Maintenance on Air Lift System

[homeguy]

I had my a Dodge dealer order and install for me. That way I was covered under their warranty and I didn't have to do anything but write a check, that was work enough!

 

[lwgrubbs]

I had a 5th Airborne pinbox installed on my Montana at Camping World, to be followed by installation of a dome satellite antenna. I walked out of the store and saw one guy holding the pin box with a forktruck and two guys beating it into place with a sledge hammer. I cancelled any future installs.

Camping world installs are a thing of the past for me at any cost

Funny, I was imagining how difficult it would be to install the Trail-Air on a Redwood. Guessing that hitch weighs at least 100 lbs.

 

[dave and ginny]

Iwg, I installed mine with the help of one of my sons. It takes a strong impact wrench and a piece of re-bar to help with the holes. A tapered bar like what the iron workers use would be better.

#1 loosen the bolts with the trailer hooked up to the truck and then remove all of them (you'll also need a wrench to hold the nuts on the inside of the pin box, sorry I don't remember the size but I think it was a 21 mm)

#2 remove the wires that are attached to the pin box(mine had the electrical box and emergency brake switch. I noticed on the newer trailers, they've moved the box so it isn't mounted on the pin box)

#3 pull the truck out from under the Redwood after removing all the pressure by using the front jacks (it's much easier if you're on level side to side to begin with)

#4 Remove the old pin box from the hitch and then latch the new pin box into the hitch.

#5 With the new pin box in the hitch, back the truck back under the trailer and line up the holes (this is the hardest part). Aline each hole and put the bolts in one at a time (finger tight). I found using the re-bar was necessary. After all the bolts are in, tighten them up and remount the wires.

This ended up in many ways easier than what I had expected and I believe it took only a couple of hours. Someone could probably do it much faster.

 

[atom ant]

Dave,
Did you ad yours after purchase?

 

[dave and ginny]

Yes, as i had posted above I did add mine after purchase....

I would urge another option. I'm not completely thrilled with the Tri-glide. I wish I would have looked at the air ride hitch (Hensley) instead. "Under Pressure" has one and I believe a few others on here as well. I'm glad I kept my old pin box so if I ever found a good deal on a Hensley hitch I can put the original pin box back on.

You can't have a tri-glide on a air ride hitch.

 

[atom ant]

Yes, as i had posted above I did add mine after purchase....

Ya I that was a dumb question wasn't it.


I guess I always thought your came with it. I believe you talked us into our tri-glide on our order. I'm real happy with it. Given I just hustled my Reese hitch into the truck to test it for clearance under a bed cover, I'm kind of glad its something I can lift. Hensley are nice but they are Heavy dudes.

 

[dave and ginny]

An update of the air lift system......

As I had posted earlier, I was having problems with the air ride on the truck that is the same basic "Air Lift" system that many of you have for helping level your trucks and eliminate the "chucking". I've been on the phone with "Kelderman" the air suspension company that installed my air ride and the "Air Lift" company that make the components. It turns out that the reason why this system starts failing after about a year was due to the way that it was installed. The manifold (which I was mistakenly calling the modual) has to be mounted HIGHER than the compressor. Otherwise the manifold collects moisture.

"Air Lift" also said it's a good idea to put a water separator between the compressor and the manifold.

To the credit of "Kelderman", they are standing behind their work and rushing the new parts out to me so this problem can be finally resolved.

 

[atom ant]

That's cool!

My Air-Lift 5000 system had notation the wireless module had to be higher than the compressor and bags.