Hey guys new to the site and i thought i could pick the brains of some guys who know their way around these trucks. The truck is an 09 dodge 5.7 crewcab. I just bought a new trailer recently and just had it out on its first trip. The trailer is 33' overall length and the weight is 6100lbs dry. My wife packs everything under the sun in there for a few weeks so im guessing 7500lbs max when i loaded it up. I have weight distribution on the hitch and it helps but the truck is still pretty bagged out. So im gonna looks into air bag suspension but have no idea where to start as to which brand and what i would need. (just rear? front and rear i want to be able to control it from the truck so obviously a onboard compressor maybe a small tank too? My next question is i'd like to get a little more power and what is my best bang for the buck? ( cold air intake? catback?superchip?). Sorry about the long post just didn't want to miss anything but any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I have the same truck, I tow a 32 foot (HEAVY) T/T, have you adjusted the equilizer hitch?, i can actually get the rear of the truck to sit high in the air if i put the chains up too high.....it took me a while to get the proper chain link set up to tow it level, it tows perfect now. I went by the hitch place , met a pretty cool guy that new his stuff on these ,and he schooled me on the proper ways to hook it up.

 

I also have the same truck. Have a look at the AirLift 1000s. Really cheap, about $100. I have them and they work awesome. Took a couple hours to install them myself in the driveway. My TT is about 8700lbs dry, about 950lbs tongue weight. I just fill them manually before hooking up the trailer. The onboard systems with the compressor/guages/tank/control valve are very expensive, and you may not get any better performance out of them. I bought a small portable air tank that I bring along with me to fill them up. I have also been looking for performance chips/programmers. I haven't really found too many out there worth the money they are asking for them. One big difference I found was with my tires. The stock tires suck, they can't handle any weight at all, even at max psi. I have some BFG A/T, they are E rated tires. Sure, I lost some mpg's but now I know I shouldn't get a blowout when towing the heavy camper. One more thing, if you bought this truck for towing heavy loads, probably made a mistake. Don't get me wrong I love this truck, until it is heavily loaded. Next one will be a 3500 diesel...

 

i have adjusted the eq hitch and i have barely any links on my chain left and you could definately tell there is quite a bit of stress on the bars. The tires are just p rated tires so they do suck and i do plan on upgrading but not quite yet cant even imagine getting worse gas mileage that im getting i was as low as 6mpg. When i bought the truck we did knowing we were gonna get a trailer but we ended up going way bigger then originally planned. The next one will for sure be a diesel . So what do you guys think is my best bet is for handling/performance upgrade to start with? I was thinking the bags and even a cold air intake for starters

 

I think what you have is what your gonna get. I don't even have close to as big a trailer you have and I think mine is lots. Airbags will help and are about your only solution with these coil springs on these trucks. A programmer will barelly make a difference, not enough that its a major difference justifying the money spent. Honeslty I would say your TT is way too big for the truck, I mean 33' that's pretty big, I tow a 26' with no pullouts or nothing and I can't see myself go bigger than 30 with this truck. I think you got diesel material here, I'm in the same boat, next time I won't buy a lil 1500.

 

I wouldn't of went that big with the trailer and 33' is overall length from tongue to bumper and i was roughly 2000lbs less then what the truck is rated for so i figured packed up i would still be under the limit for the truck so i thought id be fine. Not saying its terrible but i know it could probably do better. Hell my father in law has a 2500 chevy rated for 9500lbs or so and he pulling around 13000. (not that i would ever buy or want a chevy lol).

 

Yeah I know what you mean. How well balanced is your trailer, maybe try and bnalance out the trailer as much as possible, especially if your chains are maxed out on the equalizer bar. I usually hitch up to the truck, go on flat ground, then jack your trailer up attached to your truck by tongue only uintil the truck is sitting level as it would empty. Once you get that done count the links so they're the same on each side and pry the bars up. Then bring the trailer back down and your truck should sit level. If that's what u were doing maybe the bars are not doing the job, or its that heavy lol dunno. Maybe post some pics if u can that would help.

 

Yeah what you explained is exactly what the dealership showed to do i still could probably go up a few links on my chains i just didn't know how far i could push it seeing as i could already see how stressed they are. I will post some pics soon and for ****s and giggles my buddy is gonna hook up to his truck and see how it sits with his.