Thoughts on rear air shocks for trucks

I am working on replacing worn suspension parts on my 1996 Chevy 1500 truck 5.7. I notice Monroe and AC Delco offer rear air adjustables for max towing and hauling. The price is cheap but do they provide any benefits?

I purchased this truck for hauling small boats, towing cars and around the house hauling.

i use em. never had any ill side effects.

My buddy had them as ghetto air on his mini truck. The truck would sit on the ground unless he pumped the shocks up. Thank goodness that setup lasted one week before he changed it and we installed a pair of Firestones in the back.

I use air bags on my truck to help compensate for big loads. They're awesome. Never tried the air adjustable shocks though.

Shocks are ok for minor and temporary loads, but the mounts are not designed to support the weight of the truck- thats what springs are for. Supplemental air bags are the hot ticket.

Or just get stupid and go the full Airride route.

I had some air shocks on the back of my VW pickup

They were freaking awesome. I could throw anything I wanted to in the back, pump up the shocks and go. The thing was lowered 3.5" and I never had any issues hauling anything. Unladen they would raise the rear 4 inches.

They are simply on demand overload springs. They rock. They aren't airbags intended to slam anything.

Hey, my next pickup will be bagged and body dropped. I sorely miss minitrucks.

Derick Freese wrote: Hey, my next pickup will be bagged and body dropped. I sorely miss minitrucks.

The 90's called, they miss you.

Don't care, dragged all the way home.

Streetwiseguy wrote: ...the mounts are not designed to support the weight of the truck- thats what springs are for. Supplemental air bags are the hot ticket.

Precisely!

Jeff

Shock mounts take a heck of a load, doing what they do. Installing a booster shock on them will not overwhelm them.

Usually the airshock sold by the likes of Monroe are their cheap shock with a bladder around it. So, if you're pulling off a set of Koni shocks, you're going to be disapointed by the damping.

Otherwise, if you just want to help a sagging rear end, they work just fine.

I had them on my first car('72 Mustang, complete with Crager SS wheels & Road Hugger tires!), they didn't hold up well after repeated jumps over railroad crossings.

What, how was I to know you weren't actually supposed to drive like the Dukes of Hazzard???

I'm replacing 135k factory shocks. I haven't settled on a budget for what I'm doing with this truck. Purchase price, repair intake manifold leak, new tires, and door pins I have near $780 involved in this truck. Runs good but needs better gear has 3.08 currently and a basic tune up.

I see adding actual load airbags would be about $200 for Timbren kit. May actual go this route, after basic shocks.

This photo is after a basic cleanup had to remove previous owners bug guard, running boards, weird topper.

I couldn't find air shocks for my KJ so I installed Air-Lifts. Worked great.

JKleiner wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: ...the mounts are not designed to support the weight of the truck- thats what springs are for. Supplemental air bags are the hot ticket.

Precisely! Jeff

i get that, and in principle i agree. on the crappy cheap trucks i've used them on i have never had a problem though. not only are supplemental bags more money, they're also more effort to install. on a budget, in this guys situation, i wouldn't hesitate for a second to just use air shocks and call it a day.

MPV owners not wanting to track down the obsolete OEM air shocks use the aftermarket air shocks without issue.

For this application, I would think it would be just fine.

Useless info: The MPV was stupid in that it used softer springs when equipped with the rear air shocks, the OEM air shocks WERE intended to handle some of the load carrying. so to use the aftermarket air shocks, you have to track down the rear springs that came equipped on vans with the standard rear shocks. Same story if you want to convert from OEM air shocks to standard shocks. if you don't, the springs are too soft, you blow the shocks etc...

My father had them on our 1994 Chevy 3/4 Ton van. Really leveled it out when we had 4 people, 2 dogs, a weeks worth of crap in it, and a 7500lb trailer hooked to the hitch. Never had a problem with them.

Only issue with them is that because the bladders have such low surface area (compared to a bag setup) you need to use much higher pressures to actually make a difference. IIRC they were rated up to 250psi. To level out our van they needed around 125psi IIRC, and it took a little compressor forever to get there.

I ran them on the '81 Olds Delta 88 Diesel we had back in the day. Was a quick fix for sagging springs. Car live a couple years with them before the engine gave up.

If I were doing it today I'd put new springs in.

I'm thinking about adding air over leaf helper bags to our B1500 van for when we're towing.

I had the Gabriel Air riders or whatever theyre called when i had an S10. It came with plastic lines and a valvestem. I routed it to the rear by the bumper so when im carrying heavy loads i just air up.

Edit:^^^ hijackers... thats what theyre called

I think you'll be fine.