Air bag idea, what do you think?
 

so i have been toying with the idea of putting 4 air bags on my rear axle, two on each side.

let me back up a little.. well my rear suspension seems to be getting tired. put 500 lbs in the bet and it sags a lot.

returning to the present. so my thinking is: if I put two on each side and then put some long rods or bolts from the frame to the custom made bracket that the air bags will be mounted to, then i could air them up to the max and lock the axle in place or air them down for a softer ride, or anywhere in between for hauling.

what i am thinking of when airing them up to the max and locking them up is that it would work well for say sled pulling, or when drag racing it could act like traction bars in preventing the axle from turning.

take a look at my drawing. see if it would work or if i am missing something here

thanks
Jason

any vendors here have any bags that are 4.75" or less and triple Convoluted for under $120 each?

For sled pulling they do now allow you to run air bags, you have to physically show them that the air bags have been disconnected before they let you pull.

and for drag racing they would be terrible because the rear suspension would have no movement vertically, and the weight transfer the launch would be non existent, resulting in less traction for the rear tires.

but you do have 4wd so it wouldn't be affected that much. but for replacing the traction bars there would be so much torque being applied horizontally they rear axle will still twist. The air bags are designed to adsorb vertical loads. its like trying to use concrete with out rebar to make a small bridge, it just wasn't designed to do that.

thanks, i figured someone would be more familiar in this territory then me.

so do you see any advantage to running a setup like this? being able to just flip a switch in the cab to "clamp" the rear axle

i really cant think of one unless you want to haul 7000 lbs of stuff in the bed lol