Hawk Advice / Questions

[TStauss]

My wife and I were shopping and jumped on the first 4WC we could find that would fit my truck. 2014 Hawk, great price, everything works and runs great.

My truck is a Ram 1500 with the 5'8" bed. I will say I know a 3/4 ton would solve all issues, but that is not in the budget at this time, maybe end of summer. (We also have an infant which spurred the camper buy, tent camping wasnt an option.)

My truck has bilstein 5100 struts, and heavy duty coils in the rear. I have a 1.25 inch rake unloaded. Under load the front end was 1 5/8" higher.

I ordered Timbren severe service with an extra 1" spacer. With the camper loaded the sway is gone. The new issue is a rythmic bouncing going over common road humps and dips. Its not horrible and goes away fast but I feel it should not be there. Also the timbrens have a 1.25inch gap unloaded, loaded the rear is still down 3/8 to 1/2 from the front. (Working with timbren if a 1/2 spacer will fix this to level or above)

I am hoping to see what solutions people will have, I am about to load the camper back up and throw a gopro under and make sure it isnt the timbren loosing contact and regaining it that is causing the bounce.

Things I am considering

- New Shocks, prob need this anyway as these are stock and have 55k miles.
- Adding that 1/2 inch spacer so I am level or raked again and hoping it helps.
- Sending timbrens back and getting the timber grove airbags, I just do not know if I would have the bounce with these as well.

Things I have done.

- Coil-Rite with stock coils, they did not work at all. Coil-Rite does not work with aftermarket springs either, found this out the hard way. So I have purchased Coil-Rites(Returned thankfully), Coils, Timbrens and it is all a guessing game still.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am also close to or below payload, have been to cat scale multiple times.

 

[ri-f]

I think you're on to something with swapping out to a 2500, with leaf springs in the rear. For starters you're tail heavy and extended 10 extra inches beyond what your wheelbase is designed for, which isn't helping. The later Rams have rear coils vs. leaf springs, which I imagine is contributing to a softer ride but with more bounce. The natural rake on a Ram is close to 2 inches higher in the rear unloaded. You could dump a lot of bucks into this rig and help it out, but your payload is still that of a 1500 and you'll be on the edge of comfort and perhaps safety if you try to put too much more weight in your short bed. Rich

 

[TStauss]

Hey Rich, yeah the solution is 3/4 ton. But unfortunately unless something crazy happens with work and I make a lot more money right now, its an end of summer fall thing. As far as the tail heavy, I am for sure that, i strategically load the camper in the front dinette only plus the water tank. It helps with front weight on it. We bought it for our son to sleep easier and nap better, I put all of our camping stuff in it from normal camping, still 3/4 empty if not more.

 

[JHanson]

Rhythmic bouncing points to poor shock control, so I would address that first. Timbrens are really nothing more than glorified bump stops and will reduce compliance; the only way to achieve correct load carrying and ride height is either custom springs (if you leave the camper on all the time), or air bags (if you remove it between trips).

 

[rubberlegs]

Have you measured the weight on each axle?

 

[TStauss]

Rubberlegs, yes within my limits on both axles. Reweighing tomorrow as well just to check.

 

[ri-f]

TS - Are you planning to hold onto the 1500 if possible? Assuming you want to, and you're within the payload limits, I think the solution for your short, shortbed is probably going to be a set of Ride-Rite airbags so that you can adjust the rear height correctly and also add a bit of stability back there at the same time. Of course if your Bilsteins are shot, that will need replacement, but with only 50k - of probably easy miles on them - I would think the airbags would be the logical upgrade/mod.

If you intend to swap out to a 2500 in the near future, then that's a different approach and you may be able to just use your 1500 as is, for the summer, assuming you take it easy, knowing that the suspension needs some help. But again, if you are going to do a mod and keep the 1500 long term, then of all the mods, the airbags would be my first inclination.

I'm just swapping out my old shocks now, after 130K on the originals with either Billsteins 5100 or Fox. They are not leaking or bouncy, just probably as old as they can be and still appear to work. But it's definetly time before they fail. I've got Ride-Rite airbags on mine, with the remote control, and they are great for adjusting the height of the rear end and, individually, on left and right sides to match your camper's weight distribution. But I have to admit that getting used to the compressor going off at random times, on an otherwise quiet night, as it makes its minor pressure adjustments to keep everything balanced, is an acquired taste. : )

Rich