I installed my Air Lift bags yesterday without removing the wheels. Just jacked it up and hung it on some jack stands in front of the 'four link' bars
I filled a 5 gallon pail with hot water, took the black plastic nipple off the air bag and stood on the bag and folded both ends in and flattened it and reinstalled the black cap over the brass nipple on top of the bag to stop it from reinflating.
then I submerged the bag in the pail of hot water and set a piece of heavy pipe on it to keep it down, although I did keep the brass nipple/plug out of the water just enough to ensure that it would not draw any water into the bag although it did not appear to re-inflate at all anyway
this made the bags much more pliable and I started 'one coil up' from the bottom and wiggled them into the coil in a couple of minutes, Easy Peasy
I think starting one coil up makes it much much easier as it gives you a place to shove the flattened lower part of the bag down into once you have it most of the way in otherwise I think it would be a much more difficult task to deal with that wide flat part of the bag that is pretty difficult to manipulate
the bags were installed in less than ten minutes from start to finish but running the tubing is what takes the time as is always the case
I came out the top and then tucked the tubing in along a pinch weld in the box and above the plastic attachment points for the inner wheel house liners and then through the small space where a tray on both sides of the truck is spot welded for support for the wires and electronics mounted above it.
I used a piece of small wire and fed it back into the tube and then fished it thought the small space between the support tray and the bottom of the truck box, it just works better as the tubing wants to stay in the coil it was shipped in and it hooks inside that support when you try and feed it the 3 or 4 inches through that space.
from there over to the cavity between the outer fender and into the bottom of the tail light cavity
and then I drilled a hole just over to the side of the tail gate latch pin and slightly above where the tail gate cables clip on so as not to interfere with the folding action of those cables when you close the end gate
I have done a few of these Air Lift installs on other vehicles and I always use the single rather than the Tee method as this gives you individual side to side control for any uneven loads you may encounter
but moreover it will simplify diagnosing where the problem is if you ever get a leak or 'hole' a bag should you get a small piece of the right sized debris between the coil and the bag and it gets to working its way through the bag and eventually creates a hole.
If you travel in a lot of mud and sloppy road conditions which throws up a lot of crap you will want to keep an eye on what might be wedged between the top of a coil and the bags.
If your bags are always properly inflated to the minimum that will largely keep anything from lodging between the coil and the bag but if they are underinflated that can allow debris between the coil and the bag and the process of eating away at the bag will begin
it will likely take you an hour to pull the lines through through and drill and secure but if I had known exactly where I was going to route those lines before I started it would have been bim bam boom
but I routed and rerouted the hoses a couple of times until I settled on the final path
I predict that with help you could do this entire procedure after morning coffee in something like 30 minutes and be towing before lunch
