Is chucking dangerous

[ksaltman]

Probably the biggest issue we had on our virgin pull from Tampa to Nashville was the violent chucking while underway at highway speed when going over the connectors on and off bridges and over other road bumps. People and things tossed about in the TV, very scary at first, and uncomfortable once we figured out it was going to happen.

A couple things concerns me.

First, the Trail Air hitch I have on the RW says 18k GVWR. Not the 38FL delivered came in just over 16k. Adding much stuff will easily put it very close (if not over) that 18k limit. What will that hitch pin actual with stand? That seems to be very close to limits....

Next is the hitch connector on the truck. There has got to be a huge amount of force while the RW is bucking back and forth. Concerned about damage and the worst case scenario dropping the camper on the highway when this happens.

In a different thread on this forum it is clear that I need to get air bags installed on my F350 DRW TV. I want to do that but am planning to leave end of this week or worst case Monday next week to head north. I don't think I'll have time to make that happen before I need to head out.

I need to pull a total of 1,400 miles from home -> Oshkosh, WI for an airplane show -> Indiana for the rally -> back home. I can convince myself, and perhaps my DW, that the with out air bags we can do the trip provided the violent chucking is neither dangerous or has potential of damaging the RW or the TV.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

[Dave&Ginny]

The air lift bags will fix most of this. The chucking is only dangerous to your back or neck. It also seems to lite up the wives

[ksaltman]

So if I understand correctly my choice is either install air bags in the TV or a wife dimmer switch I'll go with the air bags.....

The on/off and volume switches I added a while back to my wife-gps has never worked as advertised so I doubt the wife-dimmer will as well.

Thanks!

[Joel and Janis]

ksaltman

I've had the experience you are describing. Each state has different road conditions. Mississippi and Louisiana can give you a wild ride. When I see a bridge I take my foot off the fuel pedal and let it coast, this calms the ride significantly. I don't use cruise on bad highways.

Joel and Janis

[ksaltman]

In all seriousness Joel and Janis, thanks for the response. Have you installed air bags? If so do which ones? If not is it enough to manage the issue by driver awareness/response?

On long pulls I'd really like to use cruise but also understand my definition of a "long pull" is changing as I get more and more into this.....

[lwg]

In addition to air bags, make sure you're hitch puts the pin just forward of the rear axle. I found when I weighed my setup that my front axle lost about 50 pounds with the trailer connected. This means the rear suspension is taking the brundt of the chucking. I reconfigured the hitch a bit to move the pin weight just forward of the rear axle and it seemed to help. The thinking is that now the front suspension can help more with the violent chucking.

I did a pretty good search on the Internet before I realized this. Apparently this is the first thing to look at when you have chucking.

[atom ant]

Ken, do you have the triglide pin box with the airbag?

[rob_fla]

We have the same setup, 38FL with the Tri Glide Pin Box with Air Bag.
Our first pull from Tampa FL to Tallahassee FL was pretty rough.
Been playing with the air pressure in the Air Bag, yesterdays trip down was much better.
The RW was hitched a little high, I lowered the hitch last week one position.
Adjusted the pressure in the Hitch Air Bag to 60 Psi, much better trip yesterday from Tallahassee FL to Ft Myers FL (Yep right back down I-75 past Tampa FL to Ft Myers)
There are some pretty bad sections of road under construction around the Tampa area.

Still had a few hard hits which I believe is a combination of the Hitch Air Bag unloading the Trucks overload springs causing a pretty hard bounce.

[almcc]

I'm not sure if you are referring to the front-back movement generally caused by those concrete expansion strips on the interstates or the up and down movement that I call porpoising that occurs when going over bridge expansion strips or sudden road undulations.

I found our Fords (both our old SRW and our 450 Dually) tended to porpoise a lot, I recently installed a set of Timbrens (which replace the standard bump stops above the rear axle) and found a dramatic reduction in porpoising at the cost of a slightly stiffer ride when hauling the RW. Our RW doesn't have the air lift pin, just the standard unit.

Air bags on the truck would probably do the same thing, I chose Timbrens as there is no air pressure adjustment required when the truck is unloaded, the Timbrens sit just above the axle and don't interfere with the ride unloaded (and I'm too lazy to air up and down air bags!).

On edit: In response to your question on damage, I found that the porposing caused the rear sofa in our RW to move around because of the porposing, it could hit the trim around the rear window and possibly damage the screen. I put a 2x4 vertically up between the sofa and the rear wall, this prevents the backward movement of the sofa

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by rob_fla

We have the same setup, 38FL with the Tri Glide Pin Box with Air Bag.
Our first pull from Tampa FL to Tallahassee FL was pretty rough.
Been playing with the air pressure in the Air Bag, yesterdays trip down was much better.
The RW was hitched a little high, I lowered the hitch last week one position.
Adjusted the pressure in the Hitch Air Bag to 60 Psi, much better trip yesterday from Tallahassee FL to Ft Myers FL (Yep right back down I-75 past Tampa FL to Ft Myers)
There are some pretty bad sections of road under construction around the Tampa area.

Still had a few hard hits which I believe is a combination of the Hitch Air Bag unloading the Trucks overload springs causing a pretty hard bounce.

My trailer has a heavy pin weight but I keep my air bags inflated to 90 psi while I'm hooked up. I then deflate them to 10 when empty.

I always run with my cruse control set

[Rick and Mindy]

I have a 2011 Ford F350 single rear wheel and installed Firestone airbags and I can assure you there is a tremendous difference in the pull ride. I usually inflate to 60-70 lbs when pulling, and deflate to 10 lbs when not pulling. I also pull with cruise control on 99% of the time. My pin weight is not as high as others.

[0nTheRoad]

Ken,

I have a Ford 350 DRW with the factory Fifth Wheel Prep and the Reese Elite 25K hitch. I have the Tri-Glide pin with the shocks & air bag.
From prior like experiences I've found that there are a couple of things you can do to lessen the chucking...
First, I installed the AirLift LoadLifter 5000. I also had the SmartAir Automatic Leveling installed so I don't have to manually inflate/deflate the air bags on the truck. This made a very significant difference!!
Second, try different inflation levels on the Tri-Glide, I've found, for me, that the optimal spot for me is when the arrow head is under the outside portion, in other words the point of the arrow is unseen, it is slightly under inflated.

I still get chucking, not sure you can totally eliminate it but I certainly have much less that when I first started towing the RW.

Good luck!!

[johnboytoo]

Ah, didn't know about that smartride air system !

Ours is not automatic, it's the airlfit wirelessONE system and we have to push a button to set our bag pressure !!! Dang - that's work

but agree, adjusting psi in the trail air, the truck bags and the truck & rv tires to the optimum setting for the road is something that was always guess work for me..

So now, we set the trailair to a bit softer than it calls for
(it was always ROCK hard when adjusted 'right') and allow it to roll with the punches...

then I start out with the air bags @ 45 psi after a bit of testing and adjust from there... every one of us will have a little bit of difference sicne we have different loading and tow vehciles and roads in our way

[piper guy]

I'm with Chuck and Johnboy. When we first got the rig and hit our first really good bridge connector we were both ready to take it back to the dealer and tell him exactly where he could place it.

Now, same road, same bridge, is a minor inconvenience. Like the others, IMO, Airbags are a MUST. The difference in towing with them is night and day. I've gone one step further and had the Mor Ryde IS installed also. It takes a tremendous amount of roughness or a big connector to upset the rig now.

Most times the cruise is set at 62-65 and I have to remind myself that she's back there. Tracy's dozing and the dog and cat are asleep.

When you see a bridge or a good dip coming, disengaging cruise and letting the rig coast over it is a must. if you hit it either braking or accelerating you've increased the effect.

[piper guy]

Oh, and I wish I could be at OSH with you. I've been 11 out of the last 14 years, some flying in and camping with the plane, a couple camping in Camp Scholler.

Maybe next year we can get a few of us airplane nuts together and have a bunch of Redwoods there.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by ksaltman

Probably the biggest issue we had on our virgin pull from Tampa to Nashville was the violent chucking while underway at highway speed when going over the connectors on and off bridges and over other road bumps. People and things tossed about in the TV, very scary at first, and uncomfortable once we figured out it was going to happen.

A couple things concerns me.

First, the Trail Air hitch I have on the RW says 18k GVWR. Not the 38FL delivered came in just over 16k. Adding much stuff will easily put it very close (if not over) that 18k limit. What will that hitch pin actual with stand? That seems to be very close to limits....

Next is the hitch connector on the truck. There has got to be a huge amount of force while the RW is bucking back and forth. Concerned about damage and the worst case scenario dropping the camper on the highway when this happens.

In a different thread on this forum it is clear that I need to get air bags installed on my F350 DRW TV. I want to do that but am planning to leave end of this week or worst case Monday next week to head north. I don't think I'll have time to make that happen before I need to head out.

I need to pull a total of 1,400 miles from home -> Oshkosh, WI for an airplane show -> Indiana for the rally -> back home. I can convince myself, and perhaps my DW, that the with out air bags we can do the trip provided the violent chucking is neither dangerous or has potential of damaging the RW or the TV.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

Ken,

I've camper up at Oshkosh about 5 times including last year with the Redwood. I'm not sure where you camp but the place I've stayed each year was at Eureka Damn campground which is about 15 minutes in the country from the tarmac. They have 50 amp service

[ksaltman]

Yes I have the tri glide. I have it inflated to the line on flat ground. It certainly helps. The only thing is the kathunk when starting or stopping as is slides. Ack and forth.

[ksaltman]

Almcc,

Porpoising is a great way to describe it.

[ksaltman]

I signed up for the weekend package at Scholler. Hoping to get a spot in the regular generator area. If all goes well this week installing the lithium packs, 3000 watt inverter and solar panels I should have 24 hour silent power. Just hope I don't need the a/c.

Love the idea they will bring a water truck out to the coach to refill the fresh water and empty the grey.

Yes for sure if we can get some other RW pilots to go that would be great especially if it goes well with the rally in Indiana. Count me in!

I have a friend who has installed some airbags on his truck and another truck. He says he can help me install some on my truck. Hope to get that done on Thursday just have to decide which to get. He recommends the Firestone ones but the Loadlifter also look good. Have to get them in hand soon if I will install them Thursday.

[JohnEileen]

Not sure if it is a result of chucking but the spring broke on one side of the RW. Is this dangerous to travel with or should it be fixed before we head back? Seems our maiden travel out of state had been a real test! I assume the blinds broke when the spring broke. I only discovered it when I went to empty the grey water I discovered this unfortunate problem!