TC / airbag suspension

[RandyAmy]

Airbags or no airbags?
Have you driven a truck with a camper that had airbag suspension and or no airbag suspension. What is your experience?

We have a 2016 RAM 3500 Cummins dually crew cab 8' bed and we're buying our first truck camper this year. Unfortunately it doesn't have an airbag suspension.
What some are telling me is our truck will be fine and it can handle the weight no problem, yet others agree but state when it comes to wind the airbags help a lot to keep the truck stable or feel less rocking or sway.

Your thoughts?

[ajriding]

I dont want to chime in too much, but my experience is the bags improved the ride and performance a lot.

The truck rode so much smoother when I was able to air it up to get off the helper springs. I felt like I was driving a Cadillac at first.

Over-air it and it gets stiff of course, that's how it works.

The guy who felt top heavy, (a page back now and I can't see it) were your bags under the frame and over the leaf springs, or if coils, were they in the coils? Running bags inside the frame will most likely always cause a top-heavy situation. That is a KEY detail when hearing air bag stories.
There are aftermarket air bags that put the system where the axle bump stop is, inside the frame rails, and this seems like a terrible place to lift the suspension (unless you are just towing). I don't think TCs are the critical design point of air bag manufacturers.

[lakeside013104]

jimh425 wrote:
Airbags adjusted correctly (not too much pressure) can improve the ride. Too much pressure will make the ride worse. I believe the key is to keep the overloads engaged. Air bags also give you a way to adjust the ride height if you are towing a trailer, or if one side of the TC/truck is heavier than the other. Do make sure that they are plumbed separately or you won’t be able to balance driver and passenger sides.

Excellent information and exactly as I have experienced with my Firestone airbags.

On initial install of TC onto F-350 at the RV dealership, the tech put 60# of air into my airbags. When I pulled out of dealership yard onto highway, I felt the truck was severely top heavy. I got out to look and saw the overload springs were 3" off the rubber bumper. I lowered the pressure by 10 psi and drove ten miles. I did this several times until the truck felt stable when driving. I found that at 28# of air in the bags, the truck was most comfortable to drive.

Good luck with your new setup.

Lakesidew

[Reality_Check]

I'll preface this with the fact that I'm feeling slightly ornery tonight.

Airbag suspension is not about a couple of bolt on bags from the local wal-mart.

World of difference and not even in the same league.

Had bolt on air bags on an old 350...don't over air them. Makes the ride worse. They are a bandaid to a problem, but not a solution.

[ajriding]

Many campers are 2,000-2,500 lbs so air is fine, if going to a 5,000 rig, then I am no expert…

I have air bags and love them. I can micro adjust and get ride height back to normal easily. Truck rides smooth when unloaded and at 5psi and rides the same when aired up to 60 with camper…

Beware: airbags on the springs (leaf springs in my case) or inside the coils are fine. Airbags set next to the springs on the inside can cause more instability because you are supporting the weight from closer to the middle of the truck rather than at the outer edges.

[towpro]

I had a 2015 Ram 3500 4wd dually and now have a 2018 Ram 3500 dually 2wd. My recomendataion is try it first. I would recommend a BigWig sway bar in the back since the truck has none from the factory.

I carry a Arctic Fox 990 which runs around 5000 lbs loaded. I added Torque Lift Lower stable loads to the 2018 just to bring the back up a little, but they also made an additional reduction in sway.

I hear the factory air ride bags for the dually are single feed, so as your camper sways the air can transfer from one bag to the other, so might not be the best choice.

[RandyAmy]

WOW, thank you all for your input. I really do appreciate it and it sounds like I came to the right place.
My takeaway is buy the camper, put it on the truck and see how it sits or if it's leaning right or left. Take it on a short trip and see how it rides.
Sound about right?
Thank you all again.

[burningman]

It’s not a bad idea to toss the push-on air line fittings the kits always come with (to make installation as simple as possible) and use brass compression fittings instead.
However, on my most recent set I got lazy and used the push-one and haven’t had trouble.

[monroebobo]

Hi I have an 04 ram 2500. After several different setups I like using timbrens in tandem with supersprings. I put in the timbrens and adjusted the supersprings to the point I have about 4 inch gap between the axle and timbrens. By doing this it gave me an almost stock ride empty. With very god load capabilities loaded. Lower stable loads also help a lot in my case. Didn't need the stable loads with the timbren supersprings setup.

[Rocknita]

We have a 2017 Ram 3500 drw long bed diesel. We carry a 2014 Lance 992. With full freshwater, propane and our stuff we carry about 5,000 lbs. I have added zero suspension mods. We headed west last Thursday into some very stiff winds from the northwest but not nearly as bad as what they experienced on Wednesday. This was the Amarillo area. We drove 70-75 mph. Get the camper. Put it on your truck. Drive it. Then decide.

[travelnutz]

I have had Air Lift air bags on all our GM trucks since 1993 both for my business and personal use and they are superb and very predictable. NEVER leaked air even once on any of them with having a combined trucks with more than 900,000 miles of combined loaded travel on the bags. 100% adjustable for any load rating up to 5000 lbs.

For the business the trucks carried what ever was needed and for personal use my trucks were only used since new for towing a heavy Carriage 5th wheel (12,800 lb truck scale weighed loaded to travel) with 2460+ lbs pin weight plus having the 106 gal aux diesel fuel tank with a hand operated fuel pump full in the bed too (another ~750+ lbs on the rear axle) or our hauling our loaded 4000+ lb Lance 11'4" truck camper on the back and again, the trucks were only used for RV'ing and were all bought new.

Simple to calculate the proper PSI needed to carry what load carried.

2 rear airbags on my truck (1 right and 1 left) have 5000 lbs total capacity at 100 PSI inflation which means approx. 500 lbs of lift support for each 10 PSI of inflation in the air bags. Thus, 4000 lbs carried in the bed means ~80 PSI inflation in the bags to have the total weight supported by the air bags alone and 3000 lbs carried means ~60 PSI inflation in the bags.

You really don't want 100% of the carried weight to only be totally supported by the air bags alone so to have roughly ~1000 lbs carried by the truck springs which usually levels the truck's rear you should inflate the bags to 60 PSI for 4000 and or 40 PSI for 3000 respectively for an excellent ride quality and around a true level truck setup. Very little to no sag from being the truck's near unloaded as about all pickups when totally empty (OEM) ride higher in the rear than in the front. Don't want the truck's rear higher than the front!

It works excellent and has since 1993 with no guessing needed. Know your actual additional load being carried within 500-1000 lbs and inflate accordingly.

Each 500 lbs on the rear axle should require an additional 10 PSI inflation in the air bags minus what weight you want to be supported by the truck's rear springs! How easy is that?

Solid rubber type springs have no easy adjustability other than grabbing wrenches and climbing under the truck to reset contact position for various loads as we used to have them prior to air bags and never will again. Truck loading always varies from driver alone to many passengers plus a heavy cargo load on the rear axle. Air bags solve this issue so easily and quickly (maybe 30 seconds with an air compressor or air line or in about 2 seconds if you have the onboard compressor option installed which lets you control bag PSI on the road even while driving.

[Grit_dog]

RandyAmy, some good info here, some irrelevant and some incorrect.
I'll say, bags are a good option if needed and very reliable setup. There are other suspension enhancements that are more permanent in nature and this less versatile as well.
No idea what is needed without knowing what the camper weighs and even then, the method you use, if you need more suspension is subjective to your preferences.

There are several different ways to shore up a saggy suspension. The common ones are:
Stable loads. Either commercially available or home made.
Air bags. Several levels of strength and versatility.
Add a leafs, several kinds.
Bump stop replacement type springs like Timbrens and Sumo springs
Replacement spring packs or added leafs to factory springs.

[jaycocreek]

Almost all semi trucks ride on airbag suspension.

Not the best choice for logging trucks IMO but having said that,I had one Kenworth with Air Ride and never had any issues with the air suspension or leaks...Everything but that it seemed but the suspension was solid for taking the beating a log truck gives.

[Kayteg1]

Common problem with air system is that they use "Shark bite" fitting.
When removed, the tubing ends have "teeth marks" and that makes for leaks.
I was always installing the tubings with big slack and when I had to disassemble it for some reason, I cut the ends off for reassemble.
Keeping it clean is crucial.

[HadEnough]

burningman wrote:
The problem with using stiffer springs instead of airbags is the ride when unloaded is horrible.
If you’re always chasing air leaks with airbags, someone did a poor installation.
Almost all semi trucks ride on airbag suspension. The reliability is definitely there.

If I were going to have a truck that had the camper on it all the time, then I’d do the springs.

I'd agree about the reliability of air bags.

The only times I had issues with my airbags are when idiots at repair facilities severed the air lines.

Otherwise, absolutely no problems and they stay pressurized for a year without losing any air.