I have a 2004 4.5 LLY 2500HD. I just purchased a 31' fith wheel TT which weighs 8200 lbs. My wife weighs 130 lbs and when she is ridding in the truck it is very rough on her...She feels beat up at the end of the day and its not much fun for her. How could I improve the ride when were are pulling?

Would adding different shocks be that much of an improvement?

Thanks
Steve

Swatkins,
They are telling me to order the firestone airbags, I asked the same question.
Rgds,
J

One of the biggest helpers in improving the ride is replacing the shocks with a set of Bilsteins. Can be had from Kennedy for a pretty good price too. It helped a ton with the ride in my truck both empty and pulling. Another thing is, do you have the leather seats? It took a while for the seats to "soften" up especially on the passenger side because no one sits there on my daily work commutes. Seemed like after 6 months or so, my wife said her seat "broke in" and softened up some.

The air bags will help with leveling the truck out and carrying the weight in the rear; with the bigger trailers and heavier pin weights, the bags do help. IMO, the shocks were the single biggest improvement.

I have a 2004 4.5 LLY 2500HD. I just purchased a 31' fith wheel TT which weighs 8200 lbs. My wife weighs 130 lbs and when she is ridding in the truck it is very rough on her...She feels beat up at the end of the day and its not much fun for her. How could I improve the ride when were are pulling?

Would adding different shocks be that much of an improvement?

Thanks
Steve
Is the roughness of truck a bucking/bouncing type of action? If it is, the trailer maybe causing the rough ride, due to not enough pin weight on the truck.

Is your wife happy with the ride without the trailer attached? If not, larger tires, shocks, or air bags are your answer.

I would also make sure the hitch and the way the fifth sits on the truck is correct. I have heard that if you are not hitched properly every time the trailer takes a bump it will shock the tow vehicle. I am pulling about the same weight and it is very smooth unless I am on a terrible road. The pin weight of the camper should be with in 15 to 20% of the trailers weight.

If the bad ride is related to the shock trasmission from the 5th wheel through the hitch, you might find an improvement using an air ride hitch (easyrider.com, trailersaver.com) I don't have personal experience with either but you might find someone who has on rv.net. I'd try the Bilsteins first as they will improve ride w/ and w/out the 5er in tow.

I tow a 9,500# 5er and after the rough ride home from the dealership, I installed the Bilsteins. Well worth the $260. Much better ride.

Take your girlfriend instead!!

We had the same problem towing our 11,000 lb until we installed a Trail-Air pin box on our trailer. Before we put it on, I could watch the front cowling of the trailer go down while the hitch and truck was moving up. All that motion was being absorbed by bouncing the truck and flexing the trailer frame. With the Trail-Air, that motion is absorbed by thier unit. Not only is the ride much, much better, but I think I have extended the life of the trailer as well. Go to their site, www.trailair.com/ to check it out. If you like charts and graphs, go to http://www.trailair.com/PB%20Product%20test%20results.pdf. They had a lab run tests and document the findings.

Hope this helps.

How much did the trailer Air unit cost you BillB?

Take your girlfriend instead!!
amen brother!

My trailair cost me $1300 installed and it made a world of difference

Mor-ryde makes a rubber pin box and rubber suspension components which are supposed to help. I don't know from experience how well they work but I do know several fifth wheel manufacturers use their products. My new Sunnybrook fiver, which is on order, comes standard with the Mor-ryde suspension. I'm probably going to ad their rear spring suspension to my 05, 2500 HD plus the Bilsteins in hopes of a smoother ride.Here's a link for Mor-ryde.

http://www.morryde.com/

Bilsteins are very good shocks and will certainly help, but my experience with my 3500 is that my truck rides better hitched to my heavy LQ trailer as opposed to my smaller bumper pull. I don't have a travel trailer, but my observations is that fifth wheels have their wheels position quite far forward to improve handling and lower pin weight. I would go to a scale and weigh your truck with and without the trailer attached to determine your pin weight: you may be loading the trailer in a way that is decreasing your pin weight.

I've had a full air suspension for 3 years and would recommend this approach for someone doing a lot a towing, but my motivation for this approach was more related to the rough ride while towing my small bumper pull trailer. Full air suspensions provide somewhat the best of all worlds, but you are trading a totally bulletproof mechanical suspension for something a bit more complex include a holding tank, small compressor and air bags.

We have used the easyrider/reese airhitch since early 2001. We do not feel the fifth behind us and 2 sumers ago we had the trailair centerpoing suspension installed. Our fifth doesn't know it is on the road.
chevman
2005 2wd 3500 cc duramax dually
2001 35 ft avalon alpenlite
prodigy
easyrider/reese 20K airhitch
3600 garmin GPS
trailair center point suspension
alpenlite travel club member #5978

Guys here is what I did :)
A windstorm wrecked the trailer pulling it off of the truck on a 100 ' tall bridge over a swamp :D
I have replaced the trailer with a heavier model and a Pullright super glide hitch... So far the ride is much improved... Just can't get the wife to climb in !