Ride and handling of static drop vs airbags

[Overdriven]

My 67 lwb came with a cheap airbagit.com fbss kit installed by the previous owner. With 60psi front and 30psi rear it has about a 3/5 drop and the ride is nice, it's not Cadillac cushy but it doesn't beat you up like my totally stock 06 XRunner does. The shocks could use a little more rebound but they're crusty oldies, stock length on stock mounts and stock track bar so those need to be addressed either way. There's also no sway bars, no power steering and non power 4 wheel drum.

Power steering can wait until I swap out the 6cyl but I've decided not to wait until winter to upgrade to disc and rebuilding the suspension. I am likely going with the 4 wheel 12" disc kit from POL with a set of 18x8.5 and 18x9.5 wheels. I don't care about going up and down, 3/5 or 4/6 is as low as I want to go and I want to keep about a 1" rake. But how good is the ride on a static 3/5 drop? How good is the handling on airbags with sway bars? I'm not looking for an autocross monster but I would like the suspension to be confidence inspiring when taking corners fast and not beat me up.

[bjkttr]

Following

[PGSigns]

Good shocks and a sway bar will make a world of difference. My 66 is static drop and rides pretty good.
Jimmy

[68Stepbed]

Here's how a 4.5/6.75 drop with factory sway bar handles. Brakes are stock 12" rotors with Hawk HP Plus pads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VD47-Tezc

In this video, you can see the difference in the white truck that has a full custom suspension compared to mine with lowered stock suspension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laQ1sjKAp0

[chase@ridetech]

I am an Air guy because I like the look and the adjustability of air, but I can get you a great ride and a great stance with either air or coilover.

If you are just looking for some upgrades to what you already have, we will have our StreetGrip C-10 Series out shortly. In the new kit, we upgrade the stock arms with new Delrin bushings and a tall balljoint. We also do adjustable shocks, a front sway bar and a dual rate coilspring.

We are still in the testing phase, but here is a clip on a Chevelle change over with our StreetGrip series and we expect a similar outcome with our C-10 kits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcnUcxlVdAw

[Overdriven]

Thanks for the responses guys. Matt thanks for the videos, love your truck and it looks like it's doing well on the course especially considering the small number of mods. I've all but settled on the Ramblers after seeing your truck around here. How is the ride in your truck?

I'm just up in the air as far as which way to go. In my mind air ride adds things to go wrong and there's already some wiring and plumbing issues (zip ties everywhere and no grommets anywhere on the lines or wires) to sort out from the previous owners installation of this cheap kit with unknown bags. Plus a valve that has started to stick and there's no way to drain the tank currently. I never intended to deal with any of this, was just going to ditch it but the truck does ride nice. So after going back and forth between this nice riding 49 year old truck and my harsh riding 10 year old XRunner daily driver I'm worried about static drop ride quality.

Btw I've got about a $6k budget for this round of mods. Want to do a suspension rebuild, disc conversion with 5 lug conversion so might as well splurge a little for 4 wheel disc, obviously wheels and tires, sway bar(s) and carrier bearing replacement. Might be able to sneak some tubular arms in there but a full suspension kit from Ridetech or No Limit or a new air ride setup is definitely out of the budget.