I have a 2007 Hemi 1500 quadcab 4x4. I am new to towing and have been doing some research on weight ratings, hitches, the do's and don'ts ect, ect. Everything you read of course says don't overload or tow something to heavy for your tow vehicle. I tow a 28' enclosed car hauler about 6 times a year. We don't haul a car but different materials. The first time I towed a couple of weeks ago the trailer was loaded real heavy. The trailer empty is 4500lbs and we must have had about 3500lbs laoded in. I hooked up my truck it dropped the rear end about 5 inches with a weight distrubuting hitch hooked up. Over loaded in my opinion?

I have started looking into airbags. Is it safe to just fill these air bags and bring my truck back up to level? How would that affect the rest of the suspension, and by using these does it make it "safer" to tow a load that may be to heavy? Do they allow you to carry a heavier load or is it more of a cosmetic thing? I'm just not sure if getting airbags is the right thing to do.

 

They are not cosmetic at all. Fully functional and it's MUCH safer to tow a load with your truck sitting level. Of course, no company will condone towing over capacity, but bags will allow you to.

I tow about 7700 lbs. of tractor, trailer and a rough cutter about 4-6 times a year from where I borrow it from to my small piece of farm property and have for years. I've done the helper spring thing on past trucks which work ok, but really beat the sh*t out of you when unloaded or not towing heavy weight.
I put my the first set of bags I've ever owned on this truck. A LOT of farmers have them on their trucks in rural south Georgia and swear by them. The best thing about them is they are adjustable by how much air you put in them, and when you aren't carrying or towing anything and have the bags with minimal air, you don't know they are even there.
A few brands out there, some vary in the way they install, so some will work with lifts and some won't. Also they tend to come in 2000# and 5000# leveling capacity. I bought the 2000# set, mainly because the mount system allows for my suspension lift, but also, I can NEVER see myself exceeding 2000# of leveling capacity. If I ever tried to pull something with over 2000# of tongue weight I deserve for my truck to blow up!!! I've had about 2300 lbs of river rock in my bed and only needed about half air capacity for the truck to sit dead level...

 

Thanks Hammer. I've gotten a lot of useful info from your posts. How did the truck handle with that load of rock while using the airbags?

 

Fine, I only had to go about 8 miles with it. The ONLY downside to air bags is you need an air source when you want to adjust them (or you need to opt for one of the on-board systems which can more than double the price).

I didn't bother with any on-board stuff. I have air compressors out the wazoo: tool box, garage, barn and even in my ATV (used that and the tire repair kit that I carry more than one time in the field).
The single thing I bought the bags for was totin' my ATV, it's only about 700#, but due to my toolbox, it sits with almost every ounce of it's weight behind the rear axle of the truck which REALLY squats it, leaving even low beams pointing up in the tree limbs at night.

If your truck is lifted (either body or suspension) I'd suggest the Air Lift Ride Controls I have, the way they mount, the bottom bracket sits on top of the leafs and the top bracket sits on the side of the frame, meaning if it's blocks under the leafs or higher leafs it doesn't matter. Same with a body lift, the blocks sit on top of the frame, so the mount point is below them.

If a lift isn't an issue, then many brands will work, and some of the ebay kits are cheaper. I know when I bought, I was going to get Firestones, only because they are the only ones I ever heard of, but my buddy owns a couple tire/repair shops and installs these regularly for farmers. He told me he had a pretty big number of unhappy farmers come back due to bags dry rotting, so he switched to the Air Lifts and ordered me one (at his cost).
I've not heard of the Firestones having that issue lately though.

Install was cake, about 2 hours in the driveway. Only thing I did that wasn't by the book was I welded my brackets to the side of the frame instead of using the supplied bolts. Didn't feel like drilling the frame.

I can tell you, after having these, I'll be putting air bags on any truck I have in the future, be it a 1/2, 3/4 or 1 ton truck...

 

You mentioned you sag badly with a weight distrbution hitch...are you using it correctly?? I hook up the trailer to the ball, load my trailer and then when it sags, I hook in the trunnion bars...do one side as high as you can, then the other as high as you can (which should be a little higher than the first side) then repeat as necessary alternating sides making one higher than the next until you are satisfied with the height of your trucks bed...if you want to be lazy...in one sense, but work harder in another, I have thought about busting out my floor jack and jacking up the tongue to about where I want it then hook in the trunnion bars and not have to keep readjusting them...but I have always been too lazy to get the jack out and put it away. Air bags will most definitely help, but I have gotten by without them for years (since 01...when I had my 2nd gen truck) and doing exactly as I described...I have also found that it pulls the best with a little sag, but not a lot...cuz it keeps just enough pressure on the leafs so it doesn't bounce all over the road...other guys may have different opnions and reasons not to sag AT ALL or whatever, but I have tried every position imagineable and am just stating my personal preference when I am towing, and I like to have the truck sag slightly...

Anyway, I'm not trying to talk you out of the bags, but I got by without them (cuz I didn't wanna spend the money on them) and am just giving you ideas that you may be able to use and not NEED to invest in air bags if you don't do A LOT of towing...if I towed even slightly any more than I do now, I'd prolly get some bags...but as of now I only tow a trailer that is unmangable as far as weight a couple times a year. By unmanagable I mean you can't really adjust the weight in the trailer...when I am towing tractors or vehicles, I can move them forward or backward on the trailer, to change the truck sag...when helping people relocate...ya gotta put the stuff where it fits, regardless of how the weight affects the load on the truck

 

The way the instructions said to do it is hook up the trailer to truck. Then raise the truck and trailer together with trailer jack. Then it said to hook up trunnion bars and chains and then lower trailer jack. I had it hooked up to where there were only 5 links of the chain showing, one of the 5 links being the one hooked to the bracket. They say not to go less than 5 links. So I am just assuming that it was as giving all that it could.

I'm not sure about the angle of the head though. I think it is supposed to be tilted all the way toward the trailer for heavier loads, and tilted back in toward the truck for lighter loads. Im not sure though. Do you know anything about that?

 

Ahh, see, some times there is only a link or two inbetween the links that are actually attached to the bracket at top and trunnion bar at bottom...with 5 links, they are barely doing their job...mine work wonders when cranked up, they also help a lot with sway...the manufacturer is prolly just playing it safe so they don't get law suits...I hooked mine upjust like you described, and there is just about no tension at all...I was able to flip the braket up by hand, and not even use the cheater bar that was included with the kit

 

Bags are the way to go hands down...however!

If you are only really bagging your truck out 5 or 6 times a year, you might want to look into a set of Timbren Blocks. FAR cheaper and very easy to install. I have them on my 2500 (however I've never really loaded my truck enough to need them...yet) and my boss has them on his 3500 and with a 1yd sander in the back with a yd of sand (around 2500lbs together) the truck doesn't bag bad at all. Before installing the Timbren's it used to look like the *** end of his truck was going to drag on the ground.

 

Wow a link or two. I don't think I could go any shorter on the chains, I have to really use a lot of pressure to get them locked in the up position now. And you mentioned that when you get one side up the other side is easier to lift, then you unhook the first and raise it higher and then do the second side again, and so on. I've found that the second side is harder to get up after the first one is done, I've only used the set up once. When I tried to hook up the second side I had to get my floor jack and put it under the trunnion bar to raise it up. As far as 5 links showing I'm not sure why they say all that. Any reasearch will tell you that, as do the instructions and the guy on the phone at Reese. I think they say it is so you can make turns with no problems. They also say that the bars have to be below the frame of the trailer. That's impossible with my trailer because it has an 8" frame. With 5 links showing the bars are about 2" up the frame already, and I had no problems making turns at all. If I set it up so that the bars were below the frame the hitch would'nt be doing anything at all.I think I'm with you. They have to say certain things and put low limlts on there stuff to avoid lawsuits. Technically, if you have to crank it up that much, I guess technically you are overloaded. So they can't tell you that you can crank it up that much. I'm towing this weekend and I'm going to try to crank it up to about 3 links showing if I can and see what happens.

 

Yeah, I think I only get 1 link extra at a time and I do end up muscling it pretty good...but I am a pretty big boy too so I am able to crank it up without a jack, though every time I do it I think to myself how much easier it'd be using a jack, but am too lazy to haul it out and have to put it back. I don't believe mine ends up passing the bottom of the frame...maybe you got something wrong? I'll see if I get time to hook up to it again and snap a picture of it for you cuz I have been doing the same thing for 10 years and never had problems...though when I am backing up and have to cut it hard, I take the trunnions off..but as far as driving, I just try to keep my turns wide (as you should with any trailer) so the trailer/truck aren't cutting too hard...I have this style



there is also this style...not sure which is better, but wondering if you have this kind and is why (by your description) your's sounds so much different than mine