Air Shocks or Air Bags on TT

I bought the Hitch Weight Scale form E-Trailer. Without the 700# motorcycle, the hitch weight is 1500#.....With the bike it goes down to 1200#....40g water is at the axles so very little difference on hitch weight. Trailer dry is 4400#.....(I have 2 group 31 AGM batteries with associated wiring, battery box, circuit breakers, Inverter, etc and two 20# propane tanks on the hitch)

Not trying to fix anything....Trailer tows and handles fine. It has over 60,000 miles on it. Three times from Massachusetts to AZ, once from Ma to Oakland CA, a couple times to east Texas and a bunch of 2500 mile round trips....The whole point is to have quick and easy side-to-side leveling.....Now if airbags or airshocks give me some type of added benefit, that's a good thing....

Assuming lightly loaded it's running at 5500lb and the water & motorcycle are 1000#, that's 2750 vs 3250lb difference per axle. Far less percentage change than a pickup rear axle will see.

Just adding some shocks is the way to go but....

How far back is the motorcycle sitting and how heavy? Might be that you don't have enough hitch weight. I would swing by a CAT scale and see what you are dealing with before spending money to fix something that isn't broken.

A few additional comments to my original post....
The trailer I have is a Forest River 19RR TOY HAULER.....The load varies immensely...with water and motorcycle, upwards of 1000# +/-....The triler has a payload rating of somewhere around 3000#...
I've already replaced the equalizer with Dexter EZ-Flex equalizers and all wet bolts with bronze bushings ....HUGE IMPROVEMENT!
This trailer has already broken two leaf springs. And both times with no motorcycle aboard. I'm convinced the factory springs were not rated properly. Three weeks ago I replaced all the springs, brakes, bearings and races....and welded on new spring perches and flipped the axle to below the springs, giving me more room for my airbags/air shocks. With both devices I can simply run them at 10psi and they will have no effect on the original suspension. And using them to quickly level the trailer at a rest stop for an overnight would be a tremendous benefit. This trailer already has a heavy duty Vair compressor and 5 gallon air tank so the issue of "air" is no issue.
Still need to decide on air shocks or air bags......I'm absolutely going to do one or the other.

Rbertalotto wrote:
Thinking about adding airbags or air shocks on my travel trailer to improve the ride and to allow very easy side to side leveling. Thoughts?

Adjustable air based systems are intended to address situations where the vehicle operates under a wide range of loading.

The rear axle of your pickup is a good example. Running empty, the rear axle may be at around 3000lb. Loaded with a 5th wheel it might be upwards of 6000lb. A setup for a 3000lb load will be too weak for a 6000lb load and vice versa. Airbags can be filled or emptied to match the load.

Your average TT axle doesn't see nearly as much variation in load. Once you put your normal stuff in, about the only big difference is a 2-300lb of water if the tank is full vs empty. So standard shocks selected based on typical loading work just fine and don't introduce as much complication.

For a better ride simply add shocks. Air bags and air shocks are just additional springs and likely make the ride worse, unless the installed springs are overloaded. Using a cushioned equalizer like the EX-Flex will help.

This is a topic I like as I believe I corrected.
My 7 to 9 year old TTs I did the following.
Removed plastic & thin OEM suspension parts and replaced with HD shackles, brass bushings and wet bolts.
Next I removed the solid metal equalizers and replaced with Dexter EZ-Flex equalizers, that have a rubber cushion in between the springs. (There are other mfg with similar cushioning equlizers)
Better ride and less sway!

Rbertalotto wrote:
Thoughts?

Waste of money. Get yourself some Anderson levelers (or Beech, which are cheaper) and balance your tires. MUCH cheaper and will give you a smoother ride in the camper and legit leveling.

Air shocks are not normally the best shocks for ride, but would be better than the none most trailers come with. And to use for leveling you would need valve for each side. And valves mean more connections. More chance for leaks. And any air that leaks will need replaced, so will need compressor on demand, plus valves/switches to hold you level, more doors for Murphy.
Now if you where to replace the springs with bags and good shocks, you could improve the ride, but not sure it would be that much better than good springs with good shocks. Now if you put something over the tires, so you could park on boards to level, dump air, lower step height, and lock trailer in place...