I got home yesterday and parked the trailer on the driveway for a couple days while we get it loaded. I'll make another post about my three day experience at New Horizons, it was fantastic.
The truck pulled the trailer nicely and does shift from 10th to 9th occasionally going up hills, but if you turn the cruise off and take a couple MPH loss, then it will hold 10th almost all the time. Some of the steep hills in the Flint Hills of Kansas had it shifting to 7th, which is direct. The trailer empty weight is 18,000 lbs. and the max gross is 23,500 lbs., for a useful load of 5,500 lbs. We'll never put 5,500 lbs. of stuff in it. On the trip home the total weight was about 28,000 lbs.
The combination of the Trailer Saver hitch and air bags, make the truck ride MUCH better than the 2018 single rear wheel Duramax pulling the 30' Airstream. The ride difference is astounding. Vertically decoupling the truck and trailer, with the Trailer Saver, virtually eliminates the truck and trailer jerking on each other going over bumps. I put 50 lbs. of air pressure in the air bags, which raises the truck about 1.5" and just raises the truck off the overload springs. This reduces the spring rate of the rear leaf springs and also make a big difference in ride quality.
I got 9.6 MPG over the 650 miles for a fuel cost of $0.29/mile at 65 MPH. The economy does go up at slower speeds, as this trailer pushes a lot of air.
The truck pulled the trailer nicely and does shift from 10th to 9th occasionally going up hills, but if you turn the cruise off and take a couple MPH loss, then it will hold 10th almost all the time. Some of the steep hills in the Flint Hills of Kansas had it shifting to 7th, which is direct. The trailer empty weight is 18,000 lbs. and the max gross is 23,500 lbs., for a useful load of 5,500 lbs. We'll never put 5,500 lbs. of stuff in it. On the trip home the total weight was about 28,000 lbs.
The combination of the Trailer Saver hitch and air bags, make the truck ride MUCH better than the 2018 single rear wheel Duramax pulling the 30' Airstream. The ride difference is astounding. Vertically decoupling the truck and trailer, with the Trailer Saver, virtually eliminates the truck and trailer jerking on each other going over bumps. I put 50 lbs. of air pressure in the air bags, which raises the truck about 1.5" and just raises the truck off the overload springs. This reduces the spring rate of the rear leaf springs and also make a big difference in ride quality.
I got 9.6 MPG over the 650 miles for a fuel cost of $0.29/mile at 65 MPH. The economy does go up at slower speeds, as this trailer pushes a lot of air.
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