Nose high

We just bought a 2014 Montana 3900FB and pull it on a 2014 Ram 3500 dually they set it up at Camping World at Lowell Arkansas and it sets perfect. You might call them and ask them what they did. It pulls great and sets level.

Well I'm no mechanical engineer, but I think like one. And I don't think the equalizer between the springs is going do much load equalizing between the two axles.
If it was good at that, you would never have more weight on one axle than you do on the other. And that is not always the case.

So my opinion is ...if the trailer is only a little un-level ( I/2 inch or so, ignore it. But if it is a couple inches difference, I would try to fix it. A couple inches MUST cause un-equal wear & stress.

Either the truck /hitch needs to go down or the trailer needs to go up. If your axles are already under the springs there are a few things you could do. Some trailers have additional holes for the spring ends and the equalizer to move down an inch or two. Next after that would be to have longer shackles or u brackets. This can be done with a kit that is sold to actually correct axle misalignment. At the same time while providing axle fore and aft adjustment it lengthens the u shaped brackets that the springs and equalizer attach to providing more lift. About 2 inches. I wouldnt just lengthen the actual shackle. The next and more radical way is to cut the u shape brackets off the frame and build a sq tube sub frame that acts as a spacer that lowers those brackets and raises the trailer. When any of these things are done and the contact point of the tire gets farther way from the frame, you put more side leverage on all the parts so the sub frame needs to extend from side to side to provide strength. There is also a company that sells bars that more easily attach from side to side on the frame to provide rigidity. If I did the alignment/ u bracket extension I would also either use the manufactured cross braces or fab my own. When any rig is turned sharply there is a lot of twisting stress placed on all the components. Yes I have a 3500 Dodge and an older fifth. :)

You didn't say how much too high. I agree with previous if there is a couple of inches I wouldn't worry. On the SRW trucks I've been using my nose was a little high, but pulled perfect and never caused a problem. Just bought a DRW F350 and now the trailer is almost perfectly level. Both trucks have been 4WD but the dually seems to set a little low or else the B&W is just set up different from the Pullright SG. A little Won't hurt, but don't know what yours is.

Some good advice here. I think before I do anything too radical I will weigh each axel. Then I will know if I have a real problem. Thanks for the replies.

rtate wrote:
Some good advice here. I think before I do anything too radical I will weigh each axel. Then I will know if I have a real problem. Thanks for the replies.

While your are at it do a full set weighing just the truck axles then each axle of truck and trailer with full camping gear on board.

If you have 20% or more pin and the trailer axles are close you should be good to go.

Level is the safest way to tow. you might have to add a spacer. When I ordered my 5TH wheel. I had MorRyde install a two inch spacer to my 8K I.S. suspension so the 5th wheel would be level when traveling.

Lillyputz

rtate wrote:
Just bought a new truck and now my fifth wheel rides slightly nose high. Axels are moumted under the springs and the pin box is as low as I want to adjust it due to clearances with the truck. It seems to handle just fine but I am concerned about shifting too much weight on to the back axel. Does the trailer suspension tend to equalize the weight so that each axel carries approximately the same weight?

Most of the posts I've seen where people who have actually weighed their rig and know they're not level, don't seem to show much difference between the axles. Like < 200 lbs. Pretty small difference in the entire scheme of things. If it worries you that much, rotate the backs to the front on a regular basis. Your tires are much, much more likely to age out before anything else happens to them.

Lyle

I believe that everybody tends to overthink this one.

Unless the trailer shows tracking problems (nose-seeking, non-parallel track, etc) the difference in weight distribution is negligible for two or even three inches high in a thirty five foot trailer. A few hundred pounds out of 2,500 to 3,000 total on each wheel isn't going to destroy the tires.

People "talk" about uneven wear, but I cannot come up with a single documented case (go search) where tire failure was directly caused by nose-high (or nose-low for that matter) towing. Usually the talkers finally admit that there was also bad alignment, bent axle, cheap tires or some other contributing cause.

Since our tires usually age out well before the tread is gone it just isn't a real issue. If you are a super worrier, rotate the trailer tires to even up the "excessive wear".

I'm referring to arrow dinamics , braking and weight transfer. If level is not the safest, according to all trailer manufactories. then damn the nose high or low.

Lillyputz