Rear Air Bags on my Blazer

[72BLAZERDUDE]

I am trying to install bags on the back of my 72 Blazer. Here is the problem. I have Firestone 2500s and the mounting bolts are to wide to mount across the frame at that point. Plus that is where the shock mounting cross member is so the working area is very tight trying to mount the bags and have a hole for th airline fitting to go through. I thought about mounting the bags so mounting bolts run the same direction as the frame but this causes problems with the airline fitting. I am trying to do this from under the Blazer cuz no way to get the body off. Any suggestions. Any body have pics on what they did. AirRide has a L shaped bracket that could possibly be modified to mount to the inside of the trailing arm to set the bag off to the inside of the arm. It is only 3/16 mild steel. Would this be strong enough for lower brackets?

[el curioso]

I think some one mounted them up side down.


my.02 cents

[72BLAZERDUDE]

These are the brackets I was thinking about using. They are 3 inch tall so I would have to cut them down just a bit to fit into a trailing arm,then bolt them in. Basically just inside where the original spring mount is. I will still have to come up with a top mount. I just wasnt sure if the would be strong enough out of 3/16 mild steel.

[SCOTI]

The easist way is to make a cup/spacer w/a single stud @ the top that goes through the original coil spring retaining bolt hole. This spacer would need to be deep enough to allow the air fitting to be tightened to the bag but not hit the frame (about 1"). Or..... you can invert the bags so the air fitting is on the bottom.

I originally mounted my bags using the cup/spacer method. The problem w/this was I couldn't get the truck as low as I wanted. So I decided to invert the bags & eliminate the spacers. To invert the bags......

Make templates out of construction cardboard: One that has the C/L of the mounting studs & the C/L for the air fitting. Another for the opposite end of the bag.

Using the template that has the mounting holes/air fitting hole as your guide, rotate the C/L of the holes so that they will fit within the trailing arm keeping any of the holes from the center of the arm where the seam is (I mounted mine & clocked the air fitting so it was on the inside of the trailing arm. The airline was connected to a 90° elbow).

Drill the holes in the trailing arm & mount the bag (tighten the hardware).

Jack the rear-end up squarely so the bag touches the bottom of the frame rail.

Take a sharpie & 'index' the bag to the frame rail & trace the entire outside diameter of the bag too.

Drop the rear-end & remove the bag.

Match the second template you made to the bag. Transfer the index mark made from the frame/bag to the template.

Tape the template to the frame rail (centering the template within the outline trace & align the indexes you made).

Using the template, center punch guide holes for drilling.

Disconnect the trailing arm from the rear end.

Take a ratchet strap & pull the trailing arm to the opposite side of the truck (it just needs to be pulled enough to allow room for drilling).
Drill holes (I do them slightly oversize to allow some margin of flexibility).

File the holes & paint to prevent rust.

Re-mount bag.

Re-install the trailing arm to the rear end.

[Alvin]

This is how the holes for my firestone 2600s are laid out: