Increasing Towing/Hauling Capability?

[3TV]

That is an excellent idea. I have tomorrow off, and we have a CAT scale in town, so I'll give it a try.

 

[3TV]

A Hellwig Big Wig rear anti-sway bar arrived on UPS late yesterday evening, and I installed it today. A big sway bar can be a challenge to install by yourself because they are heavy, and it is awkward to hold both ends of the bar by yourself while you are also trying insert the bolts and get the threads started. I managed to get it installed though and headed to the CAT scale at a local truck stop.

Front axle actual weight: 5,140 lbs. Rated capacity 6,000 lbs

Rear axle actual weight: 8,040 lbs. Rated capacity 8,750 lbs

Total weight: 13,180 lbs

The sticker on my door says I can carry 5,661 lbs.

This was with the holding tanks empty, no food in the fridge, and no clothing in the closets. But it does include the Onan generator, dual batteries, dual LP tanks full, dual 100-watt solar panels, and all other options. The freshwater tank capacity is 46 gallons, so add in 8.33 lbs per gallon, or 383 more pounds, to get to the travel weight of 13,563 lbs.

The anti-sway bar definitely helps with sway, far more than either Stableloads or Timbrens do.

 

[18CrewDually]

The long sticker in the door jam will have your more importantly max axle weight ratings front & rear.
Glad the Hellwig sway bar made it feel better. That along with airbags and heavier dampening shocks are the top 3 things I recommend anytime I run across one of these slip in camper sway threads. Not so surprisingly though it's usually a guy with a 2500 and all these problems due to the weak inboard mounted coil spring setup in the rear.

 

[3TV]

Thanks again 18Crew. I just edited my post above with each axles rated capacities. That Arctic Fox 992 isn't the biggest camper out there by any means, and it's getting pretty close to the rated capacity for my 3500 dually axles.

 

[18CrewDually]

Thanks again 18Crew. I just edited my post above with each axles rated capacities. That Arctic Fox 992 isn't the biggest camper out there by any means, and it's getting pretty close to the rated capacity for my 3500 dually axles.

Yeah what you got is a big pendulum in the bed. You'd think the dually would be enough but they make trucks ride like cars to make the empty daily driver happy, so when you actually use them loaded up you find little issues like this. Hopefully you're under enough control now it will be more enjoyable.

 

[OC455]

to get to the travel weight of 13,563 lbs.

So you have about 427lbs., before you are at GVWR...if you add the water. Heck of a load! Good getting the anti-sway bar. I think the air springs by Timber Grove would work well with your setup.

 

[18CrewDually]

So you have about 427lbs., before you are at GVWR...if you add the water. Heck of a load! Good getting the anti-sway bar. I think the air springs by Timber Grove would work well with your setup.

Yeah he doesn't want any bigger of a camper!
Or his next truck will be a Cab & Chassis 4500 or 5500. With an aluminum hauler body. Bed mount Aux fuel tank. Onboard generator. Slide out side entry camper.
Ok, enough. I don't want to spread any ideas and cost anyone more money. Besides, that's my dream. Lol

 

[3TV]

I would estimate that the Hellwig anti-sway bar removed 2/3 of the sway from carrying such a tall and heavy load as a truck camper. Before, when driving through a gutter at an angle the truck and camper would sway back and forth six or seven times before stopping. Now it sways back and forth two or three times before stopping. Corners feel much more predictable, and it is easy to take a turn at the posted speed limit or just above. That was never the case before.

But I had a thought yesterday after installing the Hellwig sway bar. It mounts to the back of the axle and the ends of the sway bar extend backward. The Roadmaster sway bar mounts under the axle and the ends of the sway bar extend forward. The two sway bars would not interfere with each other at all, and both could be used together. So, if someone wanted to more completely eliminate any sway, they could install both sway bars. The Hellwig sway bar is 1 5/16" thick. The Roadmaster sway bar is 1 1/2 inch thick. Combined, that is a sway bar that is 2 13/16" thick, which isn't going to flex very much. But both of these sway bars are heavy, and you would be adding significant weight to your truck. The weight would be unprung weight, so wouldn't affect suspension capacity, but maybe that is a bit overkill. Someone try it and let us know how it works, LOL.

 

[3TV]

Hey guys, I was wrong on the axle weight capacities on my truck. When I looked at the door sticker yesterday it was well past sunset and a little dark, so I couldn't see the sticker correctly with my feeble eyes.

Today, in broad daylight, I looked again

Front axle capacity 6,000 lbs. Loaded weight on front axle 5,140 lbs
Rear axle capacity 9,750 lbs. Loaded weight on rear axle 8,040 lbs.

I am well within the axle capacities for my truck.

 

[18CrewDually]

Hey guys, I was wrong on the axle weight capacities on my truck. When I looked at the door sticker yesterday it was well past sunset and a little dark, so I couldn't see the sticker correctly with my feeble eyes.

Today, in broad daylight, I looked again

Front axle capacity 6,000 lbs. Loaded weight on front axle 5,140 lbs
Rear axle capacity 9,750 lbs. Loaded weight on rear axle 8,040 lbs.

I am well within the axle capacities for my truck.

Those axle weights above look right. Same as my 2018.

 

[3TV]

We went camping for 4 nights over the 4th of July Holliday at a campground about 120 miles from home. It is a remote campground at a reservoir that is good for fishing and also has hundreds of miles of ATV trails in the surrounding mountains. The elevation in that area ranges from 8,000 ft to 10,000 ft above sea level, so it was nice and cool. The campground is at the end of 10 miles of horrible washboard dirt road, with much of it so rough that speed is limited to <10 mph (and it still feels like it is beating up your vehicle). After returning home today I removed the Timbren Severe Duty SES. Although they do prevent squat and stabilize the load some, the truck actually bottoms out easier with the Timbren Severe Duty SES than it does without it. I took a picture that I think explains why.


Here is a picture of the stock bump stop lined up beside the Timbres Severe Duty SES. They both bolt to the bottom of the frame in the same place. With the stock bump stop the suspension can compress until the triangular rubber wedge is about 1/2 compressed. With the Timbren Severe Duty SES the suspension can compress to the end of the tape measure. So, you lose almost 3" of suspension up travel with this Timbren set up. For reference, the top of the axle would be 3/4" below the bottom of the Timbrens with the truck unloaded, and at about the 1 1/2" mark on the tape measure with a full load on the truck. I don't think that losing this much suspension up travel is what you want to do when you are hauling a heavy load. You need that extra suspension up travel for the overload springs to work as designed.

I think it would work better if Timbren made their system with a much thinner frame mount bracket and a much taller rubber bump stop section.

 

[OC455]

In reference to your picture, it almost looks like the side of the Timbren is actually rolling in at the bottom when it makes contact with the axle....unless that's a part of the axle articulating through a range of motion over the washboard roads?

I think air springs run on their own air lines still would work better than Timbrens. The AirLift Loadlifter 5000 Ultimate Kit and 7500XL air spring kits have internal jounce bump stops inside. The TImber Grove air springs are awesome as well.....except they don't include an internal bumper.

 

[3TV]

I'm going to look at air bags now. I like the idea of being able to adjust pressure and dial in how much assistance you need beyond the standard spring pack and overload springs.

 

[18CrewDually]

I'm going to look at air bags now. I like the idea of being able to adjust pressure and dial in how much assistance you need beyond the standard spring pack and overload springs.

Finally. Next will be shocks to dampen the sway.

 

[3TV]

Just finished pouring over the installation instructions on the Airlift 7500 ultimate kit. It looks like their mounting bracket on the frame is even taller than the mounting bracket on the Timbrens Severe Duty SES. And the Airlift kit also has a mounting bracket on the axle that takes away suspension travel, that the Timbrens doesn't have. Suspension travel appears to be limited at least as much by using that air bag system. The installation instructions I reviewed on their website may not have been for a Ram 3500 though. More research is needed.

 

[18CrewDually]

I have the Airlift bags on my dually. Fully inflated I can make it rise atleast 2.5" and the bags compress down to atleast the stock bumpstop height. I don't know what kind of travel you need but you could always add the cups for the bottoms that allow it to flex out without stretching a bag but I don't see how you'd need that.

 

[3TV]

Thanks. I think the installation instructions on their website were for a different brand of truck.

 

[3TV]

Just finished pouring over the installation instructions for the Timber Grove airbag system. I like their mounting bracket set up a lot better. Take a look at the upper mounting bracket that bolts to the frame. It is perfectly flat and doesn't lower the upper limit of suspension travel by 2 or 3 inches like the others.

Now I'm just trying to decide on an air system. Do I go with their air system, or do I install an ARB twin air compressor that would be big enough to easily fill tires on a UTV or the truck or trailer if needed? Any pointers on air systems would be helpful.

 

[18CrewDually]

Just finished pouring over the installation instructions for the Timber Grove airbag system. I like their mounting bracket set up a lot better. Take a look at the upper mounting bracket that bolts to the frame. It is perfectly flat and doesn't lower the upper limit of suspension travel by 2 or 3 inches like the others.

Now I'm just trying to decide on an air system. Do I go with their air system, or do I install an ARB twin air compressor that would be big enough to easily fill tires on a UTV or the truck or trailer if needed? Any pointers on air systems would be helpful.

I'm not sure what you're looking at but with the Airlift kit you remove the overload bump stop and the bag has flat steel plate adapter that mounts directly to the chassis. There's no 2 or 3" spacer.
For the compressor, I went the route of plumbing and mounting my own on board air system with a 2 gallon tank and solenoids, 12v remote w/fob, from Amazon. The manifold with the solenoids I sourced fittings locally. I also ran a line to the front for airhorms and a line to the back for an quick coupler in the bed using an existing hole. Mounted the tank/compressor assembly in front of the rear tire area to the chassis bed mount and leaf spring bracket using a piece of small flange 2.5" channel.
I don't have a good picture of the airbag mount but if you google search "Ram 3500 airlift airbag install" , etrailer has pics along with others.

 

[OC455]

WirelessAir 2nd Gen | Air Lift Company

Performance Air Suspension and Air Management

www.airliftcompany.com

If this all you want for just the air springs, I would do one of these.