Forum Discussion

aviator41's avatar
aviator41
Explorer
Jul 11, 2016

Is my butt saggy?

We've been really enjoying our new Oakmont. We've put about 1200 miles on it already which may not souond like much, but we've only had it a month. we now certainly realize the utility and wonderful opportunities having an coach affords! We've met some great people and seen some amazing sunsets.

We're pulling a heavy trailer 13.5K dry with a Ford F350. Truck pulls it just fine. the B&W hitch provides a great ride and very little chucking if any at all. I can hitch the RV by myself and I'm really getting the hang of backing. the wife and I now have a good system for getting it backed into tight spaces.

This trailer DOES sag the rear of by truck, by a few inches actually, and I don't like how it looks. Is my next logical step from the stock suspension a set of air bags? I know firestone makes a great set and I'm willing to spend the money on a good setup.

Other than leveling the truck, what other advantages or disadvantages are there to using air bags to level the truck? if I install, it will have onboard air and an auto level setup, but the plan is to only do the rear axle at this time.

So let me have it. I need opinions and advice on getting the truck running level down the road.



Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum recommended limit of 640px maximum width.

  • laknox's avatar
    laknox
    Nomad
    Jul 15, 2016
    1jeep wrote:
    Drifter1959 wrote:
    Consider this: if you raise the rear of the truck, which is designed to squat with a load, you will raise the front of the 5er. Then you'll have to raise the trailer to match.


    wouldn't that be corrected by raising the 5th wheel hitch height?


    No, you'd have to lower the hitch in the bed OR raise the pin box on the FW.

    Lyle
  • 1jeep's avatar
    1jeep
    Explorer II
    Jul 15, 2016
    Im in agreement with the truck, having the same truck and similar trailer weight, I have yet to think I need to modify the suspension.
  • SoCalDesertRid1's avatar
    SoCalDesertRid1
    Explorer
    Jul 15, 2016
    1jeep wrote:
    Drifter1959 wrote:
    Consider this: if you raise the rear of the truck, which is designed to squat with a load, you will raise the front of the 5er. Then you'll have to raise the trailer to match.


    wouldn't that be corrected by raising the 5th wheel hitch height?
    No you would need to lower the hitch height to level the trailer. Resulting, there could be bedrail clearance issues, if the clearance is not already ample prior to raising the rear of the truck.

    Like was said earlier, since the measurements confirmed truck is only squatting less than 2" in the rear and the whole unlevel truck thing is an optical illusion, there is no reason to do anything with the truck or trailer.

    Going by the initial pictures, it appeared the truck must be squatting at least 4", maybe 6" in the rear, which was the cause for all the alarm. It turned out to be a false alarm.
  • 1jeep's avatar
    1jeep
    Explorer II
    Jul 15, 2016
    Drifter1959 wrote:
    Consider this: if you raise the rear of the truck, which is designed to squat with a load, you will raise the front of the 5er. Then you'll have to raise the trailer to match.


    wouldn't that be corrected by raising the 5th wheel hitch height?
  • Drifter1959's avatar
    Drifter1959
    Explorer
    Jul 15, 2016
    Consider this: if you raise the rear of the truck, which is designed to squat with a load, you will raise the front of the 5er. Then you'll have to raise the trailer to match.
  • SoCalDesertRid1's avatar
    SoCalDesertRid1
    Explorer
    Jul 14, 2016
    Sport45 wrote:
    So the rear settles 1-5/8" and the front 3/4"? Looks like most of the "sag" is optical illusion. I wouldn't spend a dime trying to correct it.
    I agree with that.
  • Sport45's avatar
    Sport45
    Explorer II
    Jul 14, 2016
    So the rear settles 1-5/8" and the front 3/4"? Looks like most of the "sag" is optical illusion. I wouldn't spend a dime trying to correct it.
  • 1jeep's avatar
    1jeep
    Explorer II
    Jul 14, 2016
    I hate to tell you this but your wife is right, your over thinking this too much, I suspect your s is just starting to touch the helpers in the rear just as mine does.

    GO camping and let the truck do the work it was designed for!
  • aviator41's avatar
    aviator41
    Explorer
    Jul 14, 2016
    Tells me my hitch is set up properly with enough weight distributed forward of the rear axle.

    once the bags are installed, I'll hook up and take it to a level spot, inflate the bags and take some measurements. I bet I end up having to move the arms of the companion hitch down a bit get the RV level doing down the road.

    My engineering brain is having way too much fun with this RV setup. the wife keeps telling me to quit tinkering and just go F'ing camp already!

    Maybe she's right.

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