Air Lift or Firestone rear air springs?

[JPaul]

After some research and pondering, I think I'm going to go with rear air springs to help with loads when offroading and hauling. Since this is my daily driver I'd like it to handle well when empty (and since the road I drive for my commute is worse than a number of dirt roads I've been on...) but be able to handle heavier loads when going camping and offroading. I think air bags will give me the flexibility I want for this, and cost less than having custom springs made for me.

That being said, I'm trying to decide between the Air Lift 59563 kit that Hunner uses and the Firestone 2190 kit I've seen others using that goes in place of the bump stops.

Positives of the Air Lift is it doesn't require as much modification and it retains the bump stops.
Positives of the Firestone is it can use the Daystar cradles to allow full droop.

Negatives of the Air Lift is you have to move the brake line bracket so that it doesn't accidentally slice open the air bag as Hunner found. It also doesn't seem like it allows full droop, but I'm not sure.
Negatives of the Firestone is it eliminates the bump stop so it becomes the bump stop, not sure how risky this is. Because of this it also requires greater modification to the frame.

The Air Lift is the cheaper of the two, but not by a whole lot.

Thoughts?

 

[Panzer07]

I'm running this one cheaper than the fire stone and about the same and with all the requires things to install it easily yes...ull loose the bump stops but the bags would work as good...u only need to drill 2 holes each side.
Air Lift 57275 LoadLifter 5000 Series Rear Air Spring Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CFQ2XM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sYoIzb3J7HNKN

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[f5moab]

I ran airlift without the built in bump stop on the H3 (not sure they had the model with the build in bump stop when I installed the airlifts on the H3), but on all my pickups I have switched to Firestone. Both never had a problem; however, the Firestone are a lot easier to install (at least on GM 1500 series pickup trucks) vs. the Airlift. I really can't see either back failing. My current GMC has the Firestone bags, but I'm using an airlift compressor.

 

[DJinCO]

I have only had one failure with the air-lift inside the coil spring bag. On my Tahoe towing a travel trailer. It was a hot day; I inflated to 35psi (max pressure) and while going up the mountain I heard a pressure release that sounded like the air brake bleed... but I don't have air brakes. You get the idea.
Anyway, the bag split on the seam. These were the red bags. I have been thinking about bags for the H3; I would go with the same style as Panzer.

 

[Hunner]

The brake bracket was not much work and I installed mine on a lift with the suspension hanging all it could. They still reached.
I pull a 3500 lb work trailer and my boat weighs about the same. So far so good.

Those Panzer has look robust and heavy duty.

I have seen the Firestone installed on a 1 ton dually Ford and he loads them up often, no problems.

 

[JPaul]

I'm running this one cheaper than the fire stone and about the same and with all the requires things to install it easily yes...ull loose the bump stops but the bags would work as good...u only need to drill 2 holes each side.
Air Lift 57275 LoadLifter 5000 Series Rear Air Spring Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CFQ2XM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sYoIzb3J7HNKN


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Will that one fit though if you haven't done a SOA? Mine's still stock and I have no plans to do a SOA.

 

[Panzer07]

Will that one fit though if you haven't done a SOA? Mine's still stock and I have no plans to do a SOA.

I don't see why it wouldn't, it might require less psi for everyday driving as not to raise the back too much but it would definitely work. I running my bags at 40 psi and smooth ride might thinking on dropping it to 30 if it still allows me to seat at 30" fender to hub...

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[Mb30sdl]

I got Firestone and it works fine.