Kelderman Suspension Install - Elevated Excursion

For front shock duty, the crew at the Custom Truck Shop chose King 2-inch reservoir shocks, which were re-valved by Mike at Super Shocks. Here Louie Morosan, slides the shock onto its top and bottom mounts.

Bolted up and tightened into place, the King 2-inch reservoir shock was ready to do battle and smooth out any bumps this Excursion may come across.

After thrashing on the front end for a few hours, the front suspension was complete, and we were able to move onto the rear.

Before the rear differential could be extracted from under the Excursion, the rear leaf springs were unbolted and removed. Two pairs of hands were used for this due to the weight of the rear springs.

The rearend was lowered out of position with a hydraulic differential jack and rolled off to the side for paint and the application of the rear Kelderman airbag brackets.

After being treated to a fresh coat of black paint, a polished differential cover from Off Road Unlimited was installed on the rear differential.

The supplied Kelderman rear suspension lower airbag brackets were mated to the rear differential as shown.

Here is a shot of the rearend after the lower rear 'bag brackets were installed and the rearend housing was given a facelift with a coat of paint and a polished Off Road Unlimited differential cover.

The rear Kelderman upper 'bag bracket and Panhard bar mount crossmember were lifted into place out back and set in the correct position according to the Kelderman instruction manual.

Once the rear 'bag bracket crossmember was in place, holes were drilled into the frame to carry out its permanent mounting.

While Troy and Kent were busy getting the upper 'bag bracket crossmember in place and bolting the four-link mounts to the frame, Louie was busy mating the rear airbags to the lower 'bag mounts on the rearend.

The rear differential is lifted back into position under the Excursion, and with Troy on one side and Kent on the other the studs on top of each air spring cup were aligned with the mounting holes in the top 'bag mount.

The rear four-link bars were secured to the front and rear mounts and tightened to spec.

This shot shows the rearend four-link bars secured into position at the rear mount. The rear Panhard bar was also installed at this time before moving on to set up the adjustable suspension system's plumbing.

Air valves are available with the Kelderman kit but we decided to use some valves that were lying around the shop. After the threads were wrapped with Teflon tape, Troy installed the air line fittings into the valves.