Stability, hitch and tongue weight....

Flapper wrote:
So, here's the plan:

Have to go to dealer (80 mi) on Mon. A couple of hundred pounds came out of the trailer after this past trip. So I'll go with full water, and as close to zero rise on the front of the truck as I can get. But no other changes, so I get a base to compare to. After I've killed the 3 hrs at the dealer, I'll air up the truck tires to 70 front, 80 back. Stop at a scale that is near the dealer and get weights. Only adjust the tires if the front tires get too bouncy.
After getting home, will reweigh the tongue using the bathroom scale (to compare to the truck stop). Drain water, and reweigh, just to confirm how much additional tongue it contributes.
If ride home was not much better, will water up, and go buy however much bagged topsoil added to front compartment is needed to get me to 1,000 lbs tongue, and go for a drive.

If better, then will start looking at bigger batteries as a permanent weight solution for the front.
In any case, if doing the tires alone didn't fix it, then will order the ProPride - either to fix it, or because with added weight I'll need a beefier WDH anyway.

Hi Flapper,

You have a good plan. I'll add one more tip to consider. Take a tire pressure gage with you if you already do not have one in the truck. When you get to the tire pressures stage of the experiment, if the 70psi gives you too much bounce that you fell is no good, then find a pull off spot. By now the tires have warmed up and will be above 70psi cold pressure that you started with. Figure out where this is, 83 psi or what ever it is, and subtract 5 psi from it. Then air down to the new number, in this example, would be 78psi and keep the test going. If that works, leave them and then the next day when the tires have cooled off, check the pressure and see what it is cold. It will not be exactly 5 psi less but something that has stabilized as cold pressure. Then record that sweet spot number. Out on the road, it is easier to air down then go up in this kind of experiment.

And after enough time that you have confirmed it really is the sweet spot, you can take the next step to finding out where it starts to come apart. Go down 5 psi cold and try it. If it starts going unstable, then you know how many psi you are from an unstable rig. In my case, I only had 5psi to work in. Any more then 5psi above and I had truck front end bounce. 5 psi lower and I had the start of truck instability. Not a great place to be, but that was what that brand tire, size and tread created in my situation. At least I knew.

Does you truck have a TPM that gives a readout in the cab? Some do, some don't. In this case if you have one, that is a help as you can see where you are at live when the rig is stable or not. And when you find that new sweet spot, you can tell if you are at it or below it.


To add to your other reply on my tire pressure issues I had with the LTX, the tire manufactures list tire pressures for weights they can carry. This is all published. There is no rating for side wall stiffness. That is the problem for those of us towing TT's. While door sticker pressures and weight charts will carry the weights well, they may not create the stability in the truck needed to hold the truck and camper stable.

For some rigs, their setup just plan worked out of the gate. The combo of tires and pressures at the time, aspect ratio of the tire, truck wheelbase, rear overhang, rear truck suspension, rear stabilizer bars, truck weights, shock absorbers, trailer tongue weight in relation to GVW, WD hitch setup etc all just worked. Others look and and say, What's this guy's issue?

And then there are some of us with, it doesn't want to play well as a combo and we have to work at it...(You have joined the club with me...) Out of the list above there are some items you can adjust and some you can't. The key is to optimize everyone you can adjust to eliminate it as a variable.

It would sure help if there was a side wall stiffness rating on tires. Then us TT towers can select both the stiffness at the weight rating and tread pattern along with high quality to buy a tire that can make the truck tow stable right out of the gate and still give acceptable ride. Until then, camping forums and guys and gals talking about what worked and what did not work for them is a big help. It is like we need a big data base of trucks, campers, WD hitch, setup parameters and tire brand, type and size that works and does not work to help create a "what works" list on tires.

Think of it this way, right now you are learning a bunch about your truck, camper, WD hitch and truck tires about why they are and are not working. If this all worked out of the gate, you would of never be learning any of these good details on why it worked, just that the combo did...

I know, this process can be painful, but you will get past this if you keep plugging like you are. And congrats to you for trying to fix it. I always said, one learns more when you have to fix something when it is broke then when it works...

Let us know how it goes.

John