To see if this custom-fit item will work for you please tell us what vehicle you'll use it with.
5,000-lb Capacity. Designed to upgrade your rear suspension, LoadLifter 5000 air springs provide high-quality, full-time load support. They level your Forest River Lexington Motorhome, improving braking and ride comfort and reducing the strain on your factory suspension.
Features:
Specs:
Air Lift's LoadLifter 5000 was designed with an exact purpose: to provide full-time, first-class support to your 3/4- or 1-ton pickup, motor home, or commercial truck. With this kit, you get a safer ride and simultaneously protect your vehicle from the strain that comes with hauling massive loads.
Carrying heavy cargo in your truck bed or trailer puts tremendous stress on your vehicle. Your brakes erode faster, your tires wear unevenly, and handling suffers severely. When towing, you might also experience excessive sway, bottoming out, and even improper and unsafe headlight aim. Fortunately, there is a solution to these problems. By pairing your existing suspension with the LoadLifter 5000, you can seriously beef up your suspension, ensure equal load distribution, and give your vehicle the support it desperately needs. Air Lift's LoadLifter 5000 provides up to 5,000 pounds of load-leveling capacity and distributes the weight of your payload to all four wheels. As a result, the stress on your OEM suspension is significantly reduced.
LoadLifter's air bags are adjustable from 5 to 100 psi for precise support, and they can be inflated independently of one another for front-to-rear and side-to-side leveling. They are made of high-quality, two-ply, fabric-reinforced rubber. Most air bags lose air at the ends, where the bag is enclosed with a steel cap, because the steel can rust and corrode over time, creating small holes. The endcaps on Air Lift air bags are fashioned from corrosion-proof Zytel nylon, a material that is both stronger and lighter than steel, ensuring that the air bags won't lose air. Also, LoadLifter 5000 comes with Air Lift's exclusive roll plates, which both protect your air springs and beef up the load capacity of the springs.
This system installs with the included brackets and hardware. Just mount the springs, inflate them, and ride. To inflate the LoadLifter springs, you just have to pump air in through the inflation valves. A line kit is included with the springs so that you can install the valves (one for each spring) in an easily accessible area - typically they are installed on the bumper. If you want to make the springs even easier to use, you can get a compressor and gauge system (sold separately).
Air Lift kits are designed to keep your vehicle at normal ride height. You can find the normal ride height of your vehicle by unloading it and measuring the distance between the bottom edge of your wheel well and the center of the hub. After you find and record this distance, you can regulate the amount of air that you put into your air springs to maintain normal ride height - even when you are hauling a heavy load. You will need to adjust the air pressure in your air bags according to the size of your load.
Along with a lifetime warranty that has no mileage restrictions, Air Lift offers a 60-day satisfaction guarantee. Just install and use LoadLifter 5000 springs for 60 days, and if you are not satisfied at the end of this time, you can remove them from your vehicle and return them for a full product refund. Now that's confidence.
California residents: click here
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
We're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install Air-Lifts LoadLifter 5,000 Air Helper Springs. Before you install your airbags, you want to make sure you take a measurement of your factory ride height because this is ideally where we want our vehicle to be at all times. So here at the back we are at about 43 inches. And then we are going to go check our front. And on the front we're measuring about 39 and three quarter inches.We've now got about a thousand pounds of water here that we're going to place in the back of our truck and we're going to see how our factory suspension handles it. So we are going to put this in here now and we'll see where we're at.
And now with all this weight in the back of our vehicle, we've dropped down to 41 and a half inches. So an inch and a half less with all this weight in the back than where we we're at before. Now I guarantee you when we go to the front, the front's also going to be lifted up. So what this does is it causes the tires at the front, the geometry of the suspension is going to change, which is going to cause you to have less tire road contact. So you're going to have decreased performance there.It's also going to affect your braking performance because of the less surface area you have on your tire contact to the road as well.
And your headlights are also going to be aimed up towards the sky. And sure enough, when we come here to check the front, we're a half an inch higher. And while that may not seem like much, a half an inch on your headlights, because the further the distance they go out, the further they're going to be up, it's actually quite substantial. And you'd be surprised how much of your visibility you lose at night when you've got the front end just a little bit higher.We've now got our airbags installed and I've placed the weight in the back of our truck once again. I've aired the bags up, let's recheck our ride height.
And with our airbags installed now, we're sitting just under 43 inches. So we're basically right back to that factory ride height. We're less than a 16th of an inch from where we're supposed to be. And in the front, we're going to recheck as well. We're right back to where we started at 39 and three quarter inches, which means our headlights are going to be pointing at the correct direction.
And the geometry over suspension is going to be correct, giving us the best contact between the road and our tires so we can ensure that we're going to have optimal handling and braking performance, regardless of what we're hauling behind us.We've now loaded up our vehicle with about a thousand pounds worth of water weight. We're going to take it out on our test course and we're going to see how it handles. So we're going to come into our uneven bumps section first. And you feel how it's thrown aside, aside a little bit. It does kind of not want to spring back as quick as I'd like it to because you can see it's really kind of thrown us around a little bit here. We're now coming into the normal bump section where it's kind of like simulating a speed bump in a parking lot. And every time we go over in the back, you can really feel it dip back down pretty heavy.Now we're going to go over to our slalom. We're going to see how it affects us in some evasive maneuvers. Oh boy, yeah, and I don't want to do it too much here. You can feel the weight, how it wants to side us to. One side almost wants to lean as we turn.So in the bump sections, it didn't feel too bad. The suspension on this truck's pretty stiff. But there in the slalom, it gets a little sketchy when you really have an invasive maneuver. It kind of wants to roll the body pretty hard. So let's get back in and get the airbags on and then we'll have to test course again and see where we're at.We've got our airbags installed. Now, we're going to head back out on the test course. We've loaded up from the back of the vehicle again with our thousand pounds of water weight and we're going to go into our uneven bumps section first. And I can already tell that with the bags installed here, the suspension does feel much different. It's not an uncomfortable amount of stiffness, but it is definitely noticeable. I can tell that on our own even bumps here, that we don't have as much rocking back and forth coming off of each bump. It returns to a straightness much faster, but it is just a little bit stiffer.So now we're going to go into the straight bumps, which is kind of like your speed bumps you'd have in an apartment complex. And the front feels nice and soft like it did before and in the back, I can definitely tell it is stiffer than it was before. The stiffness is a little bit uncomfortable, but it does keep our vehicle right where we need to be much faster. We don't have as much bouncing up and down in the back.Let's head over to our slalom now where I expect we're going to have drastic increase in performance. And now in our slalom, we're going to start turning. And oh yeah, this is really where you're going to notice this. We've got a thousand pounds back there and I don't feel like I'm being thrown around at all. It's still noticeable you're hauling that weight when you go over the bumps due to how the airbags are stiff and you do feel that weight going up and down. But man, in an evasive maneuver situation, I would feel so much more comfortable driving now than I did before.So in the end of our test scores driving with no air bags versus with airbags loaded up with a thousand comes of water, my overall feeling of the system is that it's going to be fantastic if safety is what your biggest concern is. Over on the slalom, I had much more confidence in the control I had in the vehicle. I just felt like I could take those turns and the weight in the back wasn't slinging me around. I just really felt like we had a good grip on the road.Now, when we came into our bumps section there with the airbags installed, it did seem a bit stiffer. It was not as comfortable as a ride as it was with no air bags. But to me we're going over a big bumpy course here. We've got all these set up in a row. Out on the road, you're going to hit the occasional pothole. It's one little minor dip of uncomfort is definitely worth it to me and my opinion on how much safer I feel, especially in those evasive maneuvers.Now, there are other suspension enhancement systems out there such as Timbrens which also replaced your jounce bumper. They're just a larger hard rubber that is somewhat similar to your jounce bumper but has better properties as it's designed to squish and act with your suspension system to work with it. What's nice about the Timbrens is that there's no maintenance. You never have to worry about air, checking them, because with your airbags here, they do fluctuate slightly with temperature, as temperature goes down, pressure is going to go down slightly. As it goes up, it'll go up slightly. You don't have to worry about any of that with Timbrens. They're never going to leak. But what I will say is they do have quite a bit rougher ride in comparison with airbags. And your airbags can be stiff if you air them up to a high PSI levels, but you often don't need to go above 40 pounds for most loads and at your lower levels, it's going to be much smoother of a ride than a Timbrens system.So you can look at it this way, with the Timbrens, they're going to be working regardless if you have a load in the vehicle or not. If you have a load though, the Timbrens are going to be compressing to help support the load. If you have no load, then the Timbrens aren't going to compress as much. So any impacts that you hit on the road are going to travel through those into the cab of the vehicle and you're going to feel it more.Whereas with our airbags here, since we can't adjust it, we only get the increased stiffness on our airbags when we've got it loaded down real high with a lot of air in our bags. We all load our truck, remove the air bag down to the minimum of five PSI and it feels like a factory truck again.And this is what our airbags look like when they're installed. They replace your factory jounce bumpers and install between your rear axle and your frame. The airbags are adjustable between five and 100 PSI and offer up to a 5,000 pound load carrying capacity. Each one can be aired up individually, left and right, so you can also adjust for offset loads.It's a double convoluted design, but you can see here we've got the lower and upper chambers there where our air goes. And this helps increase the burst pressure of the bag by increasing it's durability. You also see roll plates on the top and bottom and this will help offset for body roll and support the airbag to further increase the durability of the airbag.One of the nice things about airbags is that they have constant contact between your frame and your axle, unlike your factory jounce bumper, which hangs down, but it has a gap between the axle. So with your factory John's bumper, you get no support until your suspension is bottomed out. Where our airbag here is going to get support throughout its entire length of travel. It's also going to be adjustable. It seems like your vehicle's soft, you can stiffen it up a little bit to help keep it from bouncing too much. And if you overinflated it, you can always get a little bit of air pressure out to help soften the writeup too if you've made it too stiff.You'll inflate your airbags using the manual inflation valves in the back. You'll have one for the left and one for the right. If you desire, you can purchase a tee here @eachtrailer.com and route these lines together to a single fitting so you can air on bolt up simultaneously. This is more convenient and a lot faster faring up your airbags, but you do lose the side to side leveling support.And that completes our look at of Air-Lift LoadLifter 5,000 air helper Springs.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (1010 Customer Reviews)
5,000-lb Capacity. Designed to upgrade your rear suspension, LoadLifter 5000 air springs provide high-quality, full-time load support. They level your vehicle, improving braking and ride comfort and reducing the strain on your factory suspension.Air Lift air springs are good and dependable, use them for the last 25 years on three pick-ups always worked great. My complaint would be against the lousy packaging which came with two or three holes and all messed up, luckily all that was missing was one washer.
Installation of the Loadlifter 5000 kit went smoothly, no issues at all. One of the best advantages of having this system on my F-150 is the stabilization it provides when towing our camper. I tow a 6,000 lb camper with an 800 lb hitch weight. I use a weight distribution hitch so the truck and camper ride level, as they should. The difference with the Loadlifter system is that it controls the bounce, providing a much more stable and controlled ride. I highly recommend this air spring kit in conjunction with a weight distribution hitch. When you don't need to added support of the air springs, ie no load, just drop the air pressure down to 5 lbs and you don't know they are there.
just getting done putting my 5000 Justable air springs put them on about three hours I didn’t have any left I did them on the ground so that’s not too bad I’m gonna be sending some pictures along with us so thanks very much and I hope they work
I was really happy with etrailer and would highly recommend them and have to many people this past year. My motor home needed these air bags and I called the manufacturer and gave them my vin number which has always been what was needed for anything I have had the purchase with any of my vehicles. But the person that I delt with said he needed the frame number I said where do I find that and he said I would have to call the manufacturer of the motor home.So I called Newmar and they said to call ford I called ford and never got a call back . I called etrailer and gave them the vin number and two days later I had the parts and installed them the next day . Thank you for having people that know what they are talking about and making my experience a good one .
I installed these air lift bags in a day. It was a lot longer than I thought, but it was in the middle of winter in an unheated shop and only basic hand tools. No hoist, so there were a lot of up and down trips with a creeper. Very good installation manual which made the process easy. Very happy with the purchase.
It was exactly as described and advertised. Works perfectly on my 2019 Ford F150. It took me longer than expected to install because of the fridge was just filled by my perfect wife who knew I was going to be installing the kit. The kit helps me with towing my travel trailer. My truck looks great jacked up rolling around town but I took it back down to the recommended 5lbs.
I installed these on a 2004 Ram 2500. I have towed an 11k fifth wheel approximately 10,000 miles with them and couldn’t be happier. The hardest part was figuring out where to put the airlines. I decided to run them through the existing frame holes and drill out the top license plate screws to give them a stealthy look with easy access to fill. Install didn’t take more than 2 hours with air tools.
I have a 2019 Nissan Titan XD with the 5.6 GAS motor. Wanted to do an Airlift suspension to provide a little support and get my headlights perfectly back to level when towing my travel trailer. No one makes an airbag kit for the gas XD, but after discussing it some with John H at etrailer, I decided to go with the kit for the diesel truck and see how things went.
The kit for the diesel truck fit perfectly, except that there is an emissions component hung from a bracket on the driver's sign frame that prevents a direct install of the driver's side bag. My shop was able to install the kit with no trouble - they just had to bend the bracket with the small emissions component attached upwards for clearance. Everything else went in as designed. Great fit - can't wait to see it work under load.
The hitch and box arrived in exceiient conditon. I have yet to take the rig for a good test drive. I took it for a short drive but need more time with ot to fully appreciate its capabilities. The installation was a breeze. Fitment was perfect.
Installed thes a year ago. I use them to pull my 35 foot fifth wheel camper. They are fantastic I recently added the wireless remote air compressor kit. I really love that!
The product was exactly as advertised. The installation instructions and video were easy to follow.
I FIT THESE ON A NISSAN NV 3500. IT TOOK SOME WELDING ( THERE IS NOT A MODEL FOR THESE BUT MY MECHANIC KNEW HE COULD MAKE IT FIT). THEY ARE GREAT!! YOU CANT OVER LOAD THE TRUCK I KEEP IT AT 70 PSI. I ALSO FITTED AN ELECTRIC COMPRESSOR AND AN ADJUSTABLE 1/4 INCH REGULATOR AND DONT NEED ANY ADJUSTMENT.
We just installed this last night on our truck. The instructions are easy to fallow. We will get our new 5th wheel next weekend so we will see then if they hold up. We love etrailer.com excellent customer service and fast shipping. Chris W thank you so much for taking care of our order so quick!!! We are working so hard on getting everything installed before we get our new 5th wheel!!! Your Amazing!!
First, looking at the website was pretty easy to navigate. Ordered product and confirmed delivery email sent that evening. Received two days later. Box a little damaged, but that was on FEDEX. However everything inside in tact and instructions were simple to follow.
The product, I wish I would have gotten these years ago. Makes the unloaded ride much better and not so “horse bucking” that I was used to. I usually loaded the back with 150 lbs of sand. No longer, rides smooth. Haven’t had a loaded test yet but looking forward to it.
Excellent. Air Bag kit came in 2 days. Installed today on a 2022 Ford F150 Platinum 4X4 with rear axle mounted headlight leveling arm. Installed in a couple hours. Looks great and works excellent!
Kit is well designed... However; Its a Premium priced kit with cheap hardware, steel nuts and bolts used instead of stainless - they will rust quickly, air fittings are cheap and air hose is obviously the cheapest they could find - very inconsistent in diameter and doesn't seal well in the fittings.
The air bags fit perfectly and the directions were easy to follow. I am genuinely impressed with the customer service. I called with a concern for the shipping, and had great assistance from the representatives I spoke with. Well done, and thank you.
Air Lift Loadmaster kit was fairly easy to install and definitely made a difference! It did take roughly 4-5 hours by myself but that includes prep, ABS and emergency brake relocation, Schrader valve installation and leak check. My only advice would be to give tech tips like a 10mm deepwell socket to remove the jounce bumper on late model Chevrolets/GMC's. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure that one out alone! So far I'm really impressed with the outcome! Thanks!
This is my second truck I've installed the airlift system on. The installation went smooth, just like before; after watching the installation video it took maybe a couple hours. I had them aired up and hitched the truck to the fifth wheel, and it made a big difference with leveling the hitch load. I'm very pleased with them.
It seems like the design was not re-engineered for the current (2023) model ford f150. The directions for brackets for brake lines and wire harness are not the same as in the instructions. Also the I bolt on the drivers side does not clear the brake line. I had to disconnect the brake line all along the groans to make it fit. Now the brake lines are not mounted the way they’re supposed to be. I hope I don’t have a problem with that.
This whole system was a Rube Goldberg special, engineered and installed by myself (a retired old DIY geezer). Use it for load assist when I put our Cab-over camper(3000#) on or haul any other heavy load. The Air Bags do the job and the installation instructions were pretty good (better than most). My only complaint is that the system doesn't hold the pressure over night. That is probably a feature of the plumbing and fittings; could be the ones on the top of the bags or another back up the line to the tank & compressor.
Overall I'm pleased with your product and service and that's why when I'm in need I deal with Etrailer.
The load lifter installation went fairly easy. Using an oscillating cutter worked well for cutting the bracket on the driver's side. I would recommend watching the video so you can relate with the instructions. The load lifter itself is working as advertised. My trailer pulls much better now.
Very happy with the load lifter! My truck/camper combination is now level and rides better. No more bottoming out on the big dips on the interstate highway. My son and I installed it ourselves and it was fairly easy.
Etrailer.com is one of the best businesses I've ever worked with. Every time I order from them, the order is correct and the shipping is fast. They actually have real people that answer the phone if you call them. Thank you and keep doing such great work.
Pulling a fifth wheel RV trailer, and a gooseneck trailer on the farm, the airlift bags, along with the onboard compressor has made pulling either trailer safer due to the leveling ability this kit allows.
Customer service from etrailer was great with making sure I received the exact kit for my truck.
Five stars for sure!
Do you have a question about this Vehicle Suspension?
Info for this part was:
At etrailer.com we provide the best information available about the products we sell. We take the quality of our information seriously so that you can get the right part the first time. Let us know if anything is missing or if you have any questions.
Thank you! Your comment has been submitted successfully. You should be able to view your question/comment here within a few days.
Error submitting comment. Please try again momentarily.