Pic one is the frame bracket that is right under the bed. Pic 2 is the airbag under the hitch bracket and as you can see the "ears" that hug the frame are now unable to sit up there right so I am having those "ears" removed and the top of the airbag bracket welde to the bottom of the hitch bracket. There are four brackets to hitch that hold four posts inside the bed that can be totally removed. You have four approx 1 inch diam holes in the bed and they do not interfere with the utility track at all. So when you take the hitch out there are only 4 small holes in the bed. Pic three is just the other side (passanger side) airbag. All bracketry is under the bed and out of sight. The RV dealership said that short of the airbag dilema the install was flawless and very easy. Took them about 3 1/2 hrs to install. I hope this helps.
Thx, so really the issue with the airbags are those tabs need to be opened up so it will slot in ?
I have the valley rails and Reese 15k hitch for my 30.5 Jayco. Dry wt is 7350 with king pin at 1700. Firestone ride rite air bags work great. Pulls very easy with big tow and 4th grear. Get 10.2 MPG pulling mostly through the mountains. Titan does grrreat.
I too have been very impressed with they way this truck tows. I was not expecting this kind of performance, but am overly pleased.
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04 CC SE Smoke 4x4 DVD OR BT. AEM Brute Force CAI, Magnaflow Muffler, 2* Advance, Fitch Fuel Catalyst, Firestone Airbags, Mag-Hytech Diff cover, Stillen front & rear sway bar. Stainless rocker panels. Pull-Rite 12k and Prodigy controller for the 2007 Cougar 278RKS. Amsoil throughout!
Thx, so really the issue with the airbags are those tabs need to be opened up so it will slot in ?
Yes. A friend of mine is a welder and cargo trailer builder and he is just going to cut those ears off and weld them to bracket. Probably will be more stable than the brackets that came with it. Even with the way they are now I still have full usable capacity with them.
Yes. A friend of mine is a welder and cargo trailer builder and he is just going to cut those ears off and weld them to bracket. Probably will be more stable than the brackets that came with it. Even with the way they are now I still have full usable capacity with them.
Could you not just grind them down to fit i.e. open the notch up ?
Could you not just grind them down to fit i.e. open the notch up ?
We kinda looked at that but I decided to just weld them on. Plus the cutter and welder he has will make very short work of it and he has done this before and he can do it w/ o removing or HURTING the airbag itself. You can always get replacement brackets. Plus I have two little ones in the back seat and stability and safety is a priority to me. Just the way I've decided to do it thats all.
Last edited by Nissanloyalist : 05-19-2007 at 01:39 PM.
We kinda looked at that but I decided to just weld them on. Plus the cutter and welder he has will make very short work of it and he has done this before and he can do it w/ o removing or HURTING the airbag itself. You can always get replacement brackets. Plus I have two little ones in the back seat and stability and safety is a priority to me. Just the way I've decided to do it thats all.
We kinda looked at that but I decided to just weld them on. Plus the cutter and welder he has will make very short work of it and he has done this before and he can do it w/ o removing or HURTING the airbag itself. You can always get replacement brackets. Plus I have two little ones in the back seat and stability and safety is a priority to me. Just the way I've decided to do it thats all.
Installed yesterday, notched it out a 1/4 each side and it fit perfect !
Do you realize that with an empty trailer and an empty truck you are already overweight? The trailer probably weighs 500lbs more than the sticker says plus the weight of water, propane, food, misc. stuff, passengers, clothes, firewood, generator, etc. Air bags aren't a fix for being over weight.
Do you realize that with an empty trailer and an empty truck you are already overweight? The trailer probably weighs 500lbs more than the sticker says plus the weight of water, propane, food, misc. stuff, passengers, clothes, firewood, generator, etc. Air bags aren't a fix for being over weight.
Trailer weighs 7,400 empty, 9,000 loaded on the scales, whats you point.
Do you realize that with an empty trailer and an empty truck you are already overweight? The trailer probably weighs 500lbs more than the sticker says plus the weight of water, propane, food, misc. stuff, passengers, clothes, firewood, generator, etc. Air bags aren't a fix for being over weight.
There are many considerations to wieght ratings than just the trailer and if airbags are a fix or not. Axle weight ratings on the Titan or mine at least are 3500# for the front and 3800# for the rear. This is a total of 7300# on the axels. GVWR for the truck is 6500#. This is to protect the suspension components since this is the weakest link. Now you look at GCVW rating which is about 14500# for the titan. This set up does not exceed the GCVWR of the truck. It also does not go over the GAWR of the front. It does go a couple hundred pounds over the GAWR of the rear but does not exceed the MAX tire weight rating. Which this is what airbags are designed for. So part of your statement is correct in that airbags do not allow you to be over weight, but they do distribute the weight so you can tow this kind of weight without being over weight. Remember there are many factors in determining the weight capacity of a vehicle. Plus the sticker inside the trailer is required by law to show the weight as manufactured at the plant. Which mine states UVW of 7000lbs.
Last edited by Nissanloyalist : 05-24-2007 at 07:41 PM.
PAYLOAD WEIGHT CAPACITY
The vehicle payload weight capacity shown on
following charts indicate the maximum total
weight of passengers, optional equipment (air
conditioning, trailer hitch, etc) and cargo that
your vehicle is designed to carry.
The payload weight capacity of your truck is 1342 lbs. (See page 9-22 of your owner's manual). Per your original post the dry pin weight of your trailer is 1140 lbs and your hitch weighs 300lbs. This puts you at 1440 lbs of payload before all of the other stuff that I mentioned above. Fully loaded with all of your passengers and gear you may be close to 1000 lbs overweight.
Quote:
So part of your statement is correct in that airbags do not allow you to be over weight, but they do distribute the weight so you can tow this kind of weight without being over weight.
What do you mean by distribute weight? I have never looked into airbags, so pardon my ignorance. It is my understanding that air bags just raise the rear of the truck to level the ride.
What do you mean by distribute weight? I have never looked into airbags, so pardon my ignorance. It is my understanding that air bags just raise the rear of the truck to level the ride.
You're right. They just keep the back from sagging.
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You're right. They just keep the back from sagging.
They do quite a bit more than that.They mount directly between the frame and the axle. These do not mount to the leaf spring as some do. They have a load capacity of 5000#. Now would I put this much weight in the back of my truck, NO. Would I put 2000 to 2500 lbs, yes. The weakest part of the suspension are the shackles and other suspension components. The axles are caplable of supporting this kind of weight. So now your weakest link in the rear are your tire loading abilities as far as weight capacity is concerned. Next is your gearing and tranny strength which this truck is capable of this kind of weight. By "distributing" the weight you put more weight on the front axles and take weight off the rear. This is the principle behind WD hitches. Now you have a suspension component which has a load capacity of 5000# holding your truck instead of the stock suspension which as stated earlier is about 1350 lbs. If you look at the Firestone website for the ride rites they state do not exceed the GCVWR not the GVWR. My front axles run 3300lbs and rear run 4100 lbs on the scales as camping with all passengers and cargo. This is 200 lbs under the FAWR and 300 LBS over the RAWR. I am about 1000 lbs under the GCVWR as loaded. So as I stated before there are a lot of considerations to weight capacity than what is just stated in the manual. Also this is the ability airbags give you as far as "increasing" your carring capacity. No they DO NOT allow you to be OVERWEIGHT but they allow "distributing" of weight to allow you to safely carry larger loads. I hope this clears things up.
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05-19-2007, 12:49 PM
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