I just sold our Motorhome (due to fuel costs) and bought a 2011 Holiday Rambler 32RLS travel trailer.



My truck pulls it fine in regards to power and braking. I'm looking for suggestions that will increase stability at highway speeds.

I have the Firestone Air bags, which helps allot. I just added a weight distributing hitch, which actually made it worse and I added a anti-sway brake thing to the hitch/tongue.

She pulls fine under 55 mph but once I get to 60 she begins to "wag the tail" ever so slightly. If I hit 65 the wagging gets progressively worse.

I've had the trailer weighed and I have it loaded properly, 60% in front of the axles, so I'm at a loss on what to do next. I've done everything I know to do in regards to weight distributing hitch, sway control, etc.

RV dealer is suggesting adding a second sway brake to tongue and if that dont work he recommends adding a sway bar to the rear of the truck.

My thing is this, it's the trailer making the truck sway so how would a sway bar on the truck help that. It only helps control body lean on the truck, right?

I'm also wondering if i need to go to a stronger tire on the back of the truck. The OEM Michelin's are great for a good ride but they have a very soft sidewall to give the truck such a good ride so I'm thinking this may be part of it. I dunno, I just want to get it resolved.
It will take us a forever to get to N.C. at 50 mph.

Looking for suggestions....

Could somebody shed some light on this for me. I don't want to continue to spend money and get no results.

Thanks.

 

Great looking trailer. Just an idea but it would probably pull better if the 2 slides were inboard and the awning is rolled up. Just kidding.

Is the trailer new or pre-owned? I know you expect the trailer frame/axles to be square but before over-thinking the strategy, maybe double check the frame measurements to be sure the axles are square to the frame. It doesn't cost anything but a little time to check and rule that out. I hope you get it figured out. That tail wag would be unnerving.

 

LOL, thanks....I love all the room it offers. it's a new left over 2011 so they literally blew it out price wise to get me to buy it. I was going to do a 2013 he had but this one was $13,000 cheaper with the discount.

dealer has checked the trailer, he said its fine. he says its the load and me having too small of a truck. he keeps saying I need an F250. but I disagree. this truck will be fine once I get it setup right.

 

You don't need a bigger truck, your dealer doesn't know what he's talking about.

90% of towing stability problems have to do with weight distribution in the trailer and having the proper amount of tongue weight. You say that you loaded 60% of your weight in the front, but without spending time at a truck scale you are just guessing. So here's what to do:

Take your truck to your nearest truck stop with a certified scale. Fill the tank up and put it on the scale to get your baseline weight. Go home, grab the camper, top off your fuel tank, and return to weigh the entire rig. The weights will be separated on the scale ticket by axle, and when you add the weight of your truck's axle together and subtract your empty weight you are left with your tongue weight.

Take that tongue weight and add it to the trailer axle weight to get your actual trailer weight. If your tongue weight isn't between 10-15% of the gross trailer weight you have identified your problem.

 

Sounds like you don't have enough tongue weight. The only time I've had a trailer sway is when there isn't enough tongue weight. Having both slide outs on the back half of the trailer may have somthing to do with it? You mentioned tires, I don't know what tire you have but Michelins are are hard to beat! By the way what is the weight of the trailer?

 

He did say that he had weighed the trailer... so I assume that's the basis for the 60% front loading number.

You're definitely on the right path with tires. Swap out to some E-range LT tires and I suspect you will see a huge improvement.

 

I'm betting its your tires If your running the stock craptacular tires Ford uses

Get some good E rated tires and see how that goes. The tail wag is likely caused by the sidewalks flexing.

 

Totally have to agree with snowman... Put more weight on tongue it will increase stability. When you load up your trailer put more stuff up front you will see a difference. I know it's apples and oranges but I know have a fifth wheel which is way more stable with my f150 ecoboost than my TT was which has a tongue weight of 1340lbs...it think fifth wheels are just more stable because of the tongue weight. People tend to distribute the weight throughout their trailers which sometimes creates a teeter totter effect= crappy none stable ride. Also locate where your water tank is and try filling it vs empty and see if that affects your ride. I know my TT had the fresh water tank behind the axles which gave a crappy ride. I use to fill it up only when I got to my destination whenever it was possible.

 

That 60-40 weight ratio doesn't work for all trailers. It looks like both of the slide out are on the back half of the trailer, having that much mass behind the axels may have somthing to do with it even though 60% of the weight is on the tongue. I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense but I pull a lot of different trailers, boats, skid steers with different attachments, mini excavators, etc. they all act differently. Having a good set of tires will help but if the trailer sways you don't have enough weight on the front. Where are your water tanks? If they are in front of the axels try filling them. Just my 2 cents.

 

I weighed it at a local truck stop to make sure I was under the trucks tow capacity, which I am with a full tank of fuel and the 45 gallon water tank full in the RV. I didn't do all the different steps that your suggesting.
I weighed the truck and trailer combined, I then weighed the rear axle of my truck and the trailer axles.

I found it challenging to get so much stuff up front for the weight due to limited storage. There's a ton of storage behind the axles but not much in front.

7860 dry weight, As it sits right now, 9760

Actually I think the stock Michelin's are awesome tires for everyday driving. But the type of Michelin on my truck are not much of a load bearing tire. When I have the trailer hooked and 40 psi in the tires, they look half flat which indicates to me that they have a soft sidewall.

My 45 gallon fresh and 45 gallon grey tanks are both located "Behind" the axles. The Fresh tank is all the way in the rear, grey is just in front of it and the black is just in front of the axles.

Tongue weight has gone up since I got it weighed because I've put more stuff in it but it was right at 900 lbs when I weighed it. It's probably another 500 to 700 heavier now. The 2-30 gallon propane tanks on the tongue are also empty so that is probably another 80-100 lbs additional I'll have when we actually go off in it.

I also have thought about moving the axles to the top of the leaf springs instead of the bottom which will lower the trailer by 4 or 5 inches and lower the center of gravity.... I don't know, I just gotta get it sorted out.

Thanks for all the suggestions.... I'm gonna start with the simple things and move forward from that.

 

Has absolutely nothing to do with sidewall strength. The sidewalls support such a tiny amount of the rated load capacity of the tire their strength is just about meaningless when considered this way. The reason your sidewalls flex is because your increased weight on the tire requires more surface area on the ground for your tire pressure to act on. The tire will flex until equilibrium is achieved when you have enough square inches on the ground times air pressire(PSI = Pounds per Square Inch) to support the weight.

 

Alrighty then

 

Agreed, mine was pretty squirelly until I got some better tires on it. Everyday ride will suffer a bit though. I tow a 30ft TT, about 8100k so just about the same setup you have. Have the weight-dist hitch and one sway bar. Does ok until crosswinds pick up.

It's no surprise that the OEM tires are not top of the line. Virtually every new vehicle is sold this way to save the seller (dealer and FMC) a few bucks.

 

yeah, mine is 32' 6" Monaco says it tops out at 11,670 fully loaded but I'll never put that much stuff in it. I've about got everything in it we'll take with the exception of clothing and food.

 

My first thought when reading your post was to upgrade the tires. If you look on the sidewall of the tire, it will tell you the max weight that the tire can handle. That weight is with the tire pressure at or near its max pressure. The max pressure for a tire is also printed on the sidewall. At the very least you need to put the tires near their max pressure to get the load rating (weight). Personally, I would go to a E rated tire. I plan to do this when I purchase my next trailer.

I towed a 32 foot trailer much like yours with an Excursion for several years. Originally I had the same setup for a weight distribution hitch that you now have...friction sliding sway bars. I had a lot of sway so I put a second one on the other side of the hitch. I then cranked them down as tight as I could and it was just bearable to tow. I ended up towing on one trip 6000 miles and at the end of the trip one of the friction bars broke in two. After some research, I purchased a Reese Strait Line Dual Cam Sway control hitch. The difference was night and day. The trailer just would not sway. If it would try to sway, you could feel the whole truck move slightly but the trailer was rock solid behind.

My former trailer also had the water tanks behind the axle. I would try to make sure the fresh water tank was not full. A little weight makes a big difference. I even moved the spare tire up front to help. You figure the distance from the trailer axles to where the weight is and it can be quite a lever!

Hope this helps