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So here is my situation. Ordered a new 450 back in Nov, got it a few weeks ago and went to tow the boat home for a cleanup. The sole reason for the truck was to tow the new ride.
First, I know the boat is not very wind and weight friendly, but this truck should
still should be fully capable of the job. The trip home was ok, but once I ran into a side wind the sway and wandering was too much for 65 mph. Ended up slowing down to 55 and was still a handful at overpasses and semi passing.
What would help my towing travels with this beast? Btw, I’m guessing 18-20k with trailer.
Sway is frequently caused (or exacerbated) by low trailer tongue weight. A trip to the scales will tell you how much weight is added to your truck by the tongue weight of the trailer. If it’s not at least 10% (12-13 is optimal) you should look for ways to reposition your load to bias more weight on the trailer tongue. Hopefully the trailer is a good match for your boat, and doesn’t prevent you from positioning the load to attain proper tongue weight. Good luck with your dilemma. You have a fabulous truck and boat there!
As others have already said make sure of your tongue weight. You may need, and I would definitely want a sway controller of some type. I would personally use an Equalizer brand weight control hitch, they have built in sway control and even on a 450 moving some of the weight back to the front axle is a good idea. Lowering tire pressure is never a good idea, if anything it will make the sway worse.
Lowering tire pressure is never a good idea, if anything it will make the sway worse.
In this case, it might. You’re evaluating “sway” as only caused by load. Sway is not simply a single cause, single fix event. Particularly with the 450s, overinflated (or just high-pressure) front tires tend to grab any grooves or crown in the roadway and pull the truck around. It is unsettling to say the least, and you feel like dukes of hazard steering all over the place until you slow down through that particular section of road. Hauling a load pushes it around worse. Several of us with 450s have noticed night and day difference lowering front air pressure to 70-75 psi.
I'm going to throw something out there that was pointed out to me on another forum several months ago.. I have a toy hauler and when it's empty, it tows just fine because it has plenty of tongue weight, but when I've got the garage loaded up with everything that I took to the track....two sport bikes, tools, paddock stands, pop up canopy, weights for the canopy, etc. ect., it lightened up the tongue so much that I was having trouble with swaying. I obviously couldn't put the bikes in a different part of the "trailer", so I started adding weight to the front of the trailer to increase the tongue weight. I eventually got the problem solved by using several different things, but someone pointed out to me that Ford recommends turning off the sway control on the truck if you are using sway bars and or a WDH with sway control. I tried it and really couldn't tell much, if any difference. I'm not familiar enough with the F450 to know if they even have the sway control electronics on them, but I'm guessing that they do. So, maybe make sure that it is turned on if you have it, and if you decide to go with sway bars and or a WDH with sway control, try it with and without the sway control engaged. Like I said, it really didn't seem to make any difference for me, but everyone's rig is different and it might affect yours. Who knows?
I'm going to throw something out there that was pointed out to me on another forum several months ago.. I have a toy hauler and when it's empty, it tows just fine because it has plenty of tongue weight, but when I've got the garage loaded up with everything that I took to the track....two sport bikes, tools, paddock stands, pop up canopy, weights for the canopy, etc. ect., it lightened up the tongue so much that I was having trouble with swaying. I obviously couldn't put the bikes in a different part of the "trailer", so I started adding weight to the front of the trailer to increase the tongue weight. I eventually got the problem solved by using several different things, but someone pointed out to me that Ford recommends turning off the sway control on the truck if you are using sway bars and or a WDH with sway control. I tried it and really couldn't tell much, if any difference. I'm not familiar enough with the F450 to know if they even have the sway control electronics on them, but I'm guessing that they do. So, maybe make sure that it is turned on if you have it, and if you decide to go with sway bars and or a WDH with sway control, try it with and without the sway control engaged. Like I said, it really didn't seem to make any difference for me, but everyone's rig is different and it might affect yours. Who knows?
Not anything near what the manual says for sway control. Sway control on the ‘17+ does nothing to prevent sway. If the trailer starts to sway strong enough, the truck will sense the motion and selectively apply brakes to stabilize and slow the vehicle. This helps to prevent a runaway oscillation and crash. It only helps stabilize the vehicle once sway is already close to out of control, and it doesn’t care if a WDH or mechanical sway control is used..
... The sole reason for the truck was to tow the new ride.
First, I know the boat is not very wind and weight friendly, but this truck should still should be fully capable of the job. The trip home was ok, but once I ran into a side wind the sway and wandering was too much for 65 mph. Ended up slowing down to 55 and was still a handful at overpasses and semi passing.
What would help my towing travels with this beast? Btw, I’m guessing 18-20k with trailer.
We pull a 7k TH with our Excursion and it tows great. The tongue weight is over 1200 lbs. The trailer came with an Equalizer WDH. I run the load range E tires at almost max psi.
Are you using a WD hitch and what is tongue weight of the trailer?
This article may be of interest - https://www.etrailer.com/faq-weightd...tion.aspx#When
Our Ex did not come with a rear anti-roll bar which yours probably already has.
I installed a much larger Hellwig rear bar compared to the F250 bar which improved the tow vehicle handling a lot.
Holy beautiful boat, and truck. Definitely get it weighted, boats tend to run a bit lower than the normal 10-15% TW but its gonna depend on the load. Have you towed this trailer/boat before or is it the first time? If it's new and never been towed you may have to move the boat up a few inches on the trailer to get the TW up a bit. A little goes a long way though, a few inches can make a huge difference. Like the others have said tire pressure is very important and can make a huge difference so document that too and it's something you can adjust and test.
Under inflation will make sway worse, the sidewalls lack the pressure required to maintain rigidity. Lack of tongue weight makes it worse, too. However, glancing at the picture; it looks like there is some weight on the back of the pickup.
A cat scale will help. Weigh the pickup without the trailer to get an idea of empty weight and how much is on each axle. Then, try it again with the boat. With a weight on each axle you’ll have a good idea of tongue weight.
Theres a lot of side to the boat, any cross wind will push it around. Slowing down seems to help, right? I’ve been to crashes where campers and semis have flipped due to high profile vehicles and light weight with strong winds. Also, with strong cross winds it causes havoc with traction control systems. Chevrolet vans are the worst.
04-06-2018, 07:57 PM
