Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Click for more info and reviews of this Firestone Vehicle Suspension:
etrailer.com/Vehicle-Suspension/Firestone/F2709.html
Check out some similar Vehicle Suspension options:
etrailer.com/suspension-enhancement.htm
Search for other popular Chevrolet Silverado 3500 parts and accessories:
etrailer.com/vehicle/2026/Chevrolet/Silverado+3500
etrailer.com
Don’t forget to subscribe!
youtube.com/user/etrailertv
Full transcript: etrailer.com/tv-install-firestone-air-bags-2026-Chevrolet-Silverado-3500-F2709.aspx
Hi, I'm Daniel with etrailer, and today we're going to take a look at, and I'm going to show you how to install, the Firestone Ride-Rite Red Label Extreme Duty Air Helper Springs on our 2026 Chevy Silverado 3500. Silverado 3500s are big trucks and they're made to tow a lot of stuff. So if you have a factory puck system and you're maybe towing around a fifth wheel trailer or gooseneck or even a heavy bumper pull, it's going to put a lot of weight on your rear of the truck, so you might experience some rear end squat. And what that means is the rear of your truck is going to sit really low and it's going to lift the front of your truck. So that's where all your steering is. So you might be experiencing steering like a boat, meaning it's not super receptive.
That can be kind of scary. Might be white knuckling it down the road if that happens. And your braking is also going to be affected because your wheels are not firmly planted on the ground. Now, another reason that you might want to get air helper springs is that your tires are going to wear unevenly and your suspension is going to wear more so than if you we inchesre to have everything level. So getting your air helper springs back here, it's going to allow you to put some air in these bags, level everything out, and you're going to enjoy your experience way more and it'll be a lot safer.
We have a trailer hooked up back there to simulate some weight on the back end. And before we get the airbags installed, we'll take this on our bumps course, give it a test. (engine whirring) (suspension rattling) And then we'll get our airbags installed, fill those up to the proper PSI to get everything leveled out and then test it again. (engine whirring) (suspension rattling) I can definitely tell a slight difference. We're just in the parking lot so we're not going super fast right now, but those bags, they're there to support the load.
So all that jostle is not going to be transferred up into the cab. It's going to be absorbed by those airbags. And we got us some before footage of that jounce bumper bouncing up and down and that's just there for bottoming out. So that's not going to support at all unless you have an extreme amount of weight on there. So with the bags, like I said before, they're adjustable.
You can set them to a certain PSI you want and have a lot more comfortable ride. It's made out of a really durable rubber and it gives you all of your bracketry. We're not having to drill into anything, which is really nice. Now, these are the heavy-duty versions, so they're going to be able to support loads up to 7,500 pounds, which is quite a lot. So that's the load leveling capacity of these. Definitely check your payload capacity and make sure you're not overdoing it. Now, another thing nice about these is these are adjustable. So you can actually adjust these between five PSI all the way up to 150 PSI. So when you are not using them, you do want to keep them at that five just so you're not damaging them when you're bouncing up and down with nothing loaded. This is your fill valve in the back, and our neighbor today, he opted to get a dual path set up. So what that means is you're going to have a fill valve for your left bag and a fill valve for your right bag. So the reason our neighbor wanted this is because he has an in-bed camper and those can be different weight-wise. They're not going to be perfectly symmetrical. They might have a refrigerator on one side so it might be a lot heavier. So in this case, he wanted to be able to fill up one bag more so than the other just to get everything even when he's got that weight in his bed. Something I would always recommend getting is an onboard compressor. What a lot of people do is they'll get their bags installed, they'll have the manual fill, they'll deal with it for a couple of months to years and then they opt for getting that compressor because it's super nice to fill your bags up from the comfort of your cab. And also, if you want to do the dual paths, you will have to look for a dual path compressor so you can still fill each bag up individually if you need to do that. But as far as installing these bags go, it is actually very simple. Like I said before, you're not drilling in anything. It's all custom bracketry
Click for more info and reviews of this Firestone Vehicle Suspension:
etrailer.com/Vehicle-Suspension/Firestone/F2709.html
Check out some similar Vehicle Suspension options:
etrailer.com/suspension-enhancement.htm
Search for other popular Chevrolet Silverado 3500 parts and accessories:
etrailer.com/vehicle/2026/Chevrolet/Silverado+3500
etrailer.com
Don’t forget to subscribe!
youtube.com/user/etrailertv
Full transcript: etrailer.com/tv-install-firestone-air-bags-2026-Chevrolet-Silverado-3500-F2709.aspx
Hi, I'm Daniel with etrailer, and today we're going to take a look at, and I'm going to show you how to install, the Firestone Ride-Rite Red Label Extreme Duty Air Helper Springs on our 2026 Chevy Silverado 3500. Silverado 3500s are big trucks and they're made to tow a lot of stuff. So if you have a factory puck system and you're maybe towing around a fifth wheel trailer or gooseneck or even a heavy bumper pull, it's going to put a lot of weight on your rear of the truck, so you might experience some rear end squat. And what that means is the rear of your truck is going to sit really low and it's going to lift the front of your truck. So that's where all your steering is. So you might be experiencing steering like a boat, meaning it's not super receptive.
That can be kind of scary. Might be white knuckling it down the road if that happens. And your braking is also going to be affected because your wheels are not firmly planted on the ground. Now, another reason that you might want to get air helper springs is that your tires are going to wear unevenly and your suspension is going to wear more so than if you we inchesre to have everything level. So getting your air helper springs back here, it's going to allow you to put some air in these bags, level everything out, and you're going to enjoy your experience way more and it'll be a lot safer.
We have a trailer hooked up back there to simulate some weight on the back end. And before we get the airbags installed, we'll take this on our bumps course, give it a test. (engine whirring) (suspension rattling) And then we'll get our airbags installed, fill those up to the proper PSI to get everything leveled out and then test it again. (engine whirring) (suspension rattling) I can definitely tell a slight difference. We're just in the parking lot so we're not going super fast right now, but those bags, they're there to support the load.
So all that jostle is not going to be transferred up into the cab. It's going to be absorbed by those airbags. And we got us some before footage of that jounce bumper bouncing up and down and that's just there for bottoming out. So that's not going to support at all unless you have an extreme amount of weight on there. So with the bags, like I said before, they're adjustable.
You can set them to a certain PSI you want and have a lot more comfortable ride. It's made out of a really durable rubber and it gives you all of your bracketry. We're not having to drill into anything, which is really nice. Now, these are the heavy-duty versions, so they're going to be able to support loads up to 7,500 pounds, which is quite a lot. So that's the load leveling capacity of these. Definitely check your payload capacity and make sure you're not overdoing it. Now, another thing nice about these is these are adjustable. So you can actually adjust these between five PSI all the way up to 150 PSI. So when you are not using them, you do want to keep them at that five just so you're not damaging them when you're bouncing up and down with nothing loaded. This is your fill valve in the back, and our neighbor today, he opted to get a dual path set up. So what that means is you're going to have a fill valve for your left bag and a fill valve for your right bag. So the reason our neighbor wanted this is because he has an in-bed camper and those can be different weight-wise. They're not going to be perfectly symmetrical. They might have a refrigerator on one side so it might be a lot heavier. So in this case, he wanted to be able to fill up one bag more so than the other just to get everything even when he's got that weight in his bed. Something I would always recommend getting is an onboard compressor. What a lot of people do is they'll get their bags installed, they'll have the manual fill, they'll deal with it for a couple of months to years and then they opt for getting that compressor because it's super nice to fill your bags up from the comfort of your cab. And also, if you want to do the dual paths, you will have to look for a dual path compressor so you can still fill each bag up individually if you need to do that. But as far as installing these bags go, it is actually very simple. Like I said before, you're not drilling in anything. It's all custom bracketry
