Traded in the travel trailer

[Oldtimecarp]

Traded the bunkhouse travel trailer in and brought this home on Thursday, went to Canada for the weekend on a short trip. Loving every thing about the fifth wheel. Didn't care for the way it sat so I added some airlift bags yesterday.
It is a 2016 Sundance 3700 rlb.

Moderator edit to re-size pictures to forum limit of 640px maximum width.

[DynoDragn]

Congrats on the new rig. Love the flat top look.

[Norskeman]

bucky wrote:
Is there an outdoor kitchen built into a slide?

Nice!
The air bags will help - I put 35# in the bags before I hitch up. Gain about 1" of the "squat".

[Oldtimecarp]

Just logged back in and was checking this post out and figured I'd upddate the post. That new fiver I originally posted was burned up in storage at 67 days old. All I can say is check and double check your policies, cause it sucked . Erie insurance was terrible. Brought the new fiver home same model just a 2018 rather a 16. I measured the unit hooked up to my ram and I'm at 13'8 to the front AC unit with the trail air flex air. The dealer is telling me that heartland doesn't offer low profile AC units.
Since the original post I added airlift bags and run them with 50lbs for this size unit. I can't drop my B&W companion as it is at lowest setting. The unit sits about 2 inches nose high with the new flex air pin box. Found it odd heartland doesn't offer a low pro AC unit. Anyone else have this problem ever?

[goducks10]

Nothing wrong with a leveling kit. I myself think trucks look nicer leveled out. A while back a guy with an F350/450 was complaining about rear sag. Ford builds the F450 fairly level. Maybe an inch or so higher in the rear. Bags are needed to re-level if you drop 4000lbs in it.

Sometimes bags help when other factors are in play.

[Oldtimecarp]

Greene728 wrote:
OP
If the leveling kit had that kind of negative effect on your truck (slightly dropping the rear) I'd consider removing it if it were me now that you have that big new fiver. It would also considerably help the bags by not having to level out such a large drop and would allow running them at a lower pressure of course. That is of course unless you like the kit. You have the truck to do the job but that leveling kit sure put it at a disadvantage with the new RV. I mean absolutely no offense cause it's your truck, but I never understood why people put leveling kits on HD trucks meant to carry heavy loads.

Keep in mind I've had the truck a year now, back then never anticipated having
A fifth wheel. Without the bags it was a 1" difference front to rear. ( not hooked up) Which is not what I wanted from the level kit. The bags with 20lbs make a great deal of difference with the
Fifth wheel hooked up. Through searching on here I read some use 20 to 50 lbs in bags when pulling. Through trial I will find out what works best for the setup. Curious to what some of you are running for psi in your air bags.

[Coach-man]

Great looking 5th wheel! It certainty a big one! Congrats and Good Luck!

[n0arp]

Greene728 wrote:
but I never understood why people put leveling kits on HD trucks meant to carry heavy loads.

Me either. But I'm about to level because Kelderman told me to. Apples to oranges, though. 🙂

[Greene728]

OP
If the leveling kit had that kind of negative effect on your truck (slightly dropping the rear) I'd consider removing it if it were me now that you have that big new fiver. It would also considerably help the bags by not having to level out such a large drop and would allow running them at a lower pressure of course. That is of course unless you like the kit. You have the truck to do the job but that leveling kit sure put it at a disadvantage with the new RV. I mean absolutely no offense cause it's your truck, but I never understood why people put leveling kits on HD trucks meant to carry heavy loads.

[n0arp]

goducks10 wrote:
If the OP has a leveling kit in the front then he's probably level front to back empty. Throw in 2500lbs and now the rear drops below level making it look like he's hauling 4000lbs. Some air bags would do the trick.

Anyway nice looking 5th wheel.

Ah, very true. I (ass)(u)(me)d a stock suspension and didn't consider that.

[goducks10]

If the OP has a leveling kit in the front then he's probably level front to back empty. Throw in 2500lbs and now the rear drops below level making it look like he's hauling 4000lbs. Some air bags would do the trick.

Anyway nice looking 5th wheel.

[n0arp]

My trailer has 185# heavier advertised pin, plus an Onan 5500 and a washer/dryer combo up front, and I have 51 gallon aux tank in my bed... And even with my LoadLifter 5000 airbags completely empty, my Chevy 2500 doesn't sit down that much. It rides almost perfectly level *before* I add only 5-15psi to the bags to restore some rake. Something doesn't add up.

[otrfun]

Congrats! Nice rig! With 42 ft., you've obviously got plenty of room to relax!

Agree with Cummins12V98, probably a good idea to have your rig CAT scaled.

Our 2016 Ram 3500 SRW squats more or less level with 3200 lbs. of payload (2800 lbs. of pin weight and approx. 400 lbs. gear in the truck). Have about 5 1/4" of rear suspension travel empty (top of the axle housing to the rubber axle stop). Loaded as mentioned, it drops about 3", with about 2 1/4" of travel remaining.

Looking at the picture, I'd say your pin weight could be as high as 3500-4000 lbs. That's a long trailer. With a lot of gear loaded in the basement and towards the front, the pin weight can creep up quickly.

[Cummins12V98]

Have you actually weighed the rear axle with everything FULLY loaded with passengers and......?

With 15,500# GVWR the min pin will be 3,100# @ 20 percent and very easily 3,875 @ 25 percent.

[Oldtimecarp]

Yes there is, I'll get some more pics up today or tomorrow. The outdoor kitchen is smaller than what I had on our trail runner 32 odk. But I'd imagine that is from being in a slide out.