2015 Ram 3500 DRW factory Air Bag Suspension??

From my understanding the system is essentially an airbag system similar to Firestone with an onboard sensor/control system to keep the truck level.
It seems to work well with the 5th wheel crowd, but I read something about you being unable to control it when hooking up or something.
It's a $1400 option so not sure if it's worth it or if other items would work better for a TC, such as stable loads, etc.
I think you would lose the ability to control each side individually to compensate for the TC being heavier on 1 side or being able to level the truck in an unlevel spot.
For less $, I think you would be better with the air bags with onboard compressor and controller.
You may get more responses by posting on the Tow Veh forum. I know there are several posters that have the auto level system.

I thought I would bring this back as there were no affirmative responses at the time and the thread got off track to aftermarket air suspension modifications.

I'm noticing more and more 2016 Ram 3500 dually's on the dealer lots with the factory Auto Level Rear Air Suspension. Has anyone tried this with a heavy TC? I see their youtube clips using this with a gooseneck. How would this work for payload sensitive TC use? Would you rule a truck purchase if it had it already as part of a package and you planned to have a 4500 pound camper and towed a boat?

Ah yes, aftermarket air suspension. I have neared mixed reviews.

Yeah shocks are VERY important. When I was converting my old '95 4Runner from coils to leaves I didn't order the shocks until the leaves were on for measurements. I drove it once about 4 miles and parked it.., scary arse ride!

John, I think you are right. The DRW 5500 I saw was not a factory item but a Kelderman 4-link refit . All I could see were the big-rig strength air ride bags. My observations were that there were no leaf springs at all and the very fast up and down oscillation of the axle. It looked like not enough dampening to me.
24 years ago I let the rear shocks on my '90 Jeep XJ get too far along the wear path. Very little dampening. This would have been O.K. but i was near Telluride going down a graded gravel road from Ophir to Vance Jct. when I encountered a dog leg turn. I had been down this road many times before but this time I hit a short section of THE most aggredious washboard ever and the rear axle started to hop; big time. I was going about 25 mph with the brakes full on. The rear end started to go out from under me so I eased the rig into the slide but it was too late. I went over the cliff head first. The first roll was an endo where the fibreglass tailgate blew out after hitting a small Aspen.The next 4 rolls were barrel rolls where i could count the times i was upside down by the weight on the seat belt. Of the 13 windows in the Jeep, 11 were gone including the sun roof. There is more to the story but the important part is that I'm convinced that if I had replaced the shocks before making the trip to CO there would have been enough dampening to mitigate the rear axle hop and subsequent 125 foot drop off the mountainside.
regards, as always, jefe

jefe 4x4 wrote:

To the O.P.'s question: I have no direct knowledge of the factory air suspension on new trucks. I do have first hand knowledge while following a new 3 or 4 series Dodge with air suspension. Of course I was very interested in watching how it performed generally on the highway. The truck had no load; no leaf springs; no coil springs. I was shocked. What I saw was a dually axle completely out of vertical control with the axle frantically jumping up and down with seemingly no control. It was like none of the tires were balanced. I did see some big shocks but they seemed to have no effect. The truck could not have been a year old.

I am not sure what you where following but the DRW does not have a air suspension option without leaf springs. The 3500 SRW/DRW setup is an air assist and has 2 thick leaf springs. The 2500's, which are only SRW, have to option for air only but that wouldn't be what you where following if it was a DRW.

Have you paid close attention to a leaf sprung DRW?? They jump and bounce all over the place too, and is why the cab stays stable.

Most people would be very surprised at how much a suspension moves around without transmitting the feeling into a cab.

About 6 years back I saw one of those big funny slope nose Durmax's that had AB suspension retrofit, he said it was great and adjustable...it was a first class suspension and hurky...so I assume it would work just fine. he also had a custom service side to fit the TC. Massive rig 4x4 DRW.

My 2001.5, 2 series Dodge has both the snow plow prep and camper package. The difference for the snow plow prep in 2001 was the width of the chain in the NV241HD transfer case: twice as wide to reduce the effects of shock loading, and higher spring rate coils in front.The rear output bearing was the same making it the same overall rating as a non-H.D.
To the O.P.'s question: I have no direct knowledge of the factory air suspension on new trucks. I do have first hand knowledge while following a new 3 or 4 series Dodge with air suspension. Of course I was very interested in watching how it performed generally on the highway. The truck had no load; no leaf springs; no coil springs. I was shocked. What I saw was a dually axle completely out of vertical control with the axle frantically jumping up and down with seemingly no control. It was like none of the tires were balanced. I did see some big shocks but they seemed to have no effect. The truck could not have been a year old.
So, my advice is to be sure to follow a prospective truck on the freeway or even on a rough country road, at speed, to see if there is any vertical movement of the axle.
I have watched air bag suspended trucks, large and small, operate for a long time.
Are they smoother than leaf or coil springs? Yep. Are they harder to control? Yes.
One of my jeeping buddies put an air bag suspension (from a truck) on his old Willys and there was always a control problem no matter how many shocks he put on. The air bags tended to launch the Jeep over on it's side. Currie had an interesting answer to control with their stabilizing rods: kind of a anti sway bar with stems.I've never seen those on a large rig but I think the concept would easily move to the heavier arena.
jefe

RWDIII wrote:
Not just Dodge
my F250 with sno plow pac said not for slide in camper

My 2015 F350 SRW has snowplow and camper package.

Check out the site. Replacement airbag front and rear suspension. Gonna do this to my new Ram 5500.
https://kelderman.com/

strangggggeeeee thats for sure talk about CYA