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Full transcript: www.etrailer.com/tv-install-a...
Hey, guys. It's Jake here with etrailer. Today, we have a 2023 GMC 3500. And we're gonna be taking a look at, and I'm gonna show you how to install the Air Lift LoadLifter 5000 air bags. Adding a set of air bags is gonna help you to haul loads much more comfortably. The suspensions on a lot of the trucks out there in the market tend to be a little bit more on the soft side, especially if you get a Denali like we have here.
They soften the suspension so that it's a more comfortable ride when you're not hauling a load. But when you're hauling a load, you lose a lot of that stability because if your suspension is softer, then you're not gonna have as stiff a suspension to carry the loads that we have. So what we've done here is we've installed a set of air bags, so that it can help support some of that rear end when you get a lot of sag. There are gonna be other options out there on the market. And the biggest difference between air bags and all of those other options is that air bags you can adjust on the fly.
An onboard air compressor is really gonna help you to do that on the fly. But stopping at a gas station or if you carry, a lot of people just use a bike pump to adjust the air pressure in their air bags. But if you get a set of SumoSprings or Timbrens, they're gonna have the same stiffness all the time, and they're not gonna engage until your suspension is at least compressed 50%. Still sooner than your factory jounce bumpers. And then, if you get a system like the Roadmaster active suspension, you're gonna have to have a tool to adjust it, and you're not supposed to adjust it when it's under a load.
So there's options out there for suspension enhancements. Air bags are just going to be the most flexible to be able to support the loads of many different items. The owner of this vehicle has a fifth wheel camper that has a tremendous amount of pin weight, and that's exactly what he's using it for. So he's trying to get the rear end of his truck back up, closer to level. It's good to have a little bit of sag, but you don't want nearly as much as he's having.
As far as the installation goes, this kit is going to be designed to fit the 23, 2500, and 3500s, and the brackets are gonna be custom fit. There's no drilling or cutting required to get these installed. Some people like to put their inflation valves in the plastic of their bumper. I just don't like drilling into the plastic. In case you ever decide to take 'em off, then you have an open hole there. So I like to make a bracket so that if you ever decide to take 'em off, it's as if they we're never there. But they shouldn't take you too long to get installed, maybe a couple hours, three or four hours. You can easily get these done in one day. But with that being said, let's go ahead and take the truck inside and show you how we did it. First couple things we need to do for installation is we like to lower the spare tire to give ourselves some more room to be able to work under here. And then, also, we're going to have to relax the suspension or take some of the weight off the suspension. So you can do this with a floor jack and you put it right up underneath your hitch and lift up. And essentially, we're just creating more space between the bottom of the bed of our truck and our axle. This is gonna help us to be able to get the air bags in place. (machine whining) When doing this, you wanna make sure that your front wheels, you have wheel chocks on. And when you're lifting, you don't lift the back wheels off the ground. (machine whining continues) Next, we're gonna take out our factory jounce bumpers. You can use either a large flathead screwdriver or a pry tool like we're using. Stick it up next to it, and you can twist. Usually, just twist it right out. We'll set this to the side 'cause we will not be reusing them. (object clinks) We'll also need to move these brake line brackets just temporarily. You're gonna have one on the driver side and one on the passenger. (tool rattling) We'll use a 13-millimeter socket in order to do that. We'll also need to detach from either side of the vehicle this wire loom holder. It's gonna be up inside this hole. Just take a pair of needle-nose pliers, pinch that tab on this side and on the other, and pull straight down. Next thing we're gonna do is assemble our air bags, and then we can put 'em up in place. We'll start with a plate on top of our air bag. You wanna start with the side with the valve on it. And then, we'll take one of our valves and thread it into place. (valve clinks) And we'll start it hand tight. Th
10 июл 2023
