Sway Control Info

[hoping4fun66]

While I am not new to towing, I have towed 5th Wheels for many years, I am new to towing a TT. Wife and I are looking to get a smaller TT, something around 21 to 22 feet, with a weight of about 3,500 dry weight.

Weights are not a concern at all, my tow vehicle is a RAM 3500 dually. So my question is, what concerns do I have with sway? I assume I do not need to worry about a WDH? There is no way I can overload my truck with this camper. But I also assume that I still need to worry about sway?

I just do not want a salesman talking me into a expensive hitch setup if I do not need one.

Scott

[Hannibal]

We just returned from north Florida. It was windy both ways and we felt it quite a bit but nothing scary. We have no sway control with our Reese HP trunion style hitch towing our 32.5' TT. What we did notice as traffic was thick and it made for conversation was, as we were passed by a few and we passed a few TT's, they were all being pushed around as much as we were. We saw one Husky Centerline, one Blue Ox and several Equalizer hitches.
Properly loaded TT "to me" means chosing a TT with the axles set back more toward the rear, a floor plan that doesn't encourage rear loading and the load goes between the trailer wheels and tongue.

[myredracer]

wing_zealot wrote:

myredracer wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
If a trailer is properly loaded it won't sway.

Ya know, I hear people say that often and I don't quite get it. Just how does one load a trailer "properly"? This isn't aimed at you, I have simply seen that said by others over the years....

Get the tongue weight high enough and it won't sway. The more you load behind the axle the more you need to load in front of the axle. For most tralers 12 percent will work, 13 is even better, 15 would be extra insurance. If it feels like it wants to sway add more tongue weight.

Still not sold on the concept.

We have almost 15 percent and sway was a big problem without the sway control installed. The majority of owners have 12 to 13 percent TW but have sway issues. Some are also limited in TW by their TV capacity and can't go higher even if they wanted to. But again, how do you load a TT to give more TW? Say you had a rear kitchen, would you move a bunch of stuff that belongs in the kitchen to the bedroom for travelling only? Stuff normally gets loaded into a TT where it belongs, you can't move it for towing and then move it back when you get to a CG. What about bikes loaded onto a carrier attached to the rear bumper. Many do it so that is a bad thing to do as far as sway goes?

In a related subject, many say that all the "stuff" you load into a TT for camping adds as much as 3K lbs. I weighed our TT immediately after picking it up from the dealer, after doing some mods and upgrades (some of which were heavy) and after we loaded it up with everything needed for a camping trip for two. The weight of ALL cargo we added (not incl. mods/upgrades) only came to 555 lbs. Even if we tried to shift some cargo towards the front, it would have little effect on the TW. Where would you shift weight to? Put some stuff on top of the bed? Cram stuff into the already full pass-through compartment?

[wing_zealot]

myredracer wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
If a trailer is properly loaded it won't sway.

Ya know, I hear people say that often and I don't quite get it. Just how does one load a trailer "properly"? This isn't aimed at you, I have simply seen that said by others over the years....

Get the tongue weight high enough and it won't sway. The more you load behind the axle the more you need to load in front of the axle. For most tralers 12 percent will work, 13 is even better, 15 would be extra insurance. If it feels like it wants to sway add more tongue weight.

[Jackfate]

I doubt sway is going to be a problem. What you may find is a bouncer ride without a wdh. I to have a 3500 but my tt is 6200 dw/8800 max. After fooling around with wdh & without I found I liked the combo w/wdh and set pretty stiff. I traveled some pretty sad roads that went up and down every 20' or so. The WDH took care of that pretty well. Mine has friction built in ( like the equalizer). The downside is it's sort of a nuisance to hitch as compared to a simple hitch set up. You may find you need nothing more than a simple hitch. And that would be priceless

Cheers

[myredracer]

troubledwaters wrote:
If a trailer is properly loaded it won't sway.

Ya know, I hear people say that often and I don't quite get it. Just how does one load a trailer "properly"? This isn't aimed at you, I have simply seen that said by others over the years.

Does that mean aiming for a certain percentage of TW like 12-13 percent? Does it mean going heavier than that? Does it mean staying above 10 percent? Does it mean using a TW scale regularly to see how it's loaded up? How is any TT owner supposed to know how to "properly" load a trailer? Is it in the owners manual? Is it on the internet somewhere? Does the TT manufacturer tell you on their website or is there a sticker on the TT? Heck, the majority of TT owners don't even seem to know that ST tires are limited to 65 mph or what the psi should be even when stamped on the tires.

TTs usually have pass-through storage but a kitchen (where some weight is concentrated from food, dishes, appliances, etc.) could be at the rear, over the axles or occasionally at the front so stuff put in a kitchen could affect TW. Clothes & bedding goes in the bedroom, bathroom stuff goes in the bathroom, etc. BBQ, sewer stuff, chocks, etc. go in the pass-through. For a rear kitchen, would it mean putting heavy stuff in the bedroom to increase TW? Seems to me stuff you load into a TT just goes where it ought to be depending on the design/layout of the particular TT and you won't have much control of what happens to TW. Then, what happens if you tow with one or more full holding tanks? FW tanks are often ahead of the axles and increase TW but not always. Some grey tanks are at the very rear (like ours). Should you be checking TW with a scale if a tank(s) is full or partly full? Dry TW (as per manufacturer brochure) is usually 10 percent and it always goes up once you are loaded up for camping and on average is 12-13 percent and sometimes near 15 percent? To load it "properly"

We tow a 7K lb TT with a 3/4 ton tuck. TW is near 15 percent and TT has a rear kitchen. Towed one entire season with a Reese DC WDH without the cam arms (because I wanted to do a special install method of the cam arm brackets). Even with TW near 15 percent and correct weight transferred to the steer axle, it towed awful. And we have shocks on the TT and HD shocks in the truck and all tires pumped up to sidewall max. Our TW is nearly 1/3 of payload capacity (per door pillar sticker) so we are a long way from max. payload even with stuff in the bed. After installing the cam arms and "tuning" it up correctly, the difference was amazing and now tows like it's on rails. I don't know how we could have loaded the TT any differently.

So I really am curious, just how do you load a trailer properly to prevent sway? Isn't transferring the correct amount of TW back onto the steer axle with a WDH important? Loading a TT properly means you don't need add-on friction bars or integral sway control? What about the type and capacity of the TV?

[1stgenfarmboy]

You won't need the WD hitch, but ther will be a time you will wish you had the sway control, like already said.....cheap insurance.

I know I have towed without and with, I will never tow without again....ever.


The thing about seeing if you think you need it is, you may tow for thousands of miles with no problem, but then that one time the wind and on board weight placment hits the sweet spot and bang things get bad real quick.

[hoping4fun66]

Thanks to everyone for the info. I am going to wait until I tow the camper a few times, as recommend here, and see if I need any type of sway control.

[ScottG]

Personally, with that combo I would skip the both the WDH and SC. I sincerely doubt you'l experience any kind of sway.

[SoundGuy]

shelbyfv wrote:
Friction sway control is cheap insurance. Unexpected stuff can happen. There is no downside AFAIK.

Actually there is. Typically the friction sway bar base plate is mounted to the trailer by drilling 6 good size holes in the frame for the mounting screws. Personally I'd prefer to not drill any holes of that size in my A frame and if I found sway control necessary with my own setup I'd replace the Reese trunnion bar WD I'm using with a WD system that includes sway control as a function of it's design - i.e. Equal-i-zer, Blue Ox Sway Pro, etc.

For those such as the OP with a truck like his hitching up without having to mount weight distribution spring bars is MUCH simpler - just drop the coupler on the ball and go. :B

Bottom line - every towing setup is different so I wouldn't automatically use weight distribution and/or sway control just because someone else says I should. It all depends. 😉

[Durb]

The expensive part of the hitch would be the weight distribution portion which you definitely will not need. A friction sway control bar is not very expensive. If you get a dual axle trailer behind a long bed truck it would be pretty hard to get it oscillating on you. Heck, if it would fit you could throw a 3,500# trailer in the bed of your truck and just carry it.

[Redwoodcamper]

I just got my travel trailer, so only have a few hundred miles towing it. But it is about 4k lbs and I don't seem to need any away control. I have a 1 ton srw Cummins. I had no problems at 65-70 even around semi trucks. Every once in a while I thought I might have seen the smallest sways in rear view mirror but not enough to even feel in the truck. Add tongue weight and hammer down.

[Ivylog]

Lack of enough tongue weight is what causes sway with a TT. Put heavy things in the front of the TT and go camping. With your truck you cannot have too much tongue weight.

[bobndot]

I agree with everyone so far. Load the TT correctly balanced.
Don't confuse sway with the push n pull of overtaking trucks (thats normal)
Look at all the enclosed 30-35 ft (5000 lb) ATV/snowmobile trailers being towed direct to the ball without a WD hitch or sway control. Year after year and many thousands of miles.

We just returned back home from a (steady 20mph with 30mph wind-gusts) 500 mile tow using a 3000 lb loaded enclosed v-nose trailer direct to the ball using a 1500 truck with the truck bed also loaded up. Because the unloaded truck sits rear end high with a max tow package, the combo towed level once i hitched up with a 1.5" squat. No issues at 65-70mph. I had to do a minor headlight adjustment. It towed flawlessly. My DW towed it for 150 miles and she loved it.


MY TT:
The transporter who towed my TT half way across the country from the mfg to the dealership towed it direct to the ball using a dual wheel 350 truck. NO WD hitch and no SC.

Im towing a Jayco 23 RB (27 ft) @6000# wet with approx 800# TW (its 100# more when i bring the bikes on my tongue mounted bike rack, see my profile pic) with a max tow pack silverado 1500 with a Pro series Reese and friction sway bar.
I've tried the system both ways to see how it tows. So far (about 5k miles) i have not noticed any difference with or without the sway bar.

I also tried this same 6000# Jayco using my beefed up 2500HD and it it towed perfectly direct to the ball as well as using the WD hitch which i didn't feel any difference in the tow. Wheel well measurements were also in check however, it did squat a tiny bit in the rear but not enough to feel any towing difference or affect steering.
I did have 'Tork-lift adjustable Stable-loads' on my helper springs which engages the helper spring earlier than normal (without a load).

[shelbyfv]

Friction sway control is cheap insurance. Unexpected stuff can happen. There is no downside AFAIK.