ive ordered a slide in camper for my truck. with the tongue weight of the trailer ill be towing along with the slide in camper, i think its time to consider a set of ride-rite air bags. in the past i was against air bags, but believe todays air bags to be safer than the ones ive used many years ago. my camper dealer sells them for $275 a set, but im thinking i can find them cheaper. anybody know the best/cheapest place to buy them? thanks,
While I profess ZERO experience here, a few recent weeks of intense research and learning on this topic offers the following insights:
1) Unless all this is being hauled/towed with a dually, a set of G-rated tires ($$$) on the back of the truck might save you from the expense and inconvenience of tread-separation and catastrophic tire failure going down the road someday. 2) Get the whole kit & kaboodle on a truck scale somewhere and make very sure the total COMBINED weight of the truck & passengers & fuel & supplies w/slide-in camper on it *AND* the fully loaded trailer with all supplies & water, etc. does not total more than the truck manufacturer's maximum GCWR rating number. The "GCWR" number is the one that will bite you. (GCWR = Gross Combined Weight Rating)As I begin to pursue this RV thing myself I'm learning a great deal of info. Among those newly-gleaned tidbits is that the cops are not as dumb as they look. Go rolling across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana or California with an "obviously heavy" looking non-commercial vehicle (pickup truck) and the STATE cops are almost certain to stop you and escort you to a weigh station. I don't know about the other states, but in Illinois the fine for being over GCWR is $2500 and you cannot proceed on your way until you shed the excess pounds. I'm guessing this rule might be similar inother states.
And remember, the addition of airbags will NOT increase the GVWR or the GCWR of the truck if that's what the OP was shooting for with the addition of the airbags.
Ifyou're going with a slide in camper be sure to have a HD anti-sway bar installed, if you have a standard bar on the truck now, go bigger. The difference in handling, safety wise, is huge!
nope. just looking for a little more stability for when the wifey is driving.
Thanks pat
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