The truck is not made for everyday hauling or towing, I tried that and now own a 2500 with leafs. If you like the way leaf springs ride and hold a load then stick with them. The 4th gen 1500 is nothing like a leaf spring truck, its like a luxury car.

 

Yea, if you're gonna use it as a truck, look at a 2500. I mean, come on. You want to haul a load of sand and rock that would weigh over the payload capacity of the truck and want it to handle it well? Let's get real here. You need a 2500 and not a 1500.

 

I tow a 5K TT, no problems at all. A few notches up on the EQqq hitch and Zero squat. One time i had a full bed of paver stones, at least 1800lbs, yes it squatted but made the trip just fine. My 09 with coils hauls BETTER than my 04 could with leafs. A lot of folks who ride in my Ram comment it rides better than their car. If you want to thrash around and brace yourself for that bed kickup every time you hit bumps then buy something with buggy springs, but remember it doesn't have to be that way. There is no way I could go back to leafs.

 

bottom line here on the springs is they make the ride great, yes you are going to get some squat. even with squat it will tow just fine. if the squat bothers you you can get a set of air bags that go inside the springs for under 100 bucks and the truck wont squat. that way you could have the best of both worlds.

 

For light work, or rare instances when the truck is loaded to capacity, the coils should be fine.

For medium work, or frequent times loaded to capacity, the 2500 is the way to go.

 

I've put 2000lbs of bricks in the back of mine twice now and it squatted to within 1/2" of the bump stops but I took it easy and it handled it just fine. I don't plan on making this a habit thus I bought a 1500. If I wanted to do this a lot, then I'd be riding in a 2500.

 

To echo what other folks have said, if you're going to load it down a lot, get a 2500. That being said, I overload my 09 1500 *regularly* with decent results. As others have said, the 1500 will tow a heavy trailer quite well, and you only need airbags to level the back end. Hauling is a different story. I have hauled a yard of gravel several times (2800 lbs), and even with the air bags at maximum pressure the rear end was dragging low. I don't recommend it on a regular basis!

For more normal loads (500-1500 lbs), the airbags are great. When hauling close to a ton without them the rear end used to get 'bouncy' on the freeway... no issues now.

In summary, unless you haul over a ton more than once a month or on the freeway, the 1500 will be fine, as long as you get airbags.

 

He he, last I heard these were 1/2 ton trucks...2800 lbs is a lot for 3/4 ton truck much less a 1/2 ton...geesum, lol!

 

1954Radio is right, the suspension is one thing but look at the tires load rating, you gotta rune Es or you need a dually 1 ton

 

ride quality is better and for less than 100 bucks get a set of airbag 1000s easily instaall in each coil spring, then you can haul ANYthing you want and still have a good ride quality.