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astraelraen's avatar
astraelraen
Explorer
Jun 26, 2013

First long distance tow, questions

We took our travel trailer on our first long distance trip this past weekend. Did about 500 miles round trip. Kept the speeds at 60-65mph or lower depending on curves, so I would say for the first ever long distance tow it was pretty good. I didn't really have any white-knuckle moments. There were a handful of incidents where it felt like I needed to slow down because of sway from crosswinds and the semi trailers would occasionally suck me in/push me away.

This is the WDH that came with the trailer when I bought it used.
http://www.ultra-fab.com/new_detail2.cfm?productid=147

I had two main questions though.

First, there was some "porpoising" of the trailer back and forth. I don't think it occurred all the time, just over certain rough road surfaces. Some threads seem to imply this is normal for travel trailers over rough roads, some imply that it should never porpoise. Just looking for some feedback in that regard.

Second, when I originally setup the WDH I measured the front wheel rise as Ford specifies and it didn't really seem to rise all that much without the weight distributing bars attached. Maybe 1/2 an inch? I would have to lookup the specs of the trailer since I don't have scale weights, but the trailer GVWR is <7000lbs.

When I bought the trailer/WDH used, it was setup with the trailer sitting slightly inclined on the hitch. I adjusted it before we left and it is as even as I can get it. Should I drop the ball down another notch and try to get the trailer pointed down slightly? Also, the ball is angled slightly away from the tow vehicle. Should I try to adjust the ball angle?

Or should I leave good enough alone since it didn't give me any real problems? Realistically, I'm not going to have the time to go find a scale and spend an hour adjusting things at a scale.

Obligatory picture outside of Baker City, Oregon

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum size.

11 Replies

  • Airstreamer67's avatar
    Airstreamer67
    Explorer
    Jun 28, 2013
    I Second the second sway control bar. For less than a hundred bucks, it will eliminate the push/pull from giant 18 wheelers passing by.

    I'll also recommend the AirSafe hitch. It does all that its web pages say. The sorry highways we travel are smoothed out considerably by the Firestone air bags in that hitch. But, it's not as cheap a solution as the second sway bar, albeit worth every dollar I spent on it in 2006.
  • mosseater's avatar
    mosseater
    Explorer II
    Jun 27, 2013
    dodge guy wrote:
    dodge guy wrote:
    The porposing usually comes from insufficient tongue weight. were talking as little as 50-100lbs. you need to know the ready to travel trailer weight so you can get the proper tongue weight (12-13%) and then be sure you have a WD system rated for your loaded tongue weight.


    Or an over adjusted WD hitch, and/or an oversized WD hitch.


    In my case, with about 1100 lbs tongue I'm over 13% on a 34' trailer, so I'm guessing my porpoising, though not excessive, is mainly softly sprung F 150, and/or not enough shock dampening, and more likely the latter. Probably not the case with the OP's setup given the trailer length/tongue weight. I'm betting light tongue.
  • dodge_guy's avatar
    dodge_guy
    Explorer II
    Jun 27, 2013
    dodge guy wrote:
    The porposing usually comes from insufficient tongue weight. were talking as little as 50-100lbs. you need to know the ready to travel trailer weight so you can get the proper tongue weight (12-13%) and then be sure you have a WD system rated for your loaded tongue weight.


    Or an over adjusted WD hitch, and/or an oversized WD hitch.
  • Lowsuv's avatar
    Lowsuv
    Explorer
    Jun 27, 2013
    when i bought my 4th rv setup i wanted something that i could tow long distances comfortably .
    i went with a 21T komfort that is actually 23.5 feet long .
    the longer the trailer the more the pendulum effect is .
    i also went with an hd2500 pickup with the heavy diesel engine up front .
    i bought an AIR-RIDE hitch .
    it has an airbag built into the hitch that allows the trailer tongue to move up without resistance ( 3 " range ).
    when the tongue moves down the momentum is softened by the air bag ( 2 " range ).
    the AIR-RIDE hitch slides into my standard 2 inch receiver .
    on short trips i do not need the equalizing bars .
    i use about 950 # of tongue weight and my TT axles weigh about 5300- 5600 #
    when i do use the equalizer bars i run them a chain link "loose" as my pickup has plenty of rear axle payload left over ( 600+ # under ) .
    this has proven to give a " non-porpoising " ride .
    it is a kick to look in my rear view mirror and see my trailer moving up and down relative to my pickup .
  • dodge_guy's avatar
    dodge_guy
    Explorer II
    Jun 27, 2013
    The porposing usually comes from insufficient tongue weight. were talking as little as 50-100lbs. you need to know the ready to travel trailer weight so you can get the proper tongue weight (12-13%) and then be sure you have a WD system rated for your loaded tongue weight.
  • astraelraen's avatar
    astraelraen
    Explorer
    Jun 26, 2013
    Thanks for the tips. I have considered buying one of the more expensive integrated WDH systems depending how frequently I can convince my family to go camping. The trailer is about 24ft long so if it gives me any trouble I may just buy another friction sway bar since they are so cheap compared to the integrated systems.
  • jerem0621's avatar
    jerem0621
    Explorer II
    Jun 26, 2013
    The sway bar is FINE. Don't change your whole set up unless you just want to.

    The push pull is not a product of sway control it is a product of wind and passing vehicles. Sway controls combat this. It looks like you are right about 25 ish feet which is about max for a single friction sway control. Adding a second sway bar will make your rig feel rock solid as far as the truck and the trailer are concerned.

    What I recommend and what I try to achieve to get the truck and the trailer to feel like one unit when being passed or when the wind is blowing. Often when a vehicle passes you may feel the trailer get sucked towards the passing vehicle then the trailer is pushed, then the truck is pulled and pushed as the vehicle passes. What you want to feel is the suck/pull motion to be one solid feel between the truck and the trailer.

    One friction control should do this if your trailer is under 25 ish feet. Over that length and you really can use two.

    Some Porpousing is natural for a TT and a TV. You will get use to it. The WD hitch can help this affect.

    Thanks!
  • skipnchar's avatar
    skipnchar
    Explorer
    Jun 26, 2013
    Your rig LOOKS to be fairly well set up, from the photo. Leveling is not required to be perfect and you're looking quite level. The Push/pull from being passed by a truck is more a product of your sway control than the WD system. In EVERY respect you'd do well to upgrade your friction bar to an integrated anti sway system (Reece duel cam or Equalizer). The duel cam can likely be retrofitted to your current hitch but the Equalizer would require a complete new system. Either one would be well worth the effort or expense.
  • fla-gypsy's avatar
    fla-gypsy
    Explorer
    Jun 26, 2013
    Based on the pic and your description it sounds like you are pretty close. I think it is about as good as you can do without scaling it to know exact numbers to tweak it. There are better WD /sway control systems that may improve the feel.

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