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Old 07-24-2021, 07:05 AM   #1
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The Ram 1500 Did Well

We took our 2016 Jay Feather to Ohio last weekend to trade it in on a new 2021 Jay Flight 29RKS. According to our CAT scale numbers, we have 1,100lbs of available payload. We knew this new unit would consume most if not all of that available capacity. On our way home, we hit the scale and did just one check with wd engaged. The TV axles were pretty close to where they need to be, and the the 29rks, of course, has days of unused capacity.

We are going to set the trailer up for normal travel and do all three weighs at the scale. I think we will be very close. We travel very light, no where near what most folks take. It's just the two of us travelling minimally. When it's all said and done, I predict we will have 100-200lbs. of remaining payload. I will let you know.

As for the truck, it handled the trip home extremely well. We were amazed actually. We aren't speeders (steady 55-60mph). The truck barely broke a sweat on the 725 mile trip back to Alabama. We installed Timbrens before we left. We only take a few regional extended stay trips a year. We primarily use the coach as our remote office spaces. Eventually, we will get a 3500, but I think the 1500 will give us 2-3 more years. She's paid for and in very good condition. We also took y'all's advice on the beefier WDH. We went with an Equalizer 14k. I need to get it fully dialed-in as well. The dealer did a decent job, but it will need fine tuning for sure.

I will post after our comprehensive Cat scale weigh.
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Old 07-24-2021, 07:27 AM   #2
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I tried Timbrens on my 2021 Ram 1500 and the ride was extremely rough and I had to remove them in a parking lot. I also use an equilizer WDH. Do you have any suggestions about the Timbrens?
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Old 07-24-2021, 11:56 AM   #3
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I tried Timbrens on my 2021 Ram 1500 and the ride was extremely rough and I had to remove them in a parking lot. I also use an equilizer WDH. Do you have any suggestions about the Timbrens?

The Timbrens made a big difference under load, very stable tow. I don't notice them when driving without a load. They only engage under load. Ours are positioned about 2"-2.5" above the axle. Now our 1500 is a Tradesman. It does not have a ton of options; you may have a softer unloaded ride. I don't know. I've had Sumo helpers in the coils for 7 years, so I may be used to a stiffer ride. In any case, I am fine with it, and the Timbrens do a great job under load. That's what they're designed for.
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Old 07-24-2021, 12:17 PM   #4
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Mine don't touch when the truck is unloaded so there isn't any difference in the ride. When loaded and using my weight distributing hitch they touch and the ride is very rough. I tried to return them and the store will not take them back since I installed them. I have been trying to sell them. I may measure the difference when the truck is loaded and cut them shorter so there isn't as much pressure on them. Thanks for the info.
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Old 07-24-2021, 01:45 PM   #5
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I'm not sure. All of have different tolerances for comfort. We did not feel like the truck was riding rough.

Now I will say that I65 and I71 through KY are in horrific condition. I recommend avoiding them in KY if you can. Terrible, terrible roads, tons of bad asphalt! We will find another route should we need or want to go back to Ohio, a beautiful state BTW. We absolutely loved the farm land for hours!
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Old 07-24-2021, 02:28 PM   #6
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They make different “weights” of Tinbrens. When I bought the ones for our 2014 Silverado 1500, they gave me 8600 pound ones. When we put on the trailer, the ride was very rough. I called Timbren, and they sent me 5400 pound ones. What a difference! The truck rode the same empty or loaded. I offered to ship back the 8600 pound ones but the rep said keep them. What great customer service! Jay
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Old 07-24-2021, 02:46 PM   #7
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Curious what gear do you have in the Ram? I had a 2012 Hemi w/3:55s and it was a bit of a dog down low. But I never towed anything besides a RZR and a 10ft flatbed trailer with it. Scaling things down, I plan on selling my Cummins and 5th wheel and get another 1500 to pull a smaller travel trailer. I will definitely be getting one with 3:92's to help with bottom end power.
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:21 PM   #8
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Curious what gear do you have in the Ram? I had a 2012 Hemi w/3:55s and it was a bit of a dog down low. But I never towed anything besides a RZR and a 10ft flatbed trailer with it. Scaling things down, I plan on selling my Cummins and 5th wheel and get another 1500 to pull a smaller travel trailer. I will definitely be getting one with 3:92's to help with bottom end power.
For this new trailer, we reorganized everything from the bed of the truck and put it in the trailer from the axles back. For our pre-trip scale weigh, it was just me, DW, and a full tank of gas. We only take 300-400lbs. with us anyway. That is food, 2 bikes, 2 chairs, a 40lb Weber, a 30lb tool box, clothes, linens, and a counter top water filtration system. We buy our ice, drinks, and canned food items when we arrive at our destination.

The tools, chairs, Weber, and black water box used to be in the bed of the truck. For the trip home with the 29rks, we brought 200lbs to put behind the axles. I will definitely need to keep things light and aft in the unit to make the combo work for a while. But truly, the truck did great, way beyond our expectations and fears. I would not say it was a "dog" at all. Granted, like I said, we are slow folk, 55-60 steady. The truck stayed between 1,700-2,000 rpm. She'd rev to 2,500 on the hills. When it would start to exceed 2,500, I would check down to 50 mph until the slope lessened. But most of the time, we cruised, no sweat and no white knuckles. The trailer was very steady. We averaged 11.5-12 mpg. It was amazing. We also wanted this trailer because it does not have every option known to man. It's stated dry weight is 7,056. We need all the weight room we can get. So we will likely tow loaded at 7,350-7,500 max.

I think it would be a different story all together if we were trying to go 70+ all the way home. Honestly, I am an over-kill guy when it comes to safety and weights. So I am breaking code a bit with this rig. My rule of thumb is to stay at 75% or less of my TV's capacity, but we needed this floorplan for our work, and we only travel smooth interstates a few times a year for 3-4 hour trips. It's not an ideal set up at all; I just need her to get us through a couple of years. Then we want to get a 3500. We both felt safe and not the least bit concerned about the truck's response to the load. Like I said, we were amazed, very pleasantly surprised. We were very prayerful about the trip and our truck's performance. It was definitely a blessing that it went so well.

I will definitely post the numbers when we get everything set and go to the scales for a comprehensive weigh report.
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:36 PM   #9
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Curious what gear do you have in the Ram? I had a 2012 Hemi w/3:55s and it was a bit of a dog down low. But I never towed anything besides a RZR and a 10ft flatbed trailer with it. Scaling things down, I plan on selling my Cummins and 5th wheel and get another 1500 to pull a smaller travel trailer. I will definitely be getting one with 3:92's to help with bottom end power.
I just realized that I did not exactly answer your question. Forgive me, I misread your post. We have a 3:55 rear-end. Our max cargo/payload is 1,613 and 6,600 gvwr, We weighed 5,494 on our pre-trip weigh of the loaded truck. So without a trailer hitched, we have 1,100 towards our gvwr to work with. I don't recall off hand the exact axle weights (in a file), but they had a decent amount of capacity left. The front axle max is 3,700 and the rear is 3,900. When we weighed coming home with the 29rks and wd engaged, the rear was 3,400, and the font was 2,900. I know I will need to get about 150 more to the front with my wd adjustments. It was about 3,150 (ish) when we did the pre-trip weigh. You want to get as close as possible to that unhitched front axle number when you have wd engaged. I'll be working on it once we get the bikes on and refine our in coach load distribution. In addition to the wd adjustments, I will likely need to fine tune the coach's load distribution as well.
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:56 PM   #10
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One more thing, Seventy GTX, do you or did you own a GTX? I am an old-school Mopar head. I love lots of classic makes, but I have a special place in my heart for Mopar muscle. It goes back to a nasty 440 1968 Polara squad car my dad schooled me and my brother in. It looked like a granny grocery getter, but that beast would put Vettes and Machs in the dust! It was great fun pulling up next to kid in a Mustang or the like. The kid would show out and rev, and Dad would grin and nod (let's do it). We would crush them. It was a lieutenant's patrol car that my dad bought with 14,000 on the od. It had a special cam and suspension. He painted it olive green. Man, we loved that machine!
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Old 07-24-2021, 09:27 PM   #11
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Congrats on the new rig and glad you made it home safely. Enjoy!
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Old 07-25-2021, 07:17 AM   #12
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I have a 3:92, with a load weight of 1850 and trailer weight of 11,400. It has plenty of power to pull my whitehawk 23mrb but the trailer sways a lot. The truck feels like it rocks from side to side even when I am not towing. Not a lot but more than my previous GMC. I may look into air bags next.
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Old 07-25-2021, 08:14 AM   #13
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Quote:
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I have a 3:92, with a load weight of 1850 and trailer weight of 11,400. It has plenty of power to pull my whitehawk 23mrb but the trailer sways a lot. The truck feels like it rocks from side to side even when I am not towing. Not a lot but more than my previous GMC. I may look into air bags next.
Does it have the factory air bags? May be able to change how they air up.
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Old 07-25-2021, 08:30 AM   #14
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One more thing, Seventy GTX, do you or did you own a GTX? I am an old-school Mopar head. I love lots of classic makes, but I have a special place in my heart for Mopar muscle. It goes back to a nasty 440 1968 Polara squad car my dad schooled me and my brother in. It looked like a granny grocery getter, but that beast would put Vettes and Machs in the dust! It was great fun pulling up next to kid in a Mustang or the like. The kid would show out and rev, and Dad would grin and nod (let's do it). We would crush them. It was a lieutenant's patrol car that my dad bought with 14,000 on the od. It had a special cam and suspension. He painted it olive green. Man, we loved that machine!
Back in the day, I got pulled over by a few of those CHP Polaras in a 66 SS396 Chevelle I had. Yes, I did have a 1970 GTX, but sold several years ago to a guy in Sweden. Just kept the handle for message boards since it's easy to remember. I had a stout 440 6bbl in it with a built 727 and ran 12's in the 1/4. Not a drag car, but still a fun cruiser. Here it is with my wife and I at a Mopar only car show in California...

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Old 07-25-2021, 08:43 AM   #15
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I have a 3:92, with a load weight of 1850 and trailer weight of 11,400. It has plenty of power to pull my whitehawk 23mrb but the trailer sways a lot. The truck feels like it rocks from side to side even when I am not towing. Not a lot but more than my previous GMC. I may look into air bags next.
That's the coil springs giving that mushy feeling. Put a nice Helwig sway bar in your truck and it will help a lot. If you have one at all, it is probably pretty small in diameter. Airbags are pretty easy to install in these since they are bags that go inside the coils. I put them in the two 1500's I previously had.

Maybe consider an Andersen weight distribution hitch as well. My neighbor has one and swears by it. Although I have no experience with them since we have always had a 5th wheel.
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Old 07-25-2021, 02:59 PM   #16
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Back in the day, I got pulled over by a few of those CHP Polaras in a 66 SS396 Chevelle I had. Yes, I did have a 1970 GTX, but sold several years ago to a guy in Sweden. Just kept the handle for message boards since it's easy to remember. I had a stout 440 6bbl in it with a built 727 and ran 12's in the 1/4. Not a drag car, but still a fun cruiser. Here it is with my wife and I at a Mopar only car show in California...

Wow! What a beautiful car! I know you miss it. DW and I restored a '71 C10; it was a very cool ride, GM medium olive and white two tone. '71-72 are my favorite Chevy truck years. We sold her. DW cried for a week. Maybe another classic will come our way. Thank you for sharing your gone but not forgotten gem!
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Old 07-25-2021, 03:42 PM   #17
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Wow! What a beautiful car! I know you miss it. DW and I restored a '71 C10; it was a very cool ride, GM medium olive and white two tone. '71-72 are my favorite Chevy truck years. We sold her. DW cried for a week. Maybe another classic will come our way. Thank you for sharing your gone but not forgotten gem!
Thanks for the kind words. Yes I do miss it, especially since we moved to Kingman Arizona home of Route 66. Classics are everywhere here. Speaking of 67-72 Chevy pickups, I was a body/paint guy my whole life. I did the truck below just before I retired. It was her best friends farm truck that had passed away and she wanted to fix it up in her memory.

Did a lot to it since it had quite a bit of rust. New rockers, cab corners, smooth tailgate, power windows, deleted vent windows, custom dash, custom grill, hard toneau cover, LED tail lights, Bowtie 3rd brake light, etc.



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Old 07-26-2021, 06:01 AM   #18
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I have a 2013 Ram 1500 Quad cab Tradesman, with 5.7L Hemi and 3.55 rears. We tow a 29BHS. I installed TufTruck variable rate coil springs and a Helwig HD sway bar. This really improved towing and handling. The truck handles towing much better with these upgrades and pulls the camper fine.
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Old 07-28-2021, 12:14 PM   #19
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Nice! We pull our White Hawk 27DSRL with our 2016 RAM Rebel with the 5.7 Hemi, with no problems whatsoever. It is a bit of a gas guzzler, but passing trucks going up hill is a breeze :-) We have sway bars and WDH from Harbor Freight, which we have used since we bought the Jayco in 2015 and it makes for a smooth ride with little to no sway.
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Old 08-02-2021, 11:59 AM   #20
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Hello Gunafulltime ,,,,Having been a Dodge Dealer for 20 yrs(1964-1984) I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to drive most all Dodge Muscle cars during that time. And my 2 most favorite ones are the ones I still have. A 1970 Challenger 426 HEMI automatic, Lime Green ,white vinyl top, white leather seats. And a 1969 Charger 440 six pack four speed with the Hurst pistol grip shifter, HEMI Orange with black R/T stripes. The one car I wish I still had was a 1968 Dart GTS model it was only produced 1 year and came factory stock with a 383 magnum engine with a four speed. And YES ,,,,even today they are driven for short trips regularly. Even OLD a guys have a NEED FOR SPEED...
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