F150 Towing Sway
Hello, We recently purchased a 33' (overall) TT and tow it behind our 2012 F150. It tows and doesn't jump over 3k RPM going uphill around 55MPH, but the sway is horrible . I have a Husky setup that...
Forum Discussion
First, I'm not going to preach to you about upgrading your truck. I pulled 31 ft TT that weighed 7000 lbs with an 8,000 lb tow rated 1997 F150... I used a regular WD hitch and two sway controls. You can make a decision about upgrading trucks on your own.
The set up looks pretty good from a visual pic. What I would like to see is more hitch head tilt away from the truck. What we are trying to do is get the front axle to return to the unloaded front axle weight. It looks to me that you may be unloading the front axle too much. Use a tape measure and measure your front wheel well heights with the truck unloaded. Use the WD hitch to restore this measurement to within 1/2 inch....the closer the better. Add more angle to the hitch head and go from there.
Now, we need to talk about sway....what many people call "sway" is the natural suck and pull motion of passing vehicles and wind. This is not sway...this is wiggle...that is, you can feel the trailer wiggling behind you.
Sway is side to side oscillation (tail wagging the dog, trying to hold a toy snake by the tail) this is sway and it's deadly.
Wiggle is natural but can be removed by sway controls....that's really a bad name for them, they are dampeners and work to take the wiggle away, with two sway controls most if not all of the wiggle will be gone. There is a tension bolt on the sway bars, after you get the WD dialed in and the second bar on we can adjust this bolt in 1/4 turns until the optimum dampening is achieved.
Remember the on off handle on the sway bars are just that. On off bars. I would bottom them out on mine and then back the handle off about 1/4 turn to be parallel with the frame.
Oh, you don't have to pay $100.00 for a second bar anyway. You can buy them on Amazon for around $40.00 or used on craigslist for even cheaper from time to time.
On edit I agree with BenK on lowering the hitch head one more hole. He posted while I was typing my last reply. This will achieve a nose down attitude which is good for tongue weight and will help the handling.
You can do this when you are adjusting the tilt of the hitch head.
Thanks!
Jeremiah
The set up looks pretty good from a visual pic. What I would like to see is more hitch head tilt away from the truck. What we are trying to do is get the front axle to return to the unloaded front axle weight. It looks to me that you may be unloading the front axle too much. Use a tape measure and measure your front wheel well heights with the truck unloaded. Use the WD hitch to restore this measurement to within 1/2 inch....the closer the better. Add more angle to the hitch head and go from there.
Now, we need to talk about sway....what many people call "sway" is the natural suck and pull motion of passing vehicles and wind. This is not sway...this is wiggle...that is, you can feel the trailer wiggling behind you.
Sway is side to side oscillation (tail wagging the dog, trying to hold a toy snake by the tail) this is sway and it's deadly.
Wiggle is natural but can be removed by sway controls....that's really a bad name for them, they are dampeners and work to take the wiggle away, with two sway controls most if not all of the wiggle will be gone. There is a tension bolt on the sway bars, after you get the WD dialed in and the second bar on we can adjust this bolt in 1/4 turns until the optimum dampening is achieved.
Remember the on off handle on the sway bars are just that. On off bars. I would bottom them out on mine and then back the handle off about 1/4 turn to be parallel with the frame.
Oh, you don't have to pay $100.00 for a second bar anyway. You can buy them on Amazon for around $40.00 or used on craigslist for even cheaper from time to time.
On edit I agree with BenK on lowering the hitch head one more hole. He posted while I was typing my last reply. This will achieve a nose down attitude which is good for tongue weight and will help the handling.
You can do this when you are adjusting the tilt of the hitch head.
Thanks!
Jeremiah
