2012 Dodge 3500 SRW towing Jayco 334RBTS-which WDH?

JBarca wrote:
Glad you had a good trip. We hope to get out next weekend if the snow will leave... Suppose to be 40F Yeh!

Need to get you to the scales to help sort this sway bit out.

John

Yep, maybe the next trip. Probably gonna be a month before the next trip though.

Glad you had a good trip. We hope to get out next weekend if the snow will leave... Suppose to be 40F Yeh!

Need to get you to the scales to help sort this sway bit out.

John

Another great trip this weekend! Got a little sway at times-mostly due to yet another windy day. I've now towed the camper 3 times and every time I've had a wind over 25mph.

Really? The 3500's used to have factory over loads above the regular spring pack.

JBarca wrote:
I think the 1st step is to weigh the camper, truck, all the stuff in the truck and camper and getting the 3 sets of axles weights. This will tell you all about the WD, loaded TW per TT GVW.

Then you know what and why you are adjusting.

From truck stuff you added the truck should of weighed more if the tongue weight rose like it was suppose to. The 1st adjustment is to get the loaded tongue weight up in the 13% or higher range. Then go adjust WD. Again, back to the scales.

And next time when you are hooked up, look at the helper springs when loaded. Are they kissing the frame bracket at least on one end of the spring?

What brand and size are your truck tires?

Your rig and mine are not that much different. Other than Dodge to Ford suspension differences which may be more than one thinks.

My truck doesn't have the helper springs on it. I'll try to get a pic of the rear springs-I think they are 4 really thick leaves on top of blocks. Tire size is 265/70/17 Firestone Transforce HT

I think the 1st step is to weigh the camper, truck, all the stuff in the truck and camper and getting the 3 sets of axles weights. This will tell you all about the WD, loaded TW per TT GVW.

Then you know what and why you are adjusting.

From truck stuff you added the truck should of weighed more if the tongue weight rose like it was suppose to. The 1st adjustment is to get the loaded tongue weight up in the 13% or higher range. Then go adjust WD. Again, back to the scales.

And next time when you are hooked up, look at the helper springs when loaded. Are they kissing the frame bracket at least on one end of the spring?

What brand and size are your truck tires?

Your rig and mine are not that much different. Other than Dodge to Ford suspension differences which may be more than one thinks.

JBarca wrote:

dragr1 wrote:
Truck handled it w/o a sweat, camper pulled great. Got a little push from wind gusts on the way back,
but nothing bad, averaged 9.5 mpg for the trip.

I also weighed it on the way home, but the weights aren't comparable to the weights earlier b/c so much was different. I also didn't have time to unhook and weigh the truck by itself or unhook the WDH bars and weigh b/c of trucks in line at the scales. So all I got was what it weighed as I was towing it down the road with the WDH bars hooked up, camper fully loaded including clothes and food.

Front 4480
Rear 4740
Trailer 8760

Total 17980


Before Weights
Empty:

Front axle: 4660
Rear axle: 2880
Total 7540

Loaded:

Front axle: 4280
Rear axle: 4420
Camper axles: 7940
Total 16640

This much you know.

GCW now: 17,980
GCW before: 16,640

Total rig gained: 1,340# some where.

TT axles now: 8,760
TT axles before: 7,970

TT axles gained: 790#


Truck GVW hitched now: 9,220
Truck GVW hitched before: 8,700

Truck gained 520#

TT axles gain 790 + Truck gained 520 = 1,310#

There is scale error of 30# which is normal.

If you really have 300# of firewood in the truck, that means only 220# was everything else. OK, so it was a high fire wood estimate and you will not know until you weigh the rig with the 3 scale trips.

Now expand on the "got a little push from wind gusts on the way back". Tell us what you felt in the truck and did you have to do a steering correction because of it? Tell us if it felt like the front or the back of the truck shifted.

What speed were you traveling when this happened?

You may be fighting a little low tongue weight. The truck did not gain much weight from the TT if you had a lot of gear in the truck. Yet the TT axles gained 790#, some which is WD transfer.

Remember I stated that your TT started at 11% dry tongue weight and you need to try and get it up higher when loading. Ideally 150 to 200# more loaded tongue weight should of been on the truck which should of risen your truck GVW even higher.

The scales will sort this out. The higher the TW, the more stable the TT (up to a point) and the higher anti sway control friction is created in the WD hitch.

Also what was the front and rear truck tire pressures and TT tire pressures?

You may be suffering from a little low TW and non optimized WD hitch setup and maybe a tire stiffness issue. Need to sort out the TW first, then the WD hitch and tires.

Hope this helps and good luck.

The difference in the truck by itself from last time-my wife was not in the truck this time, so subtract 120 pounds, but then add 90 pounds of side steps, about 100 pounds of tools, maybe 30 pounds for air compressor, maybe another 25 pounds for a bicycle, the new receiver hitch which is heavier than the stock one, and then the firewood estimate and new spray in bedliner since last weigh
Oh and there was also more fuel in the truck this time-about 1/4 tank more, so call it 9 gallons or so


As for the push in wind gusts, never felt out of control at all, I can kind of describe it as tail wagging the dog type of sway from back when I had a motorhome. But it was only for a second and then went away, it never swayed back and forth. Trailer tires were aired at the max 65psi cold, truck tires were at the factory rating of 60psi front and 75psi rear. From back in my motorhome days, I always check air pressure before every trip. Speed was around 65mph

You thinking that I should raise the L bracket a hole or two? Remember I also changed the number of spacer washers to 7-last time it was 4.

dragr1 wrote:
Truck handled it w/o a sweat, camper pulled great. Got a little push from wind gusts on the way back,
but nothing bad, averaged 9.5 mpg for the trip.

I also weighed it on the way home, but the weights aren't comparable to the weights earlier b/c so much was different. I also didn't have time to unhook and weigh the truck by itself or unhook the WDH bars and weigh b/c of trucks in line at the scales. So all I got was what it weighed as I was towing it down the road with the WDH bars hooked up, camper fully loaded including clothes and food.

Front 4480
Rear 4740
Trailer 8760

Total 17980


Before Weights
Empty:

Front axle: 4660
Rear axle: 2880
Total 7540

Loaded:

Front axle: 4280
Rear axle: 4420
Camper axles: 7940
Total 16640

This much you know.

GCW now: 17,980
GCW before: 16,640

Total rig gained: 1,340# some where.

TT axles now: 8,760
TT axles before: 7,970

TT axles gained: 790#


Truck GVW hitched now: 9,220
Truck GVW hitched before: 8,700

Truck gained 520#

TT axles gain 790 + Truck gained 520 = 1,310#

There is scale error of 30# which is normal.

If you really have 300# of firewood in the truck, that means only 220# was everything else. OK, so it was a high fire wood estimate and you will not know until you weigh the rig with the 3 scale trips.

Now expand on the "got a little push from wind gusts on the way back". Tell us what you felt in the truck and did you have to do a steering correction because of it? Tell us if it felt like the front or the back of the truck shifted.

What speed were you traveling when this happened?

You may be fighting a little low tongue weight. The truck did not gain much weight from the TT if you had a lot of gear in the truck. Yet the TT axles gained 790#, some which is WD transfer.

Remember I stated that your TT started at 11% dry tongue weight and you need to try and get it up higher when loading. Ideally 150 to 200# more loaded tongue weight should of been on the truck which should of risen your truck GVW even higher.

The scales will sort this out. The higher the TW, the more stable the TT (up to a point) and the higher anti sway control friction is created in the WD hitch.

Also what was the front and rear truck tire pressures and TT tire pressures?

You may be suffering from a little low TW and non optimized WD hitch setup and maybe a tire stiffness issue. Need to sort out the TW first, then the WD hitch and tires.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Thanks for the tip John. Mine does not have the anode so I'll try to pick up the parts to do that this weekend. That's a simple and functional solution.

That's handy John, wish I didn't have the anode in mine.