Kick *** Suspension?

[travelin texans]

The $2700 spent for disc brakes was worth every dime! If you've never towed one with disc brakes, it's absolutely night/day difference, you can actually tell the truck/rv are braking as one.

[Laredo Tugger]

I agree.
Of all the modifications listed and if I could only do one, disc brakes would be my first choice. I may have to look at these in the near future.
Thanks
RMc

[trucker LOU]

X2 or more. did discs 2 years ago. best update by far. super stopping power has been tested surviving "karpool kamakazis" ,---Lou---

[chuckster57]

Trucker: looking at your pics, it looks like the bleeder valves are on the bottom, shouldn’t they be on the top?

[trucker LOU]

Good eye Chuck, the calipers have 2 bleeder fittings ,both top & bottom---Lou---

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by trucker LOU

Good eye Chuck, the calipers have 2 bleeder fittings ,both top & bottom---Lou---

I see that now. I saw the hose and it at first glance it looked like it was connected to the top bleeder.....put my glasses on and zoomed in LOL

[McRod]

Our rig had 7k axles and we had continual abnormal tire wear and broken leaf springs. We were overweight.

Upgraded to 8k axles, leaf springs, and 8k disc brakes, air bag center point. Have put about 30k miles on trailer since complete suspension upgrade and its been great, fixed abnormal problems. Cost was $4k and i can get parts from most anywhere, doesnt require specialized techs or location like Morryde IS.

[BRB Rig]

Thank you for the recommendations and warnings about retrofitting our suspension. Despite the load balance between the tongue weight and axle weight, we’re disappointed about the 7K axles. We’ll be adding an upgrade to 8K to our todo list. We also intend on getting the disc brakes.

For now, we’ve opted for getting our 6-leaf spring set up replaced with 8-spring. We also are going With the wet bolt shackle system and the crossmember.

[BRB Rig]

We had $1350 worth of suspension work done today. An 8-leaf spring upgrade, new wet shackles and accessory bolts replaced around the CRE3000 eqs, and a MorRyde crossmember installed. The rig rides 3+ inches higher and our dually isn’t as low in the rear anymore. We were getting 7 to 9 mpg and, on the drive to the CAT scales, we averaged 12 a 13. Pretty cool. What’s not cool is the report we received from the weigh in. 17,240 lbs! We’re 740 lbs over capacity and we don’t even have the touring bike in the hauler!

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by BRB Rig

We had $1350 worth of suspension work done today. An 8-leaf spring upgrade, new wet shackles and accessory bolts replaced around the CRE3000 eqs, and a MorRyde crossmember installed. The rig rides 3+ inches higher and our dually isn’t as low in the rear anymore. We were getting 7 to 9 mpg and, on the drive to the CAT scales, we averaged 12 a 13. Pretty cool. What’s not cool is the report we received from the weigh in. 17,240 lbs! We’re 740 lbs over capacity and we don’t even have the touring bike in the hauler!

Was that ride home downhill? Not trying to be confrontational but a 33% increase in mpg?

[notanlines]

BRB, with almost 4K of cargo capacity in that hauler, how can you be that far over without your bike?

[ctbruce]

Curious minds want to know, what in the world have packed in there? That's a lot of sweaters.

[BRB Rig]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Was that ride home downhill? Not trying to be confrontational but a 33% increase in mpg?

It could very well have been that we had a tailwind behind us, difficult to tell. The roundtrip was a little more than 110 miles. Our GMC average for 50 miles readdng went from 7.8 mpg to 12.2 mpg by the end of the trip.

[BRB Rig]

Originally Posted by notanlines

BRB, with almost 4K of cargo capacity in that hauler, how can you be that far over without your bike?

We're living full-time in the rig so there's stuff that needs to go to storage. We forgot about some lumber, mainly 2"x4"s in the pass-through storage. Doh! We also didn't have the two smaller heavy toolboxes in the truck. We're getting a 5th wheel toolbox to store the tools in the truck bed. We have about 100 lbs of books that need to go as well. The six 6v golf cart batteries were in the hauler too. Two queen size Tempurpedics are a weight hog as well.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by BRB Rig

It could very well have been that we had a tailwind behind us, difficult to tell. The roundtrip was a little more than 110 miles. Our GMC average for 50 miles readdng went from 7.8 mpg to 12.2 mpg by the end of the trip.

You must have been followed by a hurricane to get a 36% increase!

[BRB Rig]

Originally Posted by flybouy

You must have been followed by a hurricane to get a 36% increase!

No hurricanes here. However, it's been windy.

[travelin texans]

If your using the mpg from the DIC it's usually VERY optimistic, as on most all brands of vehicles, hand calculations are the only accurate figures. To have had that much increase you had to have had a tailwind + slightly downhill as suspension upgrades shouldn't/couldn't increase fuel mileage. I also have a GMC & it will average 9 to 12 mpg hand calculated.
As for your weight, everything you're hauling must be very heavy. We've fulltimed, not in a toy hauler, for 10 years & every time I weighed we were within 100 lbs+/- of the GVW on the rv with 7k axles & never had a suspension issue. I did change to MorRyde heavy shackles & wet bolts removing the factory plastic bushings in the 1st few months of owning.

[BRB Rig]

Originally Posted by travelin texans

If your using the mpg from the DIC it's usually VERY optimistic, as on most all brands of vehicles, hand calculations are the only accurate figures. To have had that much increase you had to have had a tailwind + slightly downhill as suspension upgrades shouldn't/couldn't increase fuel mileage. I also have a GMC & it will average 9 to 12 mpg hand calculated.
As for your weight, everything you're hauling must be very heavy. We've fulltimed, not in a toy hauler, for 10 years & every time I weighed we were within 100 lbs+/- of the GVW on the rv with 7k axles & never had a suspension issue. I did change to MorRyde heavy shackles & wet bolts removing the factory plastic bushings in the 1st few months of owning.

We thought that the reading was a bit optimistic. The tow sure does feel better, money well spent. We invested in a postal scale that has a 440 lb threshold. We already began weighing stuff and putting aside things for storage. We're working on the lumber in the pass-through now. Thereafter, we'll pay another visit to the scales.

[Tinner12002]

Originally Posted by BRB Rig

We had $1350 worth of suspension work done today. An 8-leaf spring upgrade, new wet shackles and accessory bolts replaced around the CRE3000 eqs, and a MorRyde crossmember installed. The rig rides 3+ inches higher and our dually isn’t as low in the rear anymore. We were getting 7 to 9 mpg and, on the drive to the CAT scales, we averaged 12 a 13. Pretty cool. What’s not cool is the report we received from the weigh in. 17,240 lbs! We’re 740 lbs over capacity and we don’t even have the touring bike in the hauler!

Well if its any comfort, before we purchased our 428 Raptor I questioned a factory rep about the lack of CC in our hauler, only 2900lbs with a 19K GVWR, 3-7K axles on 6-Sailun tires rated for over 24K. What he explained to me was that we could if we wanted too, load it up to 21K not exceeding the axle rating but it would be illegal if we were stopped and weighed but the RV would handle it...but of course that wasn't in writing...lol! I've weighed it without the bikes and full of water and figured I'd be around 20.5K when loaded with water and bikes though probably wouldn't have to carry the water.
Then the next weak link might be the pinbox.

[BRB Rig]

Originally Posted by Tinner12002

Well if its any comfort, before we purchased our 428 Raptor I questioned a factory rep about the lack of CC in our hauler, only 2900lbs with a 19K GVWR, 3-7K axles on 6-Sailun tires rated for over 24K. What he explained to me was that we could if we wanted too, load it up to 21K not exceeding the axle rating but it would be illegal if we were stopped and weighed but the RV would handle it...but of course that wasn't in writing...lol! I've weighed it without the bikes and full of water and figured I'd be around 20.5K when loaded with water and bikes though probably wouldn't have to carry the water.
Then the next weak link might be the pinbox.

Thanks for the insight Tinner! We’ve also met RVers who have been carrying excessive payloads without a hitch (pun intended). They’ve told us it’s all about how things are balanced in the rig and maintaining tire pressure and suspension maintenance.