air lift 1000 air bags and other ?'s

[mikeysentra]

I just ordered the air lift 1000 helper springs for my 97 pathy. Has anyone ever installed these? I tow my Miata to various autocrosses in the northwest and I am sick of the truck riding on the bumb stops and am not ready for a lift or other springs as its not in the budget. anybody have any experience with these? with trailer and the miata I am pulling about 3300 lbs, evenly distributed and it is disgusting how the rear sags with any bit of weight on it.

 

Is there anything I need to watch for with any towing? I have the factory trans cooler and the pathy has about 150,000 miles on it. it has never gone over 30k miles on trans flush and filters, and the front and rear diff are recently drained and filled with redline and the t-case has redline trans fluid. what else should I do for extended tows? It may see a trip to Omaha Nebraska for SCCA SOLO Nationals in september and I want things to be reliable.

 

Thanks and any info would be helpful.

[XPLORx4]

I just ordered the air lift 1000 helper springs for my 97 pathy. Has anyone ever installed these? I tow my Miata to various autocrosses in the northwest and I am sick of the truck riding on the bumb stops and am not ready for a lift or other springs as its not in the budget. anybody have any experience with these? with trailer and the miata I am pulling about 3300 lbs, evenly distributed and it is disgusting how the rear sags with any bit of weight on it.

 

Is there anything I need to watch for with any towing? I have the factory trans cooler and the pathy has about 150,000 miles on it. it has never gone over 30k miles on trans flush and filters, and the front and rear diff are recently drained and filled with redline and the t-case has redline trans fluid. what else should I do for extended tows? It may see a trip to Omaha Nebraska for SCCA SOLO Nationals in september and I want things to be reliable.

 

Thanks and any info would be helpful.

 

 

Before I lifted my Pathfinder, I installed the Airlift springs you got for the purpose of supporting the rear end when I towed my boat. They worked really well. I even got the in-cab air compressor to inflate them on the fly, although you can inflate them easily with the included Schraeder valve (standard tire inflation valve). I installed the valve in the left rear wheel well on the panhard rod mount's angled brace, which is very easy to reach.

 

As part of this suspension upgrade, I recommend you also pick up a pair of adjustable rear shocks, such as Rancho RS9000XL adjustable shocks, part number 99116. By setting them firmer, you can reduce rear end bouncing while towing. And when not towing, you can put them back to that nice plush ride you're familiar with.

 

Finally, when you install the bags, do two things.

First, use the CORRECTLY SIZED drill bit (I think it's 3/4") to widen the hole on the bottom spring perch, so that the air lines to each bag do not get crimped. Crimped air lines will eventually fail to hold air.

Second, you will replace the factory bump stops with your new air bags. There's not enough room in the factory spring to have both the bump stop and the airbag there simultaneously. Do not discard the bump stops (if they are still in good shape) because if you decide to remove the airbags later, you'll need those bumpstops back.