'm still trying to figure out how to get a 9/16th inch wrench through a solid metal flange or frame member to tighten those bolts down. Same with installing the air line.

So it was pre install, check adjust, take them out, move everything, put them back in check alignment & measure, then repeat until I got it right.
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As you can see, there probably isn't going to be much tightening or air line installation once they are mounted. If the flanges on the front of the brackets weren't there, then that wouldn't be too difficult. I am kind of wondering if the flanges may not have been a design modification after the instructions were written.

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You can see in these pics that I did put the Schrader Valve in the wheel well ahead of the assy. I did this for a couple of reasons...
1. To remind myself that my intention is to eventually get a compressor and in cab controller mounted
2. If mounted on the rear bumper near the license plate like a lot of people do, then with a 3+ foot overhang on the camper, I would have to lay on the ground and crawl under the back of the camper to get to them...

 

I had air bags on my previous F450, than F250 and what stops me from installing them on F350 is that the truck build for utility body has such heavy suspension, that I don't see space for airbags on it.
My camper has holding tanks in the rear and I could not go with single wheels that is why I had to buy dually.
I would love to see your hitch as that is what I am trying to figure out .
Do yourself a favor and look for on-board gauges and inflating valves.
I never installed compressor on board as I have airbags on my equipment trailer as well, so use compressor with cigarette lighter plug, but seeing the bags pressure when entering the cabin is priceless.

 

I plan on going with an on board air compressor and gauges, probably next spring. I had a bad wheel problem which necessitated buying 4 new rims. I need to get some roof work done this summer and I need to paint the house. So, the on board compressor and gauges took a back seat to those projects as well as boat gas.

See if you can get a message to (Sailor) Roy. He just put a set of these on his brand new Jolly Green F 350 dually. He's the culprit that actually made me second guess the Firestones and go with the AirLifts.