I found several threads on chucking, but it seems like the suggested solutions depend quite a bit on truck and trailer specifics, so here goes. First off, my truck and trailer rides great 95% of the time. I only feel chucking (rear end bouncing up and down several times) when I drive over really bad spots on the road. Spring potholes on my last trip were worse than usual, so it got me to thinking maybe I should do something about it. I have an F-250, 7.3 gas engine, and stock suspension. No airbags, Timbrens or Sumo springs. It's a short bed so I'm using the trailer's stock Lippert Turning Point rotating pin box with a B&W Companion fixed position hitch. I'm fairly sure those Turning Point pin boxes have an oddball bolt pattern, so changing that is probably out. Several pictures follow showing additional info on my setup. Your suggestions to cure occasional chucking are appreciated, including "live with it" if that's what you think.


Loaded truck and trailer. Trailer is slightly nose high and truck squats slightly to my eye.


Loaded truck and trailer. Trailer is slightly nose high and truck squats slightly to my eye.


Trailer sticker.


Truck sticker.


Scale ticket, loaded truck.


Scale ticket, loaded truck and trailer.

 

I installed air bags and replaced the stock shocks with Bilstein 5100. My 2015 F-350 cc short bed would drop about 2" when i set my 2009 34' Montana on hitch. So the AB's lifted the rear to stock height and the Bilstein's took away the excess bouncing from the joints on bridge decks, rough roads, etc. The stock shocks are not enough to handle the excessive bounce. The air bags also help to absorb the bounce, but the Bilstein's really take away the never ending bounce that the stock shocks can't.
I also had this setup on my previous 2004 F-350 Super Duty with same trailer and worked for me so I went the same route on the 2015.
There will ALWAYS be that rare bump/jolt that you just can't slow down to fast enough.
I'm sure there are many other options out there, and others will reply.
Safe travels, Keith

 

If I read the scale tickets right, you seem to be a little light on pin weight.

 

Craig, thanks for chiming in. I was thinking the same thing, but I was hesitant to add any more squat to the truck. That, and if I'm doing the numbers correctly, the pin weight I had was a fairly reasonable percentage of trailer weight. The steer axle went from 4420 to 4340, the drive axle went from 3800 to 5360, and the gross weight went from 8220 to 17780. So, in my pea brain anyway , 17780 - 8220 = 9560# and that must be the gross trailer weight. That's getting close, but still under my trailer GVWR of 9904#. Then, 5360 - 3800 = 1560# of pin weight added to the drive axle, which is just over 16% of the trailer weight. 20% would be 1912#, or 352# more than I had. I do have plenty of head room on my drive axle capacity, but would another 352# likely help with chucking? That doesn't take into account the 80# that went away on the steer axle, but that number seems insignificant to me.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience! I knew when I bought the truck that I might need to add airbags, but just like tasting a steak before adding salt, I thought I'd try the ride first. Honestly though, replacing the shocks wasn't really on my radar even though I've seen quite a few posts here claiming the stock shocks are all but worthless. I'm pretty sure shocks would be less expensive than air bags and relatively easy to install, so would I be dumb to just try that first? Speaking of dumb, I have another question. Should all four shocks be replaced or can you just replace the rears?

 

Bounding up and down.... is this porpoising or chucking? I thought chucking was a push-pull feel from the trailer.

Either way - I have air bags that help level the truck. I've tried them with only 15PSI and up to 60PSI. Lots of time I can't tell the difference. I have a Reese Gooseneck hitch too; so it helps reduce the bounce some. I generally keep the air bag in the hitch lower than normal to catch the smaller dips and rely on the truck to handle the larger ones. I've decide there are more good roads, just section of roads that are good.

Safe travels.....

 

Funny you say that. I thought it felt like bouncing, my wife thinks it felt like a push-pull. Whatever it was the frequency was fairly quick, less than a second I'd say.

 

I've always understood that you want +/- 15% hitch weight for a bumper pull, and 20-25% for pin weight on a 5th wheel/gooseneck. If you have the ability to load for weight forward, I think it would be a worth while experiment. Is you hitch set up so the king pin is slightly forward
of the rear axle? Airbags would help level the truck and might shift some weight back to the front axle. You could also try Torklift Stableloads.

Nice looking set up by the way. Looks sharp!

 

I was always under the opinion if you have porpoising or chucking the solution was a little more pin weight.. Generally people rearrange the heavier content of the trailer to basement/forward compartments and the upstairs bedroom. For us, this means most anything "loose" in the interior goes to the bedroom, such as laptops, guitar, ham radio stuff, air mattress, so on.

My basement cargo is arranged by compromising between convenient access and putting the denser, heavier items towards the front. The road needs to be pretty rough to get us bouncing or chucking.

 

When I first got my present 5th wheel it had a light pin weight and the ride wasn't great feeling in the truck sort of like a bounce. My fresh water tank is foward between the front basement and front compartment after filling it full for travel the ride is much better but having a dually it helps carrying the weight.

 

Yes, it's 1" forward. With the B&W Companion it's either 1" or 3" in front of the axle, depending on how you mount the upright arms.

 

If you want a better ride the first thing you have to do is get your truck leveled out when pulling. Your weigh transfer off the front axle is because the rear is saying transferring weight to the rear axle, it's like a sinking ship going down by the stern raising the bow. Just sitting there with the sag you have is made worse when going down the road and hitting bumps driving the rear down and transferring more weight off and on the front as it bounces that also causes the trailer to rock on the suspension adding to the trailer going over the same bump.

On smaller trailers it's hard to get the 20% pin weight but you can help the problem by adding shocks and a dampening equalizer to smooth out the ride. On standard trailer suspensions when they go over a bump it transfers weight from front axle to the one behind and then does the opposite when the rear axle goes over the same bump giving a tugging feeling in the truck. The best way to stop it is by dampening the suspension.

It's sometimes takes a lot of different fixes to help the problem. I even run air bags on our DRW to level out the truck and stop it from bouncing but he also have 3400 lbs of pin.

Denny

 

Thanks Denny, that all makes sense. My fiver does have Dexter torsion axles though, so at least that transfer isn’t there. We’re going to keep this setup for a while, so maybe it’s time to look into airbags. Any thoughts on a good, simple system? Probably should do a search, I bet there are tons of posts!

 

I have Ride Ritr with a onboard compressor so I can change it on the go.
I had Dexter Torsion axles on my enclosed utility trailer and they were great, very smooth pulling empty or full.

Denny

 

When we first bought our 7.3L PSD, it rode a lot like your 2022 does when towing our trailer. I made some changes to the OEM equipment like Bilstein shocks, Hellwig sway bar, new OEM leaf springs (you won't need those) and AirLift air bags. Since then, we have traveled a lot of miles with the comfort of a level ride height and the safety that the upgrades afford to us and others on the road.

I will likely not tow again without air bags on any of my future trucks. They are too easy to use and too many benefits to someone like me and my family.

One word of caution though and it may be different for the 2022 models, I would NOT recommend an over the axle mount kit for air bags. This is what I started with and ended up with an over the spring pack kit which is far superior to the over the axle kit in every way. My saga about that adventure is in the link below if you care to familiarize yourself with the details that may or may not pertain to your situation.

Link: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post20126877

I use the AIrLift Wireless One 25870 on board compressor with the remote and it works flawlessly. We air up as the Andersen hitch meets the pin box coupler and air down as they separate. I have a spare Schrader valve at the rear license plate in the event the compressor fails, but so far so good after 7 years of being in service.

Lastly, we have no proposing or chucking what so ever and that went for our 38' Montana 5th wheel as well. Sometimes we get into a crappy road area (IL and PA come to mind) and I need to slow down a bit, but 99% of the time we just go at 65 MPH and like we have nowhere to be.

I hope this and the advice from others helps.