Air Lift LoadLifter 5000 Air Helper Springs - Rear Axle

Video Transcript for Air Lift LoadLifter 5000 Air Helper Springs Installation - 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Speaker 1: Today on our 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, we're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Airlift LoadLifter 5000 air helper springs for the rear axle. That's going to be part number AL57204.Typically, the reason who you would want airbags is because you're carrying a heavy in your truck bed like this or if you have a heavy load on your trailer. It's going to cause a lot of strain on your suspension and it's going to cause that back end to sag down. Now not only that, but it's going to wear out your brakes faster and potentially, since the back end's dropping down, it's going to bring the front end up which could cause major tire wear or unsafe alignment of your headlights blinding people when you're going down the road.Now the load we have in the back of our bed actually dropped the back end two inches down and it actually raised the front end a half an inch up. Which I can tell you by driving around, I could definitely tell there is a major load in the back and it just didn't really feel as responsive driving around. And it just kind of felt like the front end was floating.

If you've ever driven a big trailer that's been pulling down on you, you know what I'm talking about. It doesn't want to turn when it's supposed to and it just doesn't feel as safe as it should.With our airbags installed, it only took 60 psi to get our truck back to level. Putting the back end right where it should be at factory height, as well as the front making sure that our headlights are aiming in the right direction. So with them on, let's go ahead and take another drive and see how they handle.As I'm driving down the road, I can tell you immediately that it feels more stable and I can still tell there's a load back there, but it seems a lot more secure. The steering seems more responsive.

It doesn't have as much body roll as it did before. Going over bumps it is a lot smoother as well. It's not bottoming out and it's not as harsh. Now that we've taken it on our test course, let's go underneath and see what our airbags look like.So here's what our airbags are going to look like once we have them installed. They're going to sit between our axle and the frame and provide us support whenever we have a heavy load in our truck.

They're going to use air to provide us that support and also give us a comfortable ride. The operating range of our airbags is going to be from five psi all the way up to 100 psi and they're going to give us a load leveling support up to 5000 pounds.Now one thing I do want to mention, it's not going to increase of our payload of our truck. It's just going to provide that extra support, so we're not putting so much strain on our factory suspension. We're going to have an airline coming in, that's going to supply our airbag with some air. That's going to give us that extra support that we have routed along the frame going to the back.We have our inflation valves coming to the back bumper here for easy access.

Here we can apply air with an air chuck individually to each side, giving us support we need even if we have an unlevel load. This is a custom installation kit, made specifically for our Silverado. So it's going to come with all the necessary brackets and hardware in order to get it in place and it's not going to require any kind of drilling or cutting. So now that we've seen what our airbags look like, let's show you how to get them installed.To begin our installation, we're going to start here on the driver's side. If we come just right in front of our shock, right above the axle where the jounce stop is. We'll see that we're going to have our ABS line hooked into a plastic clip that's in the bottom of the frame. We're going to need to pull that out. So grab a flathead screwdriver or a trim panel tool. We're going to go underneath the clip and pop it out of the frame.We're going to need to remove the clip itself from the ABS line and there's a small triangle piece there. If we get a small flathead screwdriver, we can pry it open and it'll open the clip up. Stick the screwdriver in that small triangle so it'll release that clip and since it is under the vehicle, there's a good chance there's a lot of dirt and grime in there. It may make it a little difficult.Once you get the clip open, go ahead and remove it and we're not going to be reinstalling it. Instead we're going to grab one of the small loom clamps. We're going to place it around the spot where the clip was. We're going to leave our ABS wire loose for right now. Now if we move forward into the top of the frame, we're going to have some hard brake lines that has a plastic clip that's holding it in place on the top of the frame. Now we're going to need to remove that plastic clip as well.So we can grab our screwdriver or trim panel tool and we're going to remove the clip that's holding our wiring in place on the frame. So then we can get access to the brake line clip that's right above it. You just want to come underneath and pry up towards the top of the bed to get it out of the frame.Now we're going to want to open this up so that we can remove the clip because we're not going to be using this clip either. So there's going to be a flat section that's open right here. If we take our trim panel tool or our flathead screwdriver, we're going to pry on that. It should open the clip. We can get our brake lines out and the clip out of the way and we're going to be discarding this clip. With those clips out of the way, we are going to do the same thing with our ABS line on the passenger's side. But we're not going to have those hard brake lines on the top of the frame.Now if we come to our rear differential, right in the middle, we're going to have our emergency brake cable attached to a bracket. Now we're going to need to remove this bracket and relocate it. So we're going to grab a 10 millimeter socket and we're going to pull that stud out.Now we're going to hold on to this bolt because we will reinstall it. But we're going to go ahead and pull our emergency brake cable down, just enough so that we can get the bracket removed. Now we are going to have a large loom clamp. We're going to put our emergency brake cable inside of it. You want to make sure that the loom clamp is facing up with the mounting hole on the bottom. So we can go ahead and reinstall that bolt that we removed.You want to double check right here, because we do have some hard brake lines right behind our emergency cable and we don't want them to rub. So we can just kind of take that loom clamp and just slightly bend it forward, so that we have enough clearance back here to where they're not going to touch.Now we are going to have to remove our jounce stop. There is a bolt holding it in place. So you're going to take a 10 millimeter socket and a short extension and feed it into the jounce stop. Then we can remove the bolt that's holding it in place. It may help to get it broke loose by hand, then we can come back with an electric ratchet and take it out faster. Now once you have the bolt removed, we should be able to grab it and pull it out by hand. But if you're having a little bit of trouble, you can get a screwdriver or a pry bar and pop it out of the pocket.So now we're going to grab one of our airbags and one of our turn plates. Now this is going to be the bottom of our airbags. We're only going to have two threaded holes in it. The other side is going to have two recessed threaded holes and then one that's going to stick out just a little bit. So this is going to be the top. So we can take our turn plate and making sure that that flange is going down, so that it kind of sits on there. We're going to line up all three holes. Then we're going to take our air fitting and we're going to loosely thread it in by hand to start with. Until we can't get it threaded in anymore.Once it's hand tight, you're going to want to grab a half inch wrench and we're going to turn and tighten it one and a half more turns. So now we can grab our upper bracket. Now they are labeled, we're going to have a part number and then a letter. Now the letter's going to let you know if it's a left or right. So we're going to have an L for the left one. So you want to make sure you do grab the correct one. Then we'll line up the holes that in our airbag and our fitting should fit right in that slot, pointing away from the bracket.So once we get everything lined up, we're going to take the included flathead screws that are in our kit. We're just going to get them loosely started by hand. We can come back with a 7/32 Allen bit and we're going to tighten up our two screws.So now we're going to come back and we're going to torque them and we'll find the specification in our instructions. So we're going to flip our bag over now and we can attach our lower bracket. We're going to take another one of our turn plates. Again, making sure that flange is sitting on the bag. Then we're going to grab our lower bracket. Now the lower bracket has an arrow on it. You want that arrow to point away from where the air fitting is.So right now the air fitting is pointing away from me so I want that arrow to point towards me with the two ears on the end here facing up. Again we'll just line it up over the turn plate and on top of our bag. And we'll do the same thing with those flathead screws, just loosely get them in hand and then torque them down. So once we have everything in place, our assembly should look like this.So now we can come back to where our frame is and where we pulled out our ABS wire and the clip, we're going to take the included pull wire and we're going to take the coiled end and feed it through up into the frame. And we're going to come right out this large access hole. Now you don't want to pull all the way through, you want to leave a tail sticking out the bottom. Then we're going to take the large flat washer in our kit, slide it over the coiled end. Then we're going to take one of the shorter 3/8 bolts. If you notice there's only a small shoulder on there and we're going to thread it on the end of our coil wire.Then we're going to feed our washer into the frame, followed by our bolt til it's sticking out the bottom of the frame like this. And then we can pull our pull wire off. Now they only give you one pull wire in your kit. So you're going to want to make sure that you don't damage it so we can get the other side in place. It'll help if you kind of hold the bolt with your hand on one side and then unthread the pull wire so we can get it off. Otherwise that bolt's just going to keep spinning along with the pull wire.Now at this point, you're going to want to lift your vehicle by the frame, so that the back axle can hang freely. Now since the style of lift we're using, I'm going to be using a pole jack to actually lift up on the frame, so that I have a little bit more room so that we can get our airbag in place.With our axle hanging down, we can go ahead and loosely install our airbag. You want to make sure that the tab on the top has the single hole going towards the back and that the airline fitting is going towards the center of the truck. So we're going to lift it above the axle. You may need to move the emergency brake cable out of the way. You want to make sure that ABS wire doesn't get crushed in there either. So we're loosely going to put it just right over the axle and kind of have it directly below our jounce stop cup.Now our airbag should line up with the bolt that we had dropped down through the frame. So we're going to push it up towards the frame. So that bolt's going to drop down. We can take our ABS wire with the loom clamp and we're going to slide it over that bolt. Again you want to make sure you don't push that back into the frame. We're going to take a 3/8 flat washer install it over the loom clamp. Then we're going to loosely secure our airbag using a 3/8 lock nut. You just want to get a couple threads on there so it'll hold it in place. Make sure it's not going to fall off.Now on the front side of our airbag, there's going to be two tabs that are going to be on either side of the frame. We're going to take our U bolt and we're going to go around the frame and drop it on either side. Now when you do this, you want to make sure that you go underneath the hard brake lines and you don't crush them when you're putting the bolts over the frame. It may help if you just lift up on those brake lines just slightly. Feed it over sideways just so we can get it over the frame and we can work it til we can rotate it and get it in position.Once you have the U bolt over, we're going to lift up slightly just so that we can get it to go through the holes in our bracket and drop all the way down sitting flat on the frame. Now we're going to secure our U bolt using another 3/8 flat washer and another 3/8 lock nut on each side. Just want to get those started by hand, again just to make sure that that bracket is going to be nice and secure and it isn't going to move on us.So I'm going to grab a 9/16 socket and I'm going to snug up my hardware just until my bracket touches the bottom of the frame. You're going to want to go back and forth alternating tightening each side of the bolt so it tightens down evenly. With our U bolts tight on the other side, we're going to come to the rear mounting spot and we're going to need to tighten up this nut.Now since it is a bolt on the inside of the frame we're going to have to hold it. The easiest way to do that is if we grab a quarter inch ratchet with a deep 9/16 socket, we're going to have an access hole in the inside of the frame as well as on the outside of the frame. And we're going to use the ratchet to reach in so we can hold that bolt.It may help to reach in from either side just to kind of guide the socket so you can see and feel what you're doing. Then we're going to grab another 9/16 socket and tighten up the nut. At this point, we're going to need to raise our axle up so that the bottom bracket here is just touching the top of the axle. You can use a jack to raise the axle up. If your frame is on jack stands or in our case, we're going to be lowering the frame down so that it can make contact.At this point, you don't want all the weight of the vehicle back on the axle. You just want it to barely make contact to where it's still a little loose. So now we can grab one of our lower brackets here. It's going to have a small little tab here and a larger one. The small tab is going to feed underneath the perch right here where it kind of hooks on and grabs. And that top tab we want to make sure that it's on the inside of our bracket and it's not overlapping.We can take a 3/8 bolt. Now this one's going to be a quite a bit longer with a longer shoulder on it. We're going to pass a 3/8 flat washer through going through the bottom of our bracket and coming out through the top. We're going to put another flat washer on and then follow it up with a 3/8 lock nut. Now we're going to do the same thing for the back side of our airbag bracket. Now it is loose, so it's going to move on you. But before we tighten it up, we just want to make sure that that tab is underneath. I'm going to be using a 9/16 socket and wrench and I'm just going to snug up my hardware just enough so that it's touching and it's not going to be sliding around anymore.We're going to do that for both sides, so that our brackets will be nice and snug and they won't be moving on us. With our brackets snug, we're going to try to get our lower bracket here as close to center on the axle as we can. And then we can fully tighten these brackets up.Then I'm going to come back with a torque wrench and I'm going to torque all my bolts down to the appropriate mount that we find in the instructions. So with our driver's side in place, we're going to go and repeat that same process for the passenger side.Our next step is going to be finding a location to mount our inflation valve so we can run our airlines to our bags. If we come to the back bumper right by where our spare tire plug access port is right here, we're going to mount ours right below that in this area in the bumper. Now this is plastic here but behind it there is a lot of metal. We're going to come from the back side to find a good spot so we can mount them.So on the back here, behind the bumper where our spare tire access point is, we'll notice that there is a metal bracket. But there is a square piece that's just plastic. We're going to use that point to go through so we can mount our inflation valves. So I'm going to mark a couple spots of where we're going to put it. Put one over towards the edge on one side and then one towards the edge on the other side.So we're going to want to grab a 5/16 drill and we're going to drill two holes so we can mount our inflation valves. So we can grab our air hose, now both inflation valves are going to be on one large piece of hose. But we're only going to start with one for right now. So we're going to want to take the small nut and we're going to thread it pretty much all the way on to our inflation valve so it goes all the way to the back.Once we have that in place, we're going to take the star washer. We're going to slide it over so it's backed right against that nut. Then we're going to reach from the back side and feed our inflation valve through. Now we're going to start on the passenger side but you can do either one. Then we're going to take a rubber washer, slide it over the valve that's just to keep it in place. I'm going to take a flat washer going over the rubber washer and then finally we'll secure it down with a nut. Now for right now we're just going to leave this hand tight. So it's secure and it's not moving on us.Now with our airline coming out the back, we're going to want to route this over towards our airbag. The only thing you really want to watch out for is the exhaust here, you want to stay away as far as you can from the exhaust or any other moving components that may damage the line. So I'm going to go over my bed support over the cross members. I'm actually going to go behind this heat shield on top of the frame here. We just find the end of our airline making it a little bit easier to feed it over a small piece at a time and puling the excess over.We can just take some of the included zip ties and tie it up, so that it'll stay away from our exhaust over here. Now once we have it routed over there, I'm actually going to put a small loop in towards the back. And that's just in case we ever need to make any repairs or if we need to modify anything later on down the road. We'll have an extra piece of line here so we can make those changes. I'm just going to take some zip ties and secure my airline up and out of the way. So I don't have to worry about it when I'm driving down the road. And we'll continue to zip tie our airline tube, so that it'll be tucked out of the way and protected from anything underneath our vehicle.So now we're going to take our airline and we're going to estimate about how much we need so that we can plug it into the fitting here. So you want to leave yourself a little bit of room for flexibility, but not too much to where it's going to be in the way of anything. So right about here would be a good spot that we could cut it. You're going to want to use tubing cutters because you're going to want to nice flush cut. You want to make sure it's nice and straight.Since we are rather close to the exhaust, I'm going to take the included heat shield in the kit. I'm going to slide it over my air hose. I'm going to feed it up until it's close to where the exhaust is going to be by the air hose. Now we routed ours above the heat shield. But this is just going to give it extra protection ensuring that nothing's going to cause any damage. We can take the end of our airline tub and we're going to push it in and we'll feel a little bit of resistance and it'll stop. Then we're going to make sure we push it in the rest of the way until it bottoms out.Now we can take a zip tie and we can tie the excess airline to our U bolt at the top of the frame. That'll just keep our airline nice and tight against the frame and up above the heat shield so we don't have to worry about it getting too close to the exhaust.Now I went ahead and zip tied my ABS wire on each side. So that it's close to the bracket to zip tie it to that upper bracket. So it still has a little bit of room to flex but it's not going to be sitting there rubbing against the outside of a leaf spring. And you may find it necessary to move the emergency brake cable a little bit so that it's not hitting the bag and you don't want it to get caught on there or anything. So you could zip tie it to the upper bracket as well.Again just make sure your airlines aren't going to rub on anything and zip tie them out of the way so that they'll be secure and they're not going to get damaged. So with all of our lines ran, I'm going to take a half inch socket and I'm going to snug up my inflation valves. Now you don't want to over tighten these. You just want to get them nice and snug because really all this is doing is holding the pressure that we're going to be putting on it when we go to inflate them.So now we're going to go and fill our bags up somewhere between 30 and 50 psi. That way we can check for air leaks. Now I'm going to take some soapy water, I'm going to spray all my connections down the back of the inflation valves and everywhere else our airlines are going in. Now what we're looking for is some bubbles. Now the small bubbles from the soap is okay, just because that's going to happen naturally. But what we're looking for is smaller bubbles that keep expanding or more bubbles that keep coming up. That's going to let us know that there's an air leak somewhere. So continue to spray all of our connection points looking for those bubbles.Now you want to check where the airline goes in the fitting as well as where the fitting goes into the bag, because that could have a possible leak if we didn't get tighten down enough. And finally we're going to check our inflation valves on the back side to make sure that the straighter valve on the inside is nice and tight. So I haven't found any bubbles spraying down the entire system, so we don't have any leaks.Finally, we can put the caps over our inflation valves to keep any kind of dirt or debris out of them. That'll finish up your look at the Airlift LoadLifter 5000 air helper springs for the rear axle, part number AL57204 on our 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500.