Air Bags

Ron Gratz wrote:

Campin LI wrote:
No weight distribution hitch - pump up air bags to bring back of truck up to unhitched height. Front of truck is not high. Why is this. The same weight is pushing down at the hitch. I would think the front of the truck would still rise because no weight is being transferred to the front of the truck.

In your hypothetical scenario, when you say, "front of truck is not high" -- to what are you comparing the front height? Unhitched height, hitched height prior to adding air to bags, or something else?

Ron

When WDH is engaged, front is higher than unhitched by about an inch and back is down by about 2 inches. When air bags are pumped up to get the rear back up to unhitched height, the front does not go down to unhitched height, it is still a little high. I can't say for sure that it is an inch high but it is around an inch higher. I would think that it should rise in the front as much as it rose in the back since weight distribution on the truck is the same with or without the bags pumped up and no WDH engaged.

On edit: To be more specific, No WDH - hook up trailer. Front is way up (not sure how high, maybe 3 inches?)and back is down. Pump up airbags and as back goes up, front goes down. This happening is what I don't get.

Please remember that this is all an after thought. I was on a mission to re adjust hitch due to addition of airbags. That night, I started thinking of how the front was reacting so there are no real measurements to that effect....But it did happen.

In the end, I dropped the hitch head 1 adjustment to keep the trailer level. Tilt remains the same and 10 lbs of air in the bags equates to 20 lbs when hitched. The back of the truck is up about an inch higher (not high enough to be equal to unhitched height). The front is about the same as pre-airbags (didn't measure). Ride is good and firm, no bounce and front is not near the jounce bumpers, so it is not overloaded at all.