Towing Improvement Mods

I have found that 99% of my ride issues while towing the 5vr are related to road conditions, not the truck or camper. Not much I can do about the road conditions. It's possible all the suggested improvements won't help much because of the road.

Halmfamily wrote:
I added Torklift Stableloads to our truck last spring and it made a huge difference in bouncing especially overy bridge abutments. With the Stableloads the overload leafs are being utilized all the time. Tomorrow my son is installing get Bilstein 5100 shocks on the rear. This should be a huge improvement over the OEM shocks on the truck.

Installed the Bilstein 5100's on the rear today, big difference in ride quality. Old shocks totally spent. Can fully compress them by hand and no rebound left. Didn't realize they were that bad. Ordered new 4600's for the front today.

mekkerl wrote:
We are about to start our second season with our TV and 5'r in April. Our first season, last year, was great, but the towing experience seemed less than satisfactory. Some bucking, minor bouncing, etc. Unfortunately, I have nothing to compare it to as this is our first truck/5'r experience.

Does it buck, bounce, etc in all conditions?...all roads?...at all
speeds?

Or just some times and if so...have you ID'd under what circumstances?

Like a certain time of day...only on a certain section of road...only
on certain types of road...only at certain speeds...only when loaded
or empty or half loaded/fully loaded ?

On the loaded part, applies to both the TV and trailer

I've been reading some posts on those who had a better experience towing after they changed out the shocks on their TV. So that brings me to my question...what 'small' modifications can I do to help the towing experience for me and my family of six?

Shocks?
Sway Bar?
Pin Box?

Before adding new components or swapping out stuff...answer the
questions above

That will help ID the culprit(s) and/or reduce the choices of what
to add or swap out. Otherwise it can be very expensive and still
not solve the root cause...to have just a band aide...

"Sway Bar"...if you mean a anti-lean bar for the TV's rear...not a
fan of it...unless either you are going to boulevard race it when
empty, or for towing...also change the front anti-lean bar to match
the OEM dialed in torsional rigidity of the TV to keep the dialed
in under-steer.

"Under-Steer" and "Over-Steer" tendencies are dialed in (designed
in) by the OEM engineering team for all the conditions they are
told to design for. From empty, to half loaded, to fully loaded, to
towing a light trailer, to towing a heavy trailer, etc

"Under-Steer" and "Over-steer" is generally towards the top of
the performance conditions. Speed, acceleration/deceleration, straight
line, curves, etc

Bucking/bouncing generally has the shocks involved, but not solely

I just assumed that buying a late model (2013) 1-ton Diesel meant I would be getting the best towing experience without the need of modifications.

Not an absolute, it depends on lots of stuff

Your dually can tow that curb weight Space Shuttle much faster and
longer than that half ton...but it will not be able to go out on the free way...etc

If you have ID'd the section of road, repeat a drive over them
several times, but vary the speed from your normal to see if it
goes away partially or completely

It could be as simple as changing the tire PSI of the TV and trailer

Shocks on the trailer if not already there. Might as well start at the source.

What's your pin weight? Do you have any suspension aides now?
I'd say shocks and stiffen up the rear suspension.

I added Torklift Stableloads to our truck last spring and it made a huge difference in bouncing especially overy bridge abutments. With the Stableloads the overload leafs are being utilized all the time. Tomorrow my son is installing get Bilstein 5100 shocks on the rear. This should be a huge improvement over the OEM shocks on the truck.

Definitely shocks on the truck first. I have the same truck but 2012 and going from stock **** GM shocks to Bilsteins is night/day. I changed them at 20K mi and two of the GM shocks were already shot. They're pure junk...

All very useful information...it is a standard/short bed truck, and won't be changing that any time soon :)
Mileage is around 83k, and the pin is very close to the axle, not too far off it with the Andersen.
The truck sits very level, and the 5'r is about 1" high in the front due to the height of the truck bed.
I'm thinking bouncing or porpoising comes from old shocks and maybe not enough pin weight.
Not sure if doing anything to the camper would help...like shocks, etc...

Seems I can only add a link to a photo as opposed to attaching one...so can't show a photo of the set-up.

Factory shocks generally aren't the best so that's one option, and after that I'd look at bags or timbrens. You don't need either, but on my truck I found the latter really helped settle down the loaded ride. In particular it handles bumps at speed much better now. It wasn't necessary but to me the improvement was worth the small investment.

Well right off the bat, towing is never going to be like a Sunday ride to church in the family minivan. You've got a tow vehicle with a stiff suspension meant to carry weight, not ride like a cloud, and you've got a massive trailer behind you with even less attention paid to ride quality in the suspension design.

Bucking and bouncing can indicate that you've got too much weight on the truck and/or the weight is too far back. I assume you have a shortbed truck. Do you have anything like a Sidewinder hitch that places the actual pin of the trailer near the rear of the truck bed? Are you running a slider hitch in the rear position? The factory location of the pin should, ideally, be within a few inches of the truck axle.

Weight wise, unless you are all over 250lbs, or carry massive amounts of heavy items in the truck bed, you should be okay. The factory pin weight is just shy of 2000lbs on that trailer. 3000lbs, even 3500lbs, between pin, passengers, and stuff, is no problem for that truck.

How does it sit? Level? Squatting? If squatting you might want to add Timbrens or airbags to level it out.

Shocks never hurt, but I don't think they'll necessarily help in this case. That truck is 4 years old and depending on the mileage the factory shocks just might have bit it already.

If the truck is not swaying a sway bar won't make any difference.