FORE AND AFT SURGING WHEN PULLING MONTE.

[sreigle]

Just as point of reference, all Montanas come with shocks as standard. I'm wondering now when mine need to be replaced.

Our old Wilderness fifth did not have shocks but i had them added because I was towing a boat behind the FW and needed the shocks on the FW. So they are available. I got them through a dealer.

[Dave e Victoria]

For those depending on the Trail Air, Mor ryde or similar hitch pin devices, remember, these are simple second order damping devices. They cannot be expected to completely clear a fore aft chucking problem. They can be expected to reduce the effect about in half under most conditions. If, however, you are able to excite the natural frequencies of one or more components in your system with bad road conditions you will get an uncomfortable ride. As i recall, the natural frequency of the human body is on the order of one to ten cycles per second. If you hit a frequency anywhere near this it is about as enjoyable as a carnival ride.

Changing speed (usually by slowing down) is the most direct way to change this condition if you are under way. This has two effects. 1) it directly changes the exciting frequency caused by road condidtions. 2) i changes the time between inputs to the truck and trailer thereby reducing the chance that the systems are getting sympathetic inputs to each other.

Off the road, the easiest change is to change the route. Other wise, add one of the pin box systems of your choice, change weight and balance of the trailer and look for worn shocks as has been suggested.

All of these things will have indiividual effects on the overall performance of your suspension system.

[Montana Sky]

Dave,
When is your new dually set to arrive? I am really curious how it will do towing your Cambridge.

[dsprik]

I understand and agree with everything you said, Dave... scared the wife, though. She already thinks I have two opposing brains, that argue with each other all the time. I'm not making that up.

I might want to add that sometimes the harmonics of the road changes, as the road surface changes (frequent occurrance here in MI), which would imply that the optimum speed you were traveling, may no longer produce a favorable frequency, which would dictate a change in speed, as Dave mentioned above. We have been on some new pavement recently that actually produced a "singing" tone under our tires.

Of course, it goes without saying that in order to reduce all the unfavorable frequencies, a velocity (which is speed PLUS direction) must equal zero. Unless you are in an earthquake prone area or your wife is chasing the cat around in the 5ver.

Around the dinner table several years ago one of my five kids asked about salt. After about 30 minutes, my wife turned to the children and calmly said, "Now kids, I don't ever want you to ask your father anything like that again." WHAT??? You know... that information on the sodium and chlorine atoms (I added some of the other metals that form poisonous salts like potassium, calcium and magnesium for contrasting/comparing salts) could come in handy some day... I stayed away from ionic bonding and crystalline structures, and naturally occcuring geologic strata in our home state of MI. I could have also gotten into the different colorations that occur in the different salts. And the reasons for the different light absorptions/refractions/reflections of these different molecular arrangements. I stayed away from all that... didn't want to overload them...

Someday one of my kids will be sitting in a resturaunt somewhere in this country and someone will ask them, "What is the color of NATURALLY occurring Potassium Chloride (KCl)?" My wife will really be sorry (and probably apologize profusely to me), when they are totally embarrassed because they don't know the answer is ORANGE!!!

[Dave e Victoria]

Montana Sky. New truck was built last week. Dealer forecastin sometime in next couple of weeks. Then, I'm going to try to squeeze in something before Christmas. May just take the Cambridge out for a dry run. I have to get the bed sprayed and a hitch installed. Like all activities in retirement, everything seems to take a long time.

Dave, Appreciate the humor. I cut and pasted that one for secret use in the future. On the other subject, the one about suspension frequencies, we used to pull a small tent trailer into Mexico behind our '72 Suburban. The last 14 miles before the beach was a soft sand based washboard. When the tide was out and the road dried it became a very difficult ride. The choice was 5 or 6 mph or more than fifty. Anything in between was pure teeth chattering hell. Above 50 mph the whole thing seemed to get into a float and seemed to miss about three out of every four bumps. The body of the old suburban just dropped into a low frequency lunge over the sand. I'd never recommend that with a big old Montana or Cambridge but it was fun if a bit dangerous (we gringos tend to check their brains at the border) with that little tent trailer.
Dave

[dsprik]

Dave, I got a chuckle from your Mexican Beach story. For some reason I got a real good visual of that.

I also have a few of your past posts on different subjects in my main folder for future reference. I am an info nut and I really like your explanations. Thanks!

Dave

[dsprik]

Congrats on the new truck, too, Dave. I believe it was a 3500 D/A... but couldn't remember if you were going with a DRW or SRW. Also, I know you looked at a 4500, but I think something made you back away from that???

(It's easier for me to guess than to do a search and try to find things.) That's why I always ask, "Honey, have you seen what I did with ******?" Cheryl~ "Did you LOOK???" Me~"No... I thought maybe you might know so I wouldn't waste a lot of time looking for it." (I really am proud of this rationalization... really sounds good, I think.) This is when she comes over and picks up my keys/watch/wallet/etc, that I was asking about, off of the table next to me, then hands them to me (I swear they weren't there a minute ago)... I have found that even as witty as I am, it's really hard to come up with a clever remark at that point. And then I get one of those "I've got other things to do beside start looking for a NURSING HOME already for you!" stares.

*On Edit~ I'm sorry... none of you guys can probably relate to that. What was I thinking???

*On 2nd Edit~ Sorry, Dave, just read Dave's (MontanaSky) post on your Dualie, so you can scratch the DRW/SRW question... Thanks. (Still didn't search... just accidentally read it.)

[Dave e Victoria]

Dave,
if you wear glasses , you can always use the line that you can't find them because you don't see well when you don't have your glasses on. As we get older it is necessary to have as many of these in the quiver as possible....
Dave

[dsprik]

It's getting harder, though... wife is getting wise to this ploy... forces me to be more creative... doesn't that help ward off Alzheimer's???