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Old 02-22-2017, 10:42 AM   #1
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Flip My Axle #2753

I have a Sunline 2753 and I am thinking of flipping the axles to gain some travel height.
Does anyone have an experience in doing this?
Good idea or not?
thanks
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Old 02-22-2017, 02:22 PM   #2
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It depends what you're looking for in it. It's a common modification to low slung Sunlines. By raising up the trailer, it changes the handling characteristics, and if you have a small tow vehicle, you may feel it push you around more. Some people say they don't really notice a difference though. It does help clear gas station driveways and other rough terrain, so it's a good addition if you go in the back woods often.

One thing to think about is your entry steps, they will be a lot higher up now. You can go the expensive route and have new double entry steps welded in, or you can just buy a free standing step for each door that you unfold and put out on the ground when you get to your destination.
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Old 02-22-2017, 06:09 PM   #3
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I second Sunline Fan's comments. I'll add a little more on the truck part.

If you have a 3/4 ton truck as a tow vehicle, you will not notice the increased wind drag from being higher on the front of the trailer. If you have a half ton truck or smaller, it will depend on how much reverse towing power if you will notice the increase wind drag. Some of these newer 1/2 ton trucks have a lot of pulling ability compared to the 10 year and older ones.

If you feel your towing performance (pulling performance) is very good now, odds are in your favor you may not even feel the difference. If towing is marginal and you know it, then the added wind drag has a chance of making that feeling a little worse.

We have had a few members with a steep angle approach getting in and out of their driveway. After they tore up the drag V's on the back of the camper enough times, the over under axle lift helped them stop bending up the drag V's.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 02-24-2017, 08:01 AM   #4
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Thanks to you both. Guess I'll leave it alone.
We don't like the sway we have now and the biggest problem is my driveway with the new blacktop. Only one time did we drag on a gas station.
I do have enough 2x6's to help me out.

2003 Chevrolet LT Suburban with 123K. Our 2753 is a 2005 (bought 2006) with 10K.
Reese anti sway set up but we still have to watch out for the Big Rigs.
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Old 02-24-2017, 06:28 PM   #5
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Hi flbradjr,

I know the Surburan of that vintage. I had a 2002 Tahoe and a 2003 K2500 Suburban we used to tow our prior T2499 with.

If and when you get time, we can review your truck and hitch setup to maybe help what sway you are feeling. Glad to review it if you want to. Just create a post in the towing section and we can go from there.

Maybe if we can get the unwanted sway better, the axle flip may be more appealing.

Thanks

John
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Old 02-25-2017, 10:09 AM   #6
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We were towing our 2753 with a 3/4 ton GMC Sierra. We actually had better towing and no sway after the axel flip. Maybe because it raised the trailer up to be more even with the bottom of the truck, whereas before that the trailer bottom was lower than the truck bottom.
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Old 02-26-2017, 11:33 AM   #7
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We use to have a 2005 Sunline 2753 trailer and we did the axle flip mod to. We also changed out the step from a single to a double step. I can tell you it was the best mod we ever did to the trailer. After complete we no longer dragged the rear end of the trailer went entering or exiting driveways or going up or down a steeper angle entrance. We towed with a Chevy Avalanche and never really noticed any difference in sway or wind resistance. Also we didn't notice any difference in fuel mileage. Also by flipping the axles we discover the spring bolt bushing were completely destroyed and we were able to replace them. These bushings I believe are nylon and depending on how much you tow you can wear these out in as little as one to two years of towing. Even if you decide against the axle flip I would strongly suggest you check on and get these bushing changed especially if you have never had them changed in the past.
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Old 03-03-2017, 10:46 AM   #8
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Hi John,
We have a 2003 Chev Suburban LT 1500 4WD. Sunline 2005 #2753.
A Reese Trunnion Style Weight Distributing Kit.
It was set up by the Sunline dealer AC Lamb in Liverpool, NY -outside of Syracuse.
I've learned to slow down a notch when I see a big rig approaching and I try to stay near 60 mph. It seems to have minimun sway but if they catch me unawares or i'm close to 70 the sway increases. Wife is not happy but I think we're normal.
Any suggestions or advice is welcome. See your note below.
Thanks Foster Bradley Long Island, NY

Hi flbradjr,

I know the Surburan of that vintage. I had a 2002 Tahoe and a 2003 K2500 Suburban we used to tow our prior T2499 with.

If and when you get time, we can review your truck and hitch setup to maybe help what sway you are feeling. Glad to review it if you want to. Just create a post in the towing section and we can go from there.

Maybe if we can get the unwanted sway better, the axle flip may be more appealing.

Thanks

John
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Old 03-03-2017, 06:00 PM   #9
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We did an axle flip on our 2363 for the same reasons you want to - it would drag every time we went to park it at our house (as well as at campgrounds). Obviously we have a smaller trailer than your 2753 but we've noticed no increased wind drag/sway from the flip.

We have a Reese dual-cam WD system which was installed by a reputable dealer in our area, however, they made quite a few mistakes when they did it. We had to re-install it ourselves and JohnB was a real blessing in helping us. We had our axle flip done about two years ago so we had to "tweak" the WD system a bit after the flip was done; JohnB helped us again. Now, we have very-little-to-no-sway when we travel - it has to be really windy or a tractor trailer coming by at a high rate of speed. Recommend that, if you get time, go over your WD system with JohnB. Happy camping!
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Old 03-04-2017, 06:00 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flbradjr View Post
Hi John,
We have a 2003 Chev Suburban LT 1500 4WD. Sunline 2005 #2753.
A Reese Trunnion Style Weight Distributing Kit.
It was set up by the Sunline dealer AC Lamb in Liverpool, NY -outside of Syracuse.
I've learned to slow down a notch when I see a big rig approaching and I try to stay near 60 mph. It seems to have minimun sway but if they catch me unawares or i'm close to 70 the sway increases. Wife is not happy but I think we're normal.
Any suggestions or advice is welcome. See your note below.
Thanks Foster Bradley Long Island, NY
Hi flbradjr,

There are some things about your setup that could be aggravating the towing stability.

When the dealer setup your weight distribution (WD) hitch, was this the day you bought the camper? Assuming it was as that is when most are done at the dealer, they would be using the weight of an empty camper. And the truck may not have camping gear in it either.

They may have even set it up dead on, the issue is, the camper and the truck where not loaded the way you go camping. The WD hitch needs to be reset once the truck and camper are loaded with camping gear to have the best effect from the WD hitch. If you are able to and want to learn how, we can help you on adjusting the type of hitch you have. Having the WD set on the truck helps a lot with the towing stability.

Tires and the pressure in them. These are a big player in creating a stable towing camper/truck. The camper tires need to be aired up to max side wall pressure for towing. This helps the trailer tire run cooler and be stiffer to better handle side wall flexing. Your 2005 T2753 would have C load range tires which are 50 psi if they are still the factory supplied size. Do you know if they are aired up to this when towing?

The truck, what tire size are they, brand, load range and what pressure are the front and back tires at when you are towing? Also what is the max cold side wall pressure on these tires? It is common that the truck tire pressures need to be adjusted to help create a stable towing setup.

The WD hitch, does it have any type of anti sway controls? Knowing the Reese brand, they make several trunnion bar styles and then there are add on's. Does your have the Dual Cam add on, or a friction anti sway bar, and 1 or 2 frictions sway bars?

When the camper and the truck are hitched up, is the camper towing level, nose down or nose up?

By chance, do you know the camper loaded gross weight and the loaded tongue weight? Meaning you went to a truck scale and weighed the camper, not the weights from the camper stickers.

Speed, You mentioned 70 mph. Just a friendly heads up, most ST trailer tires on the camper are only rated for 65 mph. The heat created in the tire above 65 breaks down the tire faster over time. Plus 70 is fast for towing a camper as a normal towing speed. I myself even with my 1 ton truck only tow at 60 mph as normal highway towing speed. Yes it takes longer to get there, but hey, we are camping right. The amount of things that can go when towing become bigger when the speed is higher.

If you are getting an instability in the truck and camper towing that makes you need to do steering corrections, even small ones, that is not always normal and often times adjustments can greatly help the problem. Higher speed will aggravate the setup to become more unstable. There is a somewhat natural speed of 45 mph that when above it can set things off on an unstable towing setup. Since you say 60mpg is better then 70, you are not way out of setup, but it could be improved.

Willing to dig into this further to help if wanted. Let us know what you can from the questions above as a starter and we can help from there.

Hope this helps

John
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