The airbags are only there to add to the spring rate. The bottom bag brackets are curved to mate to the axle but not welded- they do maintain contact and don’t float around but don’t pull down or act as shock absorbers. I have conventional shocks using the top frame bracket from a dakota and ears welded to the axle tubes.


I have heard of people replacing shocks with airbags on IFS and not bothering to relocate the shocks (running without them) or running adjustable air shocks to lift a muscle car (getting a rock hard ride and eventually punching thru the top brackets). This is not that. I have my axle located with leaf springs but they’re saggy ones that lost arch after a year or so. The axle wind up is controlled by the short stiff front segment combined with the slapper bars, so under power the pinion angle is lifted to match the crankshaft angle.

Like I said I still have conventional shocks. I am not trying to get defensive and I think I understand the compromises I made with this setup but I want to learn the basics of rear shock tuning for traction.

My concept of how it works now is that since my leafs and slappers converge too close to the axle it is going to make my instant center too high, hitting the tires really hard. If they are triangulated in action they will act like a ladder bar but I would have pointed a ladder bar a bunch further up the chassis and probably a couple inches lower. So that isn’t ideal but I wasn’t willing to run a ladder bar on the street and end up constantly twist stressing the axle housing back and forth like a giant sway bar and I don’t have the know how or money to throw at doing a 4 link that could hold up to stroker torque. I never set up coilovers either and the choices are intimidating and expensive for trial and error.

Was all the ‘ditch the airbags’ talk because y’all thought I was running with no shocks? I have shocks they’re just stock replacement $15 blue ones that barely make the chassis not bounce a couple times after a bump. They work fine for cruising but I want to upgrade the shocks and want to understand more about where to start with settings.

From what I’ve learned on here and from books I want the shackles angled to separate the body upward on launch, pressing down on the tires. Check. I want the pinion rotation to stop with good driveline alignment and begin applying only forward and upward rotation with no oscillating wheel hop. Check. Then I want to hit the tires as hard as possible without spinning and keep them planted with as much weight transfer as I can muster. This is the area that needs work.

I figured the next obvious step was more and stickier rubber, and shocks to control the movement of the chassis relative to the suspension. I know the object in the front is to make it as easy as possible to lift the nose and to come back down slowly. There is only so much I can do with the dakota suspension without re-doing all the bushings etc but it’s all new and greased with decently light wheels, as much aluminum as I could get on the big block to replace iron, and the motor is moved back 10” too.

I have a much foggier idea of what you want the shocks to do in the rear. Is it the same as the front where you want soft extension and harder compression?

Thanks and sorry if I’m being hard headed I am still not understanding why helper bags are bad? How are they different than just making my leafs have a variable spring rate? In fact isn’t that a good thing if I can drop it down low for better weight transfer then air it up a few inches for a longer drive or something?

Radar