17 Express 2.8 Diesel

I purchased a 2017 2500 with the 2.8 Diesel....Good power and incredible mileage for those wanting to know ( about 21 city and over 30 highway (at 70mph) when loaded to 7500 lbs). However, it seems the shocks are unable to handle the weight of the vehicle....there is a lot f bounciness and wallowing on bumps in the highway..it is scary! Our previous 3/4 ton van. had over almost 150,000 miles on the shocks and was much more stable when loaded too the limit. The dealer inspected the vehicle and said the shocks were ok and said it is normal for a heavily loaded vehicle. We are still 1000 lbs below the load limit and have no trailer in tow. I can only imagine how bad it would be with more weight or trailer in tow. Is this a common problem? The vehicle does not appear to be sagging..so springs seem fine.

canucklehead

You mean 7500 lbs gross vehicle weight?
How is the load distributed?

2008z06

Bilstein shocks will help. What tire and psi are you running?

StanVan

I got these to smooth out the ride. A little cheaper than Bilsteins.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2015-GM...72.m2749.l2649

17 Express 2.8 Diesel

Yes, 7500 lbs GVW, about 1000lbs under maximum. Heaviest load is ahead of axle. I've been driving vans since 1982 and know how important it is to not having excessive weigh hanging on the back end or too high....makes a world of difference as you seem to know! This van is loaded with the same configuration as our previous 3/4 ton.

17 Express 2.8 Diesel

Running about 50 psi front and 80 psi rear on the factory Bridgestones. We bought the vehicle new and it has about 6500 miles on it now. Bilsteins really work well on our 2007 Grand Cherokee ( along with eibach lowering springs and new isolators). But this thing feels a lot like that Grand Cherokee when it had 185,000 miles on the original suspension and 2 blown front struts.

17 Express 2.8 Diesel

It beginning to seem like this is a common problem. I am curious about others' experiences. My business partner is quite jealous of the mileage I am getting... he has a couple year old GMC 2500 or 3500 and gets about 11.5 most of the time on the 6.0 litre gas engine. That's the same I got with my previous E250 with a similiar drive train. ( 5.4 Litre). Saving about $2200.00 per year in fuel costs.

StanVan

I did my shocks because they were too stiff. I'm a bit jealous of your mileage, too. But 342 HP, vs 181 is a big difference.

17 Express 2.8 Diesel

So you have a 3500? they probably have beefier shocks.

Yes, you may have more HP, but I still have about 325 ft lbs of torque at only 1500 rpm and 370 at only 2000 rpm, the 6.0 gas has to rev. to about 3000 rpm to hit 325 ft lbs and 4400 to hit 370 ft lbs. That little engine can really launch these monster vehicles. You get a quite a strong shove back into the seat when you hit the pedal around town. I understand with a tune the torque bumps up to about 450 and HP to about 240, but they were limiting it due to the weaker transmission in the Colorados. I suspect the 8-speed Allison in the vans is stonger.

Expresscv

my 2017 3500 is lightly loaded and i get a good bit of bounce and wallow also
with or without my 25 foot travel trailer

not loving the ride

if you change anything and it helps please keep us posted