Forum Discussion

fowlthing's avatar
fowlthing
Explorer
Sep 03, 2022

Trailer sway milestone 377mb

2020 Model. Pulling with 2021 Ram 2500 Diesel. Have 3000 miles plus with no issues.

Now at speeds as low as 30 mph can hit a bump and side to side rocking translates into trailer sway. Worse going uphill. Had a trip this weekend and put two new tires on the rear axle. My tire shop only had two.

Is this axles out of alignment?? Shocks on the truck? ( 30k miles on truck).

I pulled the tires off and bearings are good. Measured and axles are same distance between tires. Did not measure to the pin.

Tread is still good on front axle. And was good on the two that were replaced. Wear is even. Could not detect that they were out of round when jacked up and spun the wheels.

Any help is welcome. Have years experience of towing trailers. The sway is dangerous. Not a slight annoyance. Thanks.
  • garyp4951's avatar
    garyp4951
    Explorer III
    Sep 05, 2022
    Go to a scale first, and then start checking wether the problem is the truck or trailer.
    The roads these days are pretty bad and a 42' trailer can cause problems if not loaded right.
  • JRscooby's avatar
    JRscooby
    Explorer II
    Sep 05, 2022
    I know it's a grape/grapefruit but I feel I should tell the story, and the OP can take a look if he wants.
    A driver tore the power divider out on a friend's International. Friend was out of town, called me to repair. While I had the differential out, I saw some cracks in frame crossmember that ran under the 5th wheel plate. Waiting on parts, and tools handy, I welded up the cracks. Few days later the driver was on Children's Band with another driver talking about how much better the truck was driving.
  • afidel's avatar
    afidel
    Explorer II
    Sep 04, 2022
    Fisherman wrote:
    Possibly a broken spring on the trailer.


    That's my vote, or spring perch. I'd investigate everything in the running gear including running each wheel up a ramp to see how the suspension and equalizer reacts.
  • fowlthing's avatar
    fowlthing
    Explorer
    Sep 03, 2022
    Not sure but have not changed any weight and have over 3000 miles before this came up
  • Grit_dog's avatar
    Grit_dog
    Navigator
    Sep 03, 2022
    I’ve pulled a lot of poorly loaded trailers that had actual sway.
    But never sway below below 45-50mph. Idk how it’s swaying so slow. Maybe with negative tongue weight?
    IMO to go from fine one day to can’t pull over 30mph, whatever changed should be obvious?
    Can’t think of any reason it would change.
  • Lwiddis's avatar
    Lwiddis
    Explorer II
    Sep 03, 2022
    Fully loaded what is the trailer weight and what is the tongue weight?

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