A couple of blog posts ago, we were in Iowa, enduring a sweltering heat wave and we made it clear that while we enjoyed looking around the area, there was a bigger reason we were there that we were being a bit mysterious about. “So, what in the world were you doing in Iowa?” you ask. Well, if you have been following along and watching our videos, you have heard us talk about how rough the ride is on our new Ram 5500. Was. It was so bad that a long distance trip in it left both driver and rider exhausted from bracing for the bumps, and even caused some damage to the Bigfoot. On our trip to South Dakota, it became quite apparent that we were going to have to do SOMETHING to make the ride a little more bearable. Queue hours of research leading us to Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Kelderman Manufacturing for an air suspension system.
“I thought you all do most of your own work,” you are thinking, and you would be right. Jeff seriously considered ordering the kit and installing the system right here at home. The problem was time and space. Working full time jobs, keeping up with household chores, and trying to at least occasionally put out a YouTube video, doesn’t leave much time right now for big projects; and since the truck won’t even fit in our garage, the whole project would have to be done in the driveway at the mercy of the weather. Taking the bed off would have been a trick, too, without a vehicle lift to assist. As much as we would have loved to tackle this, we had to concede that it just didn’t make sense to attempt it right now.
“Well, couldn’t you have the same thing installed closer to home?” Yes. We called the two dealers closest to us, but after discussions with them about how many they have installed and what their level of experience is, we just didn’t get warm, fuzzy feelings about it. We made the decision that if we were going to submit the 5500 to such major surgery, it was going to be by the folks who absolutely know what they are doing and have made this their main business. Off to Iowa we go.
“So, what exactly did you have done?” We chose a 4-link air suspension for the rear of the truck, and a 2-stage for the front. This means that Kelderman removed the ENTIRE suspension system from our brand new truck and replaced it with an air suspension. They added air bags (4 in the rear, 2 in the front), rear trailing arms, dual 3-gallon air tanks, dual air compressors, ride height sensors, an air dryer, changed out a wiring harness, mounted an in-cab remote control, and swapped out our front and rear shocks for Raptor shocks. In addition, they changed out the rear sway bar, installed a dual steering stabilizer kit, as well as a panhard bar, and an air port we can now use for all our compressed air needs! In addition, we had them wire the entire system to one of our in-cab upfitter auxiliary switches, so that on those early mornings when we get going in the campground before most folks are awake, we can shut the system off temporarily so the compressors don’t kick on and wake everyone around us!
“That sounds like a lot of work. How long did it take?” We dropped our truck off on Monday morning, and arrived to pick it up Friday afternoon. We would like to say all was great when we picked it up, but with that amount of work being done there were bound to be some problems, and there were. Some things were minor – areas where the paint had been ground off and not re-painted, and some type of oil that had dripped all over the hood – but there were some more major things, too. For one, we were getting a significant amount of vibration at higher speeds. It was determined that one of the 4-link bars in the rear suspension was not properly adjusted, so that was fixed and it improved the vibration, but did not eradicate it. We think the remaining vibration may be due to front end alignment or wheel balance, so our next step is to get the truck in to have that addressed. There is also an issue with the rear sway bar coming into contact with the exhaust system when the truck is fully lowered, that Jeff will have to take care of at home. It seems to us the installers got down to the wire and had to rush to finish, so some things just didn’t get the attention they should have at the end. Robert, the shop manager, was extremely patient with us, though, and stayed late to address all our concerns. It is unfortunate that things weren’t great at pick up, but at least we felt heard and like Robert and the company wanted us to leave happy. We finally got out of there with the truck at 9:30 that night.
“Are there other issues, and are they significant enough that you regret having it done?” Since returning home, Jeff has found some other issues that he has had to work on. Some wiring wasn’t routed in the best way, the fuel fill hose was bent and kinked, one of the fuel fill hose support brackets wasn’t reattached properly, etc. It is a shame that all things were not completed correctly, but unfortunately, we have found this to almost always be the case when having someone complete work for us. Maybe we are just too picky, and maybe no one else would even notice the things that we do, but this is why we usually prefer to do our own work. On the flip-side, though, the majority of the big stuff they did seems to be good. If there are only minor things that we can take care of easily ourselves, we have to count that as a win. No regrets.
“But did it significantly improve the ride quality?” YES, YES, unequivocally, without a doubt, absolutely, YES! We can’t even express to you how much more pleasant it is to drive/ride in the truck now with the air suspension. The ride quality is EASILY as good as it was in our 3500, and probably even a little better. We really feel like we will be super happy with it once we finish working out all the bugs. We also already really love the ability to adjust the height of the truck when parked. It came in handy our first day towing with it, when we could raise the back of the truck/nose of the trailer with just the push of a button. It kept us from having to unhook that night! We also used it when we got home to help unload the old suspension parts off the bed. The lower the bed, the shorter the distance we had to lift them off! And if it is this convenient now, just imagine how much we will love it when we get a truck camper and can level with ease, right from the cab! We really are pretty excited about it all!
“This seems like a pretty big task checked off your list. What’s next?” Well, for now we are just continuing to work on getting back to where we started when the 3500 burned up. Our most current projects include working on a solution for powering our Engel MT45 refrigerator that we mount in the backseat area of our truck, and we have also been working on wiring and installing DC to DC chargers so we can charge our house batteries from the truck’s alternator while driving. And, always, a truck camper is in the back of our mind. We aren’t quite ready to make that leap just yet, but it will be coming in a year or two. Stay tuned, we will take you with us for the ride in both our blog posts and videos! Thanks for following along!
It is always more fun to watch something happen rather than read about it, so watch here in our full Kelderman Air Suspension install video!
Until next time!
