Yeah, our 2015 Mammoth made my 2017 F350 squat pretty good when I picked it up from the guy we bought it from. My truck is a gasser with a 6,100 payload on the sticker. While it still had lots of room to squat more, I wasn't comfortable driving it. With the CoG being so high, the sway was unnerving. The only suspension mods I've done are the Load Lifter 5000 Ultimate+ air bags and the upper Stable Loads. Handles great now, even when towing my SxS and trailer (roughly 1,900) pounds with the camper in as well.

I'm considering swapping out to lithiums, removing the Onan generator, and putting 1 or 2 Honda 2000iu generators on a rack on the front of the truck. Or just getting an F450 and putting my bags and Stable Loads on that.

 

Do you actually load up with water in the travel mode? I sure don't. I keep some in there but not much. I save about 450 lbs that way.

 

One thing that seldom gets mentioned is the increased height of the center of gravity when we welcome a truck camper aboard. Don't know of anything that benefits in handling by elevating the COG and adding a truck camper to a truck does that in a heartbeat. I think that is what causes so much of the sway, porpoising, and you-name-movements we spend so much time trying to quell.

 

Our 40 gallon tank only has about 5-10 gallons in it when traveling until we know we are going to arrive somewhere and need a full tank. During the warm weather, we dump the water in the tank and rechlorinate about monthly just to be on the safe side.

 

2 things come into play: Higher CoG and more/higher vertical surface. Both of these scream lateral stability and when that comes into play your Number 1 line of defense is a larger swaybar. Keeping the trucks shoes planted firmly on the road becomes your number 1 goal. And that is my mitigation strategy for the old "swing 'n sway with Sammy Kaye" (wonder if anyone besides me remembers that).

Porpoising: While I know what that is I have never experienced it and not sure how to address it. But in speaking with various people that have told me what takes place I think my mitigation strategy would be as follows:

Rancho 9000XL adjustable shocks: I run these on my trucks that I use for TC's.

Upper Stable Loads:

I have run both a F/R Big Wig sway bar and let me assure you, that truck is PLANTED to terra firma when the TC is loaded. However, the ride unloaded may be a bit "tight" for most drivers and what with Ford putting in the massaging seats you run over a dime and you can tell if it's heads or tails. Best seats ever were my '15 King Ranch F 350, Lazy Boy could not compare those.

Maybe that is why porpoising has never knocked on my door?

 

HuH, WTH??? Country boy here, untreated well water. This has paid BIG dividends for me over the years. Many times I have seen a lot of folks get sick from drinking our of streams, rivers, rice paddies all over the world...I never did and the others that did not get sick or dysentery were always guys like myself from rural America. I remember on time we missed a water resupply. We came across a small creek that was mapped and I drank my fill and filled my canteen. Out of 24 people I was the ONLY one that did not get sick. Most common waterborne illnesses found outside the cities you will build a resistance to.

NOT telling you to skip the rechlorination procedure, in fact, I would say stay with it. My immunity has come from 70+ years of drinking water around the world as an Infantry soldier.

 

I bet you won't replace that sway bar.
I added a set up upper stable loads as I also tow about 9-10,000 lbs in addition to having the 5000 lb camper aboard. The F450 just feels planted.
And I travel full of water since not having it aboard made no difference.
No interest in adding airbags either.

 

You Da MAN, nice set up for sure...

 

Absolutely. The places I go in Alaska are remote, no hookups. Having 60 gallons of fresh potable water wherever I take my family is a luxury and at some level, a necessity. We're not pavement princess campers by any means. And that's not a ding at anyone who is. We'll likely turn into pavement princesses if we decide to full time it when I retire.

 

I would have thought freshwater in Ak would be plentiful or is that just old country boy and Infantry soldier coming out in me who will drink out just about any wet spot in the outback...trust me I have FILTERED the water I drank thru my shirttail just to get the big chunks out.

 

There are lots of places to get fresh water but you can still end up with Beaver Fever or other infections, depending. You can always use one of those newer bio-filter things. Me, I prefer to just take the water I need with me from know good sources. And it's such a luxury to have so much of it.

 

My take is that he’s good to go!




Safe travels,
Jim / crewzer

 

@17 Oaks - how were you able to place an order for '20 already? I wandered through my dealer's lot yesterday and the sales guy I always use was there. We got to chatting and I let him know that about October, I may be looking to order a '20. Asked him about pricing and options. He checked, came back out and said the order banks aren't open until Sept., and further he didn't have pricing available yet.

I'd consider ordering from the Lower 48 if the pricing was really good but I'd like to avoid driving a brand new truck up the Alcan in the winter if possible. I'm going to email him pics of your order but I'd appreciate any info/help you might can offer.

 

I contacted my dealer McLane ford. https://www.mclaneford.net/ Matt Self is my sales guy, I think he is one of 2 they have. Contacted him on the 14th, he called me back and said no can do, no pricing and he could build but not submit. Then he called me 2 days later and said he had pricing and could get into the system. He did the build and submit to do that, then he got ahold of me and we modified the build to include everything I wanted and he did it, sent me the acceptance and I posted it...just figured everyone was good to go...

That said, I had wrecked my '15 F 350 dually when IT decided to head out on its own (YES). I had my trailer hooked up and I was in the trailer bed putting my straps up, getting ready to drive into town, keys on my belt loop, truck in park engine OFF! Truck takes off with me on trailer, truck is driverless and wrecks itself, $12k worth. Bent frame and I know I need to move this truck before it carfaxes with bent frame. Google is my friend and I go on the hunt for a F 350 King Ranch and NO ONE in Greater San Antonio has one, in fact almost no one has a '17 Superduty, but McLane Ford has one that arrived that day and I drive up and buy it.

How McLane Ford gets Superdutys ahead of the MEGA dealers in S Tx I am not sure, but they do. They don't even have a showroom.

Years ago when I was buying Corvettes and trucks I bought at Bickerstaff Chev in Buena Vista Ga, not even a stoplight in town. The owner Bill Bickerstaff was the salesman, the wife was the Finance person, his son was the Mech. Yet he could get ANY product GM made. He sold a lot of trucks and in fact sold them all over the US. Like McLane he sold at Invoice + TT&L, he to made his money on volume + cars which he did not sell at invoice, they were all ordered by family members of the farmers/ranchers that bought trucks.

That is the best I can offer, how or why I am not sure...as a guess, there may be some throttling going on. Ford strives to be fair to all dealers. The Mega dealers could easily crowd out the McLane's and Bickerstaff's that are out there. So maybe some of the smaller ones that are rural where you have farmers and ranchers depending upon getting trucks etc early otherwise you would Ford would end up forcing some rancher out in W Tex to drive to San Antonio or Dallas just to buy his trucks...not a good business model. So McLane gets in the door early a personal order. I doubt McLane placed more than 2 or 3 orders for folks like me vs Inventory support.

 

Great info, thanks! My dealer provided some clarification and with your description, I understand much better now. Not sure we'll move forward on an F450 or not yet. I've really been loving my F350 but with as much weight as we haul, I'd sure be more comfortable and feel safer in an F450.