The reason I recommend the Stable loads is air bags can unload the springs. Best would be both air bags and stable loads. The stable loads would engage the overloads sooner. The air bags would take you the rest of the way. On my 06' the Pacbrake air bags were complete bolt on.
The springs are supposed to compress a little when you add a load to them, it is normal. With my F-350 SRW, the 3,000 pound camper caused it to compress about 4", so I figured 1500 pounds on each side, or about 400 pounds of weight per spring per inch of compression. Your springs should be a little stiffer, say 500 pounds per inch per side, yet anything in the 4" - 6" compression is normal.
How that effects the headlights can be seen by pulling up to a garage door or wall that is level and at the end of a long level stretch of roadway. If the center of the headlights on the wall is higher than the center on the truck, then your headlights are pointed up, if lower, then pointed down. If the center of the beam is to the right, and slightly lower, that is normal, to the left is more likely to blind the oncoming cars more than desired, might cause them to steer out of your path into a ditch.
There should be an easy adjustment to bring your headlight beams down a little bit. Figure this out in the daylight, then adjust at night, or in a darkened warehouse, or some sort of pole barn you can close off to make it dark.
You can stand in front of one headlight at a time, and see what one is pointed to the left or right. I like the right hand beam to be more straight down the roadway, while the left beam to cross about 75' in front of me, towards the right hand side of the roadway and 250' in front light up the passenger side ditch.
If you adjust the headlight to be "Correct" while towing, then they will not cast as far a light when not towing, as they will be pointed a little more towards the ground than normal. Yet if this does not bother your night driving, you can leave it that way. Basically the beams will be pointed to the ground about 250' in front of the truck, while towing they will still be about 2' off the ground at 250' in front of the truck.
BR_Bo wrote: The camper is empty in this pic - took it right after driving home from the dealer. Also going to put a 63 gallon fuel tank in the bed, so that will add additional weight as well. It looks like the spring hangers are in the top hole already.
I'll probably add the airbags and see how the clearance looks.
For that additional weight and going by how much sag there is now, I would add 2 leafs per side to the overloads. This will increase the loaded spring rate and reduce the sag, but not affect the unloaded spring rate and thus no effect on the unloaded ride. With 2 more leafs taking up the space to the frame bumpers, there would likely not be a need for Stable Loads.
I would not put air bags on a truck with factory overloads. They are probably a good idea for trucks that don't have factory overloads.
I put airbagson to keep off the overloads. It made for a jarring ride when hitting bumps. The airbags did the trick, they do raise the back of the truck.I have had to let the air out on a couple of occasions to get clearance coming into a couple of spots, only when the truck is going down hill and the trailer is still level.
Don't guess at how much you "might be squating, measure it. My truck looks a little low in the back at that angle, but its dead level. I think its the way the dually fenders are shaped. I bet its no more than a inch low.
Larry and Debbie Kruzan
We never turn a corner without wondering in amazement at God's creation!
wcjeep wrote: Check out the Torklift stable load. Might be Perfect for your application.
x2
I have them on mine. They engage the overloads a bit earlier and take out the little bit of squat you have there.
10 min bolt on.
Shown here in yellow for illustration purposes, they are black when you get them:
So is that 1st photo of your truck IB? Didn't know you had bags on it.
At any rate I'm not sure about the need for much with his DRW. Not positive about the new trucks but back in 2006 or so the spring paks on the M/C where lighter and maybe needed some intervention. I believe Mad Mav had that issue IIRC, overload not fully engaged and slapping on the bumps. I would bet the OP is just on his overloads and should be fine like myself. Of course every combination of RV and TV will weight differently thus more results.
What I'm trying to say is that the OP's DRW has a RAWR of 9350 or so. Wonder why it would need help with 3-4k pin weight
YMMV
No air bags on my truck, grabbed that pic off of the web searching for pictures of Stable loads. I've never taken a pic of mine, but I should.
I too added the Stable loads to prevent the slapping when I would pull my previous RV (a TT), it had about a 1200# tongue weight, which was enough to get the overloads close to the perches, but not touch. That meant most highway bumps caused them to slap. With the Stable Loads, the overloads engage early = no slapping sound.
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