Difficulty Reducing Tongue Weight
Hello! I joined today because I have been unable to solve my towing issues and would like to see if anyone can give me ideas to help.
Tow rig: 2018 F150 Lariat Crew 4x4, 3.5L max tow
Camper: 2007 Gulf Stream Innsbruck 24RKL
Background: For as long as I’ve owned this camper, towing with two previous GM trucks, I’ve never felt comfortable towing this trailer. It doesn’t sway, but in any type of winds, the stability just isn’t great. It feels as if I am being shoved around and it can be difficult to keep in the lanes at times. I upgraded to an equalizer hitch setup in hopes that would help, but it has not. I decided to start from scratch and start weighing everything. This is where I ran into a serious problem. My camper, with no propane, water, gear in the front is weighing in at 1200 tongue weight using a sherline scale. After finding that, I hit the cat scales and confirmed a reading of 1160. This is well in excess of the recommended 10-15%. I am also just under my gvwr, with just me in the truck, and the tongue weight is over the rating of my equalizer.
I tried to fill my back grey tank, shift weight and the best I could get down to was 1100 lbs. Basically, I’m at a loss on how to get this trailer down to an acceptable tongue weight of say 900 lbs. The actual tongue weight is far in excess of what the trailer spec sheet shows. I guess shame on me for not figuring all of this out earlier, but I want to figure out how to make this safe and comfortable to tow.. I would appreciate any suggestions, and please let me know if I’ve left out any detail needed. I am looking to get rid of this camper at this point because it would seem that I need 600-700 lbs of ballast at the rear to make this right, but I am afraid of creating a sway issue. Thank you for any and all input.
Tow rig: 2018 F150 Lariat Crew 4x4, 3.5L max tow
Camper: 2007 Gulf Stream Innsbruck 24RKL
Background: For as long as I’ve owned this camper, towing with two previous GM trucks, I’ve never felt comfortable towing this trailer. It doesn’t sway, but in any type of winds, the stability just isn’t great. It feels as if I am being shoved around and it can be difficult to keep in the lanes at times. I upgraded to an equalizer hitch setup in hopes that would help, but it has not. I decided to start from scratch and start weighing everything. This is where I ran into a serious problem. My camper, with no propane, water, gear in the front is weighing in at 1200 tongue weight using a sherline scale. After finding that, I hit the cat scales and confirmed a reading of 1160. This is well in excess of the recommended 10-15%. I am also just under my gvwr, with just me in the truck, and the tongue weight is over the rating of my equalizer.
I tried to fill my back grey tank, shift weight and the best I could get down to was 1100 lbs. Basically, I’m at a loss on how to get this trailer down to an acceptable tongue weight of say 900 lbs. The actual tongue weight is far in excess of what the trailer spec sheet shows. I guess shame on me for not figuring all of this out earlier, but I want to figure out how to make this safe and comfortable to tow.. I would appreciate any suggestions, and please let me know if I’ve left out any detail needed. I am looking to get rid of this camper at this point because it would seem that I need 600-700 lbs of ballast at the rear to make this right, but I am afraid of creating a sway issue. Thank you for any and all input.
