Bucking and banging.

[barbarossa2]

I have a 14 2500. Been a pretty good truck so far, if a bit stiff riding. Reminds me of the 3500s I drove in the seventies.
We bought a 7500# camper, hitch tow. Tow rating is 11500. No problem towing at all (and I really enjoy passing people uphill). But interstate towing was brutal. Bridge joints especially resulted in severe banging and rebound as everyone bounced out of their seats. I couldn’t take it anymore. Shocks were definitely weak, tires were stiff. So I bought Michelin tires….definitely toned down the bangs and noise. Installed KYB shocks and Firestone ride rite air bags...very nice on very nice roads. However numerous bridge joints caused sever bangs and rebound. Front end was hunting, loose and quite a handful. 20psi in bags. Reduce ap to 12 psi on return, it was far more squirrelly. Reduced ap to zero, and it was quite jittery and squirrelly. On concrete pavement it began bucking at all speeds quite dramatically. Enough so that it hurt my neck and back(disabled due to spine damage). Hadn’t done this much before on the same stretch near home(I465). Is this unusual or normal? I’ve driven a lot of drill rigs that rode like this but the wife and mother in law aren’t likely to go camping ever again with this rig. I’ve had some rides in Russian T-34s and this comes pretty close. I’m puzzled by the loose front end as the rear (especially on air) is higher than the front(I would expect this with sag). Even with zero air the rear is higher than the front under load. Is this just how it is with 2500s? I have driven F350s that sure never left that impression.

 

[SniperDroid]

Are you using a Weight Distribution Hitch? It may need to be re adjusted....

 

[crash68]

°^^ what he said
Probably a good idea to check the WDH set up using a CAT scale.
Load everything up like your heading out camping then run the combination over the scale. Drop the trailer and weigh just the truck. With the front, rear and trailer axle weights from both those slips you can calculate how much tongue weight you have and see if you need to adjust the WDH to put more weight on the front axle. At a minimum you want to replace whatever front weight is lost and the rear axle of the truck should be heavier than the front.

 

[barbarossa2]

Thanks for the replies. I got a lower drop shank ball hitch. Checked the dealer installed distribution hitch and found it all wrong. So I reinstalled it with the correct measurements.
We just did a 6000 mile trip to western Canada and back to Indiana. All in all it handled way better, even calm. It seems the road quality or lack there of is the major issue now. Concrete pavement can have some slight peaks and valleys, and in some states that surface really got us bucking. Basically Indiana and Iowa suck. And Salt Lake city has the worst pavement ever.
We started to detour on to 2 lane blacktop just to have a more pleasant experience.

 

[Dinky]

I would suggest playing with your WDH more. Your 2500 is the first generation of coil spring rear end it will act completely different than your Ford or even a Ram 3500. You might look into different coil springs if nothing else worked. On another note bilstein 4600 are one of the best shocks for towing and payload.