ajriding wrote:
Check your engine block. If it is stamped with 53 then you got a lemon, otherwise that is a great engine, now the truck is junky, but the Cummins is great. The injector pump is the weak link. Put a gauge on the lift pump and never let the psi drop. An after market lift pump like FASS or Air Dog is best, but $700. If you starve the injector pump of fuel it will quickly fail. Parts $1,500 and labor close to $2k. I have taken the pump off and put back on so is not a big deal, but you will pay lots to a mechanic to do it.
The air bags take weight off the truck frame and put it on the truck axle, bypassing the trucks leaf springs somewhat (so the weight is shared). The frame can take the weight, the axles can, the tires can,(you said the wheels can?) but the suspension components will just get wear faster as will the wheel bearings.
I assume you put the bags on top of the leaf springs? Putting them inside of the leafs will cause a tippy issue with the TC that a trailer would not cause.
Exhaust brakes are a wonderful thing.
The OP has a 2021, not a 2001....FWIW, your good advice ended with the 2nd Gen 24V trucks.
And he doesn't have leaf springs. And there's only 1 place for bags to go on his truck and that is outboard of the coil springs. (The reason the coil 2500s are inherently not as good as leafs for hauling a high c of g load like a TC is partly due to how soft the coils are and equally or moreso, that they are inboard of the frame rails.
But from my experience with these trucks and with leaf sprung trucks and TC's, a light to moderate weight camper like the OP has will haul just fine with the right upgrades.
