air ride
Thread Starter
|
New User
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
air ride
When I haul my slide in camper on my 97 heavy 250 it wears the inside of my front tires. What do I need to do to fix this and what does it cost? I want to put air ride on this truck. Where can I find a good system for the front and rear?
Tuned
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 417
Likes: 7
From: Olympic Peninsula, WA USA
You might want to check your truck axle weights with and without the camper loaded. Ideally a camper should put all it's weight on the rear axle; in other words the camper center of gravity is ontop of the rear axle. If your front tires are wearing oddly, it would be because there's more or less weight on the front tires. By getting before and after weights you can tell what's happening. If you are putting too much weight behind the rear axle, then you'll unload the front axle which leads to poor handling and tire wear. This can be caused by poor loading of the camper (too much stuff in the rear of the camper) or a camper designed for a long bed truck installed on a short bed pickup or a poorly designed camper. Look for center of gravity marks on the camper to see where they are in relation to your rear axle.
I believe you have the twin I beam front axle on your truck? Those were notorious for poor tire wear under different loads. You can offset some of the weight shift problem by installing air springs like the Firestone Ride-rite system. With it you can adjust air pressure to raise or lower the rear of the truck. It's easy to install and not too expensive. When you raise the back of the truck you help with truck stability and minimize weight shift off the front axle.
For reference, my 12 foot camper puts all it's weight on the rear dually axle on my truck. The front axle weight doesn't change more than 100 lbs with or without the camper. Even with my dually, the rear sinks a little below level so I added the Firestone airbags to keep the back level with the front. The truck handles much better that way. I also added Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks because they are the ticket to reducing sway. I crank the rears up to max with the camper loaded and it dramatically reduces sway.
I believe you have the twin I beam front axle on your truck? Those were notorious for poor tire wear under different loads. You can offset some of the weight shift problem by installing air springs like the Firestone Ride-rite system. With it you can adjust air pressure to raise or lower the rear of the truck. It's easy to install and not too expensive. When you raise the back of the truck you help with truck stability and minimize weight shift off the front axle.
For reference, my 12 foot camper puts all it's weight on the rear dually axle on my truck. The front axle weight doesn't change more than 100 lbs with or without the camper. Even with my dually, the rear sinks a little below level so I added the Firestone airbags to keep the back level with the front. The truck handles much better that way. I also added Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks because they are the ticket to reducing sway. I crank the rears up to max with the camper loaded and it dramatically reduces sway.
