I was towing the pulling tractor today and got the crap beat out of me. The tractor and gn flatbed weigh 10k. I have tried moving the tractor farther forward and farther back over the axles but it does not make any difference. My horse trailer had the axles way at the back of the trailer (pic in sig) and it was never this rough a ride. Most of the drive was on concrete road and every seam just beat the crap out of me. Does a gooseneck trailer matter as much where the weight is placed? I know what happens with a bumper pull if you don't have enough tongue weight...been there, thought we were going to roll the whole rig! I know a gn will track fine if the weight is not just right, but what about the ride?

I have been considering air bags for a while. Will air bags help the ride? What else should I consider for a better loaded ride? I have not checked out my shocks but they are probably due for some help. The truck rides great unloaded or with a few thousand on the bed but add a trailer to extend the bounce and its just, well, painful.

 

Air bags will help as with 10k trailer you will have close to 2000 lb on the hitch and that will sag the factory suspension quite a bit.
I do tow small bulldozers (up to 10,000) with my F250. On my 4500 lb equipment trailer, I load them far in the back with blade facing rear. This way the air drag is not making fishtailing. My trailer is 3 axle what helps with stabilization.
Gooseneck will shift the tongue weight from the hitch, over 2 feet behind the rear axle to few inches before the axle. That makes whole World of difference.

 

Make sure shocks are good and get some timbrens..You'll never ride without them again..


Dick

 

Adding air bags on my truck made a huge difference in "chucking". I tow a 32' 5th wheel and would get the same thing over seams in the road or bridges. The air bags has eliminated it enough that my wife even noticed that it rides better.

 

Need more info on what was going on.

We're you feeling the trailer lifting the rear of the truck a lot? It should require a really big swell/dip in the road to cause negative hitch weight, no matter what kind of hitch. This is generally the worst feeling.

Or were you feeling hard downward bumping, like your rear suspension was riding the bump stops?

A little of both means too much weight. A little of each happens, a lot of each requires some load shifting. Air bags don't help negative hitch weight but make the positive hitch weight feel a lot better and keeps things away from bottoming out.

 

Had a bad ride when loaded particular with a decent sized boat with spongy ST tires. Going over decent bumps would throw the truck around too much. The stock shocks only had 50k on them but I replaced them with a new set Monroe Reflex shocks and it solved the problem. The stock shocks I took off were still in decent shape and were not leaking they are just not very good shocks.

 

Thanks for the input. I am almost positive I am not getting negative hitch weight, the truck is sitting pretty hard on the overload leaf. The chains on the tractor did slack about 10 miles down the road and the tractor was rocking back and forth but I pulled over and tightened the chains back up...it didn't help. Here is a picture I took yesterday of how the trailer was loaded.


The Timbrens look interesting, I have seen them on trucks before but I have never talked to anyone who used them to see how they like them. I have heard far more people using air bags. I was planning on adding onboard air to my truck at some point to fill tires and run air horns so then I would have air for the bags too.

 

is that a 18' big tex goose neck? if so i have the same one and i had the same problem. i have air bags and they do help but what i did to correct the issue was wheel bearings and replaced the Goose neck tires.
i also always put the load over the trailer axles, unless its a solo tractor then ill shift the weight forward just a lil. much like you have in your picture. just back toward the axles a lil more

 

You do not have to have onboard air to use the airbags it is just handy. The Firestones my dad had on his truck he just adjusted the pressure and ride height with a schrader valve mounted to the frame. Just like filling a tire.

 

Its actually a PJ, it is a nice and well built trailer but my first choice would be a Big Tex, those things are overbuilt. I am not impressed with where the axles are on this trailer, they are right tight against the dovetail. The closest I can get to centered over the axles is to put the front tractor tires right at the start of the dovetail but then it makes it hard to chain down. The trailer is only a year old with probably 200 miles on it. I wouldn't think the tires and bearings were in need of maintenance yet. I should check the tire pressure though.

Right I just figured if you have onboard air you could use the schrader valve to set the bags. If I wanted to go all out I would probably plumb in leveling valves.

 

If you bought it new, the trailer likely has cheap tires on it. Do you know what they are and what they are rated for?

 

I may be weigh (sic!) off base, but....
is the bed on your truck VERY, VERY HEAVY ?
If so, it alone may be more than your truck suspension is rated at ?!?

Have you weighed it @ a cat scale to get front and rear axle weights ?

Maybe a cushioned type hitch might help if it's chucking a lot: Shocker Hitch - Air Suspension Trailer Hitches

(was gonna suggest a TrailAir 5th wheel hitch, but won't quite work on a gooseneck)


I did get a set of these: http://www.activesuspension.com/how-it-works.html
but pulled them and put on air bags when I found I was putting more weight down than I thought...

 

x2 including the wife noticing it

I went airbags and new shocks (RS9000XL) and the truck is waaaay different (better). I don't dread bridge transitions anymore.

 

Just a guess here, but I think you're overloaded on the bed weight and the crappy ride is a result of that. I'm guessing you have a payload capacity of around 2400 pounds. 2000 of that is pin weight, another 500 for your heavy duty flatbed, now add your fuel, cargo, driver and passengers, you're probably above 3000 pounds.

Air bags will help.

 

You said you moved it forward and back but did you try turning the tractor around? My feeling is there's too much pin weight. I want the heaviest part of the tractor towards the back of the trailer. Air bags might help but you may not need them. That tractor isn't all that heavy, the truck should handle it no problem.