Hello All,

About a week ago my family went to a lake with our 6000 lbs 26 ft travel trailer. My cousin was towin it with a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500(not a hemi). The trailer started fish tailing really bad. almost hit a boat on the two lane road. He has a load level hitch installed with sway control. His speed was probably 65 MPH, he tried going slower, and the trailer would still sway (not as much). My question is, Will it do this with my 04 6.0 EB PSD Excursion? The excursion is heavier and more stable then the dodge truck. My excursion is stock, the only thing I would add would be a break controller. What else do you guys recommend I install. I heard of a hellwig swaybar, does this really help when towing? How about helper spring also by Hellwig that increases your payload or something to 2500 or 3000 lbs.

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

Ruben G

 

What usually causes sway is being too heavy on the back of the trailer. Sway bars do help, they are friction controlled. Proper loading helps the most, meaning loading on the front of the trailer the most. The Winnebago we used to use before it got a nasty roof leak, and is now my car trailer, had a water storage tank at the front, but the sewage tank was at the rear. If the storage tank was empty, and the sewage full, it would make a potential fishtail situation. Back then, the speed limit was still 55.

 

Your Ex will have no problem. I'm gonna play the devils advicate and say that your hitch weights were way off, the camper was load improperly, or the equalizer hitch was not adjusted correctly. In no way should that trailor sway like that even behind a 1/2 ton dodge unless it was really windy, I mean like 50mph winds!!! How old is the TT. I tow a 7000lb 27ft TT with a 17ft boat behind my 03' SD and have no sway when going less than 60 and at 65-70mph its managble. The only sway I get is from the boat but the addition of an anti sway bar should solve that problem.

Too little or too much tongue weight will cause the trailor to tow very poorly. also check how level the camper is when hooked to the two vehicle, this will also have a major effect on stability. The TT should be level as should the tow vehicle. If the tow vehicle squats in the rear the WD bars needs to be tightened or heaver bars need to be added. If the tow vehicle is high in the rear the WD bars should be loosened. with my SD the truck sits a little high in the back no matter what I do so I had to adjust the hieght of the hitch in order to level the camper.

I've towed campers larger with no sway control or WD bars and have yet to find and issue with sway. The only problem I've yet to encounter was when my dad many years ago tried towing a heavy 18ft boat behind a light 18' single axle camper with no tralor brakes and no sway control with a light 1/2 ton F150 (85 model was realy light, only 4000lbs on the scale). It wouldn't tow decent unless you were going less than 50mph. there were many thing wrong here though, the pickup was to light for the load, the boat was nearly as heavy as the camper and had to much tonge weight, the camper after putting the boat behind it didn't have enough tonge weight and then to top it off he had no sway control and no trailor brakes!!! And at the time we just didn't understand why it didnt work! T By the way the camper towed fine without the boat behind it.

again check your tongue weights and levelness. this is probably the most important least addressed issue with towing and sway.

 

Thanks for your reply fellro86.

Before leaving on the trip, we noticed that the trailer was not level. it was lower in the front by the hitch(not to much). we raised the mounting hardware on the hitch to level out the trailer. Should we have left it how it was. Also i did notice my cousin put some gear in the rear of the travel trailer. The tanks were all emptied prior to driving.


Ruben G

 

SLE

The travel trailer is a 2003 model, we just purchased it a month ago. The trailer was level, but the truck was sagging a littlein the rear. Also that was the first time any of us had worked with a load level hitch. Probably we did not tighten the chains enough or something.

 

Make sure each side has the same amount of weight distribution on it, (ie, make sure the chains are hooked in the same loop on each side) This just came to me but if one side was tight and the other loose the final result maybe the swaying trialor? just a thought, keep us posted on how the Ex handles it.

 

The lower you leave it on the hitch the more weight you'll put on the hitch, therefore you'll get less sway. This probably would not have been enough however. If you have any tanks behind the axles, make sure they're empty before pulling. If you water tank is in front of the axles then fill it before towing. Same goes for your propane tanks if they're mounted on the front. Fill them up.

Since this trailer is new it should be balanced for towing when unloaded. It sounds as though you may have loaded the back down with a bunch of your camping stuff.

 

It sounds like a tongue weight issue to me. I have an 18' box trailer and a 23' boat on a trailer. I just bought a SenZBar because mine were a little squirley. It makes a HUGE difference to set them up with the bar and adjust the weight. I am just now doing the fuel management comparison.

 

Thank you all for your replies, I will try and place more weight on the hitch and lessen the wight on the rear of the trailer i'll see how it goes. Does anyone have a hellwig swaybar installed on their X? if so do you have a picture of how it looks like already installed?


Thanks,
Ruben G

 

Ruben, One thing that I have not seen posted here and I personally think is a high cause of swaying is tire pressures. They should be up to max at every tire when towing. A trailer should tow with nothing but the connection of the hitch. Load leveler and weight dist. connections can improve the ride, but should not be the focus of a good hitch connection. IMHO.

Checking tire pressures cost nothing and should be at the top of the things to do, before anything else is considered.

John

 

I agree tire pressure and tire rating are probably the most over looked thing when it comes to towing. Plus did that dog have a rear anti sway bar? very important when towing.

Denny

 

My '55 Chevy is not rusting! How many Fords from that era are still on the road?

 

Ho cares

Denny

 

One other thing. It is counter intuitive, but when a trailer begins to sway, floor it! The swaying motion is the inertia of the trailer trying to move forward faster than your tow vehicle. If you hit the brakes it will likely jackknife. Watched a guy in a four door sedan do that on the autobahn once. Anyway, stay on the gas until the trailer straightens out then let off. Another alternative is to lightly apply your trailer brake while keeping your tow vehilce at speed. Light tongue weights and big downhill grades are the most likely culprits.

 

I would try the trailor brakes b4 flooring it. I don't know if you've tryed this Derherr65 but we had the same Idea untill one of the guys had to actually use it. The end result was it made the sway violent and the boat ended up In the ditch. Just reach down grab the manual lever on the brake controler and things SHOULD streighten out. The problem with all of this adivice is theres no way to tell for sure, what works for one guy may cause problems for another so use your best judgement and let us know how it turns out.