Sway Fatigue

Rough31 wrote:
I am wondering if there are parts of the tow vehicle/trailer that will suffer fatigue over a long haul trip resulting in increased trailer sway while you travel. And what can be done to reduce those problems.

My truck is a 2011 Silverado 1500 with the 5.3L engine and factory tow package. The vehicle is rated for 10,500lbs. My trailer is the Sunset Trail 31SS. The factory dry weight is 7000lbs so I am well within my vehicles tow capacity. My hitch is an Equalizer with 1000lb sway arms.

I recently completed a trip from Southern Ontario to Disney World and back again. On previous trips my set up has been very effective and I felt I had weight distribution and sway control very well balanced. I do not carry more then 5 gallons of fluids and am consistent from trip to trip with what weight I have on board and how it is carried.

In both directions, day one was completed without noticing any significant sway issues. Day two was generally still comfortable, some jet wash movement was noted but nothing significant. Day three, on both trips was white knuckle at times.

On the trip South, I did not unhitch at the overnight stops and I wondered if that may have resulted in some form of fatigue of the suspension or other parts. For the return trip I made sure i unhitched each night and still experienced the same challenges. I raised my L-brackets and that did seem to provide some relief but did not completely resolve the issues.

I tried to note when it was the worst. It seemed after any rest stop I would feel more sway for another 30-40 miles and would see a significant difference after refuelling which would be the only period of major weight change.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Well according to the following ....pgs 9-91 thru 9-103

Your assumed and promised 10,500lb tow capacity is obviously wrong since towing capacities over 10K are only for the 6.2L engine with the 3.73 rear end. Also your assumed payload of 1928 is only for the CC short box with the 6.2L engine and NHT "Maximum trailering pkg" which you don't have.

From reading your posts in this thread it appears you have the 5.3L crew cab "short box" configuration and according to the information in the table referenced above on page 9-92 (2WD version) and page 9-95 (4WD version) your tow capacity is between 6,000 (4WD) (6,100 for 2WD) with a 3.08 rear end and 6700 (4WD)(6800 for 2WD) with a 3.08 rear end and the K5L HD Cooling PKG (7,000 for 2WD K5L HD Cooling Pkg XFE) upto 9500 (4WD) (9600 for 2WD) with the 3.42 rear end and K5L HD Cooling Pkg.

Biggest issue I see is also in that the GCWR varies from only 11,500 to 15,000 as a max and with a trailer having a "dry wt" of 7,000 and a wet wt. of probably closer to 8500 attached to a 1/2T TV with a max. GVWR of 7300(4WD) or 7100(2WD), I bet you are most likely over or VERY, VERY close to all your ratings .... GCWR, GVWR and probably RAWR and maybe even tires. There is also a chance you have exceeded not only your WDH rating of 1,000lbs, but the factory receiver max tongue wt. for using a WDH setup.

As Ben correctly stated you are on or over the edge in a lot of separate areas and what you are experiencing IMHO is how fickle a tow combo behaves when you have basically exceeded or pushed the limits too close. Some days it feels great and other days is a "NIGHTMARE".

Finally, I agree instead of you guessing widly at numbers you need to get to a set of scales and remove all this guess work and start dealing with facts and not wishes and fantasy numbers.

Not to scare you, but what would really concern me is that being on that "bitter edge" so to speak could end you up in the ditch or worse when you run into a combination of factors that put those now close limits into the dangerous or deadly area and you won't know it until it happens and then it's too late.

It's been fairly well documented IMO with many, many posts from 1/2 TV owners that with a very few exceptions one would be wise to stay with TTs with a dry wt. of between 5,000 and 6,000 lbs so that you have a reasonable amount of safety margin left over to handle "MR. MURPHY" when he unexpectedly shows up.

Larry