Another JR

I have a dc to dc converter in my slide in camper that is powered from the main battery of my gas 3500hd. (I also have an OEM auxiliary battery. ) It’s a relatively simple installation. You should install the dc to dc charger very close to the camper battery, typically in the camper battery compartment. This allows the charger to compensate for voltage loss in the wires to the camper. You want to have a fuse or circuit breaker in the positive wire at the truck battery to protect against short to ground along that wire. I have a Victron Orion Smart 12/12-30 charger which delivers 30 amps. I used 6awg wire end to end. I used the existing unused 80 amp fuse in the main battery fuse block.

2500 or 3500? I hear a clunk when my overload springs hit the frame bumpers and start helping. I only hear it going over large bumps with a ton in the bed. Empty the overload springs never engage. Does not apply to a 2500.

My 3500hd Sierra SLT tracks very nicely. I have the stock 18 inch wheels and Michelin LTX AT2 tires. It has 3000 miles on it. I hear a quiet noise that sounds like air in the system when maneuvering at idle. Above idle it stops.

If they have a vibration damper at that location it’s likely for torsional vibration, not unbalance.

From what I’ve read on this, there’s an extensive flushing procedure they are supposed to do per the service bulletin when they replace the TC to get all the contamination out. You might ask them to describe the flushing procedure they did. If they left contaminated fluid in, the second TC may shudder.

Lurker007’s problem sounds like torque converter shudder, not the issue the OP asked about.

There is a modification you can do to the trailer light circuit (I believe it’s the marker light circuit that is used for trailer presence detection) that will stop the LED lights from flashing without defeating trailer detection. The mod changes the circuit resistance, but I can’t remember the details. You should be able to find it with a search.

Pin 4 is supplied by a 30 amp fuse on the battery. On a gas truck it comes from the aux battery if you have two batteries. If it’s a diesel i don’t know which battery it comes from. If your jack draws more than 30 amps you might have blown the fuse. It could also be an issue of connector pin assignments being different.

Do you have a volt meter? If so check to see if you have 12 volts on pin 4 of the trailer connector.

I weighed my new truck with full fuel and subtracted my body weight, and it came out about 50 lbs heavier than the doorjamb sticker curb weight. Not that it’s a big deal, but it made me wonder if they weigh the truck before it goes out to the spray in bedliner installer. Anybody know?

I have a 2021 3500hd CCLB SLT SRW gas truck. I’m very happy with it and I definitely would want it over a half ton for towing anything over 5000 lbs. That said, the thing is flippin’ huge. I enjoy driving it, but lots of trips I choose my suburban because the larger truck would be a problem.

I looked again closely, and mine doesn’t actually line up perfectly, but it is very close to perfect, with maybe 1/10th of the difference yours shows. I see a very slight offset of the parking lines on mine - less than 1/4 of a line width - in a similar parking line view, with the front camera view being slightly enlarged like yours.

Thanks. Both of those products would cause my overload springs to be engaged earlier, causing the truck with the camper to be on the overload springs when at rest. That would make the clunking occur less often, but would make the highway ride more stiff. I’d prefer not to do that. Maybe something like the stableloads but smaller to keep the gap and softer to make the contact silent.

Did you move the camera up while making a grille change? The front camera is either higher that it’s supposed to be, you have the wrong camera part number (with wrong magnification), or some sort of magnification software setting is wrong as you are thinking. If you didn’t change the grille and camera location, I would take it to the dealer and ask them to fix it. That’s not the way it should appear. Mine lines up parking lot lines perfectly.

The ride of the rear suspension is fine, particularly with the camper installed - I just don’t like the little clunk I hear when going over big bumps when the camper is on and it hits the overload springs. The front suspension (I have the camper springs, so one step up from standard) feels a little stiffer than the rear as I drive over anything that causes significant suspension travel, which feels a little “off” relative to an ideally balanced suspension. I like the increased lateral stiffness to reduce roll, but it would be a better balanced suspension with the standard front springs. As I said, I think if I had 3000 lb in the back and was on the overload springs it would be balanced. These are relatively subtle feel issues that many people probably wouldn’t notice. The truck really does drive very nicely, and the increased roll resistance is nice if I inadvertently enter a curve too fast. It drives sort if like a giant 9500 lb sports car on windy paved roads.

Yes you understood correctly. I looked at the frame pad clearance again just now. The suspension has about 1.5 inches more travel (capacity for more weight) before the overload springs contact the frame pads. It’s actually a little annoying because whenever I go over a large dip or bump and the suspension moves that much I hear a slight clunk when the springs make contact. My sticker payload is 4054 lbs, and the fender heights front and rear are equal with the camper on. Unloaded the rear is about 1.5 inches higher. The camper is pretty light compared to most because it’s a pop up. Factory says the weight with options and the tanks full is 1800, and I figure I have nearly 200 lbs of stuff in it.

I would only get camper springs or the plow package if you really need it. While the ride is still acceptable with the heavier front springs, it is best with the standard springs if you drive lightly or moderately loaded. I have the camper springs on a 3500hd cclb srw gas, but now that I’ve driven it a while with my 2000 lb slide-in camper, if I was doing it again, even with a bit heavier camper, I’d go with the standard springs. 3000 lbs camper weight is about the point where I’d go with the camper springs. Note that, with my 2000 lb load, the rear suspension has about 2 inches of travel left before the 3500hd rear overload springs engage, so my impressions of the ride would apply to a 2500.

I am very happy with the performance of the gas engine and 6 speed transmission. My truck was delivered last April, and the transmission cooler line recall does not apply to it. I hope that’s because they used the improved parts rather than lack of enough parts for the newer trucks.

You can use pin 4 of the trailer connector, which comes from the aux battery fuse block, as long as you ensure your dc to dc charger engine running detection logic is set properly to shut off the charger when the engine is shut down. You don’t want to discharge the aux battery with the dc to dc charger. Also, that wire is protected by a 30 amp fuse. A 20 amp dc to dc charger should work fine. A 30 amp one probably would blow the fuse. If you do it this way, use the trailer connector ground wire - don’t use the truck body as the current return. If I was doing lights, electronics charging, and a fridge in a canopy without solar, I’d get a 70 to 100 amp hour battery and a 30 amp charger, and run new 8 awg positive and negative wires to the main battery fuse block and a large engine compartment ground stud. That way you’d have at least two days of energy storage and you could recharge a nearly discharged battery in two to three hours of driving.

Moderators Could you please move this thread? This engine is not used in the HD trucks. Thanks

The dc to dc charger for camper battery charging normally is only intended to charge the camper battery when the engine is running, and will have some means to detect engine running. Because it only draws current when the engine is running there is no need to further isolate it from the main battery to prevent discharge. I connected 6awg wire to the main truck battery fuse block unused 80 amp fuse for the positive, and to one if the large body ground studs for the negative. I actually used the ground stud the aux battery negative is connected to because it was most accessible, but it doesn’t matter which one you use as long as it’s good for the total current. The dc to dc charger is located next to the camper battery in the camper. I wouldn’t think that the environment under the hood is acceptable for a lithium battery, especially on hot days. Also, dc to dc chargers generate quite a bit of heat and at least the 30 and 50 amp ones are typically passively cooled with fins, and they need cooler environmental conditions to stay within acceptable operating temperatures to avoid output cutback or failure. There would be concerns with subfreezing conditions as well. I ordered my second battery for truck mounted accessories like a compressor and in-cab portable refrigerator, not for supporting a camper electrical system. I briefly considered a lithium battery and dc to dc charger setup under the hood for these accessories, but ruled it out because of the temperature issue. The second battery option was so cheap I just went with it and expect it will be fine for my planned accessory use. For camping in a shell I’d probably use an easily removeable battery installation inside the shell. If you already have the fifth wheel connector you can use the power from that as you said to run a small dc to dc charger that is at your camper battery.

I’m not sure your 2500hd will end up with a payload of 3600 to 3900. My 3500hd cc lb srw with camper springs has a gvwr of 11,500 and a payload rating of 4,054 lbs. I would guess you would be closer to 3,000. My slide in camper weight rating on the glove box camper sticker is 3,304 lbs. I don’t think your 2000 lb camper will exceed you camper weight limit so you should be ok.

Ad Blocker cleans it up nicely

Keep in mind that a side effect of connecting any load to the trailer marker light circuit is that the truck detects a trailer. That causes the rear parking assist to be turned off. This will happen even if you simply have a connector with an LED circuit check light on the connector. A slide in camper sized for a full size truck is typically wide enough that the DOT marker light requirement applies, so it will have marker lights you’ll want to wire to the truck marker light circuit. I would recommend separately wiring your camper to the appropriate truck battery and truck marker light circuit rather than using the trailer circuits to avoid defeat of safety features you may want active. Also, taking off the tailgate will disable the entire camera system unless you wire in a replacement camera. Will your camper have its own battery? I installed a Four Wheel Campers Grandby pop-up slide in on my truck with a 200 Ah lithium battery, solar, and a dc to dc charger for charging from the truck. I installed a camera on the back of the camper to replace the tailgate camera. I’m happy to answer any questions about how I set mine up and why.