To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
5,000-lb Capacity. Ride-Rite air springs enhance your factory suspension for safety and stability when you are hauling heavy loads. They reduce strain on your rear axle, keep your vehicle level, and adjust to load size for a consistently smooth ride.
Features:
Specs:
Note: The construction material of the fittings may vary.
Firestone Ride-Rite springs are designed to increase safety and reduce the strain on your truck when you are hauling heavy loads or towing a heavy trailer. The springs partner with your existing rear suspension system to help keep your truck level, maintain even load distribution, and increase stability. Hauling heavy loads or towing a heavy trailer can make the rear of your truck sag and the front end rise. This puts more strain on your rear axle and reduces contact between your front tires and the road, causing problems with braking, steering control, and traction. By adding air springs to your rear suspension, you can help to level your truck and improve braking and handling. The air springs also help to level your headlight beams and reduce wear on your tires.
The air pressure in the Ride-Rite springs can be adjusted manually, side to side, to compensate for off-center loads. A centered load improves the stability of your truck by reducing body roll. The air springs will also help to absorb road shock and soften contact between your axle and frame. This prevents bottoming out, thus improving ride comfort. Route the air line tubing for the springs to your truck's bumper to provide easy access to the manual inflation valves.
Firestone's double-convoluted Ride-Rite air springs are designed to give you maximum load support and enhance the performance and ride comfort of your truck. The rubber springs provide cushioning between your suspension components and operate at up to 100 psi. The springs have four layers of reinforced rubber to ensure durability and enhance load support. A braided wire girdle creates the double-convoluted shape of each air spring, increasing the burst pressure of the spring. The rubber springs are attached to corrosion-resistant metal end plates with a time-proven, rolled crimp seal that keeps the bags securely anchored.
Each Ride-Rite kit includes custom-fit brackets that connect to your axle and frame. The brackets provide the mounting points for the air springs. No drilling is required for installation.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, there. I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today we're gonna take a quick look at this Firestone Ride-Rite Air Helper Spring Set. So these springs will install between your truck's frame and the rear suspension. These are gonna help to maximize your safe load carrying capacity, increase your stability, and improve your ride quality. So while the helper springs themselves are pretty interchangeable amongst several different kits, these brackets here are custom designed for your 2021 and newer Ford F-150.
So this is gonna be very simple to get installed on your F-150 with these custom brackets. These air helper springs will allow you to adjust the air pressure from five PSI up to a hundred PSI, so you can keep your truck level when you're hauling a heavy load. That's gonna help to improve your steering control and braking, and allow you to have your headlights level and reduce your tire wear. All the issues that come along with having your vehicle squatting under that heavy load. So these will provide up to 5,000 pounds of load leveling capacity.
Keep in mind, that's not going to increase your Ford's weight carrying capacity, so you don't want to exceed the manufacturer's recommended weight limit. Think of it less like a second set of hands, helping you lift more weight. Think of it more like a back brace. So it's there to just kind of help your factory suspension take some of that strain off of it, reduce prolonged sagging and strain on your leaf springs. So it is going to help to take some of that strain off of it.
It's also gonna help to increase your stability. It will absorb road shock for a nice, smooth ride. Soften contact between your axle and frame to prevent bottoming out. So it is going to help give you a much more comfortable ride. These can be inflated individually, so if you have an off center load, something really heavy on one side of your truck, you can air that bag up more, so that you have even load distribution and vice versa, so that you can kind of customize it for your setup.
Like I said, these are adjustable, so you can adjust how much pressure is in there. So if you just need a little bit of support, if you've got a light load, you can go down to that five PSI minimum. Or if you've got a really heavy load and you need a lot of support, you can go up to that 100 PSI. Adjustability is gonna be really nice, giving you that support that you need. These springs are made here in the USA of a nice, solid durable rubber construction. They do have the double convoluted design, and when combined with that rubber construction, it's gonna provide maximum load support and durability for you. These do come with a limited lifetime warranty on the air springs, so you can trust they're gonna hold up well for you. All the materials necessary for installation are included here, as well as instructions to walk you through the installation process step by step, make sure everything's installed properly. A couple things that are not included that you might want to consider. These are going to be kind of a manual inflation, so you will need to find a compressor on the side of the road. Air pump, something like that. There are compressors, air tanks, switches, and gauges available. Those are sold separately, but it's a lot more convenient if you are gonna be switching your air frequently to get something like that installed on your vehicle, as well as the airbags, just so you have that convenience from the cab of your truck, being able to adjust the pressure, monitor the pressure, and that sort of thing, and make sure that it's gonna work out best for you. But definitely not a absolute necessity. You can get by just airing these up at home before you take off on your trip, that sort of thing. But the compressor and air tank is definitely a convenience that I would recommend. So that completes our look for today. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching.
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (2447 Customer Reviews)
5,000-lb Capacity. Ride-Rite air springs enhance your factory suspension for safety and stability when you are hauling heavy loads. They reduce strain on your rear axle, keep your vehicle level, and adjust to load size for a consistently smooth ride.I installed this kit (F59VV) on my new 2023 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid 4x4 with the onboard scales.
First off- etrailer's service is excellent. 5 stars. Arrived on time and nicely packaged.
This kit, however, was a royal pain to install. Nothing went together as described in the instructions, and some of the hardware was not as described in the manual (socket head versus hex head), making for a lot of confusion and frustration. What could have been (should have been?) a couple hours of installation ended up with 6 hours under my truck. I'm reasonably handy and not afraid of complexity, and this thing was still frustrating.
I ended up having to modify tools and essentially install each piece individually with several installs and removals to make sure everything fit right. I had to trim a bracket on my brand-new truck (never a good feeling) and still don't have the clearance described in the manual and am waiting Firestone's response to my inquiry about this. My truck is otherwise 100% stock so it should have fit without much drama.
The good: Once it's finally installed there are lots of big bolts so there's lots of redundancy in hardware. The air lines are tough and everything was leak free on the first shot. Running with 7psi currently and first drive this afternoon. New camper coming next weekend and hoping for good performance.
I installed this about two weeks ago. I don’t have a lift so spent a lot of time on a crawler. Thank goodness there is sufficient underbelly height on my Silverado 2500HD.
I bought these just to remove a bit of sag when I hook up the fifth wheel. Installation was pretty easy and the instructions were fine. Although I learned from my mistakes doing the first one, which made installing the other much smoother. I haven’t had the fifth wheel hooked up yet, but I don’t think there will be any issues. I have had them inflated to 10 PSI and the haven’t lost any pressure yet. That’s with an empty bed, so we will see how they hold up with a load.
Since I didn’t get an air compressor kit with them, I was able to use two spare TPMS sensors that I had on hand to monitor the PSI of the air bags.
So far so good. etrailer service was great as usual.
Install with 1 person took 4 hours, mostly looking for misplaced tools. I had on for 1 year and have had no problems. I did install a 3 way tee which allows for air to be equal on both air bags from 1 valve stem. What a difference these make while towing. I can actually tow my trailer at level height and get a better ride inside the truck. If you get these bags, you will want to buy a bigger trailer!
The Ride-Rite air helper springs work great. If I'm pulling a heavy trailer or loading my truck with a heavy load, I can add air to adjust the ride and level my truck. They really help the ride.
They do not fit. The kit claims it bolts right on the 2018 transit 350HD and it does not. First thing I found is you need to drill holes in the frame, even though the packaging says bolts right on. I put the top bracket on the frame with the bouncer bolt to line up to drill the hole and found the bracket is not even the correct size - it extends too far back and hits the cross beam on the frame. see pic. I spoke with e-trailer and they confirmed I have the correct parts according to Firestone. I am sending this back and going with sumo springs .....
I install this for a customer that I have on the recommendation of etrailer as being the one that was necessary for this vehicle. On receiving the product was having problems as the truck was not set up the way that the illustration showed the truck was bought new by the original owner and had 50,000 miles and have never been modified spoke to fire stone about that at the recommendation of a trailer other parts were necessary, it turned out to be quite a mess. Mini phone calls hours of trying to make something work. The system failed at about 500 miles customer was very upset. I spoke to eat trailer no help at all referred me to fire stone no help at all. It was just to say the way things go sometimes and they were very sorry. I ended up having to give the customer his money back very expensive for me all the way around very poor recommendation on what I should’ve bought for this vehicle very poor product service by a trailer and fire stone both so end result after turning the truck back to stock, I haul the airbag system that I purchased to the dump
Works perfectly! It's so nice not having the truck sag and sway after installing the ride rite air bags. I built my own hard side pop up camper on my flatbed dually and it turned out a little heavier than I wanted but with the airbags I hardly know the camper is there.
The kit I received had mismatched air fittings: one was a 3/8npt elbow instead of the required 1/8npt elbow. etrailer sent a replacement elbow and I was able to source a reducer to complete the install as I await the replacement. Glad i checked my parts before I started.
The install is pretty straight forward and the instructions are clear. The fasteners are difficult to access if you are doing the install by yourself. Must have tools include quality hose cutter and two 1-1/8in sockets.
The bags added 1in of lift to my unladen 2023 Tacoma Trail Edition at 5psi; 1-1/2in at 10psi; and 3in at 70psi.
At the 5psi minimum pressure the ride is firmer than stock. On acceleration the back end no longer “stuffs” wich is fine with me.
I have purchased a few items for my 2020 Fontier e.g. tow package, wiring, electric brake control, fog lights/switch, etc. - it's a 'tweener' year i.e. new power train with old style body. This Firestone Airbag recommended by etrailer.com is NOT a bolt on product for the 2020 Nissan Frontier. The driver's side rear is the issue where with the new power train there is a cannister - not sure exactly what it is...but, it interfears with the hardware. After cutting, fabbing spacers, adjusting brake lines I got it installed - took me two 14 hour days. When it was finally installed after a lot of headsctatching and figuring out how to solve yet another problem - I felt like Firestone should have paid me for all the hassle.
The airbags were easy to install. There was an extra part that wasn't mentioned in the instructions. I figured it must be a muffler shield and inserted it. After 7 months of use a clunking noise occurred. The top nuts had loosened up. Lock nuts might helped. It took time to find the doc of the noise and a couple hundred dollars in mechanics fees. The other issue has been how long the bags hold air. I need to check them every couple of weeks when I'm towing my 24' RV on long trips. They do reduce the road bounce and rocking motion some that I got them for. My nausea is less than it was as a result. I don't like the fact that my truck rides 1/2" higher on one side than the other and I can't correct it with the bags
etrailer was very helpful with making sure I ordered the right product. As for the product... I love the addition to my 20201 Toyota Tundra TRD PRO. It made towing my 2021 Lance 2285 Travel Trailer a dream. The truck and trailer sit perfectly level now and the truck handles great. Easy install only took a couple of hours. In my pic... the stabilizer jacks are down because I was doing a quick overnighter and didn't want to unhitch. But the stabilizers aren't lifting the camper or truck.. just kissing the ground to keep the camper from rocking when inside. Its the only pic I had handy.
First, my order was processed and shipped on a Sunday. There's not too many companies doing that outside of Amazon. Awesome! If not for UPS delay in Sparks, NV, I would have received my order in less time then mentioned at check out.
Second, my Firestone kit came complete. I was skeptical due to some reviews stating they received the wrong size air hose connector. Not this one. Seems they've worked it out. Kit is installed and doing exactly what I expected.
2023 Tacoma TRD OR.
2.5 lift with Icon AAL
Trailerlife WDH
Hauling 4400 lbs (dry) camp trailer
Reduced squat from 2.5" to 1" at 25psi for comfort. Can easily level, but I prefer slight squat at the tounge.
*truck and trailer pic is on a slope.
Over, great experience!
High quality and easy to install. These air bags are working very well and keeping my truck level while towing my tow hauler.
So far so good. I installed these in just over 2 hours on my 2013 Chevy 2500HD for help with my fifth wheel. I pull a 12.7k pound (dry) camper. My truck was level prior to airbags, but had really harsh bouncing over bridges, put holes, etc. The side to side way and roll was noticeable was noticeable as well. These bags put all of that to an end. I've towed twice with them and 35psi seems to do the trick (doesn't life the truck higher in the rear, and takes away the bounce and roll).
I must point out that installation while straight forward, still had some issues with stock components. The parking brake cable and brackets had to be removed on both sides for the springs brackets to be installed. The passenger side bracket covered the OEM parking brake bracket location and the driver side is too tight of a fit without crimping the brake cable. My brake cable is no freely resting across the truck which I'm not a huge fan of.
The kit did exactly what I was hoping and helped to level out the rear of the truck (2016 long-bed, 2x4, Frontier) when towing my 24'camper trailer. Installation was straight forward with the most difficult aspects being removal of existing rubber axil bump stocks
It happy. Poor packaging allowed parts to bang around in shipping and paint and pieces of metal to flake off on the larger pieces.
Product arrived on time and perfect condition. Take about 3 hours to install. Have taken is out with 5th wheel yet. Raised that back 4 inches at 70 #. Only want 2 inches so try them at 30# and see now it rides is with 5th wheel.
These bags serve my purpose. It’s good to be able to level the truck up when I have a heavy load in the bed. Not too difficult to install. It would be more convenient to have the air bags with a built in compressor.
I do a lot of camping. When using the weight distribution hitch, you have to let the air out of the bags, before hooking up the trailer and hitch. Then put air in the bags. This is inconvenient, but the instructions for the hitch say to deflate the air bags.
I sometimes take a Foreman 500 four wheeler when I camp. I have to put it in the bed of the truck. It made the truck squat down a good bit. With the air bags, I can level it back up after hooking the camper and hitch up.
They do the job, but spend a little more and get the one with the built in air compressor.
I mounted the Firestone airbag system on my 2008 Toyota Tacoma pickup. It was not as easy as the video makes it look (especially on the drivers side) but, it it turned out great. I mounted the compressor in the compartment behind the passenger seat behind the driver (see pic). I mounted the gauge and switch in the compartment between the driver and passenger (see pic). The airbag pictures are when they were holding 70 lbs pressure checking for air leaks. The first picture of the pickup is with 5 lbs air pressure in the bags and the second is with 50 lbs air pressure in the bags. When driving with 5 lbs in the bags it has the normal smooth ride and does a good job at 30 lbs of keeping the back end from sagging when I pull my boat.
These bags work very well. such a big difference in the ride and handling when I have my trailer hooked up. The trailer is a 22 foot cargo trailer by 8.5 wide. Inside measurements. Pulls like a dream with the bags at only 45 lbs air pressure.
I installed these in about 2 hours the night before my wife and I were heading out to Sioux Falls, SD with our 30 foot travel trailer. I aired them up to about 38 P.S.I. and away we went. They worked flawlessly. I love them. I only used one air valve to air them up with a T connector.
The Firestone air helpers do the job of leveling off my 1/2 ton Toyota Tundra and having pulled my fifth wheel with them 2400 miles no issues. Install was not as easy as described but very do able. You just have to remember to drop the air back after you take the load off or yo get a stiff ride! I recommend them.
I wanted to follow up and let you know the Firestone Air bags fit perfectly with the B&W Turnover ball hitch. Attached are pictures of the Airbags installed on the 2018 GM Sierra 1500 Z71. I've also included the pictures of the compressor and tank install. The compressor is installed under the hood in the spare battery tray and the tank is mounted on the outside of the frame under the passenger side door. Let me know if you need any additional details on the installation.
Not very happy with the purchase. Packaging was sub par, 28 lbs of steel and airbags dumped into a 12x12x12 box, no packaging material. Airbags had caps over the air inlet, but both caps came off in shipping. Aluminum inserts were MISSING the threaded holes for the alignment studs. Had to drill and tap the 4 inserts (see pictures), thankfully I had a 10-24 tap on hand. Instructions are not clear in terms of 3/8” washer usage, the list of parts at the top of each page shows the incorrect amount of washers vs what is shown in the instructions, as a result not enough washers for the install, one again I had some at home thankfully, finally, the 3/8” bolts are not long enough to go through the lower brackets and provide enough thread engagement for the nylock nuts. There is no bolt stick out after assembly. The air line is very flimsy and is easy to link. Overall the only thing I liked about the kit was the air fill line bracket and the lower clamps that wrap the axle. I would likely go with the airlift product if I could do it again. Hopefully it functions well. Will find out when I put 4000 lbs over the axle.
After a year of use including 3 months in Alaska, these Air helper springs have worked flawlessly. They give me just enough lift to level out my truck with over 800lbs of trailer tongue weight and 500lbs in the bed. I have individual adjustments on my Ride-rites and I haven't needed to make the pressure different from side to side. I'm now considering adding an adjustable air system that can be operated from inside the truck.
Do you have a question about this Vehicle Suspension?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.