The Power Wagon stock rear leaf springs are fully rated for 3/4T capacity. But, that doesn't happen without causing considerable sag in the rear. The first few inches of travel are very soft, and while it's great for off highway use, with the added weight I carry (roughly 1000 lbs of shell, sleeping platform, fridge and gear), when we hook up the trailer, it drops the rear by almost 3 inches from stock height.
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There are several options to correct this. The best is to replace the factory springs with a set of either Thuren or Carli long travel springs. The second is via air bag, and up until recently, the only good option for off highway use was the Carli long travel system. It's expensive, and requires modification of the exhaust system to clear the bags.
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So, I was pleased to see a new player in the market, Daystar! Daystar is known for their polyurethane bushings, body mounts, and other products like the Hi-Lift jack handle isolator. Daystar has introduced a new method of using a standard 6" Firestone Ride-Rite air bag by using a cradle to free the bottom of the bag from being attached to the axle tube.
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Pretty impressive! Sure would be nice to have a set of those Kings on Cactus Red!
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So, I decided after several of my Power Wagon brethren have used and approved the new system to give it a go. All parts were sourced on Amazon.com for less than $380.00 including shipping. That's less than half of the cheapest spring or Carli long travel bag system.
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Firestone W217602299 Ride-Rite Kit for Dodge Ram 2500/3500 $278.95
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Daystar KU09140BK Air Bag Cradle $72.46
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Install is very straight forward, and should take less than two hours. After checking to make sure all the parts are supplied per the parts list, which in my case was missing the two male 1/4" NPT to 1/4" air line fittings, the assembly went as follows:
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Pre-assemble the cradle to the lower mount, pre-assemble the upper bracket, install the 1/4" NPT to 1/4" air line fitting to the bags.
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Jack and support the vehicle. Remove the stock bump stops.
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Install the Cradle and upper bracket. The cradle bracket has two sides, wide for the diesel, narrow for the gas application. The cradle mounts to the wide side so the narrow end will fit between the u-bolts. After installing the cradle mount, the excess threads were removed with a hack saw.
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The bags are installed with the stud orienting the bag to the upper bracket. Decide where you want the air lines to be accessed - I ran mine out the sides of the license plate. Routing of the line is real easy on the drivers side. There is a wiring loom that runs along the frame I used to zip tie the line to. The Passenger side is a bit more difficult due to the exhaust, so choose the routing to avoid it, and use the supplied heat shield for the airline and the air bag when installing it. The plastic covers supplied for the valves are cheesy, so I used the same type I have on the truck. One of the valve stem cores supplied with the kit leaked, so it was replaced with one of the spares I carry.
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Flex check - the d'side bag is loose in the bucket, the passenger side fully compressed. The bags were filled to 10 PSI after install.
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So, now comes the testing to see how they do. We'll be towing the trailer next weekend, and I'll be leading a trail ride for the Overland Journal/Adventure Trailer Open House on the 7th of Sept that will give them a good work out for off highway use.
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And a side note on Firestone...
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The two fittings that were missing caused me a week in delay on getting the system finished. I called Firestone on Monday and asked to have the parts shipped in time for this weekend. I was told by a less than helpful representative that they won't ship parts Red label, and the earliest they would ship replacement parts was by Thursday via standard shipping. So, to complete the project, I ordered parts from Etrailer.com via Blue UPS. I'm not to happy with Firestones customer service...
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Mark
