White knuckle towing
 

Newby here to the F250 4WD truck world. I bought a 2004 F250 King Ranch that I knew had a few problems. First of all the thing, Hoss...yea I name everything, didn't drive well and had 315 mud tires on it which went away shortly. I noticed that I had negative camber, checked it out and I replaced all of the ball joints. The toe in went back to specs and all tie rod end and pitman arm joints are all tight. Even after all this, the truck does not want to recenter and it, I believe, is scared of big trucks and busses. Reason is...when I tooling down the road with my travel trailer, only 65-70, and a semi passes me it always becomes a white knuckle issue. The air pressure wave from the truck will push my travel trailer to the right and if I'm not right on top of it, Hoss will turn into the semis lane. If you over correct then you start wagging your tail and your pucker factor exceeds your limits and you'll need assistance getting free from the driver's seat. The previous owner added two springs to the front leaves and it raised it up in the front about 2" but I'm having trouble believing that this is causing my problem. I'm about to add caster wedges to the front and see if this helps with my straight ahead steering. Even a small amount of cross wind will make you knuckle down and gasp for breath at times. I'm starting to believe that my rear spring shackle bolts are loose along with the bushings but I don't see any evidence of it without tearing it down. Any ideas?

I really think you need to slow down 65-70 is fast for pulling a travel trailer. Semi are way heavier than you, and will always push your rig

Do you have a weight distribution hitch with sway control?

I keep my max speed at 60, that is with having a Pro-pride Hitch, brand new Rancho shocks, heavy duty sway bars and AirLift Suspension

When I get back from our trip I believe that the caster shims will be my first try. The steering sector has very little play in it and the rest of the steering components are tight or new. One step at a time.

On my F-350, until I got the WDH really dialed in I would get the front wandering whenever a vehicle passed me. It was, as you say, a white knuckle ride. That may not be your problem, but it's an easy/cheap fix if it is.

This is even with the WDH installed and pulled up to where the trailer is sitting level and it set the truck closer to level. I can't bring the truck clear back to level bc the previous owner resprung the front springs up by 2" for tire clearance. I'll probably be lowering the front end if the castor shims won't do the trick. I learned a long time ago not to change too many things at once so one thing at a time. I'll keep everyone posted.

Is it possible that the tongue weight isn't correct? I've always noticed that trailers that "wag" behind the tow vehicle are light on the tongue (a$$ heavy).

I used to tow a 22' Wells Cargo double axle trailer (2500#) with a 2500# race car inside with an '89 F-150 (5.0, 5-spd, 4x4). I used a WDH without sway control. I never once had an encounter with a semi like you have. When semi trucks would pass me, they would push the entire rig towards the right and then suck it back to the left as they passed by. It was predictable and easily controlled.

So, you may be right, the front springs might be the issue. Also, I've never towed any trailer with a vehicle with modified suspension. You may end up taking that truck back to stock (tires, too). Good luck.

65-70 is at least what you should be going on most interstates, I hope you don't get on the Interstate and only go 60 mph because that creates a hazard unless you are in Commiefornia where the towing speed limit is 55 mph, or you are in the mountains with a 60 mph speed limit. If you are having trouble with stability at interstate speed then it could be a number of things wrong like worn steering and/or suspension components, alignment is off, improper hitch setup, trailer loaded too much in the rear, wrong tire pressures, ect.

With those heavy front springs a scale ticket would help a lot. You are going to play heck trying to guess what your weight transfer is if the front is so stiff that it never moves enough to measure.

time to start from scratch.

get it to the scales and get it set up so you know your tongue weight and front axle weight.

ST tires are usually only rated for 65 MPH. I hold my speed at 65, sometimes getting up to 70.
The ProPride/Hensley hitch is the way to go for stability. I find my best towing is the camper being level and the tail of the Ex just slightly down 1" or so. The car hauler is not as heavy and will not sink the Ex's tail with the standard WD hitch.

It has already gone back to the stock tire size. The 315 75R16 looked good but I wasn't happy about losing not quite hald of my turning radius because of the tires grinding against the front springs. Turning radius is bad enough with the stock tires. I installed LT 265 75R16s back on it with AT tread on them. I haven't weighed the tongue weight but I can't imagine that it is light because of the way it squats the back end down. A little side note. I noticed that the fresh water indicator said that the tank was full and I blew it off bc I haven't filled it. As it turns out, the water switch is leaking and slowly filling the tank while I'm on city water. Dumping about a 1000 lbs of water did make a nice improvement but it still isn't right. I think shims will be the next order of the day.

Some others have mentioned getting your rig weighed. That's probably not a bad idea. I took advantage of a local nursery that had a large scale. They let me weigh my truck/camper for free. It went a long way towards understanding how to load the trailer and what it feels like when it's properly loaded.

Dumping 7,000+ lbs. of water would certainly make a large impact. Glad to hear that you figured that out. Just remember to try and make one change at a time. So many of these problems are never solved because someone tries to fix everything at once. Keep us posted.

Update: After dumping about 1000lbs of water out of the trailer I noticed that it was much better...imagine that! The fill switch leaked into my fresh water tank and filled it completely. The trip back home was better but not as good as it should be. I adjusted the WDH up tight and towed it on Monday and that really made for a rough ride. Tuesday, I didn't pull it up as tight and the rough ride was smother but the steering is still pretty sorry. I'm going to try the cheaper fixes first before I look at new steering sectors and such. I still feel as if the rear suspension is loose because the truck keeps turning into the passing semis on my left. Does anyone else feel this problem?