new camper on the dodge

dfowlkes · Jul 15, 2014

Just got a new camper on the dodge. It's a 2500 v10..sways pretty good and sits just a hair under level in the ass end..and I haven't even hooked the trailer to it with the wheeler on board yet..what are some of you guys doing to combat this? Bags? Stiffer springs from 1 ton? Load distribution hitch? Air shocks maybe? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated

WA-Wheeler · Jul 15, 2014

dfowlkes said:
Just got a new camper on the dodge. It's a 2500 v10..sways pretty good and sits just a hair under level in the ass end..and I haven't even hooked the trailer to it with the wheeler on board yet..what are some of you guys doing to combat this? Bags? Stiffer springs from 1 ton? Load distribution hitch? Air shocks maybe? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Mines near identical. But I have 1 ton springs with bags. Bit of overkill but she sits level with whatever I throw on her.

GRW · Jul 15, 2014

If you want ride comfort and handling (loaded & unloaded) I would go air bags.

JAWS · Jul 15, 2014

Dodge made 3 different 2500s in the 2nd gen area... a very light duty.. 8 lug dana 44 front and a slide off drum 8 lug 9.25 in the rear.. with 1/2 ton suspention these were v8 only trucks

A mid duty 60 front 60 or 70 rear lighter payload.. smaller spring pack..
these were a lot of v8 and v10 trucks a few diesels

And a heavy duty 2500.. This would have the heavyer spring pack with the big multi pack over loads.. dana 60 fronts with the bigger bearings.. heavyer duty brakes.. dana 70 or 80 rears and a 8800 GVW.
It was basicly their one ton non dulley.. Diesel and a few v10s....

SO whats your GVW? it will be on the door sticker

bajeep93 · Jul 15, 2014

http://www.torklift.com/index.php/products/suspension/stableload
These were hands down the best thing I did to mine. I hated the air bags they made it drive worse. You will want to do the weight distribution hitch. I sold my camper now. Not enough room for the family. View attachment 57029

dfowlkes · Jul 15, 2014

JAWS said:
Dodge made 3 different 2500s in the 2nd gen area... a very light duty.. 8 lug dana 44 front and a slide off drum 8 lug 9.25 in the rear.. with 1/2 ton suspention these were v8 only trucks

A mid duty 60 front 60 or 70 rear lighter payload.. smaller spring pack..
these were a lot of v8 and v10 trucks a few diesels

And a heavy duty 2500.. This would have the heavyer spring pack with the big multi pack over loads.. dana 60 fronts with the bigger bearings.. heavyer duty brakes.. dana 70 or 80 rears and a 8800 GVW.
It was basicly their one ton non dulley.. Diesel and a few v10s....

SO whats your GVW? it will be on the door sticker

Mine is 8800. 8 lug 60 front 70 rear

CHOP SHOP · Jul 15, 2014

Airbags can lift you off of the overload pads and worsen body roll sometimes.

If using bags they need to have right and left fill valves so each bag is filled independently of each other.

Lucky Jeff · Jul 15, 2014

I had bags (individually filled), sway bar, E rated/wide/lower profile tires and stiffer shocks. Still hated the way it felt with a camper. Some are fine with the bounce/sway that comes with a camper, others (me) never will be.

crash2 · Jul 15, 2014

Ya fully setup you either love it or hate it the feeling you get... I liked how the camper felt when I was towing the rig with more weight at the hitch--but still a little sloshy,lol..

dfowlkes · Jul 15, 2014

bajeep93 said:
http://www.torklift.com/index.php/products/suspension/stableload
These were hands down the best thing I did to mine. I hated the air bags they made it drive worse. You will want to do the weight distribution hitch. I sold my camper now. Not enough room for the family. View attachment 57029

Looks like a good place to start! Thanks for the link

dfowlkes · Jul 15, 2014

WA-Wheeler said:
Mines near identical. But I have 1 ton springs with bags. Bit of overkill but she sits level with whatever I throw on her.

Do you still have an issue with sway with this setup?

jrgaylor · Jul 15, 2014

When I have the camper on I use these
http://www.torklift.com/index.php/products/suspension/stableload

I have airbags also but no longer use them.

WA-Wheeler · Jul 15, 2014

dfowlkes said:
Do you still have an issue with sway with this setup?

Some, yeah. Don't bother me. My buddy put a heliwig sway bar on his and says the difference was night and day. He is running bags and 1 tons too.

Lucky Jeff · Jul 15, 2014

Someone explain to me the difference between 1ton and 3/4 ton springs (2nd Gen Dodge's) .. I know of overloads, but that was an option for both.

02TJ · Jul 15, 2014

I've had both 2nd gen 2wd and 4wd and had campers on both. As far as having a camper on and pulling a heavy trailer the 2wd handles much better. I have bags but only inflate enought to give me a half an inch off the over loads.

skinny_pedal · Jul 15, 2014

Bad ass Dan. Setup looks sweet

dfowlkes · Jul 16, 2014

skinny_pedal said:
Bad ass Dan. Setup looks sweet

Thanks man! We shopped for quite awhile and this one suited us best. .the v10 doesn't even flinch

WA-Wheeler · Jul 16, 2014

dfowlkes said:
Thanks man! We shopped for quite awhile and this one suited us best. .the v10 doesn't even flinch

Mines hates the pass with the camper and jeep and trailer. In all honesty it just needs more gears.

dfowlkes · Jul 16, 2014

WA-Wheeler said:
Mines hates the pass with the camper and jeep and trailer. In all honesty it just needs more gears.[/QUOT

My camper is only 2300 lbs full of water and supplies..Im considering changing the 3:53's to 4:10's so that maybe and just maybe I can use overdrive..I'm about 3k at 70 mph and as you know they run out of breath right around there..id like my crusing range at 70 to be right around 2500..right now if I put it in OD it goes from 3 to about 1650 ish. But I never felt like I had a lack of power with the od locked out..it pulled any hill without losing speed
. We'll see how it does once I put the buggy behind it