Anyone have experience with that set up? Curious to know about ride quality as well as things discovered after the install that would be good to address during the install. The GX is my son's daily and will primarily be used city/highway with some light trail and beach use. Looking at this set up as an economical option to give him the stance and clearance for larger/taller tires. A lot of good options like the Dobinsons that are pricier but definitely an option if this approach is a no-go. Thanks!
anyone running 5100s with air bag trick like in the youtube video? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter agorena123
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I ran exactly that (5100/airbag trick) for nearly a year.
IMO, if you know you aren't going to push the limits offroad and the air system is working, id keep it as long as possible. However.....
I ended up over-artuculating the rear offroad and the bottom seat of one bags detached and got jammed (crushed) between the axle and panhard bar releasing all system pressure. I drove many bone rattling miles on my bump-stops back to civilization and installed coils. Never looked back.
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@Stonefoot72 thanks for the feedback. Most likely will do this and just be aware of the limitations. Shocks plus local shade tree mechanic puts us at less than a third the cost of full rear spring kit with installation.
I made spacers along with moving the sensors, keeps everything happier.
With the rear already so much higher than the front, I don't see how people are getting enough lift from the 5100s to need to do anything with the rear.
The bags (or springs after conversion) provide the lift. The shocks simply dampen the vertical motion. "Tricking" the ride hieght sensors force the bags to raise the back higher than normal. It's a pretty common eary mod.
Reread your post. I got you...and agree that if your going to lift the back at all, you should probably lift the front as well...my mistake.
It's all good. Yeah, fully loaded, the rear on my 06 is 3" higher than the front. It's off-putting to me. 
I have an 07 and have run the bils shocks and tricked rear. 1.5" lift in front and tricked about 1/2" rear to level the truck. AHS just sh*t the bed on me, so doing a coil conversion. Chose the Ironman solution as it has 1" of adjustment on each lower perch (they spin). Remains to be determined which coil. Thinking the OEM 4R/FJ, the Dobs stock height or the Metaltech Superspring stock height - then spinning them up to desired height to get back to level. The problem: only one company advises how much lift each conversion kit (perch) actually adds to stock ride height with a stock-height coil. SSO says their perch adds 3/4". Ironman, ICON and metaltech do not specify.
