Thoughts on the different suspension systems for TT's?

Atlee wrote:
Any thoughts out there on the quality and value of the different travel trailer suspension systems. The 3 I know of are Dexter E-Z Flex, MOR/RYDE CRE3000, and Trailaire Equa-Flex.

Hi Atlee,

Your first question dealt with quality and value of different suspension systems.

I'll answer that and comment on the equalizer too. You did not state what weight class of camper you are in. 5,000lb, 7,000, 10,000, 12,000 lb GVWR. Not that this matters that much but it helps let us know better what to talk about in regards to running gear.

I have redone about all of my running gear on my camper. Most was due to need, the few others was what I wanted. I'll list the areas I'm referring too. Sadly until recently, new campers have not changed much in supplied running gear over the years. Better upgrades have been available, but normally only on the aftermarket. Nowadays at least some of the upgrades are being offered as new from the factory. The competition is getting fierce and for the little money it takes at the factory to do this is not a lot. So different brands are offering them.

To let you know, my camper has a 10,000lb GVWR as a point of reference.

Running Gear Upgrades. Some are standard equipment, some not.

Tires and Wheels
Look at the GVWR of the camper being bought. Then look at the axle and tires capacity ratings. Some manufacturers size the tires and wheels to "not" include the weight of the loaded tongue. This allows a smaller axle and tire size. They are counting on "you" to read the fine print and make sure you do not accidentally overload one side of the camper. And they are counting on the truck to hold the loaded tongue weight.

Other manufactures rate the axles and tires to hold the entire GVWR, (including the loaded tongue weight). This allows the owner more breathing room on capacity if the floor plan you pick has the ability to load more cargo on one side, you have extra tire and axle capacity to cover it. I myself will not buy a camper not rated this way.

Certain brands sometimes offer upgraded axles and tire sizing. This happens more in the 5th wheel segment but can be on larger TT's too. My vote, get it.

Tire and wheel sizing. In approximately the last 5 years it has become more known that tandem axle trailers need a higher load capacity to deal with the heat generated from turning. It is now recommended that the tires/wheels be sized to allow 20% extra capacity above the highest loaded wheel. This can be hard to know when buying a new camper unless you have had to live through tire failures before and you know the loaded weight of each wheel. By at least getting the trailer built with tires, wheels and axles to handle the entire GVWR, it is the first step to allowing this 20% extra capacity to ever occur.

If the manufactrues offer an LT tire upgrade, get it.

I would also consider getting the wheels be balanced. Either by wheel weights using a special adapter to hold the wheel by the brake drums stud holes and not the hole in the trailer wheel rim. Another option is Magna Beads in the tires to create dynamic on the fly balancing.

Here was my saga

ST Tire Failure Analysis (Long - Lots of Pics)

ST225/75R15 to LT225/75R16 Conversion

Magna Beads tire balancing.

Equalizers on Leaf Spring or Torsion Axles

There are 2 common types of axle systems, leaf spring or torsion axles. The torsion axle uses a rubber cushioning system within the axle and allow all 4 wheels to be independant. While they make larger sizes of this, I have only seen them offered on 7,000 lb GVWR campers and under. This axle system has built in cushioning. It has some drawbacks too, this is no "perfect" system, more a matter of choice.

Leaf springs have been around a long time and do a good job of creating suspension capacity. However they also until recently normally come with a rigid equalizer. The rigid equalizer allows a lot of jolt, impact and vibration into the camper and axle assembly. I have used the Dexter EZ flex, and the Trail-Aire rubber equalizer. I have worked on the Mor-Ryde CR series of my buddy's camper. All 3 of these add benefit over the rigid equalizer.

I currently have the larger Trail-Aire equalizer. When I upgraded from 15 to 16" tires I had to deal with the trailer ride height and in my case, going from the larger Dexter unit to the Trail-Aire allows my system to work without have to redo spring hangers for wheel well clearance.

I'll say this on the performance. When I first converted from a rigid equalizer to a Dexter EZ flex, the first day out was, WOW I can feel a difference. That feeling of difference lasted about 2 camping trips and after that, the new norm of better was hard to remember what the old rigid felt like. But the jolt that the camper took over hard bumps was always better.

When I went from Dexter to Trail-Aire, I did not notice any difference.

I had the Dexter when it first came out. The rubber in the middle was defective. Dexter stood behind this as they had a supplier issue. I got 2 free entire EZ flex's until they fixed the rubber quality problem. After that, no issues.

The Trail-Aire use to be made by Trail-Aire. They then sold out to Lippert. I have the Lippert made one. The chrome plating on the outside is not great. Rust in the first year came and I had to add greaseable pivot pins as they did not come with them. The rubber also has find cracks in it after a year but it has not affected the performance or gotten bigger, yet. They use to make 2 sizes. A small one and a large one. I have the larger one. On a heavy trailer I would not buy the smaller one even though the ratings are there.

The Mor-Ryde is built very well in my opinion. Their name still stands for quality. They did not offer one when I was redoing mine.

Also to note, the standard nylon spring bushings do not last long. Less than 10,000 miles and they can be shot. They make bronze bushings with grease fittings and they now make a product called, Never-Fail bushings. I have the bronze with grease and I have the heavy duty thicker shackle kits from Dexter. Mor-Ryde also make this heavy shackle kit. This is a good adder to get in my opinion.

Here is my EZ flex upgrade, the 1st one EZ Flex upgrade

The Trail-Aire shows up in the ST to LT tire conversion link above.

Shock Absorbers

I 110% agree with Red Racer on this one. Get em. The difference is night and day between not having and having. On my camper without shocks I would get 6 full cycles of oscillation, up and down sine wave until it settled out going over a bump. All that flexing of the frame and the entire camper on this long trailer is a longevity concern. When I added shocks, those 6 oscillations went to 1. I will not ever again have a camper without shocks on a leaf spring setup.

Here is my shock upgrade, back then getting shock mounts was complex so I made my own. I see now, they are offered by a few manufactures.
Adding TT Shock Absorbers (Long/lots of pics)

Self Adjusting Brakes
Most campers come with manual adjust drum brakes. About every 3,000 to 5,000 miles of towing you need to crawl under and add a few clicks. And in between adjustments, you suffer loss of braking. I now see the Dexter self adjusting brakes being offered on the camper. Trust me, when buying them at OEM pricing this upgrade is not a lot. The parts inside that change could be less than $5 if that per axle. I added mine and they do offer good performance. They make a drum brake as good as it can get. Disk brakes have better stopping power, but that is a lot more upgrade.

Here is my upgrade Dexter Self Adjusting Brakes (long W/pics and details)

Axle Alignment - Leaf Springs
Up until recently, there was no way on axle leaf spring axles for thrust angle adjustment other than bending the axle tube. They now offer a course axle alignment adjuster called Correct Track. It allows the front and rear axles to be aligned more correct. Now, why does one even need this? Bottom line, because the hangers are not put on the camper correct in the first place or your axle is bent. Or there was twist in the trailer frame. Alko has made a fine adjustment device a long time ago but it is for larger axles. In my case, they welded the hangers on wrong and the axle where made wrong for the toe setting. I made my own axle seat adjuster and aligned the axles in my yard. If I ever buy a new camper... I will get an axle alignment readout before I ever take possession of it. That I'm sure will be a challenge, but I had to live through this.

Here is my upgrade TT axle alignment & install - Detailed (long lot's of pics)

Spring Hanger and Frame Reinforcement
If you have an I beam style frame and you have long hangers, you need to look at the way they created the hanger mount to the frame and if the frame is reinforced. If the frame and hangers are not reinforced, you can crack the web of the I beam and bend the hangers from turning. The heavier the camper, the worse this can be. This problem has been around a while and some TT manufacturers have fixed the issue. But some have not.

Mor-Ryde does sell a kit to reinforce the hangers however the I beam support is not part of this. Lippert does sell a kit to address the I beam failure. I did my own on both accounts.

See here: TT Spring Hanger Stiffening (Long, lots of pics)

Brake Wiring Upgrade
This is somewhat an industry problem and I have not seen aftermarket kits other than folks doing their own upgrade. Most all campers work well on day one when new on the amount of power that reaches the brake coils. Over time, corrosion sets in, wires get brittle, insulation cracks and wires in the axle tubes rub causing shorts in the axle tube. Others use Scotch lock connectors :M in a brake circuit and bare minimum wire size.

All those ills turn into losing braking current from ever reaching the brake coils. A minimum of a no 10 awg wire should be run from the 7 wire plug back to the axle area. From there, more issues exist over time between connections, insulation failures or even weeds dragging on axles yanking the wires loose.

Several here on the forum have done upgrades to solve these issues and enhance braking performance loss from poor connections and undersized wiring.

See here for mine: Independent Brake Wire Feed Upgrade

I do not know if you can buy the independent brake coil feed setup, but you can look under the camper and see if they are using scotch locks in the brake circuit. And you can see if they have small wire size on the main trunk line.

This may be more than you were thinking, the sad part is, most of all of these when building a camper new do not cost a lot to exchange the better parts for the not so better parts. Get as many as you can and then consider upgrading later. This also depends on how long you are going to keep the camper. In our case we planed to keep the camper a good long time. We still have it. If you are going to trade the trailer in 2 or 3 years, this might be a different story on what and when to fix.

Hope this helps and good luck

John