Spring to air ride suspension conversion - pete379

If you use an inner sleeve you have to cut all cross members inside the sleeve and weld them back together. Otherwise your frame will have a bow. If you use an outer support then your going to be too wide for your suspension if any of it bolts to that section of the frame. Unless your using a set up from a factory double frame truck with the outer lip. In my opinion if you go outside for support you need to go the whole distance. I always use an inner sleeve. As far as a template your making it harder than it has to be. Roll your new suspension in place, make sure that the height left to right is exact, pull a tape off a cross member hole on each side to get one hole per side drilled. Recheck the height and mark the rest of the holes. Drill them to 1/2" if they are suppose to be 5/8. Then use a reamer with suspension in place. You will end up with perfect matched holes. If your off a 16th of an inch from side to side it's not a big deal that's what alignments are for

 

I would never doubt what you wore out has to tell anyone because he knows what he's doing.

Myself though I prefer the exact template method and here's why.

I don't know about other suspensions I really only deal with Freightliner, but Freightliner has hangers that protrude out from the frame. I don't know if you are using a magnetic drill if there is enough room to mount it at the base and still drill through the hanger.

The shocks have to be mounted on the right angle so that you get the right amount of travel that they originally designed for that. That's not part of what you roll under the frame.

Also with Freightliner the holes for the torque arm to frame mount are not part of what you roll underneath there. They keep your rears and your driveshaft angles correct, so that has to be in the exact right spot on both Rears.

If you have a blank frame that you're putting holes into, at that point you also would have the template for your fifth wheel so that everything is exactly identical where it was and your fifth wheel will slide the same distance that it did originally and sit in the same spot.

As you can see there are different ways that this can be done. But for me the template method is the best because it makes assembly just quick easy simple and accurate. It makes everything exactly the way that it was from the factory.