1 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 1
Although the box delivered to our door looked like it had lost a fight to a forklift, everything was well wrapped and survived just fine. The Continental brand air bags are of the same design used in long haul trucks and all included hardware is DOT compliant for highway use.
2 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 2
The rear adjustable anti-sway bar included new polyurethane bushings and hardware.
3 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 3
Before any wrenches are turned, a couple of key measurements need to be taken. Here is our unloaded ride height, when finished our truck will ride 2.5 cm (1-in.) lower in the rear at all times.
4 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 4
To remove the rear coils, you need to disconnect the shocks. We pulled the anti-sway bar as well for extra room.
5 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 5
The old coils look much taller than the air bags and brackets, but the bag in this picture is almost at ride height.
6 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 6
Assembly can now commence. Upper brackets are installed first.
7 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 7
Pay close attention to the orientation of the airline fittings and hardware location.
8 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 8
A small relief grind was needed to get the mounting bracket to sit squarely on the old coil bucket.
9 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 9
Bolt the bags in top and bottom and torque all hardware to spec.
10 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 10
The self-adjusting valve is dry assembled and locked in the “neutral” position with a small drill bit.
11 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 11
The placement of the valve is critical; you don’t want the lever arm to make contact with the bottom of the bed, or be strained if the suspension droops out.
12 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 12
A thick layer of powder coating is on everything. That is great for keeping parts from rusting, but try and run a tap through any threaded holes before assembly.
13 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 13
We cheated and added an extra air chuck in case we need compressed air for anything.
14 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 14
The mounting brackets were a perfect fit and the rubber mounting grommets of the Viair compressor keep the vibration to a minimum.
15 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 15
Now that the compressor is in, time to run the airlines. No special tools are required, and there is plenty of extra line included in the kit. This fabric sheathing was included for routing around any sharp edges.
16 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 16
Wiring simply consists of a constant 12V source, a switched 12V, and the ground. We stole the switched power from the rear heated seats fuse, which we don’t have.
17 of 17
Bryan Irons photos
Hellwig Air Ride - 17
The last thing we installed was the anti-sway bar. The flimsy, hollow factory unit could be bent by hand, the Hellwig unit has some beef to it.
Story & photos by Bryan Irons
You may not be used to reading terms like “layin’ frame”, or “tail dragger” from the pages of 4WDrive to describe an air bag suspension. And we’re not going to start. The 2012 Ram 1500 we have for daily driver duty has a nice supple coil sprung rear suspension that rides beautifully when empty, but begins to squirm and get pushed around when hauling a heavy load or pulling a trailer. To try and keep from experiencing another white-knuckle ride, we tried out Hellwig’s Powerlift Air Spring kit.
The complete 6299 kit included air bags and brackets to replace the factory rear coils, airlines and fittings, auto leveling valve, and a Viair compressor and tank unit. The best part is that once installed, there are no switches, no adjustments, no fiddling with regulators. The system automatically adjusts the volume and pressure in the bags to keep the rear suspension in its ideal location for proper suspension geometry. This means a smooth ride down the road when loaded to the gills, or an empty trip to work.
We also picked up Hellwig’s adjustable anti-sway bar for the rear of the truck. This will keep the back end of the truck nice and flat when going around corners, and give us some adjustability if we need to tweak it to our liking.
The directions state that the back of the truck is to be lowered 2.5cm to get it riding level at all times. We dropped Hellwig a line and grilled one of the engineers, David, to ask what range of heights we could set the bags at and still enjoy a comfortable ride. He informed us that the 2.5cm lower than stock stance is ideal for the air bags, but if we had installed a leveling kit in the front of the truck previously, leaving it at stock or slightly higher then stock height was just fine. There’s no leveling kit on our Ram as of yet, but it’s nice to know we have the option down the road.
The kit is a bolt in that does not require any fabrication. We had to grind a little off of one of the coil buckets to keep a bolt head from contacting it, but this was minor. The brackets of the kit all come powder coated so run a tap through any threaded parts you find. We also ran a pipe tap through all the bungs on the compressor tank.
The ¼ hp Viair Compressor and tank mount to the supplied brackets and bolt directly to the frame. All this is hidden up under the cab. Wiring the unit is simple, but we would suggest getting a wiring diagram of your specific vehicle to decide where to splice into for power. We also added an extra air chuck for anything from inflating tires, to blowing up our water wings at the lake.
After double-checking our measurement and letting the system equalize, it was time for a drive. The new solid sway bar was set to the stiffest setting just to check the difference. The ride was just as smooth as before, and while cornering, the rear of the truck didn’t feel like it was rolling over. With the back of the truck filled to the brim, the ride height remained the same and didn’t feel nearly as squirrely as before going down the highway. We can hear the compressor turn on for about 15 seconds for every half hour of driving on average. It’s not loud, but you do know its running.
The total install took us about six hours in the shop with common hand tools and a good set of jack stands. If you can install your average lift kit, this will be no problem, and the results will be well worth it. A proven system with quality components and a company who takes pride in the products they offer to the public is what makes Hellwig a leader in the industry.