xrsman
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2013
- Posts
- 4,473
- Reaction score
- 1,319
- Location
- Ontario
- Ram Year
- 2016
- Engine
- 3.0 Ecodiesel
Hey guys,
Some of you may have seen in the towing section that I hooked up to my travel trailer that has a 900LBS pin weight, and had some extreme Squat happening. I have a 5" lift on the truck. 3" body lift, 2" front level with a 1.5" rear level. The truck squatted down 5" with the trailer on the back. This not only looked bad, but was deffinitly an unsafe load. Keep in mind I also didn't have the hitch set right and wasn't using weight distribution bars. I was only taking the trailer 5 mins down the road so didn't bother.
This prompted me to look for ways to reduce this squat. I had wanted to put air bags in before I bought the truck, but this is what made me buy them now.
I bought them off Amazon.ca and they ran me $141 with express shipping. When they came, in I was surprised about how there wasn't much hardware in the kit! I figured that it wouldn't be a long install. I encountered some issues so it ended up taking 2 hours.
I rolled the air bags up as per the instructions, and then slid the first one Into the rear coil. Now, because of the 1.5" level in the rear, the coil was compressed a bit more than a stock truck. This made it more difficult to get the airbag in. My next mistake was following the directions. I let the bag inflate once it was in the coil but because of the 1.5" spacer, it took up the entire coil. I then had to try and deflate the bag so that I could attach the air hose and put the stem protector on. Once this was all complete it was simple to run the line out to the receiver plate. The second airbag wouldn't go in top first so I put it in bottom first from the top of the coil. This was another mistake lol. It essentially did the same thing as the first one. I got that all sorted out and ran the line back to the receiver plate.
Last night I decided to test how they worked with the same RV. Airlift said that the bags would level 1000 lbs. Unfortunately, that number is more like 600 - 650 lbs. At least in my case. That being said, I was still pleased with the difference that they made. Instead of squatting 5 inches with the trailer on the back, the truck squatted 2 inches. (This was with 33 PSI in the bags. 35 is max) It looks way better than before and will be a lot safer to tow this way. I've included a before and after shot with the trailer on. I still used the same hitch and didn't change tire pressure. A properly set hitch and weight distribution bars would level it out even more.
I have 12 PSI in the bags when I'm just driving around. The truck actually rides smoother than it did before. It also seems like it has a bit less body roll on sharper corners. Another interesting thing I noticed was that with 33 PSI in the bags, the truck had 0.5 - 0.75 inch more rake than it did without them. At low PSI it sat like it normally did. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It would have been nice if they could have leveled the truck, but I'm a hell of a lot better off now than I was before!
Some of you may have seen in the towing section that I hooked up to my travel trailer that has a 900LBS pin weight, and had some extreme Squat happening. I have a 5" lift on the truck. 3" body lift, 2" front level with a 1.5" rear level. The truck squatted down 5" with the trailer on the back. This not only looked bad, but was deffinitly an unsafe load. Keep in mind I also didn't have the hitch set right and wasn't using weight distribution bars. I was only taking the trailer 5 mins down the road so didn't bother.
This prompted me to look for ways to reduce this squat. I had wanted to put air bags in before I bought the truck, but this is what made me buy them now.
I bought them off Amazon.ca and they ran me $141 with express shipping. When they came, in I was surprised about how there wasn't much hardware in the kit! I figured that it wouldn't be a long install. I encountered some issues so it ended up taking 2 hours.
I rolled the air bags up as per the instructions, and then slid the first one Into the rear coil. Now, because of the 1.5" level in the rear, the coil was compressed a bit more than a stock truck. This made it more difficult to get the airbag in. My next mistake was following the directions. I let the bag inflate once it was in the coil but because of the 1.5" spacer, it took up the entire coil. I then had to try and deflate the bag so that I could attach the air hose and put the stem protector on. Once this was all complete it was simple to run the line out to the receiver plate. The second airbag wouldn't go in top first so I put it in bottom first from the top of the coil. This was another mistake lol. It essentially did the same thing as the first one. I got that all sorted out and ran the line back to the receiver plate.
Last night I decided to test how they worked with the same RV. Airlift said that the bags would level 1000 lbs. Unfortunately, that number is more like 600 - 650 lbs. At least in my case. That being said, I was still pleased with the difference that they made. Instead of squatting 5 inches with the trailer on the back, the truck squatted 2 inches. (This was with 33 PSI in the bags. 35 is max) It looks way better than before and will be a lot safer to tow this way. I've included a before and after shot with the trailer on. I still used the same hitch and didn't change tire pressure. A properly set hitch and weight distribution bars would level it out even more.
I have 12 PSI in the bags when I'm just driving around. The truck actually rides smoother than it did before. It also seems like it has a bit less body roll on sharper corners. Another interesting thing I noticed was that with 33 PSI in the bags, the truck had 0.5 - 0.75 inch more rake than it did without them. At low PSI it sat like it normally did. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It would have been nice if they could have leveled the truck, but I'm a hell of a lot better off now than I was before!
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