I am 2 weeks out from a 1,500 mile trip. We recently purchased a 34' bumper to bumper TT that weighs about 9,500 loaded. My current Equalizer brand hitch does not have heavy duty enough bars for this TT. I am considering purchasing the 14,000/1,400 lb equalizer for $535. I have no mods to my suspension. How many of you are towing a similar sized trailer without Hensley Arrow or Pro Pride hitch and are you satisfied with how your X pulls the TT?

 

I pulled a 34' 10" bumper to hitch TT with my 05 with only Reese dual cam and had know problems. Went all the way from Green Bay, WI to New Hampshire. Love the dual cam set up.

 

I've posted this way back in 2007...but when we went from our 7500# 27' (30' ball to bumper) to our current 9000# 31' (34' ball to bumper) TT...I spent HOURS at the CAT scale getting it balanced so I had the proper tongue weight...even with it "properly" loaded with enough tongue weight (1100#'s our of 9000#'s total load)...I STILL had more wiggle in the truck when semi's passed than I liked...

Keep in mind that I drive 12-14 hours per day towing when we are on our long family vacations...so any instability is a major inconvenience for me...

At the time I did NOT have the RAS but I did have the Hellwig...

I went Hensley and have NOT regretted that decision...to me...the money I spent on a new Hensley was well worth it because we've logged thousands of miles thru all kinds of terrain and weather and I've NEVER felt one bit of instability...however just going from the scales to my home I had two or three semi's nearly blow me off the road with my DC...keep in mind...that is just my opinion and I am exagerating some when I say blow me off the road...but any sawing of the wheel while driving for me is inconvenient with how I tow the long distances and time...when I went Hensley...I was able to tow in 30+ mph CROSS winds with little difficulty...I'm confident if I had my DC under those conditions...I would have been pulled over waiting out the wind...

The wheel base on the Ex is only 137"...CC long bed pickemups with 150+" of wheel base enjoy so much more inherent towing stability due to the wheel base advantage and can get away with less hitch for the same size ball pulled trailers...

The Ex's soft springs in addition to the 137" of wheel base puts us at a disadvantage...going F250/350 springs sure helps and the RAS is a great bolt on addition that in my experience has added stability to the rig too.

Joe.

 

I'm at 9,800 with a 32' TT using a Reese 1,500# dual cam set-up that has proven very stable. I moved from an equalizer. Have a great ride!

 

Hi gmcbride,

It was nice to meet you out camping a few weeks ago. Your Ex and TT are gorgeous. You are running airbags - did they make much of a difference. The OP is looking for stock and un-modified.

OP,

I am now towing a 10500lbs TT 35+' using Propride - works great. Previous TT was a 32' Cardinal at 9000+lbs. I towed it with a Reese DC and had good luck but do have a lot of other suspension mods. The condition of your existing suspension will play a big part into how it will handle. If your Ex tracks straight now you may be ok. If it wanders around adding a trailer will amplify it. If you are going to run a stock suspension I would highly recommend the Reese DC over the EQ because the Reese DC has a mechanical advantage to keep you going straight. The EQ resists motion after it starts. The Reese DC applies pressure all the time trying to keep you in a straight line.

 

I am towing a 2012 3008 Rockwood Windjammer which is 35 feet long and has a scaled weight of 7680lbs and tongue weight at 1060 lbs. I currently have the Equal-I-zer 1000/10000 hitch. This TT has the front kitchen which can make for a heavy tongue weight. I have counter balanced this by making sure all the heavy accessiories are in the rear storage area under the bed.

I had a thread after purchasing this TV asking for suggestions and Joe was kind enough to offer along with others to give me some directions on what to modify. I have added the RAS, Rancho 9000XLS shocks, extra transmission cooler (Hayden Dawg), and the Hellwig Sway bar. I have not been able to find a used 6.o transmission cooler locally at a reasonable price. The $200 plus used ones on ebay in my opinion are over priced.

I just made a round trip in June from NW MO to western NC of almost 2000 miles through the Great Smokey Mountains and was able to tow as fast as the roads would allow. When the wind was up I had to limit my speed to about 60 mph due to the side push of the whole vehicle, but it has no problems with semis passing with the suction effect. I was concerned about my hitch being big enough, but by using the local CAT scale and making adjustments I was able to get the TV to handle well. When I brought the TT home in May it was the worst handling thing in the world. But with the mods and tweaking the WDH I have made major improvements.

I think using a scale and actually seing the real change is important. I made a 380 lb change to my steer axle and did not see a measureable fenderwell height change. That is what sold me on using a scale to set up the WDH.

I plan on making the change to the V/B code springs this winter for the next step. I have a stock 7.3 and did not have any problems with power in the mountains.

 

What were you tranny temps before and after the additional cooler? Did you add an additional cooler or replace your existing?

 

Towing a 2011 Jayco 314BDS, gross is 9250 with a tongue weight dry just under 1000 lbs. Equalizer brand 10,000 / 1000 bars, tows fine with no mods to suspension or engine on my 2005 X EB PS 6.0, tows just fine in some good crosswinds! Just gotta get the brackets to stop slipping on the frame, a known issue with the Equalizer brand (fix is apparently a bolt through the bracket an frame)

 

I went straight to a ProPride and haven't regretted it a bit for my 24' enclosed car hauler.

 

Other than one trip to a local campground 45 miles away, I have never towed anywhere without the additional cooler. I have a Scan Guage to monitor temps. The local trip it never got past 195/200 with the stock cooler. When I backed the TT into the campsite with no airflow the temp went up to the 220 range.

The Hawg has a electric fan on it that can be setup to operate with a themostat or wired in with a switch and turned off and on as needed. The highest temp I let the transmission get to without the fan on was 215 and by turning the fan on it was able to bring the temperature down to 190. I got in the habit that when I noticed that the temp was climbing at 195 I would turn on the fan and then at 185 I would turn it off. I was impressed with how it could turn around the rising temperature. Usually depending on the grade, the temperature would go up 5 to 10 degrees before it would turn around and start dropping. This was on I-90 and 74/23 in Eastern TN/Western NC in the middle of June. For us to it was 990 miles out and then 950 back through southern TN. I hit Nashville, Tn at rush hour on a Friday night on I-24 and had stop and go traffic and had no problems with the temps by using the fan.

I still have the radiator cooler and the stock 7.3 transmission cooler in service. I mounted the Hawg down low in front of the air conditioning condenser behind the grill/bumper. It is a tight fit, but can be made to work. I did remove the bumper while installing to fit it as low as possible. I then come out of the stock 7.3 cooler and through the Hawg cooler and then back to the transmission. By mounting it as low as I did when the fan is on it is moving air over the stock cooler also.

I really wanted the 6.0 cooler, but I just thought the used price was to high compared to a new cooler. The hawg was about $180 from the local auto parts store. For me I was spending alot of money in several areas and could not justify that much money at that time for the 6.0 cooler. I also knew that I needed something because a replacement transmission is not cheap.

Another reason I went with the Hawg was with the on/off switch when you are stuck in slow moving traffic or backin up the TT in a campsite I can just turn it on/off as neeeded. I went with a manual switch because the thermostatic switch is about $50 and again looking to be frugal I decided that for $50 I could turn it off and on for now.

 

I have the same problem with the brackets slipping. I was thinking of fabricating a thicker back bracket. I can tighten mine down to the point that the back bracket wants to bend and then only clamp at two points. The bracket actually will bow. I was thicking of going to half inch thick steel so it will clamp the full width.

 

RedEx, good to hear from you. The air bags help with ride due to the amount of tongue weight I am carrying. WDH is a must but still, a lot to carry behind the axle. gm

 

Me too on the bending. A Jayco forum indicated that Equalizer will cover drilling bolts, gonna talk to me dealer since one bracket is badly bent. But even bent there's no sway! Love mine.

 

Equalizer Failure - Additional Precaution to Avoid Failure - Jayco Owner Forums

That's the link for the Equalizer bracket thread, sorry for the multiple posts and possible hijack!

 

I've towed a Jayco 314BDS (about 10K/1K tongue) without any mods and a run of the mill WD hitch. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND! WHITE KNUCKLES! My X is a 2000 with 175K on it, so suspension was tired.
I did RAS, and Helwig and it became "ok" but still blown around a bit. Now Im with a 3P hitch, V codes up front, and 5 star tune. She's a one finger driver.