Should I install air bags?

I'm buying a fifth wheel RV and I'm wondering if I'm going to need to install air suspension. 2024 2500 Limited w/Cummins with no suspension mods. Trailer has a 15,000 GVWR and pin weight of 2,350. Thoughts?

Sorry, but you're in the wrong truck, that trailer will be over your payload capacity by quite a bit once you add people, gear, hitch, etc. to your truck. The diesel in a 2500 reduces your ability to tow heavy trailers. You're going to need a 3500 if you want that trailer and a diesel truck combination. Bags aren't going to do anything to help, just mask the problem. They add zero payload or towing capacity.

FAAPOD said:

I'm buying a fifth wheel RV and I'm wondering if I'm going to need to install air suspension. 2024 2500 Limited w/Cummins with no suspension mods. Trailer has a 15,000 GVWR and pin weight of 2,350. Thoughts?

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You are WAY off on this trailer... You don't need to install air suspension... you need an entirely different truck. Air bags don't increase load handing. They only level your rig.

You're likely going to be 500-800 lbs overloaded on payload right off the bat. You could even be close to maxing out or exceeding your axle rating.

This trailer is squarely in 3500 dually territory. You might get away with the right 3500 single rear wheel but you'll never get away with a 2500. Sorry.

My 2020 Ram 2500 Bighorn CTD only had a payload of 2097#. After I was loaded up with just myself for a camping trip I went to a CAT scale and was almost 300# over the payload capacity. Hence the reason I have my current Ram in my signature with the same 5er in the pic.

The OP did not state which model his Ram is, but his payload could be lower. We are only pointing all this out for you and your family's safety. Getting a RV was and still is a very big eye opening and learning experience.

FAAPOD said:

I'm buying a fifth wheel RV and I'm wondering if I'm going to need to install air suspension. 2024 2500 Limited w/Cummins with no suspension mods. Trailer has a 15,000 GVWR and pin weight of 2,350. Thoughts?

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Don't buy that trailer! I'm not sure where you got that pin weight from, but I assume it's for an empty trailer. If you actually did load the trailer to 15k GVWR, your pin weight is going to be 3000+ pounds because, unlike the 12% - 15% tongue weight for a travel trailer, for a 5er the pin weight should be between 20% and 25% of the GVWR. You'll kill your truck before you get 10 miles down the road - hopefully before you get yourself injured.

The comment(s) above about air bags are correct, they do nothing to increase your cargo capacity or your axle rating. All they do is help level the truck's body and maybe give a smoother ride. But at such a gross overweight as that 5er will apply to your rear suspension I'm not even sure they would inflate correctly.

Tulecreeper said:

Don't buy that trailer! I'm not sure where you got that pin weight from, but I assume it's for an empty trailer. If you actually did load the trailer to 15k GVWR, your pin weight is going to be 3000+ pounds because, unlike the 12% - 15% tongue weight for a travel trailer, for a 5er the pin weight should be between 20% and 25% of the GVWR. You'll kill your truck before you get 10 miles down the road - hopefully before you get yourself injured.

The comment(s) above about air bags are correct, they do nothing to increase your cargo capacity or your axle rating. All they do is help level the truck's body and maybe give a smoother ride. But at such a gross overweight as that 5er will apply to your rear suspension I'm not even sure they would inflate correctly.

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While I agree that the truck is not the correct truck for that 5er, there is no way it will kill his truck before it gets 10 miles down the road.

UVW on the trailer is 12,100. I feel like an idiot, here, and I've never gone wrong following advice from you guys. Where did I go wrong? Everything I've seen on the website and in the manual suggests that I can pull this trailer. Can someone please point me to where the correct information that I am looking for is published.

First thing we need to help is the payload number from your door sticker. Brochure weights don't really matter. Bonus points if you can weigh your truck with roughly what you'd put in it just before hooking up the fiver. I generally agree with the others that you will be overloaded. Not sure I'm ready to "sentence" you to a dually just yet. The SRW 3500s can have some pretty high payloads.

Also agree a dually is not automatic here. You have to decide if you want to keep the truck and find a trailer that fits, or upgrade the truck and go bigger. That trailer would be fine behind a SRW 3500 truck, my cousin tows a similar with his Chevy 3500 SRW truck. Never wished he had DRW and travels extensively through mountains, and up and down the East Coast.

First thing to do when considering big trailers is load your truck up with people, hitch, gear that you travel with and go weigh whole truck and then get each axle weight. A fifth wheel will put approximately 5% of the weight on the front axle, the remainder will go on the rear axle. So important to know your Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) from door jamb. Then take your actual front and rear axle weights from above and subtract from GVWR, this is your remaining payload capacity to be spread across front and rear axles.

BUT! Also, take your actual rear axle weight and subtract from Rear GVWR found on door jamb. This value is your available payload capacity for your rear axle (remember from above that up to 95% of your 5th wheel pin wright will go directly on the rear axle) based on your loaded vehicle and is the number to use (as available pin weight capacity) when finding a trailer.

On trailers, the plates with numbers should be not be trusted to be true values, particularly if the tow vehicle capabilities are near the stated numbers on the plate. Anything from supplies to awnings to trailer gear impact that value and incorrect loading can exacerbate the variance of the actual pin weight from the stated pin weight.

it all works out, starts with asking the right questions as you did. Now you get to head out to all the cool camper shows and eat overpriced food while getting a lot of stairs to exercise on.

KKBB said:

While I agree that the truck is not the correct truck for that 5er, there is no way it will kill his truck before it gets 10 miles down the road.

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It was just hyperbole.

FAAPOD said:

UVW on the trailer is 12,100. I feel like an idiot, here, and I've never gone wrong following advice from you guys. Where did I go wrong? Everything I've seen on the website and in the manual suggests that I can pull this trailer. Can someone please point me to where the correct information that I am looking for is published.

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Your numbers for the trailer may be correct, but it's your numbers for the truck that are most important. Your B-pillar door sticker will give you your cargo/payload capacity. That is the number you need to adhere to because it tells you the total amount of weight you can put in/on the truck, including passengers, everything behind your seat, everything in a toolbox, and everything in the bed of the truck to include pin/tongue weight. As I said above, the pin weight of a 15,000# GVWR 5er is going to be north of 3000 pounds all by itself.

The last time I checked I think some of the SRW 3500s with decent options had over 4K payload... maybe 4200/4300. That is pretty impressive and would handle OP's trailer with a moderate/normal amount of stuff in the trailer and truck (as long as he's not an anvil salesman). The whole fit the truck to the trailer or fit the trailer to the truck is a chicken/egg debate that can go on forever. Personally, I just have no desire to drive a DRW and would go pretty far down the road of picking a trailer that is SRW towable but I totally get it... everyone's priorities are different.

I think there's some fear for people about daily driving a dually. I get it... and was in the same boat at one point until I had to own one. Once I did, I learned that there was minimal difference and I actually prefer it now for the stability. But each person is different.

At the end of the day though, my rule of thumb is to always fit what you are planning to buy to what you already own. If your want outweighs the desire to do this, then the only other option is to change what you already own.

The highest payload rating that you can hope to accomplish with any 3500 SRW is 7,220 lbs and that's with a Regular cab, long box, base trim with 4.10 gearing and the 6.4L Hemi. That truck is a unicorn and not realistic for most people.

You can get 4,000 lbs of payload out of a Crew cab 3500 with a 6'4" bed with a 6.7 Cummins and the Aisin if you stick with the base model (tradesman). Anything above that and you begin to shed payload quickly. The curb weight on a tradesman can be upwards of 3k lbs lighter than a Limited. I'd suspect that a Limited may only have somewhere in the 2,800 lb range of payload. The door sticker is the answer.


My wife and I actually went to the rv show this weekend and I was amazed at how many salesmen were telling folks their trucks could handle the weights. All of the advertisements kept advertising dry weights. This confuses so many people.

We're considering moving down to Florida in a few years and are considering the options between living full time in an RV on a piece of property (so we can leave for a hurricane) versus buying a house.

My wife saw a Riverstone Legacy 443MC and fell in love with it. Mind you... this is a 45' triple axle fifth wheel with a GVWR of 25,000 lbs... The advertisements were showing 19k lbs with a 2,820 pin weight. The salesman told my wife that our 2500 would tow this with no problem because it only has a hitch weight of 2,820 lbs... I took him around to the sticker and showed him the GVWR and that the pin weight would actually be closer to 5k lbs. That's almost too much for a 3500 DRW (and is, in some cases). He said nah... it should be just fine. We quickly walked away.


The ONLY salesperson there who actually went by the real numbers was the Brinkley rep. This guy actually turned away a few folks who wanted to buy some of the larger fifth wheels because of their truck. He advertised dry weights but was QUICK to do the math with a prospective buyer to show them the real weights. Kudos to that guy.

The payload sticker on my 2500 cummins, tradesman model is 2200 lbs. Given the tradesman model has less accessories the higher trims this is about the best you will get.

Some people claim the 2500 is nerfed at 10,000 GVWR which may be true, but the rear axle has a max weight rating of 3k lbs which you are very close to once you add passengers in the vehicle. Once you start loading that 5th wheel the pin weight could be as high as 3000 lbs, putting you over the rear axle weight rating.

Edit, I meant 6k on each axle. I got the 3k number because when I put my cummins on the scale empty that is roughly how much weight I had available on the rear axle.

Fake-Account27 said:

The payload sticker on my 2500 cummins, tradesman model is 2200 lbs. Given the tradesman model has less accessories the higher trims this is about the best you will get.

Some people claim the 2500 is nerfed at 10,000 GVWR which may be true, but the rear axle has a max weight rating of 3k lbs which you are very close to once you add passengers in the vehicle. Once you start loading that 5th wheel the pin weight could be as high as 3000 lbs, putting you over the rear axle weight rating.

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3k? Are you sure you didn't mean 6k?

Fake-Account27 said:

The payload sticker on my 2500 cummins, tradesman model is 2200 lbs. Given the tradesman model has less accessories the higher trims this is about the best you will get.

Some people claim the 2500 is nerfed at 10,000 GVWR which may be true, but the rear axle has a max weight rating of 3k lbs which you are very close to once you add passengers in the vehicle. Once you start loading that 5th wheel the pin weight could be as high as 3000 lbs, putting you over the rear axle weight rating.

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With a 15k# GVWR, his pin weight alone will be 3000+ pounds.

nlambert182 said:

3k? Are you sure you didn't mean 6k?

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You are correct, its 6k each for 12k total. What I meant to say is with the truck on the scale there is about 3000 lbs of available weight on the rear axle.

Here is my truck on the scale with two adults and 3 small kids. I have 1660 available payload, and 2800 lbs available on the rear axle.



And here is my most recent weigh with a 33 ft TT. I actually have to be careful not to overload the truck bed with gear, I weighed in once time about 200 lbs over my payload capacity.

My 2023 2500 4x4 Limited MegaCab CTD payload is just under 1800 pounds. That’s why I will be sticking with a bumper pull RV and not going to a FW. The CTD reduces payload a lot!

RAM DRVR said:

My 2023 Limited Mega Cab CTD payload is just under 1800 pounds. That’s why I will be sticking with a bumper pull RV and not going to a FW. The CTD reduces payload a lot!

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You said MegaCab, Limited, and CTD all in one sentence. I'm also assuming 4wd... You probably have close to the lowest available payload with that setup. Realistically though, that's not a horrible payload considering all the options you have. Is this a 2500 or 3500 SRW? Assuming 2500. If so, the suspension limits your payload as well. My MC Laramie payload is about the same as yours.