I recently picked myself up a 2004 F350 6.0 regular cab long bed to be a weekend truck/tow rig for my Jayco 264BH. I bought the trailer over the winter as it had a bit of hail damage and the discount was too good to pass up and before I had the F350. I've taken the truck and trailer out a few times so far this year and, having never had a diesel before, it's incredible, like driving a freight train. Indescribably better than trying to tow with my Tacoma, which is how I ended up with two trucks.

The Jayco seems to be very well balanced from the factory, on my Tacoma it only made it squat in the back, maybe an inch. But on the F350, the truck maybe squats down a few millimetres, it's virtually imperceptible. With that in mind, for longer trips, I don't think I have to be overly worried about weight distribution despite that it would probably smooth things out more, but sway is still a concern, especially when semis go blowing by at 75.

I have a WDH that is a bit of a pain, which makes me wonder, is there any way to get good sway control without having to use a weight distribution hitch?

 

There are friction sway control systems that bolt to the trailer frame and use a smaller ball that you put on a tab adjacent to the main tow ball. That type of system would operate separately from a weight distribution setup. Personally, I'm in a similar situation. I have a relatively light trailer that I'm towing with an F250. I wanted sway control but didn't really need weight distribution. I had an old spring bar setup from my 150 that would have required some adaptation to be put on my 250. I ended up buying an Andersen Weight Distribution setup. It still distributes weight but not like a spring bar setup. It's a light setup but the sway control aspect of it seems to do a good job. I don't think it does a fantastic job transferring weight, but I knew that going in.

 

Jus tot be clear, are you saying you DO get some sway when "semis go blowing by" or just that you are concerned you might? Even if you aren't getting any squat, you are unloading some weight from the steering tires, and that is one of the things that allows sway to happen. That's the reason most sway control hitches use WD as well. Because the WD components reduce sway by themselves.

Any chance you've run your truck and trailer across the cat scales? I do that compulsively, it's one of my hobbies. It can tell you things your eyes cannot.

 

I've gotten a bit of sway on the highway. I generally tow at 60-65, and these semis go flying by and you can feel it getting pushed around, not terribly pushed around, but still more than I would like. I haven't brought the truck/trailer to a scale, i think the closest one to me is about an hour away and I just haven't had time to get there. I will probably look into a friction control system because using the WDH, at least the one i have is just a pain. In the ten times i've used it, its been a problem either getting it off or putting it on about seven of those times. I usually hitch up in my yard which is obviously not perfectly level, so there's always a bit of an issue getting the bars attached, or I get to a campground and the site isnt level and I can't get the bars off.

 

Give it a shot and see how you feel for sure. One tip with the bars is tot ake some weight off the tongue with the tongue jack, and that makes the bars easier to put on and take off.

Even with perfect sway control, your truck will get pushed around by semis passing, but it should move "as a unit" with the trailer, and not sway back and forth (much).

 

Taking the weight off the bars is the hard part, the hitch I have, Camco Recurve R3, you have to raise the jack stand all the way to the top, and basically hope that takes enough weight off to attach the bars. If not, you have to lower it back down, put more blocks under, lift it again, and repeat as necessary. It's not the end of the world but it does present challenges when the site isn't level, and it doesn't have to be very un-level for it to cause issues. Unlike other WDH hitches that use chains, the Camco uses top mounted bars. I will say though, once hooked up it does a tremendous job, great sway control and vastly smoother ride.

 

I hook my bars on as soon as my tongue engages on the hitch. Heck with down, up, down. Easy peasy,

 

I've had to unhook on some pretty knarly terrain or with the truck at a pretty good angle relative to the camper and, in those cases, it's not always easy to get the load bars off. Putting them on, you can always pull out, get straightened out, raise the jack and set the bars. Bit of a pain but my yard is also not flat so it wasn't always possible to just set the ball on the mount and get the bars on.

 

Short answer... yes you can. There is a ball mount with a side tab for friction sway control. That type however sucks by design because as you get it tight enough to do anything it will stick straight or stick crooked. Poor driving and poor turn radius.

General suggestions...


It is possible the 04’ has a slight steering issue and may drive ok without a trailer but amplify any negative feedback the trailer gives. I’ve had this issue on my 00’ ex. It took lots of work for me to find all the 1/32” of slop in the steering that 2 shops could not see.

You hauled this trailer with the tacoma? Did it haul perfectly? Tacoma has rack and pinion steering and is vastly superior in design to the recirc ball/drag link of the 04. I have an 06’ tundra and the 00’ ex and even as good as the ex is now it’s not quite as tight a feel as the tundra. This leads to my next thought.... too little tongue weight. My 03 outback 28bh handled like garbage behind tundra and ex. It took several trips and a mistake of building my custom rear hitch and putting bicycles on the back and a box of firewood. It went from just uncomfortable to a nightmare when full of water for long trip to Maine. I would up putting all the bikes on the front bed everyday and tools and lots and pans up front to get the tongue heavier. 600lb tw was not enough. Now I am at 900. My long term solution was to build a custom tongue mount bike rack and spare tire mount over the propane tanks and I never put heavy cargo behind the axles. Look up the bathroom scale process for tw measuring and find out where you are. Then find 400lbs of stuff and load it on the floor of trailer as far forward as you can. Now test drive. My guess is that it may handle much better.

 

Andersen has great sway control and will be much lighter. I find it easy to hitch with one pin and two nuts to tighten.

my 1600 lb tongue weight TT doesn’t affect the front end much of my CCLB 6.7 either 😀

 

Hey supeman, got a question for you. On your r3, does the sway part or your hitch have a few degrees of play in each direction when the allen bolt is tightened to activate the sway control? I tow the same trailer with my 250, and the big trucks pull me in or push me out depending on where they are at in relation to me. I was thinking that should be the the first thing I looked into. Seems like mine also rides better with some load in it, half tank fresh water and some gear in front of the axles.

 

With my rig, if passing vehicles suck my truck in towards them then I know I don't have enough force on the WDH and I need to crank on the WDH a bit more.

The best way to tell if your WDH is set up correctly is to hit the CAT Scale. Do it once with no trailer, again with the trailer but without WDH configured and finally with the trailer and with the WDH configured. The goal is to get the front axle weight back to what it was (or close to it) during the first time across the scales with just the truck.

 

I am trying to find out if amy other r3 hitch owners can verify the sway portion of the hitch has a little free play when snugged down. That amount of free play could amount to the rear bumper being a foot out to one side or another before the sway resistance kicks in. If my hitch is jacked up, there is not much point in me visiting the scales with this hitch.
I did redo the hitch the dealer set up at the time of purchase, they set it up with the truck and trailer unloaded.

 

We bought a 2021 Keystone 220 RD which weighs high 5K loaded. the front sail is 8' x 10.5 or so - blunt. Pulled it home with our ex 2020 F-350. The truck had a bit of an issue with the wind resistance - I think the sail size vs a light - barely 800 lbs - tongue weight had the trans computer a bit flustered. On our large box car trailer, the truck was happy at 2300+ lbs tongue weight. At any rate, no problems at 68 pulling the Keystone 130 miles home with normal west Texas wind on nothing more than a 2 5/16" ball. We do use a WDH on the 2021 F-150 that will typically pull that trailer.

>With my rig, if passing vehicles suck my truck in towards them then I know I don't have enough force on the WDH and I need to crank on the WDH a bit more.
Um, maybe. We have about 80% transferred to the nose on the F150 using the WDH and it still gets pulled. I plan to experiment with a little less, maybe 50% on the nose and more on the hitch and see. The RV has such a big sail area that I don't think it's going to matter one way or the other. When the trucks break the bow wave, it's gonna move around. Did it a little even with the DRW F-350 pulling it. The WDH is putting back all but 160 lbs on the nose of the F-150. Drive axle goes from 2080 to 3000 with the trailer.