phenrichs

Sioux Falls, SD

Senior Member

Joined: 05/05/2010

View Profile

Offline
|
I have a friend that is a full timer with her husband. They live in their 5er and travel for his job. Yes I have told her she needs to get on here.
Anyway, they just traded their Dmax in on a new Ram 3500 and she was wondering about the suspension. She said it has a 3/1 leaf spring pack and that their 5er really made it sag. They have already installed air bags but she was curious to see if that is the normal or if they somehow got a wimpy suspension on their truck.
I told her I would ask.
Thanks all.
2006 Ram 3500 Megacab Cummins
2012 Keystone Sprinter 311BHS
|
bailer6334

Prescott, AZ

Senior Member

Joined: 01/08/2010

View Profile

Offline
|
Need a bit more information. What year is the truck, is it SRW or a Dually, and what is the pin weight and GVWR of the trailer.
2011 Arctic Fox 29-5T 5th Wheel
2011 Silverado HD 3500 6.6L Duramax Diesel Crew Cab
Short Bed 4X4 SRW LT
50gal Transfer Flow Aux. Tank
16K Valley Hitch w/bed saver
|
donn0128

Pronounced Ore-gun

Senior Member

Joined: 04/21/2005

View Profile

Offline
|
Number of springs has little bearing on loading. It is all about loading and how the springs are made.
Donn,Lorri,Max (The Rescued Lab)
Resident Know It All 
|
donn0128

Pronounced Ore-gun

Senior Member

Joined: 04/21/2005

View Profile

Offline
|
3500 SRW or 3500 Dually?
On my dually with about 3000 of pin weight I drop from nose down to level and there is stops. Most trucks today sit empty with a nose down attitude, when hitched they are perfectly level. Is that where they are or are they dropping to a nose high attitude? I would also guess that without some scale weights on the rig that they could be overloaded on pin weight.
|
phenrichs

Sioux Falls, SD

Senior Member

Joined: 05/05/2010

View Profile

Offline
|
It is a 2012 SRW 3500. I have no idea on pin weight and we weren't trying to diagnose the sag she was just curious because she said a friend of theirs has a 2500 and their spring pack is a 4/1 and this new 3500 is a 3/1. I asked if the friend had upgraded but she said no.
|
|
|
JIMNLIN

out here

Senior Member

Joined: 09/14/2003

View Profile

|
Number of leaf springs doesn't mean anything when compared to another brand truck. The springs width/thickness/spring length/steel psi rating can be different between the manufacturers.
The '03 to '12 Dodge 3500 SRW has the lowest 6200 RAWR spring packages out here. In some cases Dodge didn't install the aux overload spring pack on the SRW. Yes the Dodge 3500 SRW has a wimpy spring pack.
Ford and GM one ton SRW packages are in the 7000-7100 lb range and from what owners say they have a aux overload spring pack.
"good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" ............ Will Rogers
'03 2500 QC Dodge/Cummins HO 3.73 6 speed manual Jacobs Westach
'97 Park Avanue 28' 5er 11200 gvwr two slides
|
FishOnOne

Katy

Senior Member

Joined: 02/12/2011

View Profile

Offline
|
A guy at work went from a 10 GMC dually to a '11 Dodge dually and when he hooked onto his gooseneck for the first time with the Dodge he noticed it squated alot more to the point his mud flaps were touching the ground. He had to add air springs to level the truck with this load and that solved his problem.
It seems with the newer Dodges they squat more with heavy loads than the older trucks.
|
JRS & B

Florida/Michigan

Senior Member

Joined: 05/09/2010

View Profile

Offline
|
Since they are full timers they may have too heavy a trailer (i.e. just too much stuff) for their truck. I have a 2007 Ram 3500 SRW and a 36 foot fiver with three slides. I don't know what the actual pin weight is, but my truck does not sag noticeably at all.
I assume their Dodge is a diesel.
Met some full timer folks who customized their fiver with oak cabinets and entertainment center like you would have in a home, along with a custom screen room almost as big as the trailer itself. When they were done the trailer's actual weight was a whopping 17,000 pounds. Obviously they got a dually.
|
ib516

Up here!

Senior Member

Joined: 04/18/2003

View Profile

|
FishOnOne wrote: A guy at work went from a 10 GMC dually to a '11 Dodge dually and when he hooked onto his gooseneck for the first time with the Dodge he noticed it squated alot more to the point his mud flaps were touching the ground. He had to add air springs to level the truck with this load and that solved his problem.
It seems with the newer Dodges they squat more with heavy loads than the older trucks.
Riiiiiight
2010 Cougar 322QBS 5er
2007 Dodge 3500 SRW Megacab, 4x4, 5.9L Cummins, 3.73, 48RE auto
HYPERTECH MAX ENERGY or DIABLO PREDATOR tuning
MBRP 4" Turbo back
Scangauge2 for Boost, Coolant temp, Rail press & Trans Temp
Torklift Stable Loads
|
Old-Biscuit

Across the USA

Senior Member

Joined: 06/20/2009

View Profile

|
Jim,Rosemary, Sandy wrote: Since they are full timers they may have too heavy a trailer (i.e. just too much stuff) for their truck. I have a 2007 Ram 3500 SRW and a 36 foot fiver with three slides. I don't know what the actual pin weight is, but my truck does not sag noticeably at all.
I assume their Dodge is a diesel.
Met some full timer folks who customized their fiver with oak cabinets and entertainment center like you would have in a home, along with a custom screen room almost as big as the trailer itself. When they were done the trailer's actual weight was a whopping 17,000 pounds. Obviously they got a dually.
Your '07 has a different spring pack with overloads......
Newer RAMs don't have the overloads and IMHO weaker spring packs
|
|
|