Valkraider
New member
More pics.
I had to clean up the door a little when I got home:
I had to clean up the door a little when I got home:
One week to go...
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Valkraider
New member
Interior pictures:
These roadmaster springs are quite interesting. I was going to use air bags until I read about these. I'm concerned though that the roadmater's will not bring the load back to level ride height. Please post with info after you have time to test. Correct me if I'm wrong, but yours rig looks like it's squatting slightly set at 25%.
jv
jv
Valkraider
New member
Yeah, we don't plan on living in the thing. So coolers work fine for us, and are more versatile. Some times we may "camp" just on regional trips - like to the Oregon coast and stuff, where we don't really have much interest in cooking all our own food and whatnot - but we do want to sleep out at the coast. This way I am not hauling around a heavy fridge all the time for no real reason. If I do end up getting one I will get one of the 12 volt Engel type that are kind of like coolers anyway, and I can set them outside the unit when at a campsite so we have more space.
Just had a look at your picks and very nice ...some good ideas like the way the dinette table setup works.keeps the base out of the way on mine its in the middle of the floor.pain in the but....also like the little open space to the left of the door mine is boxed in yours is better to stor some quick junk ....like mayby stairs or whatnot...
Valkraider
New member
They do help with the ride height, mine is not squatting completely when I set them higher at the 50% range. In fact, when I first put them on the truck before we had the camper, the 25% range raised my rear nearly an inch measured at the frame. However, they will not completely prevent all the squatting as they are simply progressive springs that help the stock leafs. I still sit down just a smidge off of the overload leaf - at 25% I was solidly on and starting to compress that overload so I bet bumping it up gave me a good 3/4 to maybe one inch.
What attracted me is a few different factors:
1. I don't like that airbags put pressure on the frame in a place where there was not designed to be pressure. I have friends who have cracked their frames using airbags, and I have read of many bent and cracked frames in forums like these. All anecdotes, sure - yet it happens.
2. I have known people who have had maintenance problems with their airbags. Either leaking, or brackets bending, or whatever you can think of.
3. Airbags are not really *suspension*. They don't do well at absorbing shocks and bumps.
Some people love airbags, more power to them!
This is just my opinion: Opinions are like butt-holes, everyone has one and it usually stinks!
What appealed to me about the roadmaster springs is that you still use your stock suspension setup, all the weight is still on the places that the manufacturer designed to hold weight. Your suspension still goes up and down, and absorbs shock and bumps. What these do is help reduce squat, and almost completely eliminate the bouncy-bouncy-bouncy that can happen when the rear is heavily loaded. That is my personal experience, now at the 50% range I have none of that continuous bouncing on the highway, feels like empty with regard to suspension (although the center of gravity change from the camper is still noticable). Sure, the Raodmaster marketing stuff lists all kind of maybe-true-maybe-not benefits, so I don't know what to tell you there. However, before choosing I did a *lot* of searching around, and there are TONS of happy roadmaster customers with all kinds of uses on all kinds of trucks. This isn't one of those products that you only ever find their own marketing material when you search - with this thing you find all kinds of people using them on everything from small trucks to heavy duties. (Of course, they *could* be astro-turfing - but I have spoken directly with the owner of Roadmaster and a couple of his head guys and none of them sound computer-saavy enough to even know what astro-turfing even is).
These Roadmaster springs just add progressive nature to the normal leaf springs, to get rid of bouncing and bottoming out.
These pictures are with the 50% range on the roadmasters. Not the best angles because my driveway is not perfectly level (sloping towards us) and I was backed up against the house and couldn't get more distance away from the truck.
However, I will probably get a little more squatting fully loaded with gear and people - although the camper is "wet" right now, and does have about 50% of out gear in there as is so it's a pretty good indicator.
This is all just my opinion and experience. Your mileage (or squattage?) may vary.
I am going to work on weight too - trying to keep my weight down or more forward (anyone know where I can get a composite truck wheel to replace the steel spare? That alone would save me 20 lbs behind the axle.)
Valkraider
New member
Air deflector
I added an air deflector. Maybe it will help a small bit both with highway fuel economy and bugs on the camper.
Anyone know of any options for the sides? It seems like some sort of plastic bubble shape thing could be mounted to the jack brackets and help smooth the air that hits the sides of the camper at the back of the cab. Something like these nose cones.
I added an air deflector. Maybe it will help a small bit both with highway fuel economy and bugs on the camper.
Anyone know of any options for the sides? It seems like some sort of plastic bubble shape thing could be mounted to the jack brackets and help smooth the air that hits the sides of the camper at the back of the cab. Something like these nose cones.
Thanks again for the great info, all good points. I actually just got off the phone with springmaster and I have a set coming. I'm not looking forward to telling momma about what I just did, better to beg for forgiveness...right. They were very friendly and helpful though. I will have a good report on how the are without a load, because I most likely will not purchase a camper for another 9-10 months. I see you got all of our little friends off the front of the camper, she looks good.