PJ C5 car hauler for CUT

[George2615]

The truck is a different story. In Ford's attempt to make their trucks ride less firm, the rear leaf springs experience axle wrap straight from the factory. Sadly, the 157" wheel base truck I have has the odd-ball long top leaf springs and nobody has stiffer aftermarket alternatives. I had add-a-leafs on to fix the axle-wrap problem but one top leaf spring wore faster than the other side throwing the trust angle off and wearing out my rear tires super fast.

I'm now on a quest to get anybody to fab up a stronger top leaf without gouging me. I go over to Kramer Spring next week.

Life?

Axle wrap? What are you doing to cause the axles to wrap. I've only known that condition to happen while 1/4 mile drag racing. Any spring shop should be able to help you out.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Axle wrap? What are you doing to cause the axles to wrap. I've only known that condition to happen while 1/4 mile drag racing. Any spring shop should be able to help you out.

What am I doing? Nowadays setting the cruise control at 55 mph wityh an empty truck on an uphill can cause the leafs to start wrapping. My top leafs are worn out at 45,000 miles.

Ford used the same chassis, hanger bearing and driveline angles from their old, less powerful engines on their new 5.0 and twin turbo 3.5L. The problem is more pronounced on the 3.5L which makes upwards of 420 ft pounds of torque over a very broad power band. My truck is a 2011. Ford redesigned their 157" WB trucks in 2012, job 2 to use shorter springs, but those truck owners with the 3.5L still complain.

Traction bars stink on vehicles that have a wide loading range. Spring clamps just make the leafs bind and wear faster. I used the road master active suspension product which worked great until the springs failed.

 

[George2615]

Is your suspension one leaf spring on each side or multiple leaf.

 

[sd455dan]

The trailer has a 12,500 GVWR. Back out the 2601 pound trailer weight and the trailer can carry 9899 pounds. This explanation was given to me by PJ Tailer after looking up my trailer's serial number (I wanted a can of touch up paint to cover anything I weld on). At 1875 pounds, PJ Trailer assumes 15% tongue weight. At any-rate, the trailer's maximum 12,500 GVWR exceeds my F150's tow rating.

I notice for maximum GVWR, the trailer's GVWR stickers calls for SEA-J684 Class V-5, 14,000 pound hitch, ball and receiver.

That is an impressive trailer I am very impressed with the load carrying ability it has a only 101 lbs. less capacity than my 20 foot 5 th wheel trailer

 

[94BULLITT]

The trailer has a 12,500 GVWR. Back out the 2601 pound trailer weight and the trailer can carry 9899 pounds. This explanation was given to me by PJ Tailer after looking up my trailer's serial number (I wanted a can of touch up paint to cover anything I weld on). At 1875 pounds, PJ Trailer assumes 15% tongue weight. At any-rate, the trailer's maximum 12,500 GVWR exceeds my F150's tow rating.

I notice for maximum GVWR, the trailer's GVWR stickers calls for SEA-J684 Class V-5, 14,000 pound hitch, ball and receiver.

I think that decal is just the coupler specs.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I think that decal is just the coupler specs.

How I see it is like this:

10,400 pounds on the axles and 1875 pounds on the hitch, which adds up to 12,250 pounds. GVWR is 12,500 and the missing 250 pounds is likely because the axles own unsprung weight is not factored in by the factory because the axles each are rated at 5200 pounds of weight they hold up, not their own weight, which I surmise must be 125 pounds each.

Anyway, back out the weight of the trailer which is 2601 pounds and either the maximum payload is 9649 pounds or by the 12,500 pound rating PJ trailer states on the required GVWR sticker (and on the phone when I called) 9899 pounds.

Either way it doesn't matter since both numbers exceed my truck's tow rating.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

That is an impressive trailer I am very impressed with the load carrying ability it has a only 101 lbs. less capacity than my 20 foot 5 th wheel trailer

Yeah but with a deck over trailer, you can load what like 20% onto the fifth wheel, which is much closer to the axle of the tow vehicle and the load trailers and brakes better.

On the other hand Ford's ant-sway tech really does work well and when my truck's rear leaf springs aren't screwing up because they're wearing out, it tows the 6100 pounds of Kubota 61-2 excavator plus its trailer around very well and my 5x10, 2800ish pound dump trailer almost as though it isn't there.

Here is photo of my rear leaf and the road active suspension. The photo doesn't make clear that the entire stack is supported by only one leaf.

 

[ultrarunner]

Never heard of wearing out a spring and it's something I've never thought of.

When I restored antique cars I will often take the spring apart and to clean and lube.

My work trucks are Chevrolets... 85 and 91 vintage and no spring or suspension issue so far.

We did have a 69 Ford with split I beam front axle and replaced the king pin bushings because of shimmy

 

[George2615]

Here is photo of my rear leaf and the road active suspension. The photo doesn't make clear that the entire stack is supported by only one leaf.

View attachment 372571

Your statement is confusing. All leaf spring suspensions are held in place by the top spring. That's the main leaf that connects it to the vehicles frame. Some cars may only have a single leaf spring supporting the axle. Trucks have multiple leaf spring packs. On many of the vehicles I've owned I've had a local spring shop add a leaf directly under the top spring for extra carrying capacity and for less rear end squat when trailer tongue weight is increased. The add a leaf I had installed is just about as long as the main leaf just shy of the main spring mounting eyes.

 

[Gary Fowler]

How I see it is like this:

10,400 pounds on the axles and 1875 pounds on the hitch, which adds up to 12,250 pounds. GVWR is 12,500 and the missing 250 pounds is likely because the axles own unsprung weight is not factored in by the factory because the axles each are rated at 5200 pounds of weight they hold up, not their own weight, which I surmise must be 125 pounds each.

Anyway, back out the weight of the trailer which is 2601 pounds and either the maximum payload is 9649 pounds or by the 12,500 pound rating PJ trailer states on the required GVWR sticker (and on the phone when I called) 9899 pounds.

Either way it doesn't matter since both numbers exceed my truck's tow rating.

I don't know about your trucks but if I tried to put 1875 # on my truck hitch, I would be first way overloading my hitch and I think the bumper would likely be dragging on the ground but I only have a 1500 series truck so about 500-600#(estimated) on the factory hitch is all I like to put which makes for a good pull when putting my LS P7010 tractor with FEL on it. That is real close to maxing out the trailer capacity the way I figure my weights. I have dual 6K axles with dual brakes on a similar trailer to yours (20ft ) IIRC the trailer is 2300 which puts me at about 10K load minus my hitch weight. That is about all my truck is rated for although I did haul 10 round bales on it once and really overloaded the tongue weight I think just based on how low the bumper was to the ground. It didn't tear off the hitch but I was really concerned with it