Towing performance (Good and Bad) *long*

[Mschevey]

I made my first long haul with my rig the other week, and have a few comments/questions. Truck is stock almost completely.



Spec’s. 2001. 5, 2500, H. O. Cummins, 6 speed, trailer tow group, camper group. It had 30,000 miles at the beginning of the trip. I was towing a 24 ft. gooseneck, rated at 14,000 lbs. that weighs 4000 lbs empty.



Traveled from the Pittsburgh, PA area to just south of Ft. Worth, Tx. empty. I had a co-worker with me and we took turns driving. Made the trip in about 21 hours. The ride quality and handling were good. I averaged ~17-18 MPG at a speed of ~70 MPH. (Lets see a gasser that can do that. )



Return trip: with a 7500 lb tractor plus 3 sets of wheel weights. Total weight ~19,500 lbs. Started out and everything was acceptable. Good handling, ride and braking. Made it out of Tx. and into Ar. Here is where ride quality went south. The road had the rough expansion joints and they would get the truck bucking pretty badly. Decreasing or increasing speed had little effect. Handling was still acceptable and control was good, but we felt like we were getting whiplash in the cab. The combo. handled lone bumps well and big potholes well but the repetitive things are what it didn’t like. Checking tongue weight showed that we should have had enough (a little over 2500Lbs). Other wise the trip went well and the truck ran great. Return mileage was 13-14 MPG at 70 MPH. (I reiterate ‘Lets see a gasser do that. ’)



I am thinking of trying air bags, and/or better shocks, (Still has the stock shocks. ) to give a better ride over concrete roads. Any other suggestions or ideas will be appreciated. I can try to give any other information that someone may want, just ask. I will try to post a picture of the loaded rig this afternoon.



Sorry for the long post, Mike Schevey.

 

[WyoJim]

Mschevey... I-90 in eastern South Dakota did that to me with a 3000# slide in camper on and I finally had to slow down to 60 mph to be able to stand it.



You did not mention the empty tongue weight. I suspect from my experience towing horses in a 20 foot gooseneck that your tongue weight was heavy for the load. Moving the tractor back slightly or turning it around probably would have solved the problem. Or as a last resort slow down.



Nothing is the wrong with your suspension and that was great mileage.

 

[Ted Constantine]

Like Jim said you have nothing wrong but what you were experiencing is axle wrap. A bi-product of have those big spacer blocks between the the leaf spring and axle in the rear suspension. Every time you hit a series of expansion joints or any other repetitive feature that rear axle will hop around as it gains and looses a little traction. It can be helped with shocks but not cured but it can be cured with traction bars. Slowing down gives the truck an opportunity to settle between the bump and lessens the effect.

 

[LSMITH]

Mike, the Rancho 9000 shocks make a WORLD of difference on roads like you described, like Ted said they will not cure it but make it much more tolerable. Throw a set on the back at least if you are gonna tow often, I think you will find that they help enough that you do not "need" ladder bars. Hope this helps.



I am biased, but the 9K's are possibly the best money I have spent on my truck.

 

[RustyJC]

With the stock shocks, the wife, myself and both Shelties would get carsick towing our 5ver on the Interstate - expansion joint "bouncing" in the rear (shocks too soft) combined with an out-of-phase front end bounce that was there all the time (i. e. , loaded or unloaded).



At 2000 miles since new, we installed Rancho 9000's all around. When towing, settings of 4 in front and 5 in back snub everything down nicely. Unloaded, settings of 3 in front and 2 in back produce a much softer ride than stock, but with more shock control (no more 3-4 bounces of the front end after every bump). Frankly, these shocks were the difference between the truck being unusable and usable as a 5th wheel tower.



Rusty

 

[WyoJim]

LSMITH... I have just put Rancho 9000's on my truck and will be going through SD next month. I will see if there is a difference on that bad piece of road.



Ted... You may be right, but I have towed a 35 foot 5th wheel and that 20 foot gooseneck loaded with horses over those SD cracks with no ill effects. They drive the truck loaded with the slide in nuts. The goose neck is a 4 horse slant with a front tack room, which loads the horses more over the axles and lessens the hitch weight.

With the camper on it don't matter whether you are on the throttle or off, you better slow down or wear a neck brace.

I don't know how that stretch of highway is now but it was a way worse than the piece between Bozeman and Belgrade at its worst.

 

[Ted Constantine]

Jim I don't tow a gooseneck or 5ver so the effects of that I can not comment on. The worst stretch of 90 in MT or axle hop is just east of missoula heading west. Empty I thought I was going to throw up or S&^% myself. I don't get nearly as much effect with a well balanced trailer now that I have bilsteins. Shocks do tame it quite a bit. but not unloaded. I will probably break down and put on traction bars at some point

 

[moparguy]

Mike, Rancho 9000's do help, I have em, but still get beat up on that stretch of I-30 when pulling our 3 horse gooseneck trailer between Texarkana and Malvern. If pulling horses, I'll run the left hand lane and slow down, that helps.



After years of being voted as having the worst roads in the nation by the Truckers, it's getting better, just a matter of time for all the rebuild projects to be completed. Arkansas is spending a ton of money on it's interstate roads. Bout time.



RJR

 

[Mschevey]

Thanks for all the info. One other question, has anyone tried air bags or an entire air suspension?



With the server bandwidth trouble have they removed the option to put pictures in our posts? If so, can someone loan me some space and put a link to it here. I don't have access to web space.

Send me a PM or e-email to -- email address removed -- if willing.



Thanks Mike

 

[GLASMITHS]

Aiar Bags

Mschevey: I have air Bags on mine. The 5000# from Camping World. AirLifts. They will not dampen the bumps. The main reason that I put them on is to keep the factory height; the sagging rear end is very tiring. Trying to look over the dash

They do a very good job of that. I'm thinking very serious about the Rancho 9000.



There is just not much can be done for the bad expansion joints. I went to Beaumont, TX Tues, the expansion joints on I-10 for the first 15 miles in Tx are horrible. Figured it would be better going back loaded; however with 30 sheets of plywood, 35 "wet" treated 2x4s it was really worse (this is in the bed). And they aren't working on it

 

[Mschevey]

Couple of other quick notes.



1. My traler is a flat bed but I have a king-pin connection, 5th wheel hitch on it.



2. I am contemplating one of the following

-add on air bags (helpers)

-an entire air suspension, front and back.



At this point I like some of the complete air systems, but I am trying to find some feed back prior to investig that much money.



Mike

 

[johnrv4]

I know the road WyoJim

I know exactly what you are talking about Jim. . I towed a 21'TT on that road, and the ride was almost unbearable. I had tried different settings on the load leveler bars and different speeds, but nothing helped. It was so bad, my wife and I were both bouncing off of the seats. People passing us were laughing as they drove by. When we finally stopped(after about 25 miles), the medicine cabinet in the rear bathroom had lost all of it's contents, and the coats in the rear closet were laying in the bottom with all of the hooks on the hangers bent straight . Tried it again last year with a 23. 5' TT and the ride was a lot better with no bouncing or messes in the TT.

 

[JJW_ND]

I90 Bozman and Eastern SD

I don't think anything will total smooth out those roads. The spacing is just right the trailer starts boucing. Some trailers do better then others but all are rough. These are both very pounded out contrete Interstate roads.



I have found that a little lighter tonge weight helps. Tires aired to the max helps. We went to 17. 5 14ply trailer tires (140 psi max). No flex... ... no bouncing. It was scarry how the 10ply maxed at 80psi would flex.



jjw

ND

 

[rickhans]

I discovered another cause for the bucking, but it may not apply to your tractor, depending on what attachments you have on it. I posted a question last year with the exact same problem. I tow a goose neck flat bed with a 4x4 diesel 48' man lift on it. GCVW is about 24k pounds. I never changed the shocks, but discovered that the boom with the bucket on it was bouncing because It was floating in the air, even with tension on it with a tie down strap.



I wrapped a piece of carpet around the top of the frame at the front of the trailer, set the boom down on the trailer frame, and pulled it down tight with a big strap. Of course I had the rig tied front and rear with chains to keep it from moving. This eliminated 90% of the problem. I can now tow it at 65 mpg without much problem, although in the city on bad streets it still bucks.



Make sure the tractor and buckets or other hydraulic attachments are not floating free and are tied down to the trailer.

 

[DarrellB]

I more thing

I don't know what kind of goose neck you have but if you can, spread the rear axles on it. I have a 24' with a 4' dove tail and it has spread axles on it and I run them out as far as possible. This really smooths out the ride of the trailer, I've had over 28k on it and it really rides well even on the old broken down back roads around my house. If your axles don't spread then you will just have to try and find the "sweet spot" to load the tractor. Some pull better with more toung wait and some ride better with less it's just kind of trial and error. The more you haul with the trailer the better you'll get at figuring out were to load the equipment.



Happy Haulin

Big D

 

[MidwestMotorman]

Mike



Part of the problem is the camper package that gives you the overload springs. The truck will rebound like jumping on a trampoline if you are riding on certain spots on the overloads. Stiffer shocks will help.



Another trick to avoiding those rough spots is to jump into the fast lane or center lanes. You will annoy somebody, but you will retain your sanity. The slower right lane seems to have more rough spots than the others.

 

[Mschevey]

Here is a picture of the combination, now that we can post attachments again. Thanks for all the information. I am looking at installing a Kelderman air system in the back to help. Has anyone ever see this system up close. It looks like a good idea to me. www.keldermanmfg.com Mike

 

[MLee]

smooth out your ride-----

maybe Steve St. Laurent should chim in here and disscrib his development on his tracktion bars. though his development of the bars, he found that they eliminated almost all of the highway bounce you describe, he found that it was spring wrap though the tourque being applied caused this. go to his web sit and read what he has done on in them. just my pennies worth

marv.