Air lift 1000 install

[greenbeast]

Just curious before I get my hair on end. I did research the product, ordered it and anticipated installing myself since most said about an hour install.

My schedule got the best of me and I wasn't able to do it before I was suppose to pick up my new travel trailer. I dropped it at toyota specialty shop for what I thought would be easy inexpensive install.

When I picked it up I was charged 3 hours labor ($260) for the install, when I questioned why so long was told due to routing of the lines and mounting the ends in the frame. Still 3 hours still seemed pretty excessive.

Any thoughts?

 

[m3fan]

Bringing this thread up from the dead- after doing this myself I would pay somebody $260 to do it in a HEARTBEAT. I've done this 3X now, twice on my 4th gen 4R (because I had one bag fail after a few years) and once on the LC 100. The 4R was super simple to do.

The LC install was by far the worst, mainly due to the massive ground clearance and suspension travel of the LC. With my tallest 4-ton jack stands on the trailer hitch, I could set the axle down on the ground totally and still had to wrestle the springs out with a variety of measures including spring compressors. After going through that fight on one side, on the other side I re-did the jack stands putting them on the frame rails just forward of the rear axle link mounting point which allowed for more height, but the rear brake line mounting points had to be un-done to allow for enough brake line clearance, and the diff vent tube had to come off. Even then, there is barely enough play in the rear brake line to drop another couple inches, and the sway bar then has to be disconnected since it becomes the next obstacle to lowering even another inch or two.

Even after all that, the other side still needed some persuasion from a prybar on the spring to get it over the lower seat. Other than that, it's easy. it should be a very simple job but the suspension travel on this car just makes it tremendously frustrating to do in the driveway. No fun at all.

 

[Sandroad]

Interesting update. I'm about to tackle this install and I thought it was pretty easy from the info in the other threads. Some have listed it as a one job.. Maybe not?

 

[n55luvr]

I'll add an opposite experience with removing the rear springs. For some reason I was able to do it one wheel at a time without removing brake lines, breather or anything other than the sway bar (which broke a bolt on each side, yay rust!) and lower shock bolt on the side I was working. This allowed me to keep the opposite wheel on the ground.

I put my jack stand on the frame just in front of the rear tire. Jacked the truck up so that the wheel I was working was off the ground. I then removed wheel, shock bolt, sway bar end and slowly dropped the axle with my jack. By doing this I was able to pull the old OEM spring out and slip the new OEM spring in. Took maybe half hour per side and was way easier than the walk throughs I have read here on mud. I was prepared for much much more involved process.

 

[m3fan]

Wow, maybe the trick is to do one side at a time like that. Humph. Would never have guessed that would work. Dropping the whole axle down, I was just amazed at the spring travel! It just kept going and going and going. Brake line slack kept me on my toes and nervous, too.

 

[n55luvr]

I had to do the one wheel on the ground method since i didn't have multiple jacks and jack stands. I kept a super close eye on the brake lines and by the time I had the wheel at full articulation and sway unconnected it wasn't hard at all, springs pretty much dropped out with a tiny bit of motivation.

 

[Sandroad]

Ahh..good update to the update. I didn't catch where m3fan tried doing this by dropping the whole axle. I'll do the regular one side at a time from the FAQ thread and probably be fine.

 

[costalcat]

Just as a note, I took mine to the shop a week or so ago, mainly because I had them sitting here and I'm leaving tomorrow on a trip towing a 24 ft RV trailer. I keep putting it off based on the readings, I had the shop do an oil change, lube the drive shaft, check the fluids and brakes due to a squeak plus the install. Bill for everything was $164 shop guy said it was pretty straight forward.... If I had seen this post I probably would have tried it out I was worried about it taking to long or complicated...