16,800 (~3450 pin + 13340 trailer axles) for a 38 foot DRV seems light. Is that loaded or empty trailer? Or am I miscalculating something? If empty and you add 3000 lbs of gear, etc your pin will rise by about 700 lbs ("guess"timate) but you'll be okay (8500 rear axle vs 9100 rear GAWR) if I am figuring it correctly. (I love math puzzles)

-- Edited by BiggarView on Wednesday 27th of January 2016 03:29:03 PM

BiggarView wrote:

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16,800 (~3450 pin + 13340 trailer axles) for a 38 foot DRV seems light. Is that loaded or empty trailer? Or am I miscalculating something? If empty and you add 3000 lbs of gear, etc your pin will rise by about 700 lbs ("guess"timate) but you'll be okay (8500 rear axle vs 9100 rear GAWR) if I am figuring it correctly. (I love math puzzles)

-- Edited by BiggarView on Wednesday 27th of January 2016 03:29:03 PM

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The trailer is for the most part empty.  We are about 10 lbs. different in numbers so it appears that you are pretty good with math puzzles.

 

Andy

2015 RAM 3500 Crew Cummins Aisin 4:10's 4X4*******2016 39TKSB3 MobileSuites Lots of options

Steer Axle 5,380

Drive Axle 3,634

Total 9,014 Wife myself 7/8 tank fuel no hitch or toolbox

Combined loaded weights

Steer Axle 5,460

Drive Axle 9,580

TLR Axle 17,500

Total 32,540

It's real easy to "load it up" if you are full timing! Add the gen prep and generator add fresh water or waste water tools camp related items and such. I went from factory 18,075# to around 23K without breaking a sweat!

Most full timers don't have a clue how much heavier their RV gets over time.

Our Mobile Suites has a sticker on the pin box that lists the cargo carrying capacity after the unit was built, and that weight is something like 2,850lbs.  We also added a washer and dryer after it arrived to our dealer.  So, when Jo went to loading stuff in the RV for our plans on leaving the home and living in the RV, she was absolutely positive that she had us overweight.  To calm her fears, when I took the trailer to our future home site in Oklahoma City, I drove by a feed store nearby and weight the whole rig.

I was afraid to tell her that she still had 760 lbs of leeway.  We've probably used that up by now.

On the other hand, here at Mountaindale, a couple had purchased a new fifth wheel and had it delivered to here.  They are staying long term and don't even own a tow vehicle.  When they went to moving in, they had LOTS of plastic tubs with stuff in them that they wanted to keep.  It took them a while, but they finally determined just what it was that they NEEDED to have so that they could get rid of what wasn't really needed.  I do know that they gave away a lot of stuff.

Terry

Cummins12V98 wrote:

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I REALLY wish I would have thought to weigh my RV when new. 18,075# only ADD would be 6500 LP Gen. Now 23K, no idea how that 18K number could have been completed weight at the factory.

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Yea, when we took delivery of the trailer, before they even put the sticker on the side, we took the rig and weighted it - twice - to be confident of the base weight. By "we" I mean a factory rep, Linda and myself.

While most can't do this at the factory it pretty easy to take a new trailer to a CAT scale and get an unloaded weight.  That won't give you wheel-by-wheel, but its better than guessing at the total base.  If at all possible, IMO, make it part of the purchase agreement before you hand them the check.  Can't hurt to try.

Our 2012 F450 is 4750 front/4700 rear with 1 pax, no aux tank, and Trailersaver hitch installed…but after adding the aux tank we're overloaded on rear and have clearance issues with the bottom of our New Horizons Majestic…so we have a RAM 5500/hauler bed combo on order from Classy Chassis.

 

Glenn West wrote:

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Neil and Connie wrote:

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Our 2012 F450 is 4750 front/4700 rear with 1 pax, no aux tank, and Trailersaver hitch installed…but after adding the aux tank we're overloaded on rear and have clearance issues with the bottom of our New Horizons Majestic…so we have a RAM 5500/hauler bed combo on order from Classy Chassis.

 

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 Hope you order it with air ride suspension.

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 I have it on reasonably good authority he did. :)

MarkS ... Thanks for the tip on splitting the axles and placing one set of wheels off the scales on a reweigh. I now have my individual wheel weights for twenty bucks!!

-- Edited by RonC on Saturday 13th of August 2016 11:06:59 PM

VERY TRUE!!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^

These are the results of the split axle weighing exercise. Steer Axle 5,260, Drive Axle 7,120, Trailer Axle (that's what the weigh ticket says, even though it's for both trailer axles together) 11,980. The split weights were Front 5,920 and Rear 6,060. When I weighed them split, with the left side off the scale the it was Right Front 3,020 Right Rear 2,820 .... the math then makes the Left Front 2,900 and Left Rear 3,240.

What I learned is that my rig's weight is pretty evenly distributed BUT I'm overweight (or "under" trucked) ... 120 lbs over the drive axle's 7,000 rating, 880 lbs over on the truck's GVWR and 860 lbs over on CGVW. While the truck pulls, handles and stops just fine. I am now convinced that I need more truck. I will be picking up a new 2016 F350 DRW truck later this week. My 5th wheel weighs 15,180 (3,200 lbs pin weight) against a 15,000 GVWR, so not too bad. I could dump some water and be good there. I have new Goodyear G614's on 7,000 lbs Dexter Axles, so good reserve on each corner (3,750 lbs per tire) with my heaviest corner weighing 3,240. While I could get by with my current SRW truck, I am not going to be overweight and over gross (now that I know) and place anyone at risk just to save a few bucks. As a bonus I'll get an improved transmission, bigger turbo, much better exhaust brake and peace of mind.

This forum has taught me lot and I'm very grateful.

Bill and Linda wrote:

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Good for you, Ron, if you can make it work.  Let's all just understand the technique and limitations as to accuracy that can be induced under the wrong conditions.  I've just seen single wheel weighting done incorrectly and it doesn't take much to cause large errors.  As I said YMMV. 

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I know that supposedly having the rig not level changes the weights…I've read that in multiple places and I'm not gonna say it's wrong but I can say that from an engineering and weight distribution standpoint…any errors caused by using the 'left wheels off the scale' method have got to pretty small. Let's do a little adult beverage bar napkin calculating (I had to change this from the original word since Activeboard asterisked a potential 4 letter word out) and see what they might be. **WARNING. Engineering geekspeak below. The TL*DR (Too Long-Didn't Read) conclusion is that tilting the rig most likely doesn't matter for reasonable degrees of tilt.

The weight on each wheel depends on trailer construction, basement loading, and water tank loading…but all of those remain pretty constant even if you tilt the rig a couple of degrees (and I think it would only be a couple of degrees maximum using this method). The only appreciable change in the loading on a particular wheel would be due to the water sloshing a bit to the low side of the tank…but just how much is that. Using our NH tank locations and capacities for example…if you had half full tanks and tilted the rig 2 degrees one way or the other what would happen? Half gray and black is 34 gallons or 282 pounds each and half fresh is 50 or 330 pounds. What you're really talking about is how much the center of gravity shifted in the tank and what that does to the weight. Looking at the tank dimensions…for a 2 degree tilt you're not going to move the center of gravity more than an inch or so; let's be generous and call it 2 inches…although my guess having not bothered to do the detailed calculation is that even an inch is overly generous. (Actually it wasn't a matter of not bothering as much as one has to do a whole Moment of Inertia calculation to figure out how much it moved and while my spreadsheet can certainly do the arithmetic for me I can't recall all the formulas I would need off the top of  my head and at least for this level of guess it's overkill and I was too lazy to google the formulas anyway.) The moment arm (CG to trailer centerline) for the level tank is about 35 inches or so and the moment arm for the wheel is about 48. With a black or gray tank of 282 pounds that's 9870 inch pounds which gets divided by the 48 inch moment arm to the wheel or about 205 pounds at the wheel (the rest of the weight gets transferred to/from the other side wheel. Moving the moment arm 2 inches bigger results in 10434 inch pounds which using the wheel moment arm is 217 pounds at the wheel…so tilting by 2 degrees changes the wheel weight by 55 pounds or so. Gray and fresh water tanks would be similar numbers…and that's assuming you actually traveled with half full on all 3 tanks.

Even with all 3 full then tilting 2 degrees would only change total wheel weight by 150 pounds or so…which admittedly is more than I thought it would be (I did these calculations on the fly as I wrote this and didn't figure it out ahead of time)…but I'm not sure it's really significant in relation to the total weight on the left/right sides…and the 150 pound difference would actually get spread across all the wheels on one side or the other. When I did the moment calculation for our rig the fresh weight was split about 15/35/50 front to rear and the gray/black weight split about 60/22/18 front to rear.

So my conclusion (again, only from an engineering standpoint, I didn't actually try the left wheels off the scale method) is that for reasonable angles of tilt it just doesn't matter enough to be worthwhile. I don't remember what gradations H&L had on their scales when they did our wheel by wheel weighing…but looking at my records all the individual weights are a multiple of 25…so I'm guessing that their scale was calibrated in 25 pound increments…so even a wheel by wheel is only +/= 25 pounds and given the wheel weights we're talking about (2100 to 3100 in our case)…I remain unconvinced that even the 150 pound difference I guesstimated above isn't significant in most cases…and I was generous in my estimations so as to over rather than underestimate.

One does…of course…have to correctly determine the weight on each wheel/axle at the CAT scale and not goof up either that arithmetic or the arithmetic to figure out the pin weight…but that's pretty easy not go goof up. There are numerous spreadsheets for that on the web I found out after I made my own up and I even have one of Bill's and all of them give pretty much the same answers. The biggest problem would be finding a scale that one could actually get the left (or right) wheels off the scale with…all the ones I've seen at Pilots and such had column that would have prevented getting far enough over. So when I redid our numbers after picking up our 5500 in May…both for getting the new truck and having added some 'stuff' since H&L weighed us in 2013…I just assumed (since we had empty Bl/Gr and 20 or so gallons of fresh in the first case and almost empty Bl/Gr and 30 or so gallons of fresh the second time) that all the wheels maintained the same percentage of the total trailer axle weight. In actuality the front wheels would have picked up a little more than their previous share since the added weight is mostly in the basement…but all our numbers are still well within spec even after I arbitrarily increased the percentage on the front axle by a bit to SWAG our new wheel weights…our total axles are 1400 pounds more than in 2012…and we're still 800 or so pounds within spec on our heaviest axle with 200 of that on the heavy side.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Monday 15th of August 2016 01:51:24 PM

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Monday 15th of August 2016 02:04:49 PM

Neil and Connie wrote:

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Bill and Linda wrote:

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Good for you, Ron, if you can make it work.  Let's all just understand the technique and limitations as to accuracy that can be induced under the wrong conditions.  I've just seen single wheel weighting done incorrectly and it doesn't take much to cause large errors.  As I said YMMV. 

---

I know that supposedly having the rig not level changes the weights…I've read that in multiple places and I'm not gonna say it's wrong but I can say that from an engineering and weight distribution standpoint…any errors caused by using the 'left wheels off the scale' method have got to pretty small. Let's do a little adult beverage bar napkin calculating (I had to change this from the original word since Activeboard asterisked a potential 4 letter word out) and see what they might be. **WARNING. Engineering geekspeak below. The TL*DR (Too Long-Didn't Read) conclusion is that tilting the rig most likely doesn't matter for reasonable degrees of tilt.

The weight on each wheel depends on trailer construction, basement loading, and water tank loading…but all of those remain pretty constant even if you tilt the rig a couple of degrees (and I think it would only be a couple of degrees maximum using this method). The only appreciable change in the loading on a particular wheel would be due to the water sloshing a bit to the low side of the tank…but just how much is that. Using our NH tank locations and capacities for example…if you had half full tanks and tilted the rig 2 degrees one way or the other what would happen? Half gray and black is 34 gallons or 282 pounds each and half fresh is 50 or 330 pounds. What you're really talking about is how much the center of gravity shifted in the tank and what that does to the weight. Looking at the tank dimensions…for a 2 degree tilt you're not going to move the center of gravity more than an inch or so; let's be generous and call it 2 inches…although my guess having not bothered to do the detailed calculation is that even an inch is overly generous. (Actually it wasn't a matter of not bothering as much as one has to do a whole Moment of Inertia calculation to figure out how much it moved and while my spreadsheet can certainly do the arithmetic for me I can't recall all the formulas I would need off the top of  my head and at least for this level of guess it's overkill and I was too lazy to google the formulas anyway.) The moment arm (CG to trailer centerline) for the level tank is about 35 inches or so and the moment arm for the wheel is about 48. With a black or gray tank of 282 pounds that's 9870 inch pounds which gets divided by the 48 inch moment arm to the wheel or about 205 pounds at the wheel (the rest of the weight gets transferred to/from the other side wheel. Moving the moment arm 2 inches bigger results in 10434 inch pounds which using the wheel moment arm is 217 pounds at the wheel…so tilting by 2 degrees changes the wheel weight by 55 pounds or so. Gray and fresh water tanks would be similar numbers…and that's assuming you actually traveled with half full on all 3 tanks.

Even with all 3 full then tilting 2 degrees would only change total wheel weight by 150 pounds or so…which admittedly is more than I thought it would be (I did these calculations on the fly as I wrote this and didn't figure it out ahead of time)…but I'm not sure it's really significant in relation to the total weight on the left/right sides…and the 150 pound difference would actually get spread across all the wheels on one side or the other. When I did the moment calculation for our rig the fresh weight was split about 15/35/50 front to rear and the gray/black weight split about 60/22/18 front to rear.

So my conclusion (again, only from an engineering standpoint, I didn't actually try the left wheels off the scale method) is that for reasonable angles of tilt it just doesn't matter enough to be worthwhile. I don't remember what gradations H&L had on their scales when they did our wheel by wheel weighing…but looking at my records all the individual weights are a multiple of 25…so I'm guessing that their scale was calibrated in 25 pound increments…so even a wheel by wheel is only +/= 25 pounds and given the wheel weights we're talking about (2100 to 3100 in our case)…I remain unconvinced that even the 150 pound difference I guesstimated above isn't significant in most cases…and I was generous in my estimations so as to over rather than underestimate.

One does…of course…have to correctly determine the weight on each wheel/axle at the CAT scale and not goof up either that arithmetic or the arithmetic to figure out the pin weight…but that's pretty easy not go goof up. There are numerous spreadsheets for that on the web I found out after I made my own up and I even have one of Bill's and all of them give pretty much the same answers. The biggest problem would be finding a scale that one could actually get the left (or right) wheels off the scale with…all the ones I've seen at Pilots and such had column that would have prevented getting far enough over. So when I redid our numbers after picking up our 5500 in May…both for getting the new truck and having added some 'stuff' since H&L weighed us in 2013…I just assumed (since we had empty Bl/Gr and 20 or so gallons of fresh in the first case and almost empty Bl/Gr and 30 or so gallons of fresh the second time) that all the wheels maintained the same percentage of the total trailer axle weight. In actuality the front wheels would have picked up a little more than their previous share since the added weight is mostly in the basement…but all our numbers are still well within spec even after I arbitrarily increased the percentage on the front axle by a bit to SWAG our new wheel weights…our total axles are 1400 pounds more than in 2012…and we're still 800 or so pounds within spec on our heaviest axle with 200 of that on the heavy side.

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Monday 15th of August 2016 01:51:24 PM

-- Edited by Neil and Connie on Monday 15th of August 2016 02:04:49 PM

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Neil, I actually agree with your ME analysis as far as "level trailer" is concerned.  The error comes if one of the wheel on, lets say the passenger side front on a dual wheel trailer, is higher than the rear wheel on the same side.  If that is the case the front one will be taking more load.  That's why when leveling ramps are used one should always put them under both wheels on the same side so as not to overload one wheel.  That's kind of the short version.  I've seen this demonstrated as to how much error can be induced more than once with individual wheel scales showing exactly the problem I've tried to describe.  But to each their own methods. Most times it won't matter much - except when it does.    

We generally travel with 25-30 gallons of fresh and empty black/gray…no real reason to carry all that weight along. 

Cummins12V98 wrote:

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I think DRV did something wrong one tire seems too high.

i.imgur.com/PfcSnxBl.jpg">
i.imgur.com/cQn8pN8l.jpg">

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Assuming I am reading the sheet correctly, referring to this sheet:  http://i.imgur.com/PfcSnxBl.jpg  - sure looks like the front axle is 500lb over on the "Off Door" side and 510lb over on the Door Side.  4,000lbs per side is the top  weight rating according to the #8000 check box on the sheet.  4,000lbs per side.  Likewise the Off Door rear axle is 380lbs over.  So that's three wheels (not tires - axles) over - again if I am interpreting correctly.  Is this a dry weight - at delivery before loading with any personal items?

Is it possible you have 9K axles?  The sheet says 8K.  9K would naturally give you 4,500 per wheel.  I know DRV was moving to 9K on many of their rigs because they were overloading he 8K's - especially with the Elite but the MS as well.  Not nocking the product, just a weight scale fact.  ("H" tires are fine as you know, its the axles in question.)

The rear axle of the truck, according the other CAT scale sheet, is over its rating by 130lbs.  RAWR of 9,750 vs. 9,880 on the CAT sheet.

The pin weight did just sneak under the recommend max percentage at 24.6%.  But that is under 25%.

Don't understand the checks on box on the Pinbox list of 21,000 AND 23,000.  Hope its 23,000 or more by the 22,950 listed in the total unit weight at the bottom.

Not criticizing anything.  Just reading numbers vs. ratings.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

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Bill and Linda wrote:

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Cummins12V98 wrote:

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I think DRV did something wrong one tire seems too high.

i.imgur.com/PfcSnxBl.jpg">
i.imgur.com/cQn8pN8l.jpg">

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Assuming I am reading the sheet correctly, referring to this sheet:  http://i.imgur.com/PfcSnxBl.jpg  - sure looks like the front axle is 500lb over on the "Off Door" side and 510lb over on the Door Side.  4,000lbs per side is the top  weight rating according to the #8000 check box on the sheet.  4,000lbs per side.  Likewise the Off Door rear axle is 380lbs over.  So that's three wheels (not tires - axles) over - again if I am interpreting correctly.  Is this a dry weight - at delivery before loading with any personal items?

Is it possible you have 9K axles?  The sheet says 8K.  9K would naturally give you 4,500 per wheel.  I know DRV was moving to 9K on many of their rigs because they were overloading he 8K's - especially with the Elite but the MS as well.  Not nocking the product, just a weight scale fact.  ("H" tires are fine as you know, its the axles in question.)

The rear axle of the truck, according the other CAT scale sheet, is over its rating by 130lbs.  RAWR of 9,750 vs. 9,880 on the CAT sheet.

The pin weight did just sneak under the recommend max percentage at 24.6%.  But that is under 25%.

Don't understand the checks on box on the Pinbox list of 21,000 AND 23,000.  Hope its 23,000 or more by the 22,950 listed in the total unit weight at the bottom.

Not criticizing anything.  Just reading numbers vs. ratings.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MORryde gave me a clean bill of health even at my weights.  They confirmed the spring offset was well within their ratings and the springs looked great.  We did discuss going 9K but the FACT is the structure is exactly the same on the 8 and 9K also the brake pads are the same.  The springs are the same other then the 9K are a 36 I believe and the 8 is a 30.  Basically the same exact spring just stiffer that I could go with but there is no need since mine are well within spec.  The rotor, spindle and bearings are beefier as is the caliper but again the pads are exactly the same.  Surface area stops the RV.

The weight that seemed off was the door side weight difference of 575# I believe.  Door was not too far off.

I changed the TrailAir kingpin bolts to 3/4" frame bolts so I am comfortable with that also.  I know the rear truck is over 130#, don't think it's going to fail.  I had a Southbend clutch, pressure plate and flywheel in my tool box that I am sure weighs that much.  I am clearing out some "STUFF" in my basement now that we are at our home base for the Summer.  So my truck is within all axle and tow ratings.  RV is over but the 8K IS system is no doubt stronger than 8K.

     

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I've seen the 9K axles in person. Some components as you indicated are larger on the 9K.  The Kodiak hubs I saw on the 9K were indeed stamped "9K."   I don't take issue with anything MOR/ryde or you said.  Just responding to ratings.  The MOR/ryde IS suspension is extremely beefy.  But I have seen a DRV MS with an IS cross member (connecting boxed steel) bent up  - bowed - from overload.  But that MS had +10K on one axle.  Owner was, more or less, oblivious to the weight situation.  'Just wasn't sure about why the rig's tires looked "funny."  A new owner and first RV as I recall.

Nonetheless, what DRV can "sell" and put a legal weight sticker on must be based on the published ratings of the components and as you know that maximum rating is based on the lowest rated component.  So that's why DRV started using 9K axles on some of its rigs as they had, on the sticker, marginal cargo carrying capacities and owners were indeed overloading those rated capacities "day one."

I agree the truck's rear axle won't break over 130lbs.  But its the rear axle on most trucks, especially those with high GCVWR ratings (i.e. how big a trailer can it tow), that is the limiting factor for the truck as a tow vehicle for  5th wheel.  That rear axle rating is the one none of the manufactures like to talk about in their advertisements and is usually harder to find unless one goes hunting for the full set of numbers.

Just conversation - nothing more.  Interesting information all around.

Bill to do it over again I would do the 9K axles but since I was within their spec I felt it was a waste of my money and they felt the same.

Big gripe I have is the brake pads are the EXACT same on the 8 and 9K. I had 9,580# on the rear axle before I had MORryde add the 3" risers, I now sit level.

One quick additional comment on the split axle weight discussion. On the CAT scale I used, the scale pads and surrounding "non-weighing" framework, appear to be completely level with each other. If there is any difference, it's gotta be less than a 1/16 of an inch ... I would consider it to be on the same level as the scale pads. So the "tilting" discussion is a non issue, IMO.

Cummins12V98 ... I'm not as heavy as you are. My 5th wheel weighs 15,180 total (3,200 of that is carried by the truck as pin weight). I have thousands of pounds of reserve in truck GVW, rear axle GVW and CGVR. All in, I weigh a bit less than 25,000 lbs. and my truck is rated at 32,100 CGVW. However, the DRW truck is 2" lower than the SRW truck it replaced. Depending on truck sag when I hook up, I may have to make some adjustments. My hitch (Hensley BD3) can be adjusted up to 6" to level up the trailer. I already had about 6" of bed rail to trailer clearance, so if adjustment is needed, it will only increase my bed rail to trailer clearance. I need to hook up the rig and do a little measureing to determine what is needed, if anything, to ensure a level ride for my trailer.

Cummins12V98 wrote:

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RonC l have seen many Fords riding rear low. I am guessing it's because they already ride near level without a load. Many will add bags to level the truck back out again. Let us know what you end up doing. Looks like the 17's will not be the same and will have a higher rear to begin with.

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That's correct about the 2017 F-450.  After 9 years of an anemic rear axle rating vs. towing rating, actually less than the Chevy 3500HD, the F-450 pickup is being raised to 9,900lbs. This is due to, among other things, Ford going to a boxed frame, like others have had since 2011, as opposed to a channel frame.  This is a very good thing for real world 5th wheel towing.  The RAWR was the biggest limitation for the F-450; not so much the F-350 which is still, for 2017, higher than the F-450.  The F-350 is now 10,350 for the RAWR.  (Go figure.)  But with a 9,900lb rear axle rating the F-450 will now, in some circumstances, be able to carry on the rear axle a truly heavy trailer's high pin weight and not be overloaded by specifications.  One must still "do the math."  YMMV

Regardless, IMO, if I were looking at a new truck and I had a larger trailer in mind - I'd wait as long as I could to purchase the 2017 if I wanted the Ford product.  By waiting as long as I could I mean, personally, I don't care to purchase version 1.0 of anything (Ford, GM, Chevy, RAM - doesn't matter) and the 2017 F-450 / F-350, etc. are version 1.0 for a lot of structural items except the engine and transmission which are basically unchanged except for (we hope) an exhaust brake that is effective.  Indications are much more positive in that regard concerning the exhaust brake.

BTW, the rear axle rating of the F-450 "pickup" is still well below the commercial F-450's offering.  Better but still way below the commercial F-450 like Howard and Linda have from 2005.

This is not a knock of the Ford products or pushing other products.  Just stating facts based on published specifications - not limited marketing material.

BTW, Cummins12V98 was right, I'm a little low in the front of the trailer (1") due to truck sag.  To fix the trailer low and truck sag ... it looks like air bags to me.

-- Edited by RonC on Saturday 20th of August 2016 08:32:26 PM

-- Edited by RonC on Sunday 21st of August 2016 09:20:57 AM

-- Edited by RonC on Sunday 21st of August 2016 09:51:49 AM

-- Edited by RonC on Friday 16th of September 2016 08:37:18 PM

Yeah ... I agree w you on this. I have an appointment to have a set of airbags installed on Monday. When the rear axle remains level and there some unusual angle introduced into the drive line by the truck squatting it is possible to induce some shimmy at certain rpm's ... mostly on start up as a truck tries to get a heavy load rolling. Best to keep everything level for both the truck driveline health and the tires of the trailer to equally share the load.

I would advise in cab with each side being able to be controlled.

Nothing like first hand experience. Thanks for the suggestions. Airbags installed with remote in cab controls on Monday!!