Thinking of a new Ram

donn0128 wrote:
If you can ever think of yourself in a new trailer get a 3500 SRW now. Same basic truck but higher load carrying capacity and better resale value.

They also ride much rougher when unloaded. I have a friend with a 2014 3500 SRW 4x4, diesel, crew cab, short bed, exact same truck as I had, except his was a SRW 3500 and had the diesel and 3.42s. It rode like cr@p compared to my 2500 when both were empty. Just something to think about.

My bother traded in his 2012 F350 PSD long bed for a 2014 Ram 2500 CTD short bed a few months ago. Both trucks are leveled. He finally got to tow his 10k bumper pull back from Copano Bay this past weekend. When I asked how it did he said the engine felt better than his old truck under load, but his old truck was better unloaded. The one thing he said he was surprised at was that he felt there was less squat in the 2500 than his F350 and it handled the sway noticeably better. I am not sure if his F350 had a sway bar or not.

I hooked a 14k 5er to my coil sprung 2500 and it sat level. I regularly towed a 12k 5er with no issues. In fact, the 2014 2500 with coils sagged less with the same 5er than my 2007 3500 SRW did with Torklift Stableloads installed.

Here's a 12k 5er that's 37 feet long with 3 slides (one of which is over the pin) and all stock rear suspension...IIRC, the pin weight was right around 2000# when I weighed it.





HERE'S A VIDEO where I am raising the landing gear and letting the 5er's pin weight settle on the truck.

Truck won't know it's there. The coils are only not well suited for high C of G loads. Does everything else fine.
If a person thinks it rides significantly better than a leaf truck though, it doesn't. Especially if you keep the rear tires aired up to keep the idiot light off.

If you can ever think of yourself in a new trailer get a 3500 SRW now. Same basic truck but higher load carrying capacity and better resale value.

What is your wife going to say about your new RAM ?

IMO coils are a far superior system than leaf springs for towing and general drive-ability. I've been in my 2500 Ram for nearly 5 years so my memory of my last truck is fading but I remember when I first purchased, the towing improvement was pretty drastic. The leaf springs were jarring and bouncy while the coil springs are just more smooth and consistent.

With only 1200# you will have very minimal sag. It you ever go heavier I highly recommend air bags as a supplement. I tow an 11K 5th wheel which puts about 2500# in my bed (250 for the hitch + the pin weight of the 5th + some gear in the bed). Even without the bags inflated the sag is minimal with the coils.