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Air Lift for K5 ? Need some insight..

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K5_Fla

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I’m moving into a new house. The garage is standard 7 FT height. I want to park my K5 in the garage, but with a 6in lift and 35’s… I have to air down all the tires to get it in. I hate having to air up and down every time I want drive the truck somewhere

My options are -

1. get the garage height raised to 8 FT – at a cost of $4,300

2. Get some kind of air bags/ air suspension installed on the truck so I can lower it 3-4 inches with the press of a button. I have rear blocks with an add a left in the back, and skyjacker springs up front. Is this possible to do on the K5.. and how much would it cost? I guessing it would be cheaper than option #1.
 
why not just cut the opening with a rented concrete saw, pay a laborer to refinish it, and add a panel to the garage door? Much less than $4300.00. Air springs instead of leaf springs? or in conjunction?
 
load bearing beams, etc.. hard to explain, but it’s a pretty complex job on a pretty expensive house.

As for the truck – I don’t know… I just want something that will allow me to drop the truck 4 in or so to back into the garage.
 
air springs won't pull the suspension down any. might as well hire someone to move the entry up or lower the truck to a 2" lift and trim
 
in this case no.... so I guess air bags is not an option to raise and lower the truck ?
 
Are you talking about using a lower lift spring then using air bags to bring it up to your current height?
 
I 'm not sure what I'm asking for since I dont know jack about air lifts. Yes.. I want to be able to drop the truck 4 ..maybe 6 inches....then raise it back up ( to my current height..no more) when out of the garage.
 
I used to have a 4 in and it would work.... but it's hard to do back to 4in since I've had a taste of the 6in...
 
Link it front and rear and use big Firestone bags for springs.


Gonna blow your budget right out lol.
 
K5_Fla said:
in this case no.... so I guess air bags is not an option to raise and lower the truck ?
Click to expand...

Four link the rear with bags. Or buy a jk longradius arm setup without the springs, shocks, bla bla, and all the stuff you don't need, and find some firestone bags off ebay. Should be wayyyyyyy cheaper than nodding the house and ride way better than leaves.

If you "slam" the rear it should drop the front of the cab 2-3 inches and you can keep the front springs.
 
Well, theoretically, you could install some kind of hydraulic pull rams to compress your suspension when you went inside, hard on the springs though.

Hummers have on-board inflation systems for the tires, I supposed you could adapt something so you would be able to pull up, air down, drive in, and reverse it all from the cab.

But, the two best ways I see, are to have a good engineer come out and look at that door frame. Load bearing beams have been moved many times before and will be again.

But, the way I would look real hard at is the floor.
It would be a pain to tear up the whole floor and lower it, but how wide are the tires? 33s are about 13", I'm guessing yours are about 15 or 16 max.
Concrete saw, and a little sweat, and you can put two grooves in the floor 16" wide, and 8" deep, with concrete bottoms.

Pour them a little shallower on the inside end than the outside, and water will not run in.

If you have a garage door that comes down, you can easily attach a couple of fitted tabs with rubber gaskets on the bottom that will go down in the grooves and seal them as good as the rest of the door.

Makes for real easy parking if you drive in tired at night........
 
Is it just the door opening thats 7' or all of the rafters too. if its just the opening it is not a hard job and shouldnt be that expensive. if it is the whole room how about the winch deal that rock buggies use to pull down there suspension at certain times. they hook the winch to the axles at a secure point and just pull it down. may be hard to do on a nice street rig but something like it should be possible:dunno:
 
Maybe you should be the first to convert a blazer to CTIS off of a HUMVEE.
 
I was fitting 5" and 35's inside a 7' door. Even with 37's I was still fitting with a few minor mods. Are you sure you're 4" from fitting? Try both forward and reverse, as it will line up differently based on the angle of the driveway. Also make sure the door opener is adjusted to fully clear the opening.

If you fit when the truck was just 2" lower there may be hope. I was able to get more than 2" with just minor changes. First of all, there is typically a weatherstrip piece all around the door frame. If you take this off the top and mount it to the door instead, that is an easy 1/2". Then I had a little space from where the door was framed in to where the studs started (plus the thickness of that wood). So I took all of that wood out and replaced it with vinyl fascia material. This blended in fine with the vinyl siding above the door. To match that, I spaced the weatherstrip on top of the door up 1.5" by putting a strip of 2x2 lumber underneath. With caulk, primer and paint it blended into the door pretty well. But that part could be done even better.

Even if there isn't room to do it with the minor changes, just reframe it yourself. If there is no room, use steel in place of lumber. You can make a short "extra panel" for the top of the door from lumber or bend up some Aluminum flashing or something. The tracks are probably bending up in that area, but it doesn't matter with such a short panel. You will build it so it's vertical when the door is all the way shut. It won't be quite horizontal when the door is all the way up, but this shouldn't hit the truck.
 
I thought the same thing blue, I have a 6" and 36s and I fit in a 7 ft door. Barely, but it fits with only about a 1/2" clearance.
 
NorCal_Chris said:
Link it front and rear and use big Firestone bags for springs.


Gonna blow your budget right out lol.
Click to expand...

CherryK5 said:
Four link the rear with bags. Or buy a jk longradius arm setup without the springs, shocks, bla bla, and all the stuff you don't need, and find some firestone bags off ebay. Should be wayyyyyyy cheaper than nodding the house and ride way better than leaves.

If you "slam" the rear it should drop the front of the cab 2-3 inches and you can keep the front springs.
Click to expand...
The way to use "air bags" for suspension like you're thinking entails doing like they have said. Suspension link arms to locate the axle and air bags as the springs. Your current suspension setup goes bye bye completely.
Wouldn't be cheap or easy. If there is a kit to do this to a K5 then it isn't cheap and otherwise it's custom, custom, custom to get it right. I'd say $4300 would run out fast.

I'd personally look at the garage myself. As Shady and others have said, as long as the rafters aren't also at 7' then you should be able to get it relocated to 8'.
 
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