rough rider (sometimes)

[DAVID COOPER]

Did anyone's ride smooth out when they added weight distribution?

I have a 05 2500hd silverado w/ a fairly stiff ride to start, my sunline barely tops out at half my trailer capacity and the dry tongue weight is well below weight carrying ratings so i currently use a straight weight carrying hitch. i know i need to weigh the tongue with it loaded and will do so to make sure i'm within the 10-15% range. no sway problems just occaisional porposing on a rough road.

[chriseck]

David, the up and down is common,but you can control it more with upgraded shocks to help damping/rebound motion.The air bag system on our Dodge 1500 provides a more stable up/down motion compared to the wt/bars as they seemed to translate more ridged vibrations throughout the truck when we used them.Since you have a 2500 HD,hitch weight shouldnt be a problem.The shocks on our Dodge are run of the mill factory types,not made to handle the job of such towing requirements on a regular basis.You can see the difference in the size of the smallish piston in the factory shock vs a heavy duty aftermarket replacement.

[JohnB]

David

What Sunline, year and model do you have? I can help give better answers if I know the camper setup.

And do you have the crew cab, club cab, regular cab, long bed, short bed and 2 x 4 or 4 x 4?. I'm trying to hone in on the wheel base length and truck weights.

Do you haul anything in the truck bed when camping? If so how much weight and is it forward or rear of the rear truck axle?

I have done a fair amount of WD setup and testing on the 3/4 ton GM NBS suspensions and may be able to help here.

Once I know what Sunline you are pulling, I can give you better reasons why using WD will be better for you even on the 2500HD. The ride will be smoother, the truck will handle better and you will have a more effective anti sway system when bad towing conditions come your way.

Give us some more info to work from

Thanks

John

[DAVID COOPER]

John,

thx for the reply, i've been camping for a few days, just got back. here's more info

2wd 2500hd crew cab short bed

depending on the trip i generally have 250 to 500 lbs of stuff in the bed, 400-500 lbs of passengers in the cab

i have a 2000 sunline solaris t2570 rear kitchen dry weight is 5k gross w/ i think about 600 lbs hitch weight.

[PTHutch]

David,

The hitch itself has a weight carrying limit, regardless of how much the weight impacts the rear end of the tow vehicle. Class III / IV hitches have a weight carrying limit of 500 lbs / 750 lbs. So if your tongue weight of your trailer is 600 lbs, it's over the weight carrying limit of a Class III hitch. A WD hitch increases the tongue weight limit to 1,200 lbs. From this alone I would suggest considering a WD hitch.

I've always used a WD hitch. My previous Sunline was about the same weight as your current trailer using an E-150 conversion van as the TV. Never really experience much bounce with that set up. We have a heavier trailer now and a 2500HD TV, we get some bounce, but nothing outrageous.

As others have mentioned, you'll always get a little bounce. I'm no expert, but I would think that a WD hitch would provide some smoothing / reduction of the bouncing you're experiencing.

How was the camping? We can't wait to get out, but here in the northeast we won't be able to get out for another month or so.

Have fun.
Hutch

[DAVID COOPER]

thx hutch

a bad day camping is still better than good day at work. down here in ga we get 9-10 good months of rv'ng y'all. 60 degree days last week were great, pretty bad storm one day but we stayed north of the bad stuff. my sister lives in new hampshire, beautiful country but their pop-up gets a little lonely.

i appreciate your hitch thoughts