air bags on truck

[beaudin12]

We were told that by adding air bags to our truck we could pull a 5th wheel that is heavier than the manufacturers recommendations. Does anyone know about this? We have been told by more than one RV dealership that this is so.

[mdamerell]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
"The bags do not change how much weight your truck can carry"

OK, lets discuss that. If that were the case how does my new 15 with factory AIR BAGS support at least a 6K load? It sure is not the wimpy spring pack.

You can say adding bags does not change your trucks ratings for sure.

The air bags will not change the manufactures ratings. The axles and drive train will still only perform as rated. The bags just help the ride quality.

The air ride suspension of your RAM is a different situation than adding air bags to a stock leaf suspension. In the case of the RAM (like on a semi) the air bags are the designed suspension.

Apples and Oranges

[noteven]

Full hydraulic shocks work nice when air spring capacity is added to stock wagon spring suspensions vs one way shocks.

[Cummins12V98]

"The bags do not change how much weight your truck can carry"

OK, lets discuss that. If that were the case how does my new 15 with factory AIR BAGS support at least a 6K load? It sure is not the wimpy spring pack.

You can say adding bags does not change your trucks ratings for sure.

[C-Bears]

About half of the posted information is false, and about half is actual fact. Some dealers will suggest adding bags in order to make a sale. The bags do not change how much weight your truck can carry.

Bags can change how your truck rides and they can ensure that your headlights are aimed correctly. I have an on-board compressor so I can change the amount of air in my bags while going down the road, which can effect my ride for certain road conditions. I can also lower my height about an inch if need be by running my bag pressure down to about 5 or 10psi while towing.

[Cummins12V98]

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Basically the manufactures publish the "Maximum towing ability" rating by taking a stock truck, without the 4 wheel drive 400 pound option, or any other options, and add a 154 pound driver. No passengers, not even 3 pounds of sandwich and diet coke.

Say the curb weight with the driver is 7,200 pounds. The GCVWR with truck and trailer is 22,200 pounds. Then they publish 'It can tow 15,000 pounds'. However this is not true. If the GVWR of the pickup is only 8,800 pounds (like 2004 and earlier F-250's or 9,200 pounds like the older GMC 2500 trucks) then the cargo rating on the truck is less than 2,000 pounds, and fifth wheel towing would be limited to only about 10,000 pounds before going over the GVWR of the truck.

And if you should want to go camping with your family, and take along 500 pounds of passengers, and perhaps install a 150 pound hitch in the truck to tow that fifth wheel, your truck curb weight will increase to say 7,850 pounds. Now even a 11,500 pound GVWR SRW F-350 made after 2005 would seem limiting on what fifth wheel you can safely tow before going over the GVWR. 11,500 - 7,850 = 3,650 pounds. Take a 15,000 pound fifth wheel, and 20% of that is 3,000 pounds on the pin. That will put you just under the pickup's GVWR by about 650 pounds. You will not be over the rear axle weight rating (something like 7,000 pounds in the case of the F-350 2005 and later with 18" rims and "E" rated tires). But the truck's braking system was designed to stop the entire 11,500 pounds, not 12,350 pounds or whatever someone might load it up to.

Get the right truck, and until then - select a travel trailer that is well within your cargo rating on the truck that you have, until you can get the truck that is needed to tow the fifth wheel that is of your dreams!

Have fun camping!

Fred.

Good points!

[Cummins12V98]

mdamerell wrote:
I have air bags but that's because I was sitting a 1/4" off the overloads and hated the second bounce when I bounced off the overloads. Lift about an 1" from the overloads and life is good. I still have a 1,000# of cargo capacity when I scaled out. Purely for ride quality.

On my 11 Dually the bags and Bilstien's were for ride quality. They both did a nice job.

[rhagfo]

alboy wrote:
i doubt there are many posters that have used bags on here, But are experts on there use ,sound Familiar? Yes i have used them and used properly they can add to your towing enjoyment,

I would have to disagree with that, seems when a chucking issue comes up the first response is put bags on it!

[Golden_HVAC]

Basically the manufactures publish the "Maximum towing ability" rating by taking a stock truck, without the 4 wheel drive 400 pound option, or any other options, and add a 154 pound driver. No passengers, not even 3 pounds of sandwich and diet coke.

Say the curb weight with the driver is 7,200 pounds. The GCVWR with truck and trailer is 22,200 pounds. Then they publish 'It can tow 15,000 pounds'. However this is not true. If the GVWR of the pickup is only 8,800 pounds (like 2004 and earlier F-250's or 9,200 pounds like the older GMC 2500 trucks) then the cargo rating on the truck is less than 2,000 pounds, and fifth wheel towing would be limited to only about 10,000 pounds before going over the GVWR of the truck.

And if you should want to go camping with your family, and take along 500 pounds of passengers, and perhaps install a 150 pound hitch in the truck to tow that fifth wheel, your truck curb weight will increase to say 7,850 pounds. Now even a 11,500 pound GVWR SRW F-350 made after 2005 would seem limiting on what fifth wheel you can safely tow before going over the GVWR. 11,500 - 7,850 = 3,650 pounds. Take a 15,000 pound fifth wheel, and 20% of that is 3,000 pounds on the pin. That will put you just under the pickup's GVWR by about 650 pounds. You will not be over the rear axle weight rating (something like 7,000 pounds in the case of the F-350 2005 and later with 18" rims and "E" rated tires). But the truck's braking system was designed to stop the entire 11,500 pounds, not 12,350 pounds or whatever someone might load it up to.

Get the right truck, and until then - select a travel trailer that is well within your cargo rating on the truck that you have, until you can get the truck that is needed to tow the fifth wheel that is of your dreams!

Have fun camping!

Fred.

[RustyJC]

No, airbags do not change the truck's ratings.

Yes, airbags are useful to level out the truck to improve the ride (getting the rear suspension away from the overloads and stiffening the spring rate) and keeping the headlights out of the eyes of oncoming traffic. Pulling our Mobile Suites, I run the Firestone RideRite airbags at 37.5 PSIG on our truck.

Rusty

[mdamerell]

I have air bags but that's because I was sitting a 1/4" off the overloads and hated the second bounce when I bounced off the overloads. Lift about an 1" from the overloads and life is good. I still have a 1,000# of cargo capacity when I scaled out. Purely for ride quality.

[alboy]

i doubt there are many posters that have used bags on here, But are experts on there use ,sound Familiar? Yes i have used them and used properly they can add to your towing enjoyment,

[rhagfo]

donn0128 wrote:
If you need airbags, your overloaded!

Only exception is if the TV has been leveled!

There is a difference between NEED and WANT. Many use to correct the issues that good set of shocks would fix.

I don't HAVE a need, or a desire for bags, a set of Bil's and shocks on the 5er made all the difference. Rather than mask the problem, I went for the root cause.

[Cummins12V98]

YnotTurbo wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
If you need airbags, your overloaded!

This is not accurate. I have airbags and I am not overloaded. It helps with stability and keeps the load level.

I looked at your pics. Nice setup! What air pressure are you running in your bags when loaded? What is your pin weight?

In my opinion you look high in the rear and your RV is nose high. One pic shows about 25psi I assume that was unloaded?

My 11 same truck as yours I ran 30 psi loaded and it ran level with 4K pin then with 5K later it was a tad low in the rear but looked fine and handled good.

Here is my 15 with air ride, 5K pin in "alt trailer" mode.

[noteven]

MARKW8 wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
If you need airbags, your overloaded!

My truck is within all limits with my 15.5k loaded 5er. It both rides level, and handles bridge approaches and things like that much better with airbags.

Mark

Not overloaded. But need air bags. Truck has air suspension system. Over.

[MARKW8]

donn0128 wrote:
If you need airbags, your overloaded!

My truck is within all limits with my 15.5k loaded 5er. It both rides level, and handles bridge approaches and things like that much better with airbags.

Mark