AF990 on F350 CC SRW
OK, so I've spent gobs of time reading about weights and trucks and what to do and what not to do. I've noticed many DRW owners have 9 foot campers and many have 11-12 footers, I've witnessed a Dodge...
Forum Discussion
The trick with any of these setups is to have sufficient spring capacity and shock dampening along with stiff tires and a front and rear stabilizer bars. I also think people rely too much on the air bags to address say which unloads their mechanical springs and makes them wallow on air cushions.
I took a progressive approach to my truck since this was my first time carrying a camper even though I had towed plenty of heavy trailers. Before I bought the camper, I had already upgraded the OEM 17" wheels to Ford's 18" (great deals if you can find new take-offs on Craigslist or at a dealer) and swapped to metal valve stems. Once I had the camper, I saw that the upper overloads were not making contact with the pads and added taller Energy Suspension bump stops. These engaged the springs but compressed too much resulting in sag on my F250 (if I had the taller axle blocks of the F350, it would not have been a problem). I upgraded the Energy Suspension stops to Torklift's upper StableLoads which fixed the sag but gave harsher ride when unloaded because the pad was within an inch of the overload spring. I mixed the ES and SL stops so each side one of each rather than trimming down the SL stops, but this gave me too much sag with the camper filled with water and I went back to using only the upper Stableloads. Once added the tongue weight of the trailer, the suspension again needed help - I added Firestone air bags at this point. I was able to level out but need about 90 PSI and the ride was bouncy. I added the lower StableLoads which helped with sag but also got rid of much of my sway and allowed me to run 50 PSI in my bags. At this point I was able to load heavy items forward in the camper and rear in the trailer to keep under my 18" tire limits, but it was an effort to do so and I started looking at other tire options. This is when I went up to 19.5's and shortly afterwards replaced my old OEM shocks with the heavier Rancho's. This progression was about the the first six months of owning the camper and then I had the setup configured tight with good handling and no sway.
When I upgraded trucks, it was because I knew we were buying our current Host. The new truck handled the camper with no upgrades or modifications, but the F250 was actually a more comfortable ride - I had too much truck for the weight I was carrying.
I took a progressive approach to my truck since this was my first time carrying a camper even though I had towed plenty of heavy trailers. Before I bought the camper, I had already upgraded the OEM 17" wheels to Ford's 18" (great deals if you can find new take-offs on Craigslist or at a dealer) and swapped to metal valve stems. Once I had the camper, I saw that the upper overloads were not making contact with the pads and added taller Energy Suspension bump stops. These engaged the springs but compressed too much resulting in sag on my F250 (if I had the taller axle blocks of the F350, it would not have been a problem). I upgraded the Energy Suspension stops to Torklift's upper StableLoads which fixed the sag but gave harsher ride when unloaded because the pad was within an inch of the overload spring. I mixed the ES and SL stops so each side one of each rather than trimming down the SL stops, but this gave me too much sag with the camper filled with water and I went back to using only the upper Stableloads. Once added the tongue weight of the trailer, the suspension again needed help - I added Firestone air bags at this point. I was able to level out but need about 90 PSI and the ride was bouncy. I added the lower StableLoads which helped with sag but also got rid of much of my sway and allowed me to run 50 PSI in my bags. At this point I was able to load heavy items forward in the camper and rear in the trailer to keep under my 18" tire limits, but it was an effort to do so and I started looking at other tire options. This is when I went up to 19.5's and shortly afterwards replaced my old OEM shocks with the heavier Rancho's. This progression was about the the first six months of owning the camper and then I had the setup configured tight with good handling and no sway.
When I upgraded trucks, it was because I knew we were buying our current Host. The new truck handled the camper with no upgrades or modifications, but the F250 was actually a more comfortable ride - I had too much truck for the weight I was carrying.
