In Search of the "Perfect" HD Air Suspension

I'd like the 1500-style air suspension on a 2500. Specifically:

- 4 corner operation
- Softer unloaded ride & stock ride height (willing to take stock +2" unloaded ride height)
- No payload or tow rating penalty beyond the weight of the system
- Auto load leveling
- Aero mode for freeway speeds
- Off road, "lift" mode for increased ground clearance
- Courtesy "entry/exit" mode (lower to bump stops for easy loading/unloading)

I know it's asking a lot but does anyone on the aftermarket offer something for this?

The closest I've seen is kelderman 2-srage front and rear coil replacement rear. Adding the compressor, controller, etc. With self install, we're talking north of 5k.

Other thoughts or suggestions? (The trivial idea - just buy a 1500 with air suspension - is already done.)

I've done a bit of research on this exact thing and came to pretty much the same conclusion you have - there's not much out there and it would be super expensive.

I've got some Firestone 5000 bags so I've got plenty of support when needed. I haven't looked yet but am wondering if I could just get some softer coils (like from a 1500) to run with for daily driving and then just air up when I'm hauling my 5th wheel. The coil springs in the 2500 seem to ride better than the leafs in my other HD truck but they are still HD coils and much more than I need 95% of the time.

mtofell said:

I've done a bit of research on this exact thing and came to pretty much the same conclusion you have - there's not much out there and it would be super expensive.

I've got some Firestone 5000 bags so I've got plenty of support when needed. I haven't looked yet but am wondering if I could just get some softer coils (like from a 1500) to run with for daily driving and then just air up when I'm hauling my 5th wheel. The coil springs in the 2500 seem to ride better than the leafs in my other HD truck but they are still HD coils and much more than I need 95% of the time.

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Bummer. Let me know if you find another solution and I'll do the same.

you want ****** suspension in your heavy duty? trade it in for a gm.this is one ****** up thread.jmho.

bcbouy said:

you want ****** suspension in your heavy duty? trade it in for a gm.this is one ****** up thread.jmho.

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Say more about the ****** suspension . . . I'm not following you.

I was under the impression that air suspensions could enable us to have our cake and eat it, too.

Have you had negative experiences with air suspension systems?

Air suspension could not get any easier to do on the radius arm trucks, throw away your Springs and replace with bags and brackets. There are so many electronically controlled air ride setups now that it's just the push of a button to get any preset height. If you really want to understand what it takes to build a custom air ride setup I suggest you start researching "bagged" trucks.

bcbouy said:

you want ****** suspension in your heavy duty? trade it in for a gm.this is one ****** up thread.jmho.

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^^ complete fail. he obviously doesn't understand what he is even saying. Switching to IFS has nothing to do with air suspension.

anyways, it will cost 8-11k most likely, unless you do a lot of the work yourself. That being said, off the top of my head I know of two places doing them: Ultimate Air Ride and Kelderman. if you contact them, they could go over the options with you. They both sell off the shelf kits that are bigger than you want, but I'm pretty sure you could work with them to get something similar to what you want.


And really, as stated, the factory suspension is very easy to convert. The hardest part would be mounting the actual bags up front. So if you only wanted a small amount of travel in the stock range, you could just run the front mounts off one of those kits, stock arms, and plum in your air management. Then you would set your alignment at the 0 mark where you would drive, lower it down 2" maybe 3" for exit mode, and lift it up 2/3 for offroad mode.

EDIT: just saw that you already saw the kelderman kit. Its going to be expensive either way, you got an easy 3k in air management to have a nice setup, plus easy 2k for bags and mounts. so theres 5k off the bat.

Yeah that's what I figured as well. Too rich for my blood.

not a fail.you want cadillac ride in an hd truck and still retain the payload capacity for a reasonable price. that's a ****** up fail if i ever heard one.i want mine to fly and drive under water.

so I did some research into this....

$950 -- BDS 4 link kit box 2 of 2 part #012403 (link arms mainly)
$770 -- BDS 4 link kit box 1 of 2 part #012414 (includes trackbar bracket and pitman arm and all the bolts and etc)
-- BDS #082404 pitman arm 5 1/4" drop
-- BDS #02445 4-6" trackbar drop bracket

So using that as a base, you could fab up some bag mounts. I'm trying to research that, but not a lot of info. I wonder what the kelderman mounts actually look like. They are too expensive though, I feel like you could do this for about 5-6k. The kelderman kit is that price, before air management. So a significant discount, but a lot of custom work/combining of parts.

for other people not wanting air, you could also do thuren/carli springs and a spacer with this set up. That is, assuming it actually rides *that much better* than the BDS kit with fox.

Cool. LMK.

Payload sucks...

..but PowerWagon has a super ride!