Long rambling ahead; here is the summary:
Tried to install Firestone Air Springs, they seemed to have been fabricated by either a trained baboon or bottom-tier moron. Returned, ordered Air Lift Springs (yes I ordered the correct kit for the truck) and they do not fit on the frame properly. Air Lift customer support ticked me off and wasted most of my day. Total time spent on air springs thus far with zero progress: 10 hours in 90 degree sun. Now what do I do?
Rambling yet therapeutic string of complaints:
We are in the midst of an air spring nightmare. Our FWC Hawk will be ready in mid-August, so I have been making (and attempting to make) the suspension upgrades I see as necessary. Last year, when I was researching options for my wife's Ram, I had decided on a Hellwig rear sway bar and the Firestone air springs. So that's what we ordered.
The Firestone kit arrived last week and I got to work on installing it one hot evening after work. The long story short is that after jacking up the truck and taking the rear wheels off, things were not lining up right on one side. Since the parts are symmetrical, I swapped out one assembly for the other and then discovered that one of the large brackets had been fabricated poorly. The Firestone brackets have three "ears" along one side that are bent in the same direction 90 degrees. Somehow the moron at the metal brake had managed to bend the outside ears in the wrong spot, with the middle ear being correct. I couldn't imagine how someone could do this without realizing it, and it even seems to my limited knowledge to be impossible to do unintentionally. Since all three ears are supposed to be bent at the same spot and at the same angle, wouldn't they just brake them all at once with the same setting? Anyway, it's hard to describe what the issue was. I am normally pretty forgiving of manufacturing mistakes because they are bound to happen. But this one was so puzzling that I lost confidence in the brand.
I returned the kit and ordered the Air Lift Load Lifter 5000 which also gets excellent reviews. We decided at that time that we wanted to get an on board compressor to help with leveling the truck at camp. So we also ordered the Air Lift Wireless Air kit. Everything, including the Hellwig sway bar arrived. So I jumped into the install yesterday after work. Jack the truck up, set the jack stands, and took off the wheels. Again. The Air Lift kit has you mount an upper frame bracket to the bottom of the frame over the rear axle, using the bolt holes for the stock jounce bumper. I found that the frame on our truck, which we bought new from the dealer and has never had any mods done to it, does not have a flat surface on the bottom of the frame over the rear axle. There is a component of the frame, present on both sides of the truck, that laps over the main frame body, which adds about 1/4" of thickness. So the big Air Lift bracket cannot sit flush on the bottom of the frame because the front edge sits on the lower part of the frame. When I installed the bracket exactly as the instructions say, the front end is 1/4" lower than the back end, so you can see daylight between the bracket and the frame at the front, and it is right where the mounting bolt goes so to tighten the bolt to spec would either bend the bracket or tweak the bolt.So
So I looked around online and found no one with the same issue. I rechecked the frame. The way it is is obviously how it is supposed to be from the factory; the lower part of the frame runs forward on both sides all the way to the transmission cross member, which is welded to it. These are all factory welds; no one snuck up and did some freelance welding on this truck. The welds are perfect, probably done by a robot. There is no damage or bending that caused the issue; it is clearly a 1/4" plate that is wrapped onto the main frame body. It was after 5 PST, but I called the Air Lift phone anyway. The message said they are open from 8 to 8 EST.
Today, I started calling them at just before 8 PST. At first the number would just ring. A few more tries were met with a busy signal. At one point, I got the "We are closed" message that I had heard the night before. I decided to tackle the sway bar while waiting. When I was almost done with the sway bar, I finally got through to Air Lift after being on hold for 30 min. The service rep I spoke with told me he had never heard of this issue and asked for photos. That's why we took photos of everything the night before. He told me he would forward the photos to the engineer. "Perfect!" I said. "Thanks for the help." I said. This was about 10 this morning. After a trip t the store for some more jack stands and a better jack, and a driveway tire rotation, and finishing up on the sway bar, I decided that I would need to call them again before everyone went home. With the hours being 8 to 8 EST, and it being just after 3 PST, I figured I had waited a reasonable time and had not gotten a call back or even an acknowledgement that my emailed photos had been received. After another 30 min. hold session, the same rep I had spoken with in the morning answered. I told him I had not heard anything. He said he would check with the engineer and call me back, but the engineer may have gone home. So here it is 5 PST, and I have not heard back.
So this is my dilemma: I am easily at the point with Air Lift that I return both the spring kit and the compressor kit and go with something else. This is what I did with the Firestone kit. But I'm tired of doing that and I am running out of options. I see that Hellwig makes an air bag kit, but no compressor. And I had issues installing that damn sway bar too, although I was able to make it work.
The most annoying thing about the Air Lift kit is that I can't find anyone else with the same issue, and it is a very common truck and a very common air spring kit.
Any thoughts or experiences with these products on a 2008 Ram 1500?
