Looking for some good advise. I have a 10' camper that weighs in about 3500 lbs. loaded. I am trying to reduce the sway on it. I have installed air bags which help and also level it out. One problem is the new Rams don't have an anti sway bar installed anymore and I can't find one. Another problem is when I fill the airbags to level out, the truck is sitting about an inch or two off the overloads. Keep in mind, I have a 2" coil lift up front. So the camper has considerable sway until it hit the overloads. If I reduce air in the bags to bring it down to the overloads, the sway is minimal, but the truck sags. A question I have is: Can I make a small 1-2" block and install them on the overloads so they have contact when the camper is loaded? Is there going to be problems with this? Anyways, I know I could solve this problem by removing the coil spacers and allowing the truck to sit lower, but my male hormones won't allow. Nor will the 315's. Thanks.

 

Here's my experience hauling a pickup camper;

Started with the airbags, truck rode too high and too much sway, took the air bags off. Now truck rides down on the helpers and has less sway.

Installed Rancho 9000 adjustable shocks, and this cut down on the sway considerably. Stock shocks are pretty much useless.

My '01 came with a factory rear anti sway bar, but I upgraded to a thicker Helwig sway bar, I think they offer them now for the 3rd gens.

You can also mount hockey pucks to the helper spring stop pads to get them to engage sooner.

FYI, my camper weighs 4130 ready to go. The stock tires and rims were overloaded and had to be replaced.

Hope this helps...

 

Hockey pucks help. Had them on my GMC SRW hauling an 11' Amerigo - - quite heavy. Then I got a dually. Wow, what a difference in stability. I also put in stiffer helpers on the SRW - - that helped too.

 

So you are talking about regular hockey pucks? Just drill a hole and install between pads and springs? If so, cool !

I know the doolie is the way to go, but I made a compromise to go with SRW because of the amount of winter camping I do in the snow. I am also a avid snowmobiler. Doolies just don't perforn in the snow as well as singles. Plus I do some city driving and mine is bad enough to find a parking spot.

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming!

 

my o1 came stock with nothing as far as over loads.I have a big camper so I added air bags.didn't help.made it worse if filled up.Added helwig sway bar,big difference.then overloads.Use the bags for leveling and let camper sit on overloads.this is a must.at least on heavy campers it is.for sure use a sway bar and maybe ranchos 9000.good luck

 

Check out Timbrens - plenty of threads on this topic. Basically high durometer rubber donuts that replace the bump stops and supplement the springs. You can get them from Stuff4Trucks.com - tell them what vehicle you have, etc. 10 mins to install.

 

Behrman:
check out rv.net you can go into the forum topic (towing) and ask away!
what kind of trailer axle do you have if its straight over leafs you can have the axel placed under the leafs to raise the trailer hieghts to level out with truck..

 

Oh I almost forgot you can also add an anti sway device to control the trailer sway
I have the reese dual cam on mine and it works beautifuly..

 

COOLHAND, Thanks for the reply, but my problem has nothing to do with the trailer. It has to do with the sway (side to side) that I get from the camper.

 

Hellwig part # 7658

For 03/04

Ron W.

 

How about a weight distributing hitch with 1400lb sway bars?

 

If they are still availiable, I found that the heavy shocks that go from the cabover to the front fenders helped the sway considerably. They also kept the camper pulled down when bucking heavy headwinds. They also make brackets that attach the bed to the cab that helps.

This is another reason I'm keeping my '99 for now. My camper pkg included front and rear sway bars and overload springs. The heaviest camper I've carried was only about 2.5 to 3.0 K, but I hardly knew it was there.

CR

 

Woops... sorry you have a camper not a travel trailer. my bad.