So I've been looking into getting a slide in camper and thus have been researching what I need to do to my truck to get it ready for the heavy load. Looking under my truck the other day I noticed that my leaf springs dont' have the curve that I think they should. They're pretty much flat and over the axle they may even flex a bit the opposite way they should. There's some pics below...is this how my leaf springs should look or are they shot. I'm leaning towards shot given the other threads I've seen that are similar to this. Here's some pics:
The first 2 pics are the passenger side, the last 4 are the driver side. Sorry for how dark they are. I have a feeling those may be a bit big....sorry about that, I'm new to posting pics like this.
this also depends on your camper top weight. my truck had an astro solid fiberglass with no windows all its life up to about 80k and i can tell you that my springs were far gone!
depending on which top you go imho those springs wont last too much longer after you put a heavy azz camper on them. and if you plan to keep the topper on for a while if you get oem replacements from the dealer/junkyard or whatever, those will be shot in no time also. my suggestion would be call Alcan and tell them what your plan is and they will make you some springs acordingly (will cost a penny or two). i have drove a couple trucks with them and the ride is very good, not to mention i hear they stand up to the trail purty good, I personally have never delt with them but i havent heard one bad thing about them. :2cents:
Well I suppose it's good to know that they've held up this long. As far as the camper goes I've been doing my research and I'm leaning towards an all around OME kit with airbags. The camper and gear(maybe just under 1000#) will only be on the truck here and there so I want a suspension that can support the weight when its on there but will still drive comfortably on roads when unloaded or loaded with a shell or sand bags in winter. This is my DD.
I'm up in the air about going OME shocks or 5100's. There seems to be equal support for both and I've found the same praises and complaints about both brands. Considering my specific situation (DD that will occasionally haul a heavy load including my month long road trip with the popup) do you guys have any input on that?
Also, I'm leaning towards Firestone bags but people have also suggested Timbrens. Any suggestions there again, considering my specific situation. Most threads I've read are about people who only pull a trailer with their truck or consistently haul heavy loads. Not many about people in my situation. My only concern with bags is that with the lift they may get damaged if I fully flex my suspension and the bags can't stretch enough to accomodate that.
Just had another thought. As this is my daily driver and I don't want my daily drives to be to unpleasant when the truck is not carrying the camper I was thinking it could start with just the airbags and my stock suspension and see how it goes. What do you guys think?
Do you think that my tired suspension with an airbag system would handle the load? To recap, the camper i'm getting shouldn't weight more the 600# and I don't expect my gear to add more than another 300# or so.
If you don't think that just airbags will cut it, what about airbags with an add a leaf...I'm just realizing that the full OME may not be necessary for how little I'll be carrying the load...I'm getting the camper mainly for a month long road trip I'll be doing this June (around 3000 miles total) then I will likely use the camper for a weekend here and there maybe once a month but I likely won't be traveling too far....few hundred miles each trip.
Our 3" rear expos are designed to hold 3" of lift with 500-600#'s of weight in the bed. You'd probably be sitting at 1.5-2.5" of lift after your 300#'s of gear. Without gear though, you'll be at about 4" of lift. I think they'd be a great match for your needs, and more affordable then the "custom" spring shops.
4banger: I think the alcans are a bit more than I'd like to spend but I've heard good things
Scuba: Thanks for the suggestion but I really don't want that much lift and the camper will only be on the truck sporatically so I suspect those leaves may be too much when unloaded like valon suggested.
I'm going to get the Firestone bags and see how the ride is with those and if the suspension & bag combo doesn't cut it then I'm liking what I hear about the OME setup all around.
Thanks again for all the help.
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