Shocks

[mrtgraz1]

Has anyone ever installed shock absorbers on there 5th wheelers, and if u have, what do you think. My one body put them on his 30 foot tow behind and he love's them. What do you guys think??

[HamRad]

Don't know what year and model you have but our 3295RK, 2002 came with shocks installed. I thought all the Monty line had shocks. Good luck, Dennis

[MIMF]

mrtgraz1, my Challenger actually has all of the brackets to install shocks. However, the shocks were never there. Shortly after I bought this unit, I had TrailAir Equa-flex equalizers installed. Since then, I have learned by working for the competition that, as long as the standard steel "T" bar equalizer is replaced with the TrailAir or Dexter E-Z Flex is installed, shocks are not needed.

My experience is that, shocks get in the way when making a sharp turn and end up rubbing the inside of the sidewall of the tire causing premature blow-out. Also, with some of the China bombs most manfacturers are installing, I have seen more than my share of cases where a buldge developes on the inside sidewall of the tire and as the unit moves down the road and the tire rotates, the buldge hits the shock and in a very short time frame, you have a catasrophic blow-out that is going to cause several thousand dollars worth of repair.

I can recall there was one occasion where I went to the parts department and was playing with a brand new shock. These shocks were manufactured by Monroe. I soon discovered that you could push and pull the plunger in and out with your pinky fingers. What is that all about?

So, IMHO.....don't install shocks. You will get a much better ride with TrailAir or Dexter E-Z Flex or, Moryde than you will from shocks. And........they will do basically the same thing.

As a side note everyone, if you see "cupping" on your tires, that is a balancing issue....not an issue shocks will correct.

[8e3k0]

When our unit was new in the spring of 2009 we installed an extra leaf on all 4 spring leaf packs, wet bolts and a complete shock kit. This has dampened the bounce that is very common even with the Mor-Ryde suspension. As of last summer we installed the 3 cross members (X-Factor) for extra spring/shackle stability. We have about 25,000 miles on the Monty with LT tires (installed when unit was new) and there is no indication of any uneven wear.
Pretty well all of the upper end 5th wheels have shock kits.