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Anyone put leaf spring airbags on an AD? Considering doing this modification but curious about how many leaves to remove and still have a safe and comfortable ride and how low the truck will sit with the bags deflated?

The other option is drop leaf springs at all four corners... cost would be about the same as airbags if stock springs with leaves were used.

Are you doing this on the front? back? both?
I can't help you with an answer, but I am curious now that you have brought this topic up.

I have considered this for the rear of my truck, but want things to look more traditional so I am going to use air shocks.

I am still early in the build stage so this is not all worked out yet. What I plan on doing is de-arch the rear springs and remove enough of the leafs so that they will support the truck at a height a little lower than what I want for ride height. This way I should be able to bring it up to ride height with the air shocks and have a small load capacity. The springs will be pretty floppy so I plan on a sway bar in the rear. Well that is the plan for now, not sure how it will end up.

I am planning on using them on the front and back... I believe that the leaf springs act mainly as locators for the axle in an air bag setup and the bags hold the weight of the truck. Axle wrap could be a concern but I am staying with a 235 with basic performance parts.

Reiterating that this is in the planning stage. Checking this out for feasability.

Anyone else have an opinion or done this?

I have air over leaf in the back of my AD.When I bought my truck it had been lowered, just three leafs in the back.It rode awfull.I put in Airride Technologies.No compressor just an air valve to a T fitting.it will adjust height by about 6"and the ride is fine

The only negative thing I've read is that there is the possibility of axle wrap with the rear springs.

Thanks for the tip,Keahi.I'll look into that

If you stick with the torque tube axle you will not get axle wrap because of the torque tube. You may want to talk to a spring shop about how to set it up.

Like I said earlier, I can't help you with an answer, but something I am curious about is what is happening on the FRONT axle. Braking, turning, body roll, etc. (sometimes all at the same time)

I am going to use airbags on the rear of my 48 6400 for more weight capacity. I have them with brackets, just not installed yet. My leaf springs have 8 leaves I think. I had them made for my 1 ton like original other than being 2.5" wide instead of the 2" they were.

I don't think I would try only 1 or two leaves in the front without calling a good spring shop like Eaton Detroit Spring and asking what they thought of it. They may be able to make a better suited main leaf to handle things better when removing the other leaves and adding airbags?

BC52,

I could be wrong but I think the axle wrap thing is a bigger problem for the mini truck guys running the Air Over Leaf setup because they pull out all the leaves except for the main leaf to get it as low as possible. I'd be interested in hearing more about your setup and seeing any pictures if you have any. How do you like it?

I was also interested in the front air over leaf thing but I'm worried about all the bad things that could happen if I were to break a front leaf spring while driving.

I will also use some small air bags with my front leaf springs.
So I guess I will have air over leaf springs all the way around. However, I will be using them to help me cary more weight, and I won't be removing any leaves.

I personaly don't care much for lowering a truck. Although if I had to, and I do agree air bags are the best way, I would not do it by removing a few leaf springs. I would design and build or buy a tringulated four link suspension for the rear, and a link type suspensuon of some sort for the front. I don't think only one leaf spring will do a good enough job of locating your axles for anything more than show. It may work, but it seems to be a step backwards in many ways, safety included.

There is a good article on air bag systems in the January, 2007 issue of Hotrod Magazine.

Thanks for all the replies! Gonna start work on the '29 (Yeah. It's a stovebolt too... ) in December so I may not get around to doing this for a good while.