Truck Camper Questions ??

[JWhitcomb]

Cobra, what displeased you about the air bags?

 

[Cobra]

truck campers

Whitcomb

The air bags seemed to raise the truck up off the overloads and that caused lateral swaying. Uderstand this, the truck does sway with the camper on all the time but I felt the sway was worsened with the bags. When being passed by big rigs I felt the sway. I have been told it will be better with the Rancho 9000. I dunno now but in a few weeks I will know.



My son in law (super smart) was the first one to tell me that I had to let the truck back down onto the overloads or remove them all together. I did not want to remove them (overloads).



I still have the air bags so I can experiment.

 

[beartrace]

I started this post and want to thank everyone for all the great information. It seems that there is a lot of interest in the subject. I have decided to get the Rancho's and leave the factory overload springs as they are. I'll be picking up the camper in about 10 days and driving from South Fla to South Carolina. I'll decide if I need to do anything else after this trip. Lets keep posting the results as we try new things so we can all benefit.



I have one more question for those of you who have rails in the bed for your 5th wheel. Did you remove the rails or just set the truck camper on top of them?

 

[JWhitcomb]

Cobra

I see your point. My situation is a bit diffrent in that I wanted to raise my truck butt a bit to get back to level. The weight I am carrying makes the bags necessary and in fact any slight sway I had is gone. Big trucks can still cause a suck and sway situation but I really don't see any way to get rid of that and it is not too bad. When my stock shocks get loose I plan to add Rancho.



As a last comment, from the trucks I have seen with hitch rails in the bed it would seem you need to build up with plywood to make the whole surface level for a camper.

 

[Crazy Horse]

I pretty much agree with all you about the short comings of the airbags, plus there spendy$$. I pulled the factory overload springs out (the 2 on the top of the stack-"camper package") and went to the spring shop and had a 4 stack made to replace them. The spring shop rates them at 3,500 lbs. They work great on my 3500. My truck is a Hair asz-high with the camper in the bed and loaded. The scaled weight of the truck is 11,800 lbs. No leaky lines to deal with and it retains the factory ride when empty. Oh, by the way they were $75. 00 cheeper than the wholesale price of the firestone airbags.

 

[Rockcrawler]

Beartrace- glad to hear you are staying with the factory camper springs- this is the same set-up as the 3500- rated for 7500 lbs. As stated in this thread the rear tires are often the limiting factor. A good friend actually converted his LWB to a dually and was very pleased with the improved handling (too many mods to just switch trucks). The RS9000's are probably money well spent- I run them on the jeep and will soon get some for the dodge. The whole airbag thing sounds messy, perhaps they are often misused. If the camper brings the spring pack down to the overloads you will see a large benefit in sway due to the spring rate of the combined pack- I suspect the spring rate of the overload airbags is much more variable as the truck sways leading to squishy feeling- I would not run the airbags without a huge swaybar to counteract the softer spring rate. good luck!



PS- when I had a 1600 lb slide in I put 2x6's down to space the camper up above the 5er hitch rails.

 

[Crazy Horse]

Rock-I agree with you big time on the tires being the limiting factor when talking loads, that's why my 97 ford F-350 SRW went away. The 7,500 lb rating you came up with is for the entire stack of springs. When I replaced the factory "overloads" I gained 3,500 pounds additionally to the stack ratings. When considering the loss of the original overloads to that 7,500 lb rating it is very minimal. I mean you can grab those factory top 2 leaves and move them by hand??? How heavy duty are can this be? When I originally bought my Lance 9' 10" I thought my F-350 could handle the load, Wrong. The rear bumper was almost on the ground and the tires buldged badly w/ psi's up to max. I put airbags on which helped with the leveling but they inhibited axle travel, especially when empty. With the minimum air pressure in the bags it was nasty riding in the truck on unpaved roads or rough roads. That's not to mention the leaking problems. The ford went away,-way to much money to convert to dually. $4,000 - $5,000 to do it right. It was all a learning experience for the good. I now have Dodges that I love. One thing I do recommend, If you get the springs done save the old rubberband factory "camper package springs" that way if you ever want to switch back you can for any reason, they are easy enough to change.

 

[JohnMcIntyre]

I have airbags, R9000s and the Roadmaster active suspension upgrade (see links in the sigfile) and find them an indispensible combination, especially when hauling the slide-in camper. I've also travelled 3500 miles on the factory 16 inch tires and rims and when I swapped them out for Rickson 19. 5 rims and tires, it was a significant improvement to the ride.



Pity about the happijacs but you can't have it all!.

 

[HavinFun]

Crazy Horse,



What is the ride like with the camper on? Have you upgraded shocks yet?



It seems that with all of that spring rate, there wouldn't be enough damping, even with 9000's, to not be bouncing.



However, I might give your setup a try.

 

[Crazy Horse]

The truck rides pleasantly firm loaded, but not as firm as an empty 3500. I do have the Rancho 9000's on and w/ loaded keep the fronts at #2 and the rears at #3. My wife and I traveled with our 2 Chocolate Labs over 20,000 miles in seven months with the camper in the bed and the trailer on back. The truck scaled showing a payload of over 4,800 lbs between the front and rear axle. See Scale Ticket Between the BD Plug-n-Power and the spring job you could hardly tell the load was on. And of coarse when the camper is off, the overload springs come away from the spring tabs on the frame. You then maintain the factory ride with no potentially leaky lines to deal with.

 

[JFitzgerald]

When I brought my 12' Amerigo home from OH, it put my truck into a squat, more so than any other load I've hauled. That camper is heavy!



I have decided to semi-permanently mount the camper to the front of my gooseneck trailer and carry the Jeep on the rear.

 

[dewdo]

I have overloads, camper/trailer package, air bags on the rear and the Rancho 9000's. I find that the air bags aid in loading and unloading as well as leveling the camper. As for instability, I have never experienced any once I replaced the Happi Jacks with the

torque Lift tie downs. very stable at 12,960 lbs.



Dewdo in the other Washington

 

[beartrace]

Just got back from my first trip with the new 9' 10" Alpenlite Truck camper. (2000 miles) I have the factory camper package (overloads) and I added the Rancho 9000 adjustable shocks. I set the shocks on pos (5) on the back and pos (3) on the front. The camper weighs a little over 3000 lbs and the truck sits perfectly level after the camper sits down on the overloads. The whole outfit drives beautifully with no sway or any handling problems. The only time I noticed the camper was on the truck was in a head wind but I have engine & transmission upgrades planned to remedy that situation.