A little uncomfortable with my set up...
Let me explain... I went from a Wildwood travel trailer (22ft, 3600lbs) to a Jayco 273 Toy Hauler (31ft 6500lb, 12ft high). My tonque weight went up significantly from probably a few hundred lbs t...
Forum Discussion
Jersey, anything anyone here suggests at this point is nothing more than a guess, and many of those guessing have never dealt with the TH situation. Until you get the rig to a good 3 pad scale, like a CAT scale and post up the actual ready to travel scale weights these guesses are just that, guesses. Go weigh the rig.
My old 31' TH (28' box) scaled at 9,500lbs with just some campsite gear and 6 bicycles in the 12' garage, but it had 1460lbs of tongue weight. TH's are typically very tongue heavy, I seriously doubt that you issues are related to the tongue being too light.
Does your F-150 have P metric tires or LT tires on it? If you are going to be towing a heavy TH then upgrading to LTs would be a good first step.
You have mentioned that your WD is a good HD unit, but you have not shared what rating spring bars are on it, it's possible that you are not transferring enough weight back to the front axle of the truck with too light of spring bars on the WD hitch. The scale weights will verify or dispel this.
And yes, upgrading to a better WD with some sort of built-in sway control will be superior to the bolt-on friction bars, they are just a better setup.
If the TH has crappy no-name Chinese ST tires on it, upgrading to a heavier load rated name brand tire is a good idea. The USA made Goodyear Endurance tires are building a solid reputation.
The length, weight and height increases over the old TT will absolutely change the towing dynamics of the truck/trailer combo with respect to crosswinds and passing large vehicles. Where the current hitch was adequate for the old TT it may be beyond it's abilities with the new larger TH. WD hitch spring bars come in a variety of sizes for a good reason.....
I think your F-150, properly setup with a good WD with built-in sway control and balanced correctly via a 3 pad scale should be a pretty comfortable towing combo.
My old 31' TH (28' box) scaled at 9,500lbs with just some campsite gear and 6 bicycles in the 12' garage, but it had 1460lbs of tongue weight. TH's are typically very tongue heavy, I seriously doubt that you issues are related to the tongue being too light.
Does your F-150 have P metric tires or LT tires on it? If you are going to be towing a heavy TH then upgrading to LTs would be a good first step.
You have mentioned that your WD is a good HD unit, but you have not shared what rating spring bars are on it, it's possible that you are not transferring enough weight back to the front axle of the truck with too light of spring bars on the WD hitch. The scale weights will verify or dispel this.
And yes, upgrading to a better WD with some sort of built-in sway control will be superior to the bolt-on friction bars, they are just a better setup.
If the TH has crappy no-name Chinese ST tires on it, upgrading to a heavier load rated name brand tire is a good idea. The USA made Goodyear Endurance tires are building a solid reputation.
The length, weight and height increases over the old TT will absolutely change the towing dynamics of the truck/trailer combo with respect to crosswinds and passing large vehicles. Where the current hitch was adequate for the old TT it may be beyond it's abilities with the new larger TH. WD hitch spring bars come in a variety of sizes for a good reason.....
I think your F-150, properly setup with a good WD with built-in sway control and balanced correctly via a 3 pad scale should be a pretty comfortable towing combo.
