New 30ft Trailer Towing Experience

Just got back from out week long trip. The Toyota and trailer did great. Had some 30mph crosswinds, lots of long up and down grades, but relatively cool temps.

No doubt you can "feel" it in the wind. It didn't sway, some slight pulls, but more concerned about the rig actually tipping over. It was never driving me out of the lane or towards the shoulder.

Again weighed it fully loaded with 2/3rds water on the way out and was 20 lbs over on rear axle and total payload. After that first day never towed over half fresh water. Did tow with full grey and half full black between sites a couple times. Our fresh adds about 1/3 of the total weight to the tongue, grey is neutral, and black lightens tongue weight.

It did tow better in the wind with water, and actually was fine up and down grades. 3rd gear at 7000-8000 ft passes doing 55-60 mph.

My Tekonsha Prodigy RF wireless handheld controller did go out halfway through the trip. The actual brake controller continued to work, although with heavier braking as slow speeds than I would of liked (pulling into parking lots etc).

Coming down the long grades it did really well. There is so much aerodynamic drag at 50-60 mph that it wouldn't accelerate very much. I took several brake temps and never saw over 190 degrees on the trailer (rear) drums. For some reason the front drums on the trailer were always about 40 degrees cooler that the rears. Not sure why the rears would be braking more. The front disks on the Toyota max temp was about 260-280 degrees.

The toughest part was the slow descents at 20-30 mph down the tight turning grades. 1st gear was too much, and it would accelerate in 2nd. We just took it slow, and pulled off at the turnouts to check the brakes and let the traffic pass.

As stated before, managing the payload is the issue. Once that is done, the actual towing experience is great. Would a 3/4 ton tow better? Almost without a doubt. Would it be "safer"? If the trailer was set up correctly, maybe. But every rig needs to be set up properly. I passed, or saw lots of unsafe rigs this past week. Masking an improper setup isn't a solution. A ball is a ball, no matter what it is connected to.

A trailer will sway whether towed by a 1/2 ton or a full ton dually. Once sway starts, the bigger trucks would absolutely handle it better. I'd prefer to not have the sway start to begin with. I think the key is to do the math. Weigh the setup, get the tongue weight right. Keep loaded weight low and centered over the trailer axles. It is quite amazing the amount of tongue weight changes that happen with seemingly small item movements within the trailer....duffel bags of clothes, tool bags, folding chairs etc. Those few items can change your tongue weight by over 100 lbs.

I'm looking fwd to the new Expedition and seeing what that payload numbers will be. The 10 speed tranny will be awesome for towing too.