I run airlift bags 5psi all the time except when loaded then 35. I have adjustable fox shocks, easily changed to higher setting when loaded, with separate reservoir. Silastic shackles. When loaded my lbz 2500 has a 5th wheel hitch weight of 3200, total 15,200. I also have a trailersaver bd3 hitch which is air cushioned. My ride and stability are excellent loaded and unloaded. I also have an added a supersteer rear Trac bar for side to side differential stability. No complaints just several years of messing around to find the balanced system
Am im sure it works well to your liking which is great!
But since you posted in here about it, lets break it down some.
Your shock: those clickers you have on them are strictly for compression, they do not add any additional rebound dampening. If you had that ability, it would be found on the bottom of the shock at the rod end. Being that utv shocks are the only ones that come that way or high dollar specialty order ones, i fear you do not have that ability which means only half the problem is solved.
Your shackles: effectively you reduced your spring rate of the leaf springs because the rubber bushing inside that shackle is now the one taking most the movement. This is whats helping make the 5psi in said air bags feel much nicer when unloaded. Reducing compression on the shocks helps too (to an extent). Take the bags off all together, it will ride even better as well.
Your air bags on both hitch and truck: you have compounded the bags and basically added suspension with that hitch. This is alot like a dual rate spring rate on a coilover. So for example, of a single spring is 10” long at 200lbs/inch, then you add another on top that is 10” long and 200lbs/inch, the overall effective spring rate is 100lbs/inch but 20” long overall. Youve done the same on a progressive rate air bags, making them dual rate (not 100% but very close) which is close to my statement about running a big air bags on the back with a link setup and no leafs. Your shackles have not affect here either as they hit their stops as soon as a load is put on them and all force is transferred to the springs
Your track bar: nothing bad to say there at all. Our limited suspension travel doesnt let those issues show if setup right.
So its not a setup i personally i would want to go with because thats a far more expensive route for the effectiveness when i can instead pin point the issue, have my cake and eat it too so to speak. 10 years and 50k+ miles on my toy hauler show shes holding up just fine as well BUT that was before the tongue weight increased when i took the tracker out. Suspension on the truck had proper travel and shock dampening was working well (they are going to need to be changed at this point though).
