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2017 king ranch 6.2 with 3.73 gears. Pulling a 26 foot bunk house travel trailer. No issues with power like the way the 6.2 performs. My prior truck was. 2011 f250 king ranch 6.7 diesel. Only on my 2nd camping trip with the new truck. First one was close to home to just get the truck supposedly to get it dialed in. My other truck pulled it great and felt very stable, never had really ever sway. This trip went a about 150 miles from home on highways and bridges and some hills. New truck pulls it great with the 6.2 but it doesn’t feel very stable. Seems like I have a little sway. Now I know the new truck sits higher in the rear and I using the same wdh hitch as I had on my old truck and it’s a chain type bars with the saddle. It’s a pro series of you wanna goggle it. I also use the friction sway bar with medium tension. On the old truck I used the 3rd link from the top and new truck is 2nd link from top. Using the 2nd because if I go to the 3Rd link it sets the camper a little nose high. It doesn’t take much force at all to swing the bars up now running the 2nd link. Almost there isn’t enough tension on them. Camper does it level the way I have but needs to feel a little more stable especially if a semi passes me on the high way. Any suggestions? Would like to figure out before I leave the campground tomorrow. I can send pics of what I got going on if needed. Problem is it feels like the truck doesn’t sit down enough in the rear and needs more tounge weight to get the spring bars more tension on them. I don’t have the trailer loaded heavy in the rear of it either. Mostly loaded towards the front
On level ground with both truck and TT, have you measured the height of TT frame front compared to back ? I found it is better to have the TT tongue down a 1" or 2" for better stability. Is your hitch adjustable up and down ?
Did you old truck have a sway bar on the rear ? Noticed the new trucks have omitted this.. like mind. I do have some sway sometimes now with my 2015 F350, where I did not with my old 99.
Have not measured the frame from front to back to be honest. I know my older 2011 did not have a rear sway bar either. But it did set quite a bit lower in the rear than my new 2017. I have a new drop down hitch I just bought and I installed it which made the camper sit lower with it installed the safety chains are not long enough with it due to it being longer.
If I could figure out how to post pics here I would show you guys some pics. I think it’s a payload issue with the truck. My old king ranch payload was 2200. My new king ranch is 3100. I always thought the more payload a truck had the better the truck would do.
Towards the bottom of this page... click on "Go Advance"... Then click on the "paperclip icon".... here you can "drag" your pictures from your computer to the big "arrow" on the screen..then "upload" it..(upper righthand corner)
Last edited by clintbonnie; 05-27-2018 at 11:35 PM.
Reason: misspelling..
Dont know how you made out but you said you lowered the hitch to make up for the new truck correct? Even if you lowered hitch it all still needs setup again. You want to keep the spring bars parallel to trailer or pointed slightly down. You can achieve this by lowering hitch and by adding washers to tilt the head. If I remember right when i had the reese proseries they wanted the top of hitch ball 3/4" higher than the top of trailer coupler with trailer level in their instructions. Once you have this then tilt the head to get proper weight dist. Measure front wheel well from ground unladen. Then measure front wheel well laden with no wdh engaged. You want to bring it back to at least half way to unladen measurement or back to unladen. I usually go with half way. This will give you the weight dist. you need and then tighten the sway bar to your needs. My sway bar adjustment screw was always buried tight then just used the big handle to give the tension i wanted. It worked well. I switched to an equalizer for easier hookup and no worry of having to remove the swaybar for backing into campsite.
ncl is right. If the hitch has not been adjusted to account for the taller truck, your trailer’s tongue weight will drop. And if it drops much below 10% it will get squirrelly. There are other reasons for the trailer to be level, or a bit nose low, but this is most likely the solution to the problem you mentioned.
Thanks for all the responses. I did get home yesterday. I didn’t change anything other than tightening up the friction bar big handle a little more. I do believe you guys are correct. I just have not compensated for the 2017 being a taller truck and with the trailer sitting slight nose high it isn’t the right amount of tounge weight. I mean it isn’t sitting really high by no means but if you look at it from a distance it is slightly nose high. Most people would probably drive it and say it’s fine but I’m probably overly cautious. Next trip I will have it right. Just my old 2011 was rock solid pulling the same camper and never noticed a semi ever passing me. I’m really thinking about switching to the equalizer system as I have heard it’s great. But I’m impressed with the 6.2 for sure. I averaged 10mpg. Held 55-60 mph with ease dropping no lower than 4th gear on the bigger hills and it never dropped in speed.
05-27-2018, 12:38 PM
