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Suspension Updates
00:00 Intro
01:10 Suspension Problems
04:30 Previous Lift
06:35 Hercules H-rated Tires
07:55 New Axles
08:50 New Springs
09:10 Results
Today we are going to go over some major suspension upgrades that we recently did on the camper. I had actually ran into some used 16-inch wheels and 5200 lb axles and had planned on installing them on our camper eventually. During our trip to New Orleans, we had a blowout of our Goodyear Endurance tire. So I thought instead of replacing the single 15” tire, it would be a good time to move forward with these upgrades and use the money that would have gone to this tire to go towards the project.
So for the most part we have really liked our Cougar 2019 29 RKS but for us, we have been plagued with suspension problems. When you first look at it, it appears that there is plenty of clearance until you actually get down on the ground and look at it. From the factory, there is only about 1.5” of clearance from the tires to the bottom of the camper. This was first noticed a few years ago when we got back from our trip to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center and saw a piece of wire loom sticking out of the side of the camper. Because despite being 1.5” clearance above the tire, they did run some wiring just above the tire. I took the rig to camping world in Chattanooga, who actually lost my camper. They said they were looking for a travel trailer and not a fifth wheel. The fix that they did was the first of the suspension modifications. They shortened the shackles which they stated should give an extra inch of lift. The tech I talked to even agreed that more should be done, but Keystone wouldn’t approve it. They did move the wiring for me as I talked to some people in my 29 RKS group and apparently, there is enough slack to be able to move the wire over to the side of the frame without even having to splice anything. About a year later I noticed that there was some rubbing present again. I did weigh the rig at that time and it was 160 lbs overweight. Also, this was after I upgraded the tires the first time, so a significant portion of this weight was from the tires and not the actual weight on the trailer suspension.
On our last round of upgrades to the suspension, we fabricated 1 ¾” lift blocks to put as a spacer over the axles. This helped level out the camper and also Helped our clearance issue over the tires as well as gave us extra ground clearance a the very back of the camper. This for the most part fixed all of my issues. However, the 4400lb axles were always an issue for me since the camper is weighted for a total of 10,400 lbs. Granted I know you have some tongue weight but still. I did buy some sumo springs to augment the 4400 lb axles but we never got them installed. Going to the 5200 lbs axles actually gets the weight rating where I would expect the minimum to be. If I were buying everything new I probably would have personally gone with 7500 lb axles.
As far as the installation goes, I prepared by buying and having the tires mounted ahead of time. I wanted to really go overboard with tire strength so we decided to go with H-rated Hercules 14-ply tires. These tires were so stiff that it took 45 minutes for one of the tires with a team of 2-3 people and a heavy-duty tire machine here at Village Tire in Cleveland TN to get the tires mounted. I then met up with Steve over at Shelburne RV for the installation of the axles. So just look at these two bad boys side by side. Both the axles and the tires are a significant difference. The one thing that we didn’t think of when going from the 225/75/15 tires to the 235/80/16 tires was that the diameter went from 28.3 inches to 30.8 inches. We weren’t actually planning on replacing the springs but there wasn’t any clearance with the new tires, even with the lift blocks. So we went from a 4-leaf spring to a 5-leaf spring.

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