I just invested money in a new welding machine, the problem is that it is bigger and heavier than my old machine. The old machine was on a trailer, I need to modify the old trailer for it fit, meantime the machine has to ride in the back of my Ranger. I'm having a problem now with the supension sagging alot. I was wondering what would be the better option; helper springs, or putting a heavier spring pack under the truck, air suspension? I would hate to move up to a full size truck, the Ranger is perfect size for down here in Puerto Rico. I've actually beat other welders out of work because the truck could get into places their full sizes couldn't. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated, thanks.  

I'd lean twards the air bag helpers. and bigger brakes/axle. springs will make the thing ride like a lumberwagon when its empty.  

I am not a fan of airbag for this. I like hard springs because they add more stability and torque flex control too. Bigger concern is axle and tires because you could easily overload them. If this welder weighs close to 1000 lbs or more, you do not need/want it in the back of a Ranger.  

The welder weighs in at 700 lbs, and is in the truck tempararely until the old welders trailer is upgraded. I still would like to beef up suspension, even after the welder is offloaded I still haul steel on my racks. The suspension sags but not as much because the weight is ditributed over the length of the truck,but still sags. I'm leaning toward hard springs, who offers upgrade spring pack, or any other options? My tires handle the weight real well, they're Cooper SST mud terrains with an E load rating. Even with all the years of lugging around my equipment the 8.8 axle is doing well. I started putting synthetic gear oil in my complete drivetrain about two years ago, and have noticed a big differance in the performance of componants. I do agree with mudb8 about brakes though, you need a football feild to stop this sucker when fully loaded with my equipment.  

I would strongly suggest that you go to a spring shop and have one more leaf cut and added to the stack on each side. This will add about 400 lbs or a bit more of capacity and will not effect ride too much. It will improve handling loaded and towing and give it a more solid stable feel as stock springs are pretty light. This mod is not hard to do and I have done it many times myself and with air tools it can be done quickly too. BTW, I am not talking about a bolt on add a leaf but a actual leaf added to stack. Any good spring shop could fix you right up. I would not add two leafs though because ride would suffer a lot more.  

one more leaf is good, by the time you get stacked leafs as stable as a pair of self leveling air bags you'll be sporting a few inches of unwanted lift...
if you want more stability get a sway bar and new shocks not more leafs.

when a trailer is added later the advantages of the bags will be even more, and properly equipt with brakes it'll actually be able to stop as well.  

look in four wheel parts wholesalers.com, enter you truck,n model and look areound for what options in brakes and suspension they have. i am a fan of bags meself, but ine more thing to consider, frame. is it flexing? any substantial weight carrying capy,will affect the torsional integrity, but at 700 lbs,it probably is within the design perameters.
but then again, its only my opinion
luck to ya and happy wheelin  

Thanks for info guys, I think I'm going to install a new set of springs with air bag helpers. The springs should be replaced anyway, 8 years of heavy hauling you know. Who makes the best airbag for your buck, I know a freind of mine put a set of Firestone bags from Summit on his Tahoe and he was real disapointed.  

mudb8-.:
one more leaf is good, by the time you get stacked leafs as stable as a pair of self leveling air bags you'll be sporting a few inches of unwanted lift...
if you want more stability get a sway bar and new shocks not more leafs.

when a trailer is added later the advantages of the bags will be even more, and properly equipt with brakes it'll actually be able to stop as well.

Not really. If you have the added leafs arched correctly, it will have little effect on empty ride height (maybe a inch) Plus with leafs not only to you get better load control but the friction between the added leaves dampens rode some under load. Air bag can be marshmellowy and not have the progressive resistance to rebound load increase because air is highly compressible. To me air bags are a bandaid fix at best for this. Plus they do nothing to increase/stiffen resistance to axle wrap under load too.  

somebody needs to go for a ride in a loaded truck equipt with properly set up bag suspension...  

air ride technologies is doing some freakin amazing stuff with air ride on tuners as well as classic muscle...check out the August CarCraft story about the chevelle on air. but i would prefer in this case to just add the leaf or replace the whole pack for the sake of savin a buck.  

Yeh I think I'm going with a combination of both. Brand new spring pack first, see how it sits, then add a leaf. If i'm not happy with that I'll add air bags. Hey cheapest mod first right, them air bags are expensive, after you add price of controller and compressor and related equipment. Plus I've scrapped modifiing old trailer, and decided to build complete new one. This way all equipment will be on trailer, and I can add to the trailer a itergrated work bench. Then when I'm not working there is nothing on truck, except rack. I'm going to modify that as well to fold out of way when not in use.  

mudb8-.:
somebody needs to go for a ride in a loaded truck equipt with properly set up bag suspension...

There is a bit of a difference between a linked suspension designed for air bag and throwing a balloon bag on a leaf spring truck. Linked air bag setup are design to work that way and the links control axle torque too while bags support load. With leaf springs, air bags do not increase axle torque control plus they change load support centers. With leafs you support the frame load about 18 to 2o inches (on that vehicle) fore and aft of axle center line to load is carried on frame from these points. When you tow, the hitch is not to far from where the rear of springs support frame and when you beef up springs with added leafs you are adding more support to rear of frame under heavy tongue load. With "bags" to are not adding support to rear of frame for hitch and are moving the center of added support forward to axle centerline which means the frame can flex more because it is trying to carry the added weigh support much further forward rather near rear of frame where it needs to be as the frame was designed.  

Jungleboy4:
Yeh I think I'm going with a combination of both. Brand new spring pack first, see how it sits, then add a leaf. If i'm not happy with that I'll add air bags. Hey cheapest mod first right, them air bags are expensive, after you add price of controller and compressor and related equipment. Plus I've scrapped modifiing old trailer, and decided to build complete new one. This way all equipment will be on trailer, and I can add to the trailer a itergrated work bench. Then when I'm not working there is nothing on truck, except rack. I'm going to modify that as well to fold out of way when not in use.

Do not waste time and money on new springs because it is not going to fix anything unless new spring have more leafs. The leaf upgrade works well and is cheap. Been doing it for many years. Several years ago a freind of mine bought a 05 2500 CC Dmax that turned out not to be so HD with a high trailer tongue weight because GM has reduced spring rate for ride(his older truck had not problem with weight) When it was a about 2 weeks old we installed extra leafs in rear at my place with my air tools (it took less a hour from start to finish with two of us) and "fixed" the problem.  

Jungleboy4:
Yeh I think I'm going with a combination of both. Brand new spring pack first, see how it sits, then add a leaf. If i'm not happy with that I'll add air bags. Hey cheapest mod first right, them air bags are expensive, after you add price of controller and compressor and related equipment. Plus I've scrapped modifiing old trailer, and decided to build complete new one. This way all equipment will be on trailer, and I can add to the trailer a itergrated work bench. Then when I'm not working there is nothing on truck, except rack. I'm going to modify that as well to fold out of way when not in use.

SnoMan:
Do not waste time and money on new springs because it is not going to fix anything unless new spring have more leafs. The leaf upgrade works well and is cheap. Been doing it for many years. Several years ago a freind of mine bought a 05 2500 CC Dmax that turned out not to be so HD with a high trailer tongue weight because GM has reduced spring rate for ride(his older truck had not problem with weight) When it was a about 2 weeks old we installed extra leafs in rear at my place with my air tools (it took less a hour from start to finish with two of us) and "fixed" the problem.

Ok sounds even better, don't have to spend as much money. Thats always a good thing. Thanks for the input, I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm planning alot of upgrades to the truck in the future; Atlas 2 t-case, solid axle front  are the biggest planned. I see alot of off-road even in my work as much as play. The truck has to be tough, haven't any trouble in past, but you can always improve any rig. I've had to trek through the jungle here many time to get to a busted bulldozer or damaged cell phone tower to fix.