Increasing Towing/Hauling Capability?

[Dean2]

View attachment 544749

Got some bold statements and all around questionable marketing on their site. That said, these *might* help. I look forward to you being our guinea pig.

I too will be very interested. From what i can see it is hard to understand how their solution does what they claim.

 

[OC455]

Timber Grove Enterprises have air assist springs that will work too. Veteran owned. Stainless Steel construction.

3500's don't have factory/OEM rear anti-sway bars. You'd have to go with Hellwig or Roadmaster.

Ram 3500 Anti-Sway Bar / Roadmaster Review

Our truck and camper was rocking and swaying as we drove down the road so we decided to do something about it. We would have assumed our 2018 RAM 3500 Duall...

www.youtube.com

 

[3TV]

I found this video to be very informative.

5 Easy Suspension Upgrades for Truck Campers // Bolt On Suspension Upgrades

Truck campers are heavy, and that really stresses your truck's suspension. Some simple bolt-on upgrades can help handle the load. In the last 3 years, we hav...

www.youtube.com

 

[Dean2]

I found this video to be very informative.

5 Easy Suspension Upgrades for Truck Campers // Bolt On Suspension Upgrades

Truck campers are heavy, and that really stresses your truck's suspension. Some simple bolt-on upgrades can help handle the load. In the last 3 years, we hav...

www.youtube.com

That is a very good video. Too bad he never tried air bags, as I find them very good, especially for levelling.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Been seeing allot of 3500 with bed campers lately. Most of them were squatting with the larger campers. I considered going this route years ago be going to a 5th wheel. No way would I use a 3500 with your RV in the bed. Looking at your 5th wheel, I’d bet your close or a little over your max weight. Suggest you consider going 5500 or a 6500 truck. Your 3500 may be able to pull either one fine but if you ever have to lock up the brakes, your results could be catastrophic. Good luck on your decisions.

 

[2003F350]

Been seeing allot of 3500 with bed campers lately. Most of them were squatting with the larger campers. I considered going this route years ago be going to a 5th wheel. No way would I use a 3500 with your RV in the bed. Looking at your 5th wheel, I’d bet your close or a little over your max weight. Suggest you consider going 5500 or a 6500 truck. Your 3500 may be able to pull either one fine but if you ever have to lock up the brakes, your results could be catastrophic. Good luck on your decisions.

He's not over his max weight, not even close - his max weight is I believe he said 6k lbs and he's likely 4500-5k tops.

The issue is the high center of gravity, and the BEST thing to combat this on his truck is a rear sway bar. Transfers weight during body roll to the side that's lifting, thus keeping it more planted. Bags fight sag but don't fight sway or roll.

He's got enough truck, he just needs to upgrade that rear sway bar.

 

[3TV]

I went camping with my wife over Saturday night and Sunday. We went to Castle Rock Campground, in central UT, which is a 180-mile round trip to a small campground with 20 spots that each have a picnic table. There is one rest room in the campground with running water, but otherwise no hookups of any kind, and no dump station. The loop road in the campground is tight with lots of trees. It is way too small to fit a fifth wheel camper in there. The pickup camper worked perfect for this, and we towed a 7x14 utility trailer with our 50" wide UTV on it. We did some exploring of nearby 50" wide ATV trails. The main trail was still blocked by snow at the top of the mountain, but we were able to access everything else we wanted to. One water crossing was badly washed out. There was a line of UTVs and ATVs coming back down the canyon that we pulled over and let by. They told us the road was impassable because of a washout. We continued on and managed to get through anyway, barely. All in all, a great weekend away.

The lower Stableloads do help with squat, and with them installed the rear of the truck rides 1 1/4" higher when loaded than it did stock. The suspension doesn't feel as squishy and soft, and handling is a little better. In my opinion they don't seem to do much of anything with decreasing sway. When driving slowly out of a gas station and crossing a gutter at an angle the truck will still sway back and forth about six times before stopping.

Do they help? Yes.

Do they fix 90% of handling problems like their web page claims? No. More like a 30% improvement

 

[18Hemi]

I'd go with Summo Springs. The Black versions would be the best IMO. I've used Timbrens and Summons in the past with an SRW and a 5th wheel. They take the wallowing feeling away. They ride about 1/2"-1" above the axle when the trucks empty so they don't affect the ride.

 

[3TV]

I'm going to try a few more things. I want to do this incrementally so I can see what really makes a difference. I've ordered the upper Stableloads, which should be here in a few days.

Intuitively a set of air bags should fix the sag in one simple step. But I like the idea of not having any post installation maintenance to worry about with the Stableloads. Even the stock airbag system seems to be plagued with frequent problems, and I want to avoid that if I can. I have also read several reports that say air bags can actually increase sway with a pickup camper if not set up right. You need to have a separate air supply for both sides, and not just a Y fitting or T fitting connected to one air supply. When a top heavy load like a pickup camper sways to one side it compresses that side airbag, which will force air into the other side air bag if the two sides share an air supply. You wouldn't have this problem with a fifth wheel or goose neck, but aparrantly it is a problem for pickkup campers.

 

[3TV]

I'd go with Summo Springs. The Black versions would be the best IMO. I've used Timbrens and Summons in the past with an SRW and a 5th wheel. They take the wallowing feeling away. They ride about 1/2"-1" above the axle when the trucks empty so they don't affect the ride.

Thanks. I'm also looking at Timbrens, and will have to look at Summo Springs as well.

 

[LOFSFIRE]

You might want to check out Liquid Spring (https://liquidspring.com/)
They drastically change the ride on one of out ambulances (F450) at my fire department. They have many different application...

 

[LOFSFIRE]

Removed - double post sorry

 

[OC455]

This could be a solution:

Dodge Ram 3500 2003 - 2023 HD Kit

Kit includes RAS Heavy Duty Spring for each rear leaf spring. RoadActive Suspension kits are designed to strengthen the rear leaf springs for towing or hauling without negatively affecting unloaded ride quality. This kit will reduce rear bounce and squat when loaded while significantly...

activesuspension.com

Timber Groves:

19'-UP RAM 3500 (STAINLESS) Rear ASAM (SQ3814967) — Timber Grove Enterprises, LLC

100% bolt-in 304 stainless steel design for 4x4 models. No more peeling powder or rust. Kit includes stainless hardware, brass DOT compression fittings and single DOT air fill line. Air springs are rated at 6,000 lbs. and max 500 PSI. Will fit 4x2 trucks, Spacer Pads Part# SQ8530490 must be ordered

timbergroveenterprises.com

You could run separate air lines to each ASAM.

Roadmaster Anti-Sway Bar:

SWAY BAR KIT 1129-145

Discover top-quality tow bars, braking systems, and RV accessories at Roadmaster Inc. in Vancouver, Washington. Enhance your RV experience with reliable and innovative products designed for safety and convenience.

www.roadmasterinc.com

https://www.etrailer.com/Anti-Sway-Bars/Roadmaster/RM73FR.html?hhyear=2024&hhmake=Ram&hhmodel=3500

Hellwig:

Search by Vehicle - Hellwig Products

www.hellwigproducts.com

It depends on what you want to pay.

 

[3TV]

I installed the Upper Stableloads last night. It is a super easy installation, and the hardest part is pulling the inner fender liner out of the way to get access to the rear overload leaf bump stop. I drove around for ten minutes with the truck unloaded to see what ride quality is like but won't be able to load the camper until Friday. The lower Stableloads can be quickly engaged or disengaged, so with them disengaged they do not affect unloaded ride quality. The upper Stableloads cannot be disengaged, and they cause the rear half of the top overload spring to contact its bump stop even when unloaded, and ride is noticeably stiffer because of that. It isn't a huge difference, but it is noticeable. It rode like a one-ton truck before, and now it rides like, well, a one-ton truck.

 

[3TV]

Thanks OC, lots of good information there.

On those RoadActive helper springs; they look like a Rube Goldberg award winning product, but every review video I've seen of them ends with the person praising how much they help. It would be nice if someone here that has them installed on their truck would tell us what they think of them.

The Timber Groves air bags look like they are very high quality. Gotta like that. Can anyone say how much air bags limit suspension travel. It doesn't look like there is a lot of room for suspension travel, so I wonder if they limit it.

I think an anti-sway bar is ultimately going to be needed to limit sway adequately. The Roadmaster is significantly bigger in diameter than the Hellwig and looks like it has better designed and stronger end links. I don't like that it mounts under the rear axle instead of behind it like the Hellwig anti-sway bar does. I could just see myself dragging it in the dirt or across a rock and wrecking it. I also don't like that you have to drill the frame to install the end link brackets. Installation of the end links looks easier with the Hellwig, but it doesn't look like it is as strong of an anti-sway bar. Too bad one of them didn't incorporate the best features of both.

 

[OC455]

The Timber Groves air bags look like they are very high quality. Gotta like that. Can anyone say how much air bags limit suspension travel. It doesn't look like there is a lot of room for suspension travel, so I wonder if they limit it.

Timber Grove ASAMs do not limit any suspension travel that I noticed. I had a pair on my 1500 and loved the way they stabilized the truck when I was towing my bumper pull. I only ran 7psi in the ASAMs when empty/no towing, and only had them aired up to 14psi when I had the tow behind hooked up. It really did help when I was making the long trips. No bounce or proposing....there was one spot on the Interstate that had a bad spot that was really jarring and with the ASAMs running 14psi it prevented a lot of bad movement & jarring that would have happened.

 

[3TV]

I installed the Severe Duty Timbrens 4 days ago. SUPER easy installation. I was able to install them with the camper on the truck just by lowering the camper jacks to take the camper weight off the suspension. These things look beefy. With no load on the truck, they are 3/4" away from touching the axle. Drop the camper back on the truck and they are touching the axle and are compressed by about 1/2" at ride height. The Severe Duty Timbrens prevent squat even more than both upper and lower stableloads, and keep the rear of the truck another 1 1/2" higher than with just the stableloads. Unloaded they would not affect suspension feel because they don't make contact. Loaded they make the suspension feel more damped, you can tell there is something else there preventing compression of the suspension. The Timbrens do a better job at preventing sway than the stableloads do. It drives significantly better than stock now.

 

[2003F350]

Timbrens are nothing more than soft bump-stops.

 

[3TV]

I went for another drive last night, just to the gas station to top off the fuel tank, DEF, and LP tanks. The jury is still out on the Timbrens. They do seem to handle the weight better, prevent some sagging and prevent some swaying. But the rear suspension has actually bottomed out unexpectedly a few times. The truck drives better, but the suspension may be easier to bottom out. More analysis and driving is needed.

 

[18CrewDually]

Can you get your front/rear axle weights at a local scale house and post them so we can see what you're actually working with here? No guesstimates. Actually weights.