Fifthwheel towing

[H3LZSN1P3R]

RTomlin, I just bought a 2019 Ram 2500 Limited with the air level suspension. I tow my 14k 5th wheel with it. It sways so much it is scary. Never had this issue with the 2004 Ford F250 I used before buying my Ram. Did you find a solution to your problem? I would sure like to hear your feedback. Thanks

If you have the oem tires thats the first step i found a huge difference getting rid of them transforce garbage tires

 

[JimmyfromSF]

 

[JimmyfromSF]

These are the tires I have now. They are not the factory tires. They are set to 65PSI according to the tire label on my door jamb. The tire itself says 80psi. Do you think 65PSI might be my issue?

I use to run 60psi in front and 80psi in the back of my old Ford F-250 and it never swayed. But that had 8leaf springs in the back.

 

[JimmyfromSF]

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

These are the tires I have now. They are not the factory tires. They are set to 65PSI according to the tire label on my door jamb. The tire itself says 80psi. Do you think 65PSI might be my issue?

I use to run 60psi in front and 80psi in the back of my old Ford F-250 and it never swayed. But that had 8leaf springs in the back.

80 psi would be way to much when towing jump it up to 70 rear.... it seems to only be the guys running oem air ride with issues one of the many reasons if i were to go air ride only id build my own system i don't think ram has it setup properly

 

[Lary0071]

This is odd to me as I also have a 2019 but no air suspension. I added airbags to the rear, but could get away without them. They let me adjust my rear height up a bit, but it goes down to level without them aired up. I run the factory wheels and tires, the trailer is right near 13,500 lbs and 2700 pin weight on a Reese 16K Goosebox. Mine drives down the road smooth and steady, I am actually really impressed how nice this combination. I was worried as I was buying the truck and trailer since I had never had anything but bumper pull equipment trailers and bumper pull travel trailers. My Reese Goosebox does have suspension built in that acts between my bed mounted goose ball and the trailers frame wings. So I do get the benefit of that in that my truck does not get directly bounced or otherwise influenced by the trailer as it goes over road irregularities.

I can't think of a good reason for the earlier mentioned side to side sway. I would love to be able to hook my truck to his fiver and take a ride with my truck and see if it is the same effect? Did you scale the rig empty and then with the camper on? Are you by chance a rear kitchen or rear living that is loaded rear heavy, or a toy hauler with a heavy toy in the rear?

You can see here that I have scaled it and know that as loaded (rear bunkhouse, front master bed, mid living and kitchen) that I have almost exactly 20% pin weight. I really wonder if your pin weight as loaded is being counter weighted by rear weight in the trailer and causing the floating? The way mine is set up it pulls shockingly well.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I can't think of a good reason for the earlier mentioned side to side sway. I would love to be able to hook my truck to his fiver and take a ride with my truck and see if it is the same effect? Did you scale the rig empty and then with the camper on? Are you by chance a rear kitchen or rear living that is loaded rear heavy, or a toy hauler with a heavy toy in the rear?

I have not checked the air ride 2500s out yet but my theory is the bags are plumbed together before the compressor so the bags are always fighting each other causing the sway as they are the only load handlers in the rear suspention, unloaded the load on the bags is minimal so you would not experience it ..... with the coils and added bags you can t the lines an run off a single valve because they coils handle the majority of the load so its not relying on even bag pressures....

As backwards as this sounds a set of timburns may alleviate the issue as it would steady the truck while the bags handled the majority of the load..... there are air valves the transports run to avoid this issue and possibly could be installed in this air system

As i stated at the begining this is just a theory but from what i can tell this would be the only reason the factory bagged 2500s have the issue and the coils do not....

 

[Lary0071]

I have not checked the air ride 2500s out yet but my theory is the bags are plumbed together before the compressor so the bags are always fighting each other causing the sway as they are the only load handlers in the rear suspention, unloaded the load on the bags is minimal so you would not experience it ..... with the coils and added bags you can t the lines an run off a single valve because they coils handle the majority of the load so its not relying on even bag pressures....

As backwards as this sounds a set of timburns may alleviate the issue as it would steady the truck while the bags handled the majority of the load..... there are air valves the transports run to avoid this issue and possibly could be installed in this air system

As i stated at the begining this is just a theory but from what i can tell this would be the only reason the factory bagged 2500s have the issue and the coils do not....

I ran my air bags individually, so I fill each one from its own unique Schrader valve. That likely keeps mine more stable than a system plumbed so that air can travel back and forth between the 2 air bags.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk

 

[RV_Goose]

RTomlin, I just bought a 2019 Ram 2500 Limited with the air level suspension. I tow my 14k 5th wheel with it. It sways so much it is scary. Never had this issue with the 2004 Ford F250 I used before buying my Ram. Did you find a solution to your problem? I would sure like to hear your feedback. Thanks

I never had that issue with my 12k 5th wheel on my 2013 RAM 2500. But I still had leaf springs.

 

[RV_Goose]

My uncle had this same issue with a Ram 2500. He actually ended up changing his truck tires and said that completely resolved the issue. I'm not sure what he took off but they weren't the factory tires. Hope maybe this helps a little.

Firestone tires? My 2500 came with Firestones and had issues hauling my 12K 5th wheel trailer. The TPMS gauge would go to ** because the tire pressures were elevated from 80 PSI cold to over 100 PSI. When I switched to Michelin tires, with the same rating as the Firestone', that issue went away. I will no longer run Firestone tires on my trucks. When I mentioned this to others who pull 10-25K trailers, I was told that this is a known issue when running over 80% of the Firestone tire rating.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I ran my air bags individually, so I fill each one from its own unique Schrader valve. That likely keeps mine more stable than a system plumbed so that air can travel back and forth between the 2 air bags.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk

You also have coils to prevent that in the first place like i just laid out

 

[RV_Goose]

View attachment 13126

Are those tire loud? I was considering them because of the places I go at times. But they would probably just fill with mud also.

 

[LossPrev]

I don't have much advice for OP but I do agree with the above that the only ones I've seen complain about towing have factory air ride. People with coils and aftermarket air bags always seem to say they are impressed how well their trucks handle big trailers.

I suspect that adding air bags to the coil sprung trucks is superior to factory air because you're adding 2 more points of contact on the axle and the bags will sit much wider, right next to the tires. I'm sure it had to be done for packaging reasons but I don't like how close to center the factory coils/air ride sit on the axle.

I'm glad people mentioned replacing the Firestones helps. I'll add that to my list of upgrades before we pick up a 5th wheel this spring. Was thinking about going to the Cooper AT3 XLTs before next winter but I think I'll just do it right away now.

 

[2019_Ram]

RTomlin, I just bought a 2019 Ram 2500 Limited with the air level suspension. I tow my 14k 5th wheel with it. It sways so much it is scary. Never had this issue with the 2004 Ford F250 I used before buying my Ram. Did you find a solution to your problem? I would sure like to hear your feedback. Thanks

I recently had a issue with bad swaying. I picked up a 2k pallet of mulch. First high profile load in this truck, and it does have the factory air. Swaying badly about 50mph, which surprised really surprised me. I had to crawl off the interstate and take backroads keeping it under 45. I had previously done the same thing with a 2016 many times and run 70 down the interstate with no issues.

 

[Justice12t]

Firestone tires? My 2500 came with Firestones and had issues hauling my 12K 5th wheel trailer. The TPMS gauge would go to ** because the tire pressures were elevated from 80 PSI cold to over 100 PSI. When I switched to Michelin tires, with the same rating as the Firestone', that issue went away. I will no longer run Firestone tires on my trucks. When I mentioned this to others who pull 10-25K trailers, I was told that this is a known issue when running over 80% of the Firestone tire rating.

I'm not sure honestly. I know he runs Michelins now and has never mentioned it again.

 

[Foxy577]

I am having the same issue and looking for answers. 17 2500 with leveling kit towing 5th wheel 12k about 45 mph feels like I’m on a small boat in rough water. Toyo open country 12ply tires at 80psi. Bilstien shocks. Any suggestions would be awesome.

 

[kobra]

I am having the same issue and looking for answers. 17 2500 with leveling kit towing 5th wheel 12k about 45 mph feels like I’m on a small boat in rough water. Toyo open country 12ply tires at 80psi. Bilstien shocks. Any suggestions would be awesome.

What size tires?

B

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

I am having the same issue and looking for answers. 17 2500 with leveling kit towing 5th wheel 12k about 45 mph feels like I’m on a small boat in rough water. Toyo open country 12ply tires at 80psi. Bilstien shocks. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Jesus drop them tires to 60 or so and i found toyos sucked with a trailer on

 

[JimmyfromSF]

I recently had a issue with bad swaying. I picked up a 2k pallet of mulch. First high profile load in this truck, and it does have the factory air. Swaying badly about 50mph, which surprised really surprised me. I had to crawl off the interstate and take backroads keeping it under 45. I had previously done the same thing with a 2016 many times and run 70 down the interstate with no issues.

Unbelievable right

 

[JimmyfromSF]

Jesus drop them tires to 60 or so and i found toyos sucked with a trailer on

What tires would you recommend instead of the Toyos?