getpower1 wrote:
But when on the drive home, I hit a couple of bumps and the front end got light. So I pulled into the gas station and threw about 60lbs in the bags. That took me off of the overloads. I know from here that in order for them to work properly, they must be at least engaged.
First - "front end got light." That implies that the center of gravity on your TC is BEHIND the rear axle. Think of your truck as a children's see-saw - and your rear axle is the center of the see-saw/fulcrum. No matter how much you beef up your suspension on your rear axle - this problem will continue to exist, because you will still have too much weight behind the axle. What you need to do IF this is your problem is to move weight forward of the rear axle. Unloading the front end is a Bad Thing (tm) as that can cause you to loose control of the vehicle.
The first thing you should do is find out if this is your problem. Load up your camper (water, supplies, BBQ pit, propane, etc), fill your fuel tank, and run to your nearest truck scales. There are plenty of posts how to do that on the forum. Here are some good instructions from
Cat Scales themselves.The second thing you should do is remove the camper from the truck and get a second weigh. Now - compare the front axle weight loaded and unloaded. If your front axle weight drops when loaded, your center of gravity is behind your rear axle and you need to address that by keeping your fuel tank filled, fresh and/or waste tanks filled and/or put/move more supplies into the cab of your truck. (My suggestion is to add more beer to the rear of your cab.)
However - I doubt that is your real problem (But I still suggest you check your weights anyway, and the extra beer in the back of the cab is always a good thing.) I think you may need to do a little tuning on your suspension. When I got my TC, I had a problem with porpoising. I would hit a bump in the road, and I would rock forward/back multiple times before settling back down. This would be even worse on a road that was in bad shape where you had a series of bumps in the road. What I did to address that is that I got a set of Torklift Stableloads and better quality shocks all around and I had a far better ride.
If your truck has factory shocks, I think that would be the first thing you want to replace with some good aftermarket shocks. The factory shocks are selected to give you a comfortable ride when you take the truck for a test drive from the dealership and are not selected for use when the truck is loaded. Then see what you need to do from there.
Just my $0.02
