Tow Vehicle Making me Seasick

elivi8 wrote:
Weight it. Something seems off. Knowing the weights will give you a good place to start.

X2 You can spend money and a lot of it on shocks, air springs and other things and it may not help.

But if you find your tongue weight is very light or possibly very heavy adjusting the weight distribution may fix the problem and will only cost a couple trips to the CAT scales.

WoodGlue wrote:
Bouncing on concrete is part of towing unfortunately. I have a perfect setup/weight distribution and I bounce like crazy on concrete too.

WoodGlue

Have had that problem for as long as I have towed a TT, and now have the same thing with my MH. Sometimes when traffic is low, , I can get a smoother ride if I move over to the right a little. It seems to work some of the times, because the heavy truck traffic uses the same part of the road and the weight of them causes the pavement to sag. I know, you may think that is stupid, but it has worked. Also try going to the "money lane" {passing lane} when no traffic is on the road, of course moving over when traffic appears.

ktmrfs wrote:
replacing the stock shocks on my duramax with bilsteins helped a great deal. and that was when the factory shocks had less than 5K miles on them.

Normally we don't have any issues with ride on "good" roads. But roads with frost heaves or buckling concrete with expansion joints, even with everything adjusted best it can be will result in TV/Trailer interaction that detracts from the ride.

What solved this problem and really improved the ride quality was installing an AirSafe Air hitch. Decouples the truck from the trailer to a large extent. Going over bad concrete or frost heaves you can watch the trailer slowing moving up and down on the hitch, and the truck stays smooth and level. No jerking or bouncing in the TV.

Now for the downside. That sucker is HEAVY about 125lbs with the WD hitch head on it.

And it isn't inexpensive. If you only travel a few weeks/year or short distances it IMHO probably isn't worth the cost. We travel around 90 days/year, and put on 10K + miles. Even DW says the cost was well worth it.

I also have an " Air-Ride " hitch .
The trailer moves up and down in my rear view mirror independent of the tow vehicle .
It has an air bag and the down movements are softened onto the bag .
I would guess the tongue only travels in a 3 inch range but that is enough .
It was expensive and is heavy .
I only use it for extended trips because of the weight involved in inserting it into my receiver hitch .
It does work good, though .

ktmrfs wrote:
......replacing the stock shocks on my duramax with bilsteins helped a great deal. and that was when the factory shocks had less than 5K miles on them.......snip....

Same on my Nissan. The OE shocks were pretty sad. Replaced them with better shocks, and it improved the towing ride and control a huge amount.

I also agree that careful setup of the WD hitch will be important, as well as likely running towards the high end of tongue weight ( 14%-15% )

When it comes to WD hitches, my preference is to those with a tapered straight bar. My opinion is the travel of it over bumps is a more progressive spring action than a round bar that is the same diameter it's entire length. It could be this progressive action of a tapered bar helps in eliminating porpoising since the first bit of it's movement is rather light. I will admit this theory about the spring bar and how it relates to porpoising is largely speculation on my part though.

Terryallan wrote:


Yep, You can't fix it. Concrete has expansion joints. Expansion joints make the TT, and TV bounce, as they are higher than the surrounding concrete. So the TV, and TT are constantly going over bumps, which you really can't feel in a car, but in the LONGER TV and TT combination. It is amplified. Best thing. Slow down. It won't bounce so much.

"which you can't feel in a car"

A good point. Folks should take note of this statement. That is just one of the advantages of towing with a car, which we do. Traveling is so much more relaxing and enjoyable in a quiet, comfortable vehicle.
PS... the BH is not complaining about the rough ride and noise! That is a biggest advantage!:)

replacing the stock shocks on my duramax with bilsteins helped a great deal. and that was when the factory shocks had less than 5K miles on them.

Normally we don't have any issues with ride on "good" roads. But roads with frost heaves or buckling concrete with expansion joints, even with everything adjusted best it can be will result in TV/Trailer interaction that detracts from the ride.

What solved this problem and really improved the ride quality was installing an AirSafe Air hitch. Decouples the truck from the trailer to a large extent. Going over bad concrete or frost heaves you can watch the trailer slowing moving up and down on the hitch, and the truck stays smooth and level. No jerking or bouncing in the TV.

Now for the downside. That sucker is HEAVY about 125lbs with the WD hitch head on it.

And it isn't inexpensive. If you only travel a few weeks/year or short distances it IMHO probably isn't worth the cost. We travel around 90 days/year, and put on 10K + miles. Even DW says the cost was well worth it.

Some stretches (most actually) of the 210 Freeway here in Los Angeles are scary! All uneven concrete.

WoodGlue

As noted, the spacing of the joints and the speed at which they are crossed have an impact on the severity of the problem. Some hitches handle this better than others. I use an Andersen hitch for just that reason. I do not need it for weight distribution but it sure dampens the bumps.

My setup is perfect. One stretch of US 81 here is horrible. Was terrible with my old F150 (same TT). It was terrible when I bought my Dodge 3500. I replaced all 4 shocks on the Dodge and rebuilt the rear springs. Weighed and adjusted everything perfect and it only slightly reduced the problem. Still terrible. Some stretches of road will be that way due to bad expansion joints.