Post maiden voyage, deciding on modifications?

[joe_julie81]

Just returned from the maiden voyage from TN to CA in the new NorthStar 950sc. I really like the camper and think we made the right choice for years of enjoyment and versatility. It rides good on the truck and the truck hauls it well. I am concerned about spring fatigue and the bottoming out hard when hitting a big bump. I'm thinking Air bags would be my best mod option. It's not squatting, swaying or leaning. The ride is hard on rough roads. Those of you with air bags, do you think these would make a difference for me or would you recommend something else?

[Grit_dog]

I didn't notice dually and popup camper previous.
Yes you're probably not bottoming out on bumps. Is it sitting on the upper overload stationary or does it really have little sag at all stationary?
Good chance your have too much truck for camper, lol. If that's the case That's awesome though. Some good shocks and play with tire pressure.
If it really is bottoming out, see my prev post. Good luck!

[woodhog]

Have the same truck in a SRW, about the same weight camper...

If your shocks are old or older, I would try a new set of Bilsteins, the yellow ones, when this truck starts to pound it is usually the shocks.

It is a simple thing to try, 30 minutes later you will know...

[kjenckes]

My son and I just put new springs on my F-250. It's a 1996 with 420,000 miles. It sagged a bit and was at times a bit like a tuna boat with the camper on and my bass boat hooked up. Stock springs were a 4/1 pack. I bought 6/1 packs from SD springs. Great upgrade. Now loaded the bed sits, height wise, where it was empty before. Handles the load great. Just did 4500 mile trip with camper and hardly knew it was there. Empty? Well, that's a kidney buster now. The shocks are Bilsteins that are 2 years old. Rough ride. Those trucks are just that, trucks, and will not ride like my Lincoln but this is rough now empty. Nice and smooth loaded. New springs on an older truck are a must in my mind. The difference was phenomenal. But smooth... No. Still very glad I did it.

[whizbang]

Tires.

The camper is way too light for a dually and the tires are way too stiff.

Nobody talked PSI. My guess is the OP is running 80 all around. Ouch.

Weigh the rig and find an inflation chart. His problem can be fixed in 5 minutes for free.

[HMS_Beagle]

Air bag kit is less than $300 with no compressor. Summo springs are over $500 - quite a bit more (both SDTruck prices for F350). Timbrens are a bit over $200.

The compressor kit adds $200 - 300 but is really a luxury. Generally you fill them up when you put the camper on, then check the pressure every month or so. You don't need the compressor with the rubber springs, but then you can't adjust anything either. With rubber springs there is no way to level the truck with and without the camper. Like steel springs, they require sag to work.

[Kayteg1]

Airbags going for $600 not mentioning dual valves and compressors are not that cheap anymore.
I used to have them on 3 previous trucks, but when I put my camper on new truck, turn out I don't need them. Even I would like to install them for comfort, new trucks don't have good space for them and I did not want to go for monkey job just becouse.
Even with 6500lb on rear axle, the truck bed still leans forward and I have to put planks under front wheels to level the combo.

[burningman]

HMS Beagle wrote:
Air bags have the advantage of being highly progressive and easily adjustable, which springs (steel or rubber) are not.

If you ever run the truck without the camper, I'd use airbags, and adjustable shocks like the Rancho 9000. You just can't make a non-adjustable suspension work well with 2000 lbs on it empty and 6000 lbs on it loaded. If you tune the steel and rubber to work well in one condition, it will work poorly in the other.

Perfectly stated. Go with Timberns or stiffer springs if you never use your truck for anything but hauling your camper.

It baffles me that guys balk at a few hundred dollars for bags but spend crazy money on other things, not to mention $75,000 trucks and $50,000 campers!
Airbags are cheap!

[sonuvabug]

Grit dog wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

sbryan@vtbryans.com wrote:
Timbrens or Sumo springs would be my choice. I have Sumo springs on my F350 with upper Stableloads and have been very pleased.

X2. Timbrens or Sumos are perfect for your situation, and unlike airbags, require nothing once installed. Price wise, these two have the advantage over airbags as well.

^ This. Only because you said it’s not squatting, swaying etc. these are half the cost of airbags or less and they will prevent the bottoming out you’re experiencing without affecting unloaded ride if you set them up short.
Otherwise if you were looking for added capacity I’d say bags or overload springs.

I went the solo Sumo Spring route ... the ones rated at 2,800 lbs. at 50% compression. They work great and fixed me right up.

[joe_julie81]

Yes, what Frank is describing is what I'm looking for. I'm out of town working right now or I would try to take pictures of the springs under the load. Btw, my 950sc dry at is 2400, due to extra equipment I ordered on it. It's probably over 3k filled and loaded. Thanks for the replies.

[Frank_Mehaffey]

We ran 2 Ford F250's for 15 years with the overload/camper spring package that is offered by Ford. Never had a real problem with stability, but was also a mite low in the rear with a 2500 lb. load. When we purchased our current camper, I had an AirLift 5000 kit installed. With 80-90 lbs. of air, the back end came up, and the ride was much improved. It was a little better with stability, but mostly it rides with less jarring on bumps. We did not put in a compressor, but are planning to put one in for convenience, this summer. The only downside to the setup is that the air hoses are a fairly stiff plastic, and after 3 years, they are getting brittle and split, and we have had to replace the hoses and fittings recently. I think it is probably just a maintenance issue you should expect when living in the northeast with hot and cold. I might invest in a heavier rear Helwig anti sway bar one of these days.

[jimh406]

What we really need are adjustable bump stops to go with adjustable air bags ... there's a product idea there. 🙂

[Area13]

I guess IMO, on my old application, overloads aren't doing much unless fully engaged with the bump stops on my old 2002 F250 Camper Package, about 4k + in the bed. When my overloads were squished into my torklift bumps, I was steady freddy. With them barely making contact or with the energies, I swayed side to side. Again, my experience, my 4k weight, my F250 with overloads.

[jimh406]

Area13 wrote:
I didn't have a good experience with the energy suspension bump stops.

If you are completely supporting the truck with the Energy Suspension bump stops, then you are doing it wrong. 🙂 Well, not wrong, but that's not what Bedlam or I were doing. We/I are simply using them to fill the space between the overloads and bump stops because we were using airbags.

In other words, not instead of airbags/timbrens or upper stableloads. Torklifts image although technically correct is not quite what we are recommending. Upper stableloads are much stiffer and would be better for the case of using them instead of air bags or in the case you wanted more overload deflection.

In the OP case, (we think) he also has a gap between the upper bump stop and overloads. Energy Suspension bump stops work well for that purpose. Again, the primary reason to use them is to fill the space and add stability when using air bags.

For those keeping score, using Energy Suspension bump stops goes all of the way back to at least 2005 when I started reading this forum. I never looked to see who was the first implementer. That also predates Torklift stableloads, fwiw.

[Area13]

Bedlam wrote:
But the ES stops may be s good solution for overloads slapping. The truck really does not need suspension help, just some tuning to carry the desired camper.

Agreed. I was overloaded on my rig.