Hard to believe all would have incompetent installers ... but it is possible. I've been wondering if our cold winters with generous salt use on the roads has something to do with the line/valve issues they talked about?

You've all brought up some good points ... I am still digesting the pro's & con's. I too am concerned about any spring alterations that are fixed (non-adjustable) and permanent (unless you spend lost more dough).

Thanks for your input.

 

If I never took the camper off, I'd go with the new spring pack. Next in line would be the helper springs, they should retain unloaded ride quality. Air bags should be an excellent choice but I am also of the school that says they are more prone to failure in an aftermarket install situation than some pieces of metal, and you need to worry about a compressor and such. But they would be best from the point of view of being adjustable to suit your load perfectly.

A question - are you using a hitch extension for your trailer. I used to tow a 8K lb 28 foot car hauler behind my Ram 2500 with a truck camper on board, and I used a 24" extension (Reese Towbeast with a 2.5" hitch receiver). Even that much of an extension literally doubles the "seen" tongue weight load due to it's increased leverage. I used a 1200 lb weight distribution system with dual cam sway control that seriously lifted the back of the truck back up to where it needed to be. My truck was at it's GVWR loaded but rode perfectly level (which meant that the back was down about 3.5" from unloaded, but leveled out and rode very well). Consider the tongue weight and a weight distribution system along with the strength of your hitch extension.

Brian

 

There's a difference between incompetent and careless often brought on by the clock and the next vehicle waiting to be worked on plus the income generated either for the company or piecework. This is quite often the cause of many automotive out of the door continued problems - and reduced down to a common factor called - ta da - MONEY.

Salt? Upstate NY seems to be the salt spreading capital of North America, with much of it coming from the Western NY area mines https://www.americanrocksalt.com/about.asp

 

Thanks for your input Brian. I had a custom 36" extension fabricated. It only carries 300 lbs. (actual confirmed weight) with my 3,000 lbs. cargo trailer being towed behind.

 

Had to go back and research my records , 2002 f250 4x4 7.3d., has a slide in ss salt box approx 1500lb emty, 3yds salt loaded. during sprng,sum, fall, vairiose loads , mulch,brick, anything that fits. truck sat level emty . dropped 31/4" with full load.
I installed add aleaf # 83950 (sd springs ny) raised truck emty 2 3/4" . truck dropped
2 1/2" full load ., had little affect on ride., hope this helps., Each customer has differant sittuation , just have find correct solution for each.

 

To me the solution is easy. If the camper is staying on the truck all the time, have some type of "super springs" installed. If the camper is not staying on the truck all the time then the only reasonable choice is air bags. Unless every time you remove the camper you want to try to adjust your headlights, because if you don't you will going down the road at night seeing about 5 feet in front of you.

 

And everyone wonders why our wive's take a peek over our shoulders once in a while.

"Dear, I'm helping someone out there with a sagging rear end or one that needs help, in need of front end suggestions."

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ggestions.html

Really, this is all business.

No wonder she keeps an eye on us!

 

Thanks Junior. I looked at your products. Nice. I'm thinking to get the results I need, it wold ave to be the HD spring pack. I suspect that means a rough ride when unloaded. What's your opinion on upper spring helpers? They claim increased load capacity and earlier engagement ... thus contributing to minimize sagging.

Thanks for doing the digging into your records trkfix. When you say the helper spring raised your truck 2-3/4" then loaded it dropped 2-1/2", I assume your net drop from unloaded was then only 1/4" from before you put the additional spring on? This would mean no real headlight aiming issue or front weight transfer issues which I like.

Thanks for noting the headlight point JandC ... I hadn't thought of that.

 

I feel like you can almost never go wrong with having the correct helper springs. It will definitely help with your rear end sagging and giving your truck a little more in weight capacity in the rear.

You are correct, with the Heavy Duty springs your ride will stiffen up a bit.

 

I also have a truck camper.

On a previous rig, I had airbags. They did ok, but I'll likely NEVER do them again. So I understand and respect your preference not to use them. And I'll just leave it at that.

My F350 rear suspension is setup like yours. A regular spring pack with an upper (helper/auxiliary/overload) single leaf. In stock form, my truck would sag ~3.5-4 inches with the camper loaded. I was not happy.

I fab'd up some home-made spacers on my upper helper springs. Doing so made them touch, or engage, much earlier. Overall sag improved, as did the ride of my truck with the camper loaded. And, best of all, they don't impact the ride of my truck at all when there's no load. Total cost was about $25.



Now, the truck does still sag a bit more than I like. So, sitting in the corner of my garage (ready to install -- just haven't found the time yet) is a 2nd set of stock upper overload springs. I will stack these with the set that's already on there. And I'm confident that doing so will provide a ride height that I'm happy with. And, again, stacking the overload springs will not impact my rig when unloaded. These 2nd springs cost me $70. And I'll install them myself.

 

I've looked at closing the distance to advance engagement of the bump pad. Problem is, it doesn't help with increasing the weight bearing capacity so your idea of adding a spring + the taller spacers is more along the line of what I might want/need.

How long did you make your spacers? Looks to be about 3" long.

Thanks for sharing. ~ Bugjr ~

 

Including the rubber piece, it's right at 2.5". Hope this helps.

 

Thanks. Reps sent.

 

After much research and analysis, I decided to go with a pair of "airless" Sumo Springs #SSR - 114-54. These proprietary, 2800 lbs. rated, 5" closed cell, urethane jounce (bump) stops replace the OEM 2" bump stops giving them an additional 1" advantage over the F-350's OEM 4" bump stops. I can't say if they'll be touching once we unload the truck camper because it is still on the truck. However, the Sumo's are suppose to leave about an inch air gap when the truck is unloaded ... meaning they will have no effect on the original, unloaded ride quality.

SuperSprings tag line for these Sumo Springs is "fit and forget them". This appealed to me as I did not want to install a more costly and complicated air bag system. My decision to go with the Sumo's was based on a number of factors including input from various "experts" that sell and install them, cost, no maintenance, controlling sway & porpoising, increasing load capacity (not "legal" rated capacity) and lifting the sagging back end when loaded with our truck camper.

Total cost was $235 for the product with an all in price of USD $350 including installation labour and tax. I had the work completed at Michigan Truck Springs in Saginaw MI and have nothing but good things to say about their price, service and approach. They are supposed to take about an hour to install but the shop worked on them for about 2.5 hours. I suspect being a truck from the saltbelt had a lot to do with having a tough time loosening the original hardware which probably hadn't been touched since new (15 years).

We immediately noticed the truck sat higher in the rear when they brought it around to the Service Reception area. A rough measurement said it raised the back end around 2" .... which means our sag is only 1.5" now when fully loaded with truck camper and cargo trailer. The truck definitely rode firmer, not harshly, just more solidly with noticeably much less sway. An initial negative was it made all kinds of weird suspension noises for about the first 30 minutes when we started driving. We decided this was because the rub points and angles had changed and mechanical bits were now touching in a way that they weren't touching before. Sure enough, after about an hour of driving, all "new" noises disappeared.

When fully loaded, our truck sits on the Sumo Springs which is fine because there is no "slapping" or "banging" action to create noise or an uncomfortable ride. I also noticed our overload spring bump stops were now only lightly engaged with the new Sumo setup as opposed to before when they were fully engaged and the overloads partially flattened. This tells me these things really do help with load capacity.

Bottom Line - if you read my original post and the problems I was trying to fix, these Sumo Springs did exactly what I wanted and performed as advertised. I am now a very "happy camper" with this setup.

 

I have a very similar setup as you. I have a 15 crew cab long bed I put a 10.5' Bigfoot camper on. My difference is I'm pulling a 12k 29' north River. I've got the 5k bags and run the upper stable loads. Even with this, I still sag when loaded up. The higher you run the airbags, the more sway You get. The upper stable loads counter act that. I'm going to add 2-3 leafs In My upper overload pack, which should level everything out and keep the empty rude stock. I've done similar kids to every truck I've owned and never had an issue with sway or being too heavy to stop. My big difference is my trailer has brakes, so my truck is really only stopping the truck and camper.

Ps, if you need some upper stable loads, I've got two brand new sets that are extra. Check out the market place