ed6060

Thanks Ken,
Nice Jeep...and setup!!
It's hard to keep the weight down on my Jeep with Dana 60's and small 36" SX's ..come to think of it I'm way past the GVW on the Jeep too!! These numbers just give engineers a bad name.

Ed

CD in NM

Thought I'd bring this back up to ask a question of you fellas who haul these big campers.

My neighbor has a Dodge 3500 SRW, Quad Cab. He is buying a used Lance, 9-1/2ft model. He currently has the Firestone Ride Rite Air Bags and was wondering about adding the bump stops to get into the stock overloaders?

Is there a way to mount up the Energy Saver Bump Stops and have them right at the overloaders/or very close to them? His worry is in regards to something happening to one of his air bags and a quick drop down into the overload springs. I know he is not running a lot of air pressure, somewhere around 20#s. Any help would be appreciated regarding his questions. A pic of this kind of install would be great too!! It would provide him something to look at and chew on, he's kind of a pic guy.

Thanks much in advance.

CD

CTD NUT

Obviously, the camper isn't very heavy if he only needs 20 psi in the bags to support that camper. If the OEM overloads and stoppers are in place, I would leave it at that. If a bag looses air, it shouldn't have very far at all to fall to end up touching the overload stoppers. I do not see any reason for concern here.

If the intent is to move overload stops closer to the overloads, that will make for a very poor riding truck since the overloads will be smacking their stops prematurely in the suspension travel. When the overloads hit their stops with a lightly loaded truck the speed of the suspension travel is suddenly and greatly reduced resulting in a bone-jarring ride - DON'T DO IT!!

CD in NM

I should have been a little clearer about the current 20#'s in the air bags - that is his empty/unloaded pressure. I think he is running that amount to raise the rear to have the clearance between his diff cover and his spare tire. He has 35" tires, spare is way too close to his Mag Hytec diff cover. I don't know what his pressure will be when he gets the Lance on his truck, and again, I think he's talking about having the stops to prevent the truck dropping on his diff cover. I will ask him to clarify this, but I think I am in the right direction.

CD

CTD NUT

Yikes, now I'm scared. He should NOT be using supplemental load support airbags as a means of additional suspension lift. If he has inadequate clearance as the result of over sized tires, he needs to address the problem with the appropriate leaf spring lift and only use the bags for what they were originally intended - additional load support. Same goes for the overload springs...they are for additional load support and will not work properly when forced to work as a primary means of load support in conjunction with the main leaf. This guy likely has a fair bit of money tied up in his truck and camper....there is just no good reason to be cutting corners here....the problem needs to be addressed properly. If the truck does not sit high enough in the rear to adequately clear the tires, install the appropriate lift main leafs or put the correct size tires on.

crobtex

My '99 has the factory camper pkg and towing pkg. These include sway bars front and rear and an extra spring on the rear. I also have Rancho 9000's and Firestone air bags.

A few years ago, I had a Sunlite pop-up with no air, hot water, etc. This was before I added the shocks and air bags. The truck carried it pretty well, but you could tell it was there.

Up until last month I had a fully self contained Lance 8.5'. Loaded, I'm sure it weighed in at at least 2500#. I don't mind telling you, on curvy road and roads with hard dips, it put a lot of strain on the truck. Not the Cummins, but the suspension. I think it was too much weight. Also, be sure you have good, at least, 8 ply tires.

I'm currently in negotiations to buy a 2001 Starcraft Lonestar pop-up, slide in. No inside shower or head. Even with the 22 gal water tank and hot water heater, I think my truck will handle it much better.

roadranger

I haul a 4100 lb Eagle Cap 950 and tow a 7000 lb tandem axle cargo trailer with my 2nd Gen 2500, with a few modifications.

It doesn't matter WHAT the camper's weight plate says, that's just a (way out) ballpark figure. Once you get all of your gear loaded in it and fill the tanks, it's MUCH heavier. My plate says 3215 lbs- it weighs out ready to go at 4120 lbs.

Your BIGGEST PROBLEM with a SRW truck and a 9.5-10 ft camper is being overloaded on your rear axle tires. You can ONLY find this out by going to an axle scale (like CAT scales at truckstops). In my case, the factory 16 in tires had to be replaced with 19.5 in. wheels and tires.

I had air bags installed by the RV dealer that sold me my first TC-a Lance.
The truck handled horribly, and after blowing a bag out in the boonies and coming back home "dead axle" I found the truck handled much better when settled down on the factory (2nd gen.) helper springs. Took the airbags off, and haven't looked back.

When we traded in the (smaller) Lance for the much heavier (bigger, w/slideout) Eagle Cap, I had a commercial truck spring shop install 4 leaf helper springs to replace the factory 2 leafs. They also re-arched the helpers to engage the stops on the frame sooner, so the truck sits level while solidly down on the helper springs. I also changed out the factory 3/4 in. rear sway bar with a Helwig 1 1/8 in. sway bar. Already had the Rancho adjustable shocks since the first TC.

Oh yeah, if you're going to tow ANYTHING behind a 9.5 ft. camper you'll have to replace the truck's receiver with a Class5 type receiver in order to handle the necessary hitch extension.

Hope this helps...

CD in NM

CTDNUT.

Did you READ what I said - right now he's got his bags aired up to get a little more clearance between the SPARE TIRE and DIFF COVER. Where you got using it as a supplemental LIFT vrs weight support and distribution?? Actually, I have the air bags on my truck AND when under load when you air them up you DO get a little lift in the process.

My original question was about using the energy suspension bumps to be able to get into the leafs quicker, meaning having them installed to be resting close to the overload leafs to decrease contact time, especially if you had a bag damaged on one side. I have seen fellas loose a bag off-road and the suspension drop to one side on that immediate basis can/is a VERY threatening issue to the stability of the entire vehicle in such circumstances. There have been discussions on this site regarding using the bump stops for this very issue, and I was looking to see if people here, hauling these campers, have done this, and how they did this. It is more of a PREVENTION thing, not some kind of mod for LIFT when a lift kit would be more appropriate.

He is taking care of the spare tire proximity to the diff cover, having a front tire mount installed on the front of his truck, probably as I am typing this, he received the spare tire relocation mount via UPS yesterday. Let that dead horse be burried.

roadranger.

Thanks for your explination. I do believe he has aftermarket overload spring packs, I am not sure if he is on them loaded or not. I will ask him about this, or take a look at his setup. He did go with the KORE Leveling kit, and I do believe he bought the rest of the KORE package with respect to his rear suspension. I think he still sits off the overload spring pack when loaded, not by a whole big amount, but enough that he was thinking about going ahead and installing the bump stops to just have contact right off the bat or be real close to it. He does have the larger sway bar, think it is a Helwig that he installed at the same time as the air bags.

I will persue a few more questions, look at what he's got for sure. Someone here did talk about adding the bump stops to be in the spring packs when loaded and just off them unloaded, I need to find that person and see if they have a pic or 2, it might just solve this easily, both in knowing how it is working out for them and how this stuff was put together.

Pic worth a thousand words.

CD

Marek Robinson

This topic is discussed at length on many of the RV forums. Keep in mind that you cannot legally increase the carrying capacity of a truck with add ons. Lot's of people will run these trucks much higher than what the GVWR is, but, my understanding is that "legally" you cannot weigh more than your GVWR. There is a difference between what the truck "can" can carry vs. what Dodge says it "can" carry.

The height of the camper and center of gravity will also have a dramatic impact on how safely you can carry it.