bags???..keepin it true

[lofly'a]

i have this dilemma over putting bags on the front of my project 71. to you guys that have them and drive your truck regularly, how is the alignment maintained on the frontend since the front suspension is now adjustable and everything time air pressure changes so does your frontend geometry. what is the life expectancy of the front tires? has anybody discovered any tricks to maintaining a true alignment setting? if you think about it, as you drive from a cold start, even if the truck is at true alignment, as the air in the bags warm up (from engine/outside heat, friction of movement) then i would think things would start to change, or is this change a negligible effect that would not alter frontend alignment? i live in louisiana where in the summer a plastic gas container with only fumes, will swell up like a balloon and sometimes rupture if exposed to the summer sun too long, to give an example,..............of sorts, and tire pressure has the same expansion (without the explosivity) characteristics after operating for a while :p

[HvyChevy454]

i'd like to know as well... as i would be suffering the same effects...

[Dropt72Shortbed]

basically you decide on a ride height thats comfortable and has enough clearance. you then have the truck aligned at this height and if you have guages installed youll know to air your front end up to say 95psi for ride height. if you dont have guages well then its just guess and check (translation more tire wear).

i think the slight differences in the temperature changing the pressure would be negligible, think about it, sometimes you might air up a tad past ride height, putting more wear on the insides of the tires. sometimes youll have it at a tad less putting a little more wear on the outsides. sometimes itll be cold sometimes itll be hold. i think it will all come pretty close to canceling each other out.

im sure its safe to say your tires will last slightly longer with a static drop or stock suspension correctly aligned but i think the difference in tire life expectancy is very slim.

however if you like to drive with it all the way up or sometimes all the way down and you dont have guages to monitor your exact ride height then chances are your tire life will go down quite a bit more.

[NSANE68!!!]

DROPT nailed it. It's all about the gauges. Just keep your eye on the pressure at drive height. There is still no gaurantee on tire wear. But it sure is FUN! I guess that's something you will have to decide.

[XXL]

While Dropt72Shortbed and NSANE68!!! both have it right, the answer is really even simpler than that.

On any A-arm front end made, the suspension travels in an arc (like the "round" part of a slice of pie) as you drive down. This is the nature of the suspension, and why we all still have our fillings in our teeth. So even on a stock spring truck, as the tires follow that arc they wear "unevenly" on a momentary basis. Air springs aren't much different once you put them at the ride height suggested by Dropt. Whether it be the nominal change in height as the air in the bag warms up or the dips and bumps in the road, or simply downforce when driving fast, the same kind of arc of travel is happening, and the tires are again wearing unevenly on a momentary basis.

I've had bags on my truck for 3+ years... and the same set of tires. I've never rotated them and they've got a whole lot of tread left on them.

Wow... that wasn't a very simple looking response. Sorry for the verbosity. Wait... no I'm not.

Kenneth

[lofly'a]

thanks for the info guys, i still don't know if i'll bag the front but i will bag the back to allow max squat when cruising, and still be able to tow/haul a little. your comments have helped me lean more to getting bags than before, because previously all the guys i know that have bags wear tires and ball joints out like crazy, but they also tend to ride around with the front scraping as much as possible and not lifting unless they must clear something or when inclining or declining.


VERBOSITY........ I LIKE THAT XXL