Rough ride

[stew47]

Hello all. I'm pretty new to towing a fifth wheel. I have a 2008 f350 drw 6.8 and I'm towing a 32bl crossroads cruiser. I've posted before that I thought the ride was horrible hitting bumps and someone suggested I drop the tire pressure a little and it worked. Took the sharpness out of it. Well yesterday on us 23 in Michigan we experienced something new. A kind of bucking on the concrete highway that wanted to launch our drinks out of cup holders. What was that and how do I cure it.

[JBarca]

stew47 wrote:
The more I read about shocks on the fifth wheel the more it makes sense. It sounds like it wouldn't help with the concrete roads but a good mod for sure. Where's best place to find more info on parts and what axles I have?

This may help, I have the same problem just on our TT. The road is the NYS Thruway concrete road coming towards the Lackawanna toll booth in western NY. That 5 miles of road lights my rig up every time I go over it.

I have the 4600 Blistens on the truck, I have the Trail-Air equalzier and I have Monroe gas shocks on the trailer. I only have the single rear wheels F350.

Basically, the concrete humps create a natural frequency that sets the thing off. If I slow to 50mph it stops, 55 is bad and 60 is real, real bad. In my case I know may rear overload springs are engaged all the time but I'm using a WD hitch too. All I can do is slow down and wait it out. Thank goodness it is only about 3 to 5 miles.

To doing shocks, yes by all means. And do the rubber equalizer too. See Mor-Rydes rubber equalizer. I have used the Dexter and the Trail-Air, and I would now pic the Mor-ryde or Dexter.

The combo of the shocks and the rubber equalizer do a lot of good. The equalizer upgrade helps on the hard bounce impacts and the shocks tame down the frame flexing oscillations after the hard impact bounce.

I have not looked into the Mor-Ryde Centerpoint system. For my situation, the shocks and the equalizer really helped and gald I did it.

Adding TT Shock Absorbers (Long/lots of pics)

If you do not want to spring for the disk brakes, which is for sure superior, there is another option. Self adjusting brakes and a brake wiring upgrade. This will make the most out of electric drum brakes.
Dexter Self Adjusting Brakes (long W/pics and details)

Independent Brake Wire Feed Upgrade

Hope this helps

John

[Durb]

The best and easiest fix will be a TrailerSaver air hitch. You will have a smooth and controllable ride but your bottom will still hurt from the beating your wallet took. Seriously, the best trailer investment I made. I did lower my tire pressure, took off my 1 ton overload springs, put on 4600s removed the bump stops and installed air bags. Trailer shocks were not an option for me. Nothing helped but the air hitch.

[Cummins12V98]

stew47 wrote:
I didn't do shocks on truck yet. I'm probably going to have to get a crew cab truck soon. Kids told me the extended cab had plenty of room and they don't lol. The trailer a friend has been trying to talk me into the more ride system with disk brakes and well it's not that I'm opposed to it other than price. I guess I'd like to know if the more ride helps with expansion joints. Do you think shocks on conventional axles is pretty close to the mor ride?

I don't think I'm light on front of trailer. It's 9800 dry so pin height should be close to 2000 and that's probably pretty close. Tanks were empty, we didn't bring much, and propane tanks are full.

Put Bilstein 4600's on your truck and air bags set to 30psi when towing.

MORryde is the Cadillac system, nothing compares.

[rekoj71]

If the expansion joints repeat at a standard rate and your speed is just right and your wheelbase is just right you might have hit what would be similar to a resonance frequency, In which the spring bounce you get would bounce up and then as its just about down would be hit up again, but this time making it more pronounced and then even bigger and again and over and over. I find this most often on bridges where the expansion joints are more pronounced but have seen it on some highways too. If this is what's happening the only way to fix it is to alter your speed. It will feel like porpoiseing like someone else mentioned.

[stew47]

The more I read about shocks on the fifth wheel the more it makes sense. It sounds like it wouldn't help with the concrete roads but a good mod for sure. Where's best place to find more info on parts and what axles I have?

[Golfcart]

Every time I pull through oklahoma i feel like im getting paddled by a board while riding a horse. There are some awful sections of concrete roads, like posted above, where the expansion strips dont line up and give you one hell of a ride!

The easiest option is slow down. The best option is an air ride captains chair lol

[stew47]

Different sections of road had a different ride. The roads through flint seemed like something out of a mad max movie.

[stew47]

I didn't do shocks on truck yet. I'm probably going to have to get a crew cab truck soon. Kids told me the extended cab had plenty of room and they don't lol. The trailer a friend has been trying to talk me into the more ride system with disk brakes and well it's not that I'm opposed to it other than price. I guess I'd like to know if the more ride helps with expansion joints. Do you think shocks on conventional axles is pretty close to the mor ride?

I don't think I'm light on front of trailer. It's 9800 dry so pin height should be close to 2000 and that's probably pretty close. Tanks were empty, we didn't bring much, and propane tanks are full.

[SoCalDesertRid1]

If you have a light hitch load on the truck, you may be bouncing on and off the truck's rear axle overload springs. Lots of folks use overload spring bump stop extensions to get the overloads to contact sooner and stay contacting anytime the truck is loaded. This stops the on again, off again of the overload springs and reduces some of the bouncing of the truck's rear axle.

[rhagfo]

Did you ever put shocks on the 5er, and did you put Bil's on the TV??

[Durb]

It sounds like the expansion strips were spaced just so that combined with your speed created some porpoising like what would happen with a Jet Ski. Speeding up or slowing down might help but without an air hitch with shocks the bouncing of your trailer will be transmitted directly to your cab. There is a similar scenario on I5 south of Seattle and I just deal with until I get on better road.

[Hondavalk]

dwayneb236 wrote:


My cure was to slow down. Still did the bucking, just not as pronounced.

X2

[dwayneb236]

I've dealt with that on a roadway just south of Houston. I believe most of this road was elevated and I'm thinking the sections just did not line up level. Was annoying and felt like I was riding a horse for a few miles. This was with a bumper pull. Haven't been through with the fifth wheel yet.

So my guess is unlevel road sections. And yes, this was on concrete as well.

My cure was to slow down. Still did the bucking, just not as pronounced.