Short answer: air helper bags (also called air springs, air bags or load assist springs) are adjustable rubber air bellows that sit between your truck’s frame and rear axle and help the factory springs carry a load. What makes them special is that they don’t change your ride height when the truck is empty, they have infinite adjustability, so you can tune the rear height after you load up or hook on a trailer, and they have a negligible effect on ride quality when you’re unloaded. Passive helpers like SuperSprings, SumoSprings, Roadmaster Active Suspension and Timbrens work well too, but they’re set once at install and can’t be dialed in for each load. We install air helper bags at our shop in Manvel, TX, for truck owners from Pearland, Houston and the surrounding area.
- No change to your unloaded ride height. At minimum pressure the bags just ride along, and the truck sits where the factory set it.
- Infinitely adjustable. Add air until the truck is back to level for whatever’s in the bed or on the hitch, and let it out when you unload.
- Barely any difference in ride when empty. Your factory springs do the work until you need the help.
- Great for towing and hauling. Travel trailers, goosenecks, fifth wheels, slide-in campers and heavy bed loads.
- Brands we install: Air Lift, Firestone Ride-Rite, Rough Country, ReadyLift LOGIQ and BDS. Pair them with an Air Lift WirelessONE or WirelessAir onboard compressor and you’ll never need gas-station air.
How Air Helper Bags Work
An air helper bag is a tough, reinforced rubber bellows, built a lot like a tire, that mounts between the frame and the rear axle with truck-specific brackets. On leaf-spring trucks it sits next to the leaf springs. Coil-spring trucks use kits made for coils, like air springs that fit inside the coil or kits that replace the rear coils. An air line runs from each bag to a fill valve, usually tucked near the bumper or license plate, or to an onboard compressor if you add one.
When the bed’s empty, you leave the bags at the low minimum pressure the kit calls for (often around 5 psi), and your factory springs carry the truck like they always have. When you load up or hook up, you add air. The more pressure you add, the more weight the bags carry. You stop when the truck is back to level, then let the air back out when you unload.
Getting the rear back to level matters for more than looks. When a truck squats under a load, the front end gets lighter, the headlights aim up into oncoming traffic, and the truck can feel floaty and sway more. Leveling it back out keeps the weight where the truck was designed to carry it, so it steers, stops and handles the way it should.
What Makes Air Bags Different From Other Helper Springs
There are plenty of good ways to help a truck carry a load. Here’s why air bags are our go-to for most customers who tow or haul:
1. They don’t change your ride height when you’re unloaded
At minimum pressure, an air helper bag isn’t holding the truck up. It’s just along for the ride. Your truck sits at the same height it did before, so it won’t look jacked up in the back, and it won’t throw off a level you already have.
2. Infinite adjustability
This is the big one. Air bags aren’t stuck at one setting. Whether you’re carrying a few hundred pounds of tools or hooked to a heavy fifth wheel, you add exactly as much air as that load needs to bring the rear back to level. Change trailers next weekend? Change the pressure. With separate air lines for each side, you can even run different pressures left and right for a load that’s heavier on one side.
3. Negligible effect on ride quality when you’re unloaded
Because the bags aren’t carrying weight at minimum pressure, your empty truck rides the way it did from the factory. You get the support when you need it and the same daily-driver ride when you don’t.
Air Bags vs. SuperSprings, SumoSprings, Roadmaster Active Suspension and Timbrens
These are all solid products from companies that have been around a long time, and each one has customers who swear by it. They just work in different ways. Here’s a plain-English look at each, based on what the manufacturers themselves say:
- SuperSprings are steel helper leaf springs that mount above your factory leaf springs, with roller shackles that bring them in gradually as the truck loads up. They need no maintenance. The amount of preload and lift is set at install by which shackle holes are used, and SuperSprings International says they’re best suited to vehicles that stay loaded, noting that on a mostly unloaded vehicle they can make the ride harsher.
- SumoSprings (made by SuperSprings International) are solid helper springs made of microcellular polyurethane foam that replace the factory bump stops. There’s no air and nothing to maintain. Their truck install instructions typically call for a small gap (about 1/2 to 1 inch) when empty, so they don’t touch until the truck sags under a load. If they’re spaced to touch all the time, the empty truck rides firmer and can sit a little higher. They aren’t adjustable once installed.
- Roadmaster Active Suspension (RoadActive Suspension) uses heavy-duty tension coil springs mounted along the rear leaf springs to help hold them in their arch. It’s set with a tension adjustment at install, needs no air, and the company says it typically raises the rear unloaded ride height about 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches.
- Timbren SES kits use hollow rubber springs that replace the factory bump stops. They’re maintenance-free with no air lines, and rear pickup kits are set with a 1/2 to 1-1/2 inch gap when empty, so they stay out of the way until the truck sags under a load. They aren’t adjustable for different loads beyond the spacers used at install.
| Air helper bags | SuperSprings | SumoSprings | Roadmaster Active Suspension | Timbren SES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Adjustable rubber air bellows | Steel helper leaf springs | Microcellular polyurethane foam springs | Tension coil springs on the leaf springs | Hollow rubber springs |
| Unloaded ride height | No change at minimum pressure | Little to some lift, set by shackle holes at install | No change when set with a gap; a little higher if set to always touch | Typically raises the rear about 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches | No change on rear pickup kits set with a gap |
| Adjust for each load? | Yes, any time, by adding or letting out air | No, set at install | No, set at install | No, tension set at install | No, set at install |
| When it starts helping | Whenever you add air | Engages gradually as the leaf springs flex | After the truck sags enough to close the gap | Works with the leaf springs as load is added | After the truck sags enough to close the gap |
| Maintenance | Keep minimum pressure and check it now and then | None | None | None | None |
| Air lines or compressor | Yes (compressor optional) | No | No | No | No |
To be fair: the passive options have real advantages. There’s no air to check, no lines to route and nothing to leak, and many people like that set-it-and-forget-it simplicity. SumoSprings and Timbrens set up with a gap also leave your empty ride alone. Where air bags pull ahead is adjustability. A passive helper only starts working after the truck has sagged enough to reach it, and how much it helps is fixed by the part you bought. With air, you set the support to match the load in front of you, bring the truck right back to level, and then let it all back out when you’re done. If you tow or haul different things at different times, that’s hard to beat.
Who Air Helper Bags Are For
- Travel trailer and bumper-pull owners. Tongue weight squats the rear of the truck. Air bags bring it back to level so the truck and trailer ride flat.
- Gooseneck and fifth wheel towing. Pin weight sits right over the rear axle. Air bags carry the extra load and keep the truck from sitting nose-high.
- Hauling in the bed. Slide-in campers, toolboxes, pallets, feed, gravel or a bed full of equipment.
- Work trucks with changing loads. Heavy on Monday, empty on Friday. Air lets you match the support to the day.
- Lifted and leveled trucks. Many brands make kits or spacers for lifted trucks, so a level or lift doesn’t rule out air bags. Tell us your setup and we’ll match the right kit.
Air Bags Help You Level a Load. They Don’t Raise Your Ratings
Air helper bags make a truck tow and haul level and stable, but they don’t increase your truck’s towing capacity, payload or weight ratings. Air Lift, Firestone and Rough Country all say this plainly. Your GVWR, axle ratings, hitch rating and tire ratings stay exactly what the truck manufacturer says they are. Stay within them, and the bags will make the weight you’re allowed to carry ride a whole lot better.
Air Bag Brands We Install
We install air helper bags from five brands we trust. They’re listed alphabetically, not ranked. The right one depends on your truck, whether it’s lifted, what you tow or haul, and how you like to adjust it. We’ll recommend a kit when we quote your truck.
- Air Lift. The LoadLifter 5000 series gives leaf-spring pickups up to 5,000 lb of load-leveling support, and the LoadLifter 5000 Ultimate adds an internal jounce bumper so it can run safely at 0 psi. For coil-spring vehicles there’s the Air Lift 1000 line.
- BDS Suspension. The BDS Performance Towing Air Suspension Load Leveling kits fit trucks from stock height up to a 3-inch advertised lift, are built in Coldwater, Michigan, and are designed to run safely at 0 psi when unloaded.
- Firestone Ride-Rite. Ride-Rite air helper spring kits from Firestone Airide support up to 5,000 lb per pair, fit current half-, three-quarter- and one-ton trucks, and most kits bolt up using factory holes with no drilling.
- ReadyLift LOGIQ. ReadyLift’s LOGIQ air spring kits come 100% factory assembled and are engineered for each truck. Some, like the Ram 1500 and 2500 kits, replace the rear coil springs with air springs for adjustable height and load support.
- Rough Country. Rough Country’s Air Spring Kits use double-convoluted air bags with powder-coated steel brackets and DOT-approved air lines, support up to 5,000 lb, and are made for both stock and lifted trucks.
Pair Them With a Wireless Compressor
A lot of our customers add a wireless onboard compressor with their air bags, and we highly recommend it. A small compressor mounts under the truck and connects to the bags, so you can add or let out air from the driver’s seat, from a handheld remote, or from an app on your phone. No hunting for gas-station air, no tire chuck in the dirt behind the bumper, and you can fine-tune it as you hook up or even after you’re rolling.
Our favorites are Air Lift’s WirelessONE and WirelessAir. In our experience both have been very reliable. Both come with a wireless handheld controller and a free mobile app, have three memory presets you can set for your usual loads, and work with most brands of air springs, not just Air Lift. The difference:
- WirelessONE is single-path. It fills and empties both bags to the same pressure, which is perfect for loads that sit evenly side to side, like most trailers and bed loads.
- WirelessAir is dual-path. It can set the left and right bags to different pressures, which is great for uneven or top-heavy loads, like a camper with the heavy stuff on one side or a work truck with a crane or toolbox on one side.
Both are available with Air Lift’s EZ Mount bracket for a cleaner install, and with an optional auxiliary air tank. Ask us which one fits how you use your truck.
How We Install Air Helper Bags
- Lifetime warranty on our installation labor.
- Very clean, tight air line routing. We run air lines neat and secure, away from exhaust heat and moving parts, and wire onboard compressors just as cleanly.
- Tested before pickup. Every system is inflated and checked for leaks and proper operation before you pick up your truck.
- We show you how to use it. We’ll walk you through setting pressure for your load and what minimum pressure to keep when you’re empty.
How to Set Your Air Bag Pressure
- Measure first. With the truck empty, measure from the ground to the top of the rear wheel opening.
- Load up or hook up, just the way you’ll drive it.
- Add air a little at a time until the rear is back to about that same height. Don’t just air up to the max. Use only the pressure the load needs.
- Let it out when you unload, back down to the minimum pressure for your kit (often around 5 psi). Extra pressure with an empty bed is what makes a truck ride stiff.
- Check it now and then. Like tires, air bags can lose a little pressure over time and with temperature changes. An onboard compressor with a gauge makes this easy.
- Never go over the kit’s max pressure or your truck’s weight ratings.
Air Helper Bag FAQs
Do air helper bags change my ride height when the truck is empty?
No. At the minimum pressure the kit calls for, air helper bags aren’t holding the truck up, so it sits at the same height it did before. You only raise the rear when you add air for a load or a trailer.
Do air bags make the ride stiffer?
Not when you’re unloaded. At minimum pressure they have a negligible effect on ride quality, and your factory springs do the work. The ride only firms up when you add air for a load, which is exactly when you want the support. Just remember to let the air back out when you unload.
Are air bags better than Timbrens, SumoSprings or SuperSprings?
They’re different. Timbrens, SumoSprings and SuperSprings are maintenance-free with no air lines, and many people like that. Air bags win on adjustability: you can set the support for each load and bring the truck right back to level, then let it out when you’re done. If you tow or haul different things at different times, air bags are hard to beat.
Do air helper bags increase towing capacity or payload?
No. Air bags help level and stabilize a load, but they don’t change your truck’s towing capacity, payload, GVWR or axle ratings. Air Lift, Firestone and Rough Country all say the same thing. Always stay within the ratings from your truck’s manufacturer.
How much air pressure should I run in my air helper bags?
It depends on the load. Measure your empty rear height, load up or hook up, and add air until the truck is back to about that height. When you’re empty, keep the minimum pressure your kit calls for, often around 5 psi. Never go over the kit’s max pressure.
Do I need an onboard compressor for air bags?
No. You can fill them with any air compressor through the fill valves. But a wireless onboard compressor makes life a lot easier, since you can adjust from the cab, a remote or your phone. Our favorites are Air Lift’s WirelessONE and WirelessAir.
Can you put air bags on a lifted or leveled truck?
Yes, in most cases. Many brands make kits or spacers for lifted trucks, and some kits fit from stock height up to about a 3-inch lift. Tell us your truck and lift and we’ll match the right kit.
Which air bag brands do you install?
We install Air Lift, Firestone Ride-Rite, Rough Country, ReadyLift LOGIQ and BDS. We’ll recommend one based on your truck, your lift and what you tow or haul, and every install comes with a lifetime warranty on our labor.
Get a Quote on Air Helper Bags
Pricing depends on your truck, the kit and whether you add a wireless compressor, so the best way to get a real number is a quick quote. Send us your year, make and model, whether it’s lifted or leveled, and what you tow or haul, and we’ll recommend the right kit and give you a price. You can also see what customers say in our Google reviews.
Texas Offroad & Performance, 20504 B Hwy. 6, Manvel, TX 77578. Open Mon–Thu 9:30 AM–5:00 PM and Fri 9:30 AM–3:00 PM. Email us any time.