what should be done to the suspension of your truck

[monicarick01]

I just purchase a 2006 AF1150, weight of the TC "3250" so that is what the manufacturer says, I am sure it will be more. I have a f-350 dually with firestone airbags already on the truck. Since the unit puts my truck at or over the gvwr what type of equipment would you all recommend to enhance the safety and the ride?

thank you a new TC owner

[ggadwa]

Great Discussion Thread on Truck Suspension. I have been through three Truck Campers and three FORD Super Duty Trucks in 25 plus years of truck camping. I have been through Super Springs, Overload Springs, various Anti Sway bars, both brands of Air Bags and Shocks from stock to Rancho 9000XL. Never felt we needed a front anti shock or anti sway suspension shock.

I am the most pleased with our current setup on the 2012 F350 6.7L Diesel Super Cab which has Stock 18 inch load range E Michelin Tires, Timbren Suspension System, stock Ford Sway bar (Hellwig would undoubtedly be better), Rancho 9000XL Shocks and last and best addition the Torklift Quick Release Stable Loads. Just finished a 2000 plus mile trip through Nevada and northern California and eastern Oregon. Lots of varying road conditions and lots of wind from every direction. The Eagle Cap 950 appropriately loaded and the Harley Hauler Enclosed Trailer behind.... all traveled very nicely with very minimal sway and roll.

Again Great Thread

GARY & Laurii
TC aholics
Stanley, IDAHO

[mike_mck]

monicarick01 wrote:
Well I weighed the truck with and without the camper. without the camper the front axle weighed 5251 with the camper it was 5371. The rear axle without the camper was 3900 and with the camper was 8230. The total weight of the truck without the camper was 9131 and with the camper 13621 so my camper is about 4490 pounds,, (please note that the scale was hard to read the lower 2 numbers so my numbers might not be exact to the 10 pound rating) That is in an almost dry state, no food cloths dishes family and the such. I am adding RS9000xl next week to help with the load and I already had the airbags that I inflate only as much as needed to help engage the overload springs and I plan on adding some home-made spring bumpers to help engage the springs earlier. I cannot justify 175 dollars for some rubber bumpers so I will use hockey pucks and see how that goes. After all is done I will test drive again to see how much roll I get. Bigger sway bars will be next if needed. I should have just bought an f-550 hahahah

Funny you should mention the F550. I owned a 1994 F350 7.3 Dually and had a 1994 Caribou loaded on it. 3500 LB dry weight. As others have mentioned probably 5000 lbs loaded. Camper was well over truck capacity. Rather than start modifying the F350 I sold it for $4500.00
and bought a 1999 F550 for $7000.00. No weight issue, No sway. Rides much nicer. Going to the F550 was a great move for me. YMMV.

[mkirsch]

when I use the air bags, which were put on to haul my 5th wheel. I only fill them up until my rubber bumper barely engages the over load spring. the rear rubber bumper engages the spring about 1 inch before the front bumper does so I only have the rear bumper engaging the spring until I hit a bump and then I am sure the front one engages.

If your overload springs are not FULLY engaged, front and rear, you have too much air in the airbags. That is your problem.

Unless the springs are engaged front and rear, they're not doing anything. When you hit a bump, they're "slapping" and giving you a harsher ride than necessary too.

Let some air out. If you don't like how it sits, get some Torklift Stableloads to make the overload springs engage sooner.

[monicarick01]

WOW, now that is something special! Shocks, airbags, rubber stoppers, leaf springs all in one. This could be the answer to all the questions.

Thank you for the post

[Bedlam]

Here is the link to RAS: http://www.activesuspension.com/

The idea behind this upgrade is that a coil spring is stretched as the leafs are compressed helping to preserve the leaf spring arch.

[monicarick01]

I am sorry but I do not know what an Active suspension upgrade is or a RAS. Could you please explain? Thank you.

when I use the air bags, which were put on to haul my 5th wheel. I only fill them up until my rubber bumper barely engages the over load spring. the rear rubber bumper engages the spring about 1 inch before the front bumper does so I only have the rear bumper engaging the spring until I hit a bump and then I am sure the front one engages. When I say front I do not mean front axle I mean front of the rear spring/

I hope there are people out camping. I got my slide out awning installed and I am ready to rock and roll all I need is the family not to be busy.

Thank you all for the information

[okan-star]

Camper on ,put 5 lbs in the bags just so you dont damage them and drive it ,see what the differance is . I suspect it will take most of the roll out , then look at how unlevel your truck is if at all and deal with that by leaf spring mods , if you want to , if its not sacked out maybe dont bother
Once your comfortable with the truck , how much is the tongue weight of the boat trailer , thats what you deal with
Unless its a real small aluminum boat , have brakes on the trailer
Adjust your driving style to the load

[Bedlam]

I had an interesting conversation with Roadmaster earlier this week. They suggested I keep the OEM sway bar and use the active suspension upgrade for best anti-sway. Their thought was that there was more value to adding RAS than replacing your existing sway bar. If you do not have a sway bar, then you should add one.

[monicarick01]

Well I weighed the truck with and without the camper. without the camper the front axle weighed 5251 with the camper it was 5371. The rear axle without the camper was 3900 and with the camper was 8230. The total weight of the truck without the camper was 9131 and with the camper 13621 so my camper is about 4490 pounds,, (please note that the scale was hard to read the lower 2 numbers so my numbers might not be exact to the 10 pound rating) That is in an almost dry state, no food cloths dishes family and the such. I am adding RS9000xl next week to help with the load and I already had the airbags that I inflate only as much as needed to help engage the overload springs and I plan on adding some home-made spring bumpers to help engage the springs earlier. I cannot justify 175 dollars for some rubber bumpers so I will use hockey pucks and see how that goes. After all is done I will test drive again to see how much roll I get. Bigger sway bars will be next if needed. I should have just bought an f-550 hahahah

[wintersun]

First you need to see how the camper sits on the truck. If it is level front to back and left to right then no need to add to the suspension.

Normally the stock shocks on pickup trucks are not really up to the task of dampening a heavy load like a camper. Replacing them with Bilsteins or Rancho shocks is a good idea.

Some trucks benefit from a rear anti-sway bar and the Fords more than most.

In terms of load capacity the limitation is usually the tires and with DRW this is not going to be the case as there are twice as many tires to carry the load.

[monicarick01]

I did my maiden voyage, see post. But it rolled on the corners to an an uncomfortable angle but rode overall very well compared to my large 5th wheel. I weighed it and the front axle was 5371 pounds and the rear was 8250 for a massive total weight of 13621. this was close to a dry weight, minus the wife and kids and dog and dishes and food and water. My rear axle on the truck decal says max weight of 9000, my dually tires with a max of 3195 per tires says it can handle more. I greatly appreciate all of your input so far.
I checked my springs and lowered the psi in my air bags so the truck was resting on the springs. I think I will price out heavier springs and a sway bar. I still want to pull a boat!!!!

Lord help me!

[Moose10]

monicarick01 wrote:
WOW you all get real serious when it comes to your trucks. I am having a hard time finding someone that does that kind of work. Les Schwab tires is about the only one that comes up when I google suspension. What type of shop does all your work for sway bars and bigger shocks and springs?

I'm going to guess that most do the work themselves. Personally I'm not comfortable with somebody else working on my truck.

Also, I just found (Google) a couple spring places in WA:
Carrier Spring Services - Sumas, WA 1-877-746-4772
Gitt's Spring Co. - www.gittspring.com
Everett Leaf Springs
Right Way Spring Co. - Tacoma

[devildog1971]

The best advise I can think of, go to a suspension shop, I tried super springs from a camper sales (they wanted to sell what they stock not what is best) did not fix my problem, the suspension shop owner told me ambulances in his county tried super springs his opinion basicly was they were not a problem solver. he put extra springs on my truck I no longer needed air bags any of the common t/c items sold at their stores. This shop owner fixes tractor trailers everything and most of these people are experts in suspensions and suspension upgrades and fixes. Best thing I ever did for handling and over all performance without other upgrades, in the long run if I had went there first I would have saved a lot of money and had a better safer truck

[Bedlam]

Much of this stuff is bolt on. The hardest part is getting old parts off that have rusted in place. Some of us can bribed to help you the rest don't need bribes.