Has anyone lowered their font tire pressures to reduce front end drift while towing? I have a small amount when being passed or encountering cross winds.

 

Without saying what trailer your towing my guess is your heavy on the rear of the truck for the 250/ trailer combo.

 

My old '02 F250 never had a problem drifting, now if I had a real bad crosswind or a big semi blew by me then yes, I would definately feel the truck move over a little.

 

The drift or movement isn't the front end its the rear swaying, do you have a sway bar front and rear? Are your rear tires inflated to full pressure, is your truck squatting when the trailers weight is on the pin. Never try and fix sway by lowering your air pressure.

Denny

 

Might be sway from rear. My first check would be verify tire gauge accuracy and then check all tires.

Is your 5th wheel hitch or goose ball over or slightly in front of your rear axle? Did you change front tires to a very aggressive tread? How much weight is on your front and rear axle?

 

I'm not getting a lot of drift. Just a nudge that makes me think the front end is a bit light and requires just a small correction. I mainly experience it as a vehicle is passing the cab and front of the truck. I have a pin weight under 1400lbs and the rig tows level. I always check my pressures prior to departure with a Michelin tire gauge and adjust them to the recommended psi. The hitch is mounted in a factory subframe and is a Ford 18k Reese. I was wondering if increasing the pressure difference front to rear creating more understeer, might decrease it.

 

Do not reduce tire pressure. Do what Denny suggested.

Steve

 

Your pin weight is under 1400?

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What are you towing?

 

A Rockwood 8280ws. Loaded pin weighed in at 1284. Looking at the responses, I'm beginning to think the issue is a bit of rear end sway because I'm just at 15% pin weight. The trailer is a rear kitchen, that, when loaded, could be adding some wag. I don't often carry water, but do recall the trailer being more stable with a full tank.

 

One way to find out is have some water in your holding tanks and water tank, when I used to pull with a F250 my water tank was in the front and I could tell if it was full or empty.

Denny

 

Rear kitchen could make you a little light on the pin especially if your not paying attention to how you load the rig. Even a little wagging of the tail would make the front sway some. I would add water starting with 1/4 tank at a time to see when it feels good handling. Remember approx 8# to the gallon.

 

I will go through the DW's cache of items in the kitchen and attempt to reduce what might be unnecessary. I would like to carry water more often. After reading accounts of the water tank mounts failing, I'm just not to eager to do so.

 

We've had 3 rear kitchens and we have never had to move stuff to the front, if your worried about the water tank drop the underbelly and install a piece of plywood under the tank and add more straps if you have to to make a solid mount, if you can't carry water in it why have a tank at all. I know many of the manufactures don't build things like they should but that doesn't mean you can't upgrade them.

The first thing I would look at is the tires, are the trailer tires inflated to max pressure, start the truck tires on the rear at max pressure, the fronts can be a little less. You can play with the pressure but most of the time when we had a SRW truck I tan the rears at full pressure when towing.

The 5th wheel combination is normally a stable combination because of where the pin is located and normal trailer sway isn't felt all that much. You are feeling movement when trucks come at you or passing you so you are feeling wind current caused by the truck, with the trailer you have a lot of surface area for the wind currents to work on causing the tire sidewalls to flex and because of this side force on the trailer it will flex the rear truck tires more than the fronts.

With a SRW truck you will never eliminate all the sway caused by trucks or side winds, I tried but never succeeded. That's one big reason we went to DRW but that would be over kill for your trailer. If your truck doesn't have a rear sway bar install one and take a good look at your tires, not all tires are equal when it comes to sidewall strength.

Denny

 

I tow a 39 Ft trailer with a Ford F-450 and occasionally, I experience some swaying. Unless it's really a problem, mind your mirrors and anticipate oncoming big rigs so you aren't surprised by the sudden movement.

Enjoy your time on the road.

 

Lowering your front air pressure may well increase drifting. With a SRW 250 you may or may not have a rear sway bar, if not get one they make a big difference. Also you may find that if you change to a tire with stiffer side walls it will be better. I tow a 15K 5'r with a F-350 crewcab long box 6.0 with Michelin XPS traction's on all wheels and XPS ribs on the trailer, I seldom get any sway or drift, a big improvement over the original tires, it wasn't bad but now it it gone. As far as sway bars I put front and rears on my cousins F-250, from Roadmaster, they are a lot heavier then the stock front and he had no rear. He will never again have a tow rig with out them. Helwig is another good brand, but I prefer Roadmaster.