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Old 03-19-2012, 01:30 PM   #1
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I recently upgraded my TV to a 2007 Yukon Denali. According to the manual the Denali comes with a load-leveling suspension. The owner's manual states:

<table ="normal" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="98%" style=": rgb255, 255, 255; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; text-align: left; "><t><tr><td valign="top" width="100%" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif'; font-size: 13px; "><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="98%"><t><tr><td align="left" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif'; font-size: 13px; "><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><t><tr ="#cccccc"><td valign="top" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif'; font-size: 13px; "><table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="9" width="100%" ="forum"><t><tr ="#eeeeee"><td valign="top" width="78%" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif'; font-size: 13px; ">If a self-equalizing hitch is being used, it is
recommended to allow the shocks to inflate,
thereby leveling the vehicle prior to adjusting
the hitch.</span></td></tr></t></table></td></tr></t></table></td></tr></t></table></td></tr></t></table></span>




This seems completely backwards to me. Common sense tells me I should adjust the WD hitch with the load-leveling suspension off (that is to say with the vehicle turned off) BEFORE turning the vehicle on. It would seem to me that if I do it exactly the way the manual states that there would be little to no point in using my WD bars.

Fortunately the weight of my TT (4200 lbs dry weight) is WELL under the maximum trailer weight of the Denali so it may not matter much one way or the other. I would, however, still like to ensure I have everything adjusted correctly and the load appropriately balanced.

This topic was covered on rv.net (http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...d/24298204.cfm) but was never really answered to my satisfaction. Can anyone provide any thoughts or evidence either supporting or contradicting my thoughts on this? Thanks in advance!

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Old 03-20-2012, 12:06 AM   #2
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It is true to do it the way the manual says to do it.

I have a Lincoln Navigator, and when I set up my hitch, I had to have the suspension aired up. Then I took the measuremnts from the trailer tongue and put the hitch at the same measurement, thus adjusting the hitch to the same heighth as the trailer tongue measurement. The reason fo this is, the truck is going to go to level no matter how much weight you put on the back of it. It will air up them shocks to level and that is it. Make sure to tighten the hitch head bolts to 250ft lbs.



After I set my hitch up this way it rides like a dream and the truck and trailerare completly level going down the rode.



Thats how I did my own setup on my hitch. (moving the bolts to different holes to actually move the htich up and down to "adjust" the hitch.)



Now to just hook up, I turn off the air suspension, then hook up and then turn it back on. It says to do it that way in my owners manual. Edited by: fixit5561
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Old 03-20-2012, 09:00 AM   #3
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I too have air suspension and my manual says to do the hookup with the car turned on. I asked one of the service Tech's at the Cadillac Dealership and he told me that having the suspension on and aired up was the correct thing to do. Hope this helps.

Jim
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Old 03-20-2012, 09:28 AM   #4
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First off - thanks for the replies! I love all of the helpful information I have learned by reading and posting to this board.

I guess it would be hard to argue with the specific documentation on this subject. Thinking outloud (or via keyboard) here is how I would see it working:

1) Connect the trailer to the hitch with the vehicle turned ON
2) The vehicles load-leveling suspension appropriately levels the load by raising the back-end
3) Snap up the weight bars to an appropriate amount (example: 4 links dangling free), causing the back-end to raise slightly because weight is transferred
4) The load-leveling suspension then automatically removes some air from the suspension to lower the load back to an appropriately level state

My primary question based on that is will the load-leveling suspension appropriately lower back to level in step 4?

My secondary question based on that is how do I know how many links to snap up on the weight bars, since I will no longer be able to use the vehicles front/back heights as a guide? I am just over-thinking this? :-)



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Old 03-20-2012, 09:37 AM   #5
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Old 03-20-2012, 11:36 AM   #6
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So when I had my armada w/ the load leveling suspension, we could never get it to make sense. We would measure and set and get our numbers to where we thought they were right, then we went and weighed the truck and trailer combo and our numbers were way off. Spent months trying to figure this out on RV.net. Finally, it was stated that it should be done w/ the load leveling suspension turned off (and nissan says to turn it off) because the load leveling suspension was interfering with proper set up by trying to correct any rear sag the TT created. Once we did the measurements w/o load leveling suspension kicked in, we were able to get it set up correctly (as per height measurements and weights). Hope this helps. I will see if I can find some of the old threads on it.
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Old 03-20-2012, 11:41 AM   #7
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Here is a link that brings you in the middle of one of my old threads on trying to adjust our WDH on the old Armada. This page has links to the other posts that I went through trying to get it all figured out. FWIW, with the new TV (no auto leveling suspension), I was able to get the whole thing adjusted in about an hour or so.
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Old 03-23-2012, 06:59 AM   #8
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Anaro,
You were indeed correct, my dealer set my Cruiser up with the car turned off and then we turned it on and checked it out and it was perfect. Handled very well coming home so I stand corrected and you indeed were right on. Thanks so much.

Jim
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Old 04-19-2012, 11:31 AM   #9
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I have only had it out once this year since purchasing the new TV (still need to update the pic in my sig), but I spent considerable time experimenting with leveling the trailer. Here is a generic summary of what I observed (making sure to measure the wheel-well heights before starting):

WITH the load leveling suspension on (in other words TV was running)
1) Lowered trailer onto hitch. At this point the back of the TV was lower than it needed to be.
2) After 10 - 15 seconds the suspension inflated and leveled the TV.
3) Measured the front wheel-wells and observed that even though the TV was almost level the wheel wells were higher than they originally were - indicated there may not have been enough weight transferred forward on the TV.
4) Snapped up the bars to number of links I believed necessary (had to use the jack to temporary raise it enough to get them hitched). At this point the back of the TV was slightly higher than it needed to be.
5) After 10 - 15 seconds the suspension let out some air leveling the TV.
6) Measured the front wheel-wells and observed that they were nearly the same height as they were prior to connecting the trailer - indicating some of the weight was getting transferred to the front.

WITHOUT the load leveling suspension on (in other words TV was NOT running)
1) Lowered trailer onto hitch.
2) Snapped up the bars to number of links I believed necessary. At this point the back of the TV was just slightly lower than it needed to be.
3) I started the TV and after 10 - 15 seconds the suspension inflated slightly and leveled the TV. 4)Measured the front wheel-wells and observed that they were nearly the same height as they were prior to connecting the trailer - indicating some of the weight was getting transferred to the front.

My take-away from this is that the end result appears to be the same regardless of rather or not you have the load-leveling suspension engaged before snapping up the weight-bars. The only comment I can add to anyone else trying this is to make sure to measure the front wheel-wells of your TV to ensure they are not higher than they were before you hooked up.

** Of course - an even better method would be to take your TV to the scales both empty and fully connected to get accurate weights. I plan to do this in the future, but have not had an opportunity to do so yet.

Scott
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Old 04-19-2012, 11:49 AM   #10
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scottw- you need to pay attention to what the rear is doing as well. You want the front as close to the original height/weight as they were without the TT without going lower than original height or heavier than original weight. You want the rear as close to the original height as possible without messing up the front. With months of experimenting with the armada with weights etc, we found that while the rear would end up approx level, the weights told the real story if we adjusted w/load leveling suspension on. Measure with load leveling suspension off and then turn it on. Once we adjusted to the correct heights with everything off and then went and weighed it, that gave us the most correct measurements and weights.It was figured out both by us and some that have a large amount of expertise in the area (WDH gurus on another forum) that the load leveling suspension was really interfering with getting things set up correctly.
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Old 04-19-2012, 11:59 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by anaro



scottw- you need to pay attention to what the rear is doing as well. You want the front as close to the original height/weight as they were without the TT without going lower than original height or heavier than original weight. You want the rear as close to the original height as possible without messing up the front. With months of experimenting with the armada with weights etc, we found that while the rear would end up approx level, the weights told the real story if we adjusted w/load leveling suspension on. Measure with load leveling suspension off and then turn it on. Once we adjusted to the correct heights with everything off and then went and weighed it, that gave us the most correct measurements and weights.It was figured out both by us and some that have a large amount of expertise in the area (WDH gurus on another forum) that the load leveling suspension was really interfering with getting things set up correctly.

Absolutely! I find the load leveling suspension to be an annoyance and would much rather turn it off when pulling the trailer. I plan to spend some quality time with the scales at some point in the not too distant future to further refine the configuration. But I feel that the rough estimation I have been able to do so far has gotten it closer to where it needs to be.
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Old 04-19-2012, 12:29 PM   #12
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I hear ya. I do not miss that load leveling suspension now that I have the new TV. Best of luck getting it set up right.
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Old 05-27-2012, 08:33 AM   #13
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I wanted to follow back up on this to let everyone know where I ended up. After much experimentation my preferred method of hitching up is to leave the truck turned off while connecting the trailer and engaging the bars. I then turn the truck on and it will engage the load leveling suspension (which typically only makes a minor correction).

After several trips to the scales to fine tune the hitch configuration my weights are:

Yukon only </span>(GVWR: 7400 GCWR: 14,000)
Steer axle: </span>2840 </span>(FAWR: 3550)
Drive axle: </span>2900 </span>(RAWR: 4100)

Yukon and trailer
Steer axle: </span>2920
Drive axle: </span>3320
Trailer axle: </span>4200

Can anyone with experience in configuring hitches comment on the weight distribution please? I would like to see a little more weight on the steer axle, but it seems like it would be difficult to snap up another link on the bars (I already have to use the trailer jack to lift the truck pretty far before engaging the bars).

Thanks!
Scott
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Old 05-28-2012, 08:17 AM   #14
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As I understand it, you do not want your front axle to weigh more than its original weight. The goal is to get your front axle as close to its original weight without going heavier and as close to the original measurement without going lower.
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Old 05-29-2012, 02:44 AM   #15
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I noticed very early you said the weight of your trailer (Slingshot 29BH) is only 4300 pounds.

I was really surprised by this for a 29 foot trailer - since my 24 foot Sunset Trails is 5050 pounds, and I was exceptionally concerned about this for my trailer and TV. I also looked at the webpage from Crossroads for this model, and it starts off and says "A 29'11" bunk house trailer less than 4100 pounds!!!", which is a direct quote from the webpage.
Then when I look at the Technical weight information, it has the following numbers:
<table ="product-info"><t><tr><th colspan="2">Weights</th></tr>



<tr>

<td ="title">Dry Weight:</td>

<td>5203</td>

</tr>



<tr>

<td ="title">GVWR:</td>

<td>7570</td>

</tr>



<tr>

<td ="title">Carrying Capacity:</td>

<td>2367</td>

</tr>



<tr>

<td ="title">Hitch Weight:</td>

<td>570</td>

</tr>



<tr>

<td ="title">Axle Weight:</td>

<td>4633</td></tr></t></table>
I wonder where they get the 4100 pound number for this quote on the webpage!

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Old 05-29-2012, 03:20 AM   #16
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That is a good question. I think the 2012 models were heavier than the 2011 models, so that may

explain part of the difference. I can tell you that the delivery sticker

on the instead of my 2011 shows it as 4196. I would assume I have about 500lbs of gear in it, which matches up with the 4700lbs shown when loaded at the scale.

Edited by: scottw
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Old 05-29-2012, 09:35 AM   #17
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I think the 4100 lbs is probably before propane, battery etc and maybe the 5203 lbs is after that stuff (although I don't think that stuff adds up to over 1000 lbs).
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