recenter rear axle among other things

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Afrycz

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Mar 26, 2020
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hey guys,
First time poster, long time lurker. I'm thankful for every post I've ever read on here. Very informative site.

Ill give you a bit of back story. I had a 2nd gen 2500 ram gasser and a 80's okanagan 9.5 truck held it beautifully with airbags at 40-50 psi.
I purchased my new truck in my Sig and took the bag kit off my old one. I adapted the old kit to the new truck because I don't like the bags mounted inside the leaf springs. New truck held the okanagan even better then the other truck. I used this set up for a couple years and everything is good. Then I get hassled at the US boarder one day because apparently it doesn't make sense that a 26yr old has a 75k+ truck and a $200 camper (as the boarder guard put it) After that I upgrade my camper to a Bigfoot 2500 series SB Everything is good for about a yr or so, I did maybe 5-6 trips. My first really long trip I blow a bag because my tire hit it. I was in a pinch and needed new bags. I picked up a kit from air ride that mounts inside the leaf spring. My new bags need 80-90psi which I don't like and my truck still doesn't sit level. I decided to look into why my tire hit the bag and it seems that my rear axle is walking from side to side. With the leaf spring mounted bags in place I can put my hand between the right side bag and the tire but on the left side I can only get my fingers in. If I go for a drive sometimes it changes sometimes it doesn't. The tires and rims were the same on both trucks. never had any issues before. also I know I've hauled much heavier loads (5300#) then my campers and never had an issue. Any idea why this would be happening? or maybe I'm overlooking something else? The truck has 160km or 100k  miles on it. I don't think bushings are worn out but I do push the truck a bit harder then maybe I should. I was thinking of building a panhard bar or something but those are not very common with leaf spring setups. My eventual plan is to reinstall the leaf mounted bags and run a dual bag setup to hopefully drop my psi. 90 is way to high IMO. Sorry for the novel hoping maybe someone has some out of the box idea. I'm all about those ideas
 
My old '95 Jeep YJ came with panhard bars and leaf springs both front and rear.  Granted, the panhards didn't survive the quest for more articulation, but that's another story.  8)
Lots of the Class A motor home guys add panhard bars to the rear of their coaches in an effort to improve the handling.

With over 100k on the rig, I'd unload the camper, get the truck on a lift and inspect the whole thing, paying special attention to the axle U-bolts, the spring eye bushings and the bushings on the upper end of the shackles.  Assuming nothing under there is loose or broken, I don't see why adding a panhard wouldn't work for you.
 

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