I know I'm not the only one with this issue. I have an 08 6.4 SRW 1 ton crew and pull a 36' Heartland 5th wheel. When I am pulling it lurches and surges making it a rough ride.
Y'all have any suggestions?

 

are you talking off the line or going down the hwy?

 

Pretty common if what you are describing is called "chucking" as you drive down the highway. Varies with models and combinations. Air Ride and Mor Ryde pins are offered as solutions. Perhaps some who has one might choose to offer their thoughts. I tow a fiver, but it is smaller and chucking is very seldom an issue.

Steve

 

I had that issue with my Jayco, To me it seems like its the road ruts matching up with the wheel base of the vehicle and camper, obviously some roads are worse than others but it seamed like the roads that Semi's travel often were the worst..

 

some air bags might help. A lot depends upon the pin weight.

 

JR58 - Is this on all roads or just concrete???

If all roads, it may be your hitch. What one you using?

 

It just depends on the road. If it has bumps or a rise and dip then its gonna' lurch. Trailer has Mor-Ryde and a shock at the trailer mounted hitch I believe it's an air-force? It's painted over so I don't see the brand name and forget the mfg.
As far as the hitch is concerned the top is a B&M the bottom is a Curt.

I may need to loosen and re-tighten the under-the-bed part of the hitch. But that's just a guess.

I appreciate the ideas and the input

 

Oh, and best I can remember the tongue weight is about 2300 lbs.

 

2300 is fairly light. How about air pressure in the tires. Are you running at 80 psi?

 

I am not sure if any fiver is completely free of chucking or at least has the potential depending on the truck/trailer combination. Try shifting load to increase or decrease pin weight and air your tires for the weight they are carrying rather than the numbers on the sidewall. Running at max pressure gains nothing if it is unnecessary.

In the end, you are tying together two different suspension systems and they do not always play well together. I get the most chucking if I am running interstate and I come down a rough ramp while simultaneously braking. At times it can be fairly pronounced, but it occurs seldom enough so I don't intend to troubleshoot it as most of the time I have none.

When my dealers come back from auction at times they will say such and such a fiver really towed well and other times they will tell me how badly it pulls. Same truck, different tows. Hope it works out for you.

Steve

 

Steve,
Actually, I'm not too surprised. We live in our RV about 75% of the time for work, but have only pulled it a couple of times, so we aren't exactly "old pros" at pulling. Regardless I want to use my fiver more for it's intended purpose.
Some folk's add airbags, some changed to Bilstein's. I don't have a problem doing this but I don't want to just throw wads of cash at it.

 

If you can, get your weights at a scale, put around 20% on the pin and try rebalancing to see what you can achieve. That is work, but not much cost. Unfortunately, the reality is some fivers just chuck less than others and I think it is hard to make that call ahead of ownership. I do know you are going to get more unwanted motion if you are tail heavy and too light on your pin.

Steve

 

That makes sense, I've experienced that pulling a much smaller car hauler, but same surge/chucking motion, just less of it.
Thanks for your input Steve and everybody else.
Johnny

 

An F350 designation I'm finding out while trying to improve the towing capability of my F250 is not always better. I pulled our 34' 5th wheel unltil about a month ago with a FX4 F350 - and chassis wise it did a very good job with that 2000 pound plus pin weight. Jump ahead and now I have the F250, same trailer but not the same solid suspension. Looking at the specs listed in that part of this site has told me that F250s and F350s kinda just all run in to each other intermixing as far as weight carrying ability. It sounds like you have a 5th Airborne hitch pin box which is supposedly one of the best to control chucking and out of sync bounce. What you don't say is what is on the 'B' post sticker for each axle capacity. I'm only guessing, but would say that there is a fair chance that you are either on or very close to the overload spring leafs and small bumps are causing that lurch and surge when that OL contacts its bracket, especially if the spring pack is 3 leaves plus an overload. Air bags work well and will for sure help getting the overloads 'unloaded' if that is the cause. Also, while you say you have a 2300 pound pin weight, you also have to factor anything you have added to the truck such as that 200+/- hitch, tools, supplies and other gear plus who an whatever is riding in the cab as it is all considered 'sprung weight' - that is all a part of the load carried by the springs. Wheels and axles are 'unsprung weight' and not added to the sticker weight capacity. Shocks - if your truck has 36000 miles on it, consider replacing with a decent set of HD gas shocks aftermarket like Bilstein or KYB. It's surprising how they can affect ride and handling even if they seem to have some life still in them.

 

I think you are right on the money. It does contact the overloads and I had Bilsteins on my 07 Chevy for the same reason, but I never pulled my fiver after I put them on. It was a gas 6.0 and not happy pulling 12,500 when I bought and initially moved it to So Tx.