I am trying to decide if I want to add the Air Lift bags to my truck. Most of the time the bed of truck is empty, or nearly empty. I pull a 32 foot travel trailer with a tongue weight of approx 1400lbs (plus add 400lbs of firewood in truck) about 3000 miles per year . The hitch is a Reese Dual Cam with 1200lb weight bars. The trailer pulls OK, but I tend to think the truck rear sags a bit. I also feel the truck bounces more than I would like, but also don't want to trade bouncing for rock hard. I have ordered Bilstein's, but haven't received them. The truck has 4500 miles currently and the stock shocks aren't dead yet (unhooked em just to test last week), but am certain the new shocks will reduce some of the rebound problem.


I want to smooth out the ride while towing, not make it more harsh.


How much rear sag would you allow before wanting to add air bags to level truck?


What would the ride be like while towing with the air bags at different inflation rates?


Give me some ideas here. When would air bags be helpful and when would they be needed?


I've searched the archives here and on the Rv'ing sites, just wanting to get any fresh ideas.


Larry

Get the airbags. Inflate to about 30lbs and be a happy man. Search under my name, I comment on these alot.

Wait for the Bilsteins - you may find they are all you need for no more miles towing than what you do. They made a big difference for me.
Bill

I tow almost the same weights as you. I have a 30ft travel trailer with hitch weight around 1200 lbs. I have 1200 lb bars with a Hensley Hitch. First thing I would do is hit a truck scale and ensure you have the bars adjusted correctly. Due to the length of the truck, its hard to transfer much of the hitch weight to the front axle, but the front axle should not loose any weight either. In other words, the front axle should be about the same with and without the trailer hitch attached. I believe you may find that your spring bars need to go up at least one more notch. This will lift the rear, and take out some of the bounce.


Please let me know how you like the shocks. I like the ride of the OE rear shocks, but have thought about bilsteins for the front, as it bounces more than I like. Edited by: Roegs

Installed the shocks yesterday. The front OEM shocks still seemed to have good pressure and rebound when I was playing with them after removing them. Under load may very well be another story. On the other hand the rears were easy to compress and poor to rebound (they also were making funky noises when I was compressing them by hand, sounded like my stomach after some bad food). Yea I know, in my original post I mentioned unhooking the shocks last week to check-em out, well duh on me. Those rears were toast.


We're leaving on a 1600 mile 2 week trip with the camper this weekend. I feel the new shocks will help the rear from doing the boingy-boingy thing so much. I may try cranking the weight bars another link and see what happens. If it still sags too much for my taste then I will be getting some air bags too. Just ran out of time this week to get a set.


Roegs, Take a few minutes to remove one rear and one front shock and work it by hand. See if it has any life left. I'll let ya know how it rides with the Bilsteins after the trip.


Larry

Take a few minutes to remove one rear and one front shock and work it by hand. See if it has any life left.





My rear shocks had no life left at about 100 miles on the truck. They are awful. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Ermm.gif