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Old 04-29-2019, 10:05 AM   #1
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Air Bags on Truck with Load Equalizer Bars?

I am totally confused. For equalizing the load of my 270RLS TT with my Chevy 2500HD, do I need air bags AND load equalizer, or will the equalizer alone be fine? I have heard of people doing with air bags and without. Am wondering if I should install rear airbags on my truck. Any experts out there?
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Old 04-29-2019, 11:56 AM   #2
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It depends.
Normally you don't need air bags with a WDH. If the WDH is sized properly then you should be able to transfer enough weight back to the front of the tow vehicle.
The other option is if you load a lot of stuff in the truck bed then the WDH will need to lift that as well. In that case I would add bags.
If you use bags with a WDH that has built in friction sway control then when you air the bags up you reduce the friction on the WD bars.
In the past I used bags and a WDH when I had a lot of weight in the truck bed.
I measured the rear fender when the truck was empty. Loaded the truck up then aired the bags to reset the OEM fender height.
I then hitched up the TT and used the WDH to set the front of the trucks fender height.

Your bars need to be strong enough to return the front fender to or as close as possible to it's unloaded height.

Thats a big heavy TT. I would get 1500-1700 lb bars. Not sure what year your 2500 is or if it's a diesel. Either way you should be fine with just a WDH.
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Old 04-29-2019, 01:12 PM   #3
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Just the Equalizer with 1400 pound bars is all you need. In fact, air bags interfere with how weight distributing hitches operate. There are several YouTube videos that show why you don't iair bags with that type of hitch.
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Old 04-30-2019, 06:44 AM   #4
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Air bags are used to help stabilize the ride, but they do not redistribute weight, lifting it from the truck's rear axle to the front+trailer axles.

You adjust your WDH as Cumminsfan says: set the bags first, then adjust the WDH.
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Old 04-30-2019, 08:30 AM   #5
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Concur, if the WDH is setup correctly there should be no need for air bags, in most cases. Having just bought an ORV toy hauler, an adjustment was made after coming home from the dealer (I added a washer to the Equalizer).

The reason I wanted to adjust the hitch in lieu of adding air bags is that I didn't want to degrade the empty ride in a 3/4 HD truck when it is not towing. Once you add air bags you always have to keep a minimum amount of pressure in them. But air bags are great if you always carry a load in your truck or tow different trailers so you can adjust for each weight.
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Old 04-30-2019, 09:18 AM   #6
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I installed my bags, because at the time I had a Lance 11.5ft camper. Now I load the LB, quad, firewood etc..a fair bit of weight, I pump to 20-30 psi to level. That being said I normally I don't hook up my bars, they are from my old trailer and I suspect underrated at 1000 lbs bars. Waiting for next time we go out and pass a closed scale to get my exact weights. These are some of the best trailers I have towed. I have run the bags for 10 years with no psi in them when empty and have no issues, I have lots of clearance no chance of "pinching" or puncturing. It's nice to have the option when I load the crap out of the old girl, I can just add few pounds to level.
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Old 04-30-2019, 03:57 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Txag85 View Post
...
Am wondering if I should install rear airbags on my truck.
...
Totally depends on your truck and situation. Do you have overload springs? Does the truck squat excessively? Are you bouncing off bump-stops or are overloads engaging at just the wrong times? Do you just like really cool features and enhanced capabilities?

Air bags can optimize spring rates for load hauling duties. The in cab controllers enable on the fly adjustments where a few pounds of pressure up/down can dial in the perfect amount of WD for the conditions. The key is to first find a starting pressure and this is where the WD hitch of your choice is adjusted. This normal load pressure will be specific to your truck and TT.
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Old 05-01-2019, 08:37 AM   #8
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Air bags or overload springs and the bars on a WD hitch do completly different things for different reasons. Bags or overload springs will lift the rear of the truck when a heavy load is added. The bars of a WH hitch take some of the load off the rear and transfer it to the front axle, something bags can't do. If I had to choose between the two, the bars are much more important. When you hit a bump and rear spring compression happens with only bags, the front wheels can get lighter. With bars weight is added to the front axle. Remember that all the weight on the hitch is actually taking weight off the front axle, something the bars correct.
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Old 05-01-2019, 10:37 AM   #9
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Bags and WD bars can work together very nicely however

Think outside "they are different" box and focus on combined characteristics. Then it becomes clear that bags not only vary the spring rate, but when combined with WD, they're quite effective in adjusting weight transfer too Simply reducing or increasing bag psi will adjust WD transfer properties.

When you lower the pressure, more spring bar flex happens as the ball lowers and therefor more weight is transferred. Inversely as you increase bag pressure, the bar flex reduces as ball rises and less weight is transferred.
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Old 05-01-2019, 09:26 PM   #10
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We were doing our first tow for the season last week and the trailer was more squirrely than I remembered from last year. Then it occurred to me I hadn't aired down the air bags from their winter psi. I aired them down from 30psi to 10psi and the trailer sway disappeared. Doesn't take much to make a big difference.
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Old 05-01-2019, 10:11 PM   #11
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We were doing our first tow for the season last week and the trailer was more squirrely than I remembered from last year. Then it occurred to me I hadn't aired down the air bags from their winter psi. I aired them down from 30psi to 10psi and the trailer sway disappeared. Doesn't take much to make a big difference.
No it doesn’t, You keep 30 psi in the bags when no load, empty?
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Old 05-02-2019, 10:56 AM   #12
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I had air bags installed to replace the rubber hard stops. I have never run more than 20 lbs in mine. When towing my trailer I set the airbags at 15lbs and then adjust the WDH. For us it seems to give the best combination of ride and handling. When empty I keep a max of 10 lbs to keep them from being pinched and air down my tires to 60lbs. My truck rides like a cement curb stop empty but it tows great. Thankfully I don’t use it very much when not towing. It’s 5 years old and just turned 80k km so it will last a while yet.
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Old 05-02-2019, 05:23 PM   #13
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No it doesn’t, You keep 30 psi in the bags when no load, empty?
I carry a bunch of sand in the bed for traction in the winter. But you're right, 30psi is probably on the high end even with 400lbs of sand.
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Old 05-02-2019, 06:05 PM   #14
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I carry a bunch of sand in the bed for traction in the winter. But you're right, 30psi is probably on the high end even with 400lbs of sand.
Oh wow ... I don't know what bags you have on that 150 but dang, I'd be wanting to run as near 0psi possible without squat Wouldn't want to ruin the empty ride, ya'see!
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