Do I need stabilizer or WD?

Thank you for your responses. When the rain stops, I'll check the weight capacities. Would you use only one sway bar? Are they hard to install? I guess I'll need to check on the Honda thing. Not quite understanding that part, but I'll need to find out more. I mainly want to eliminate whatever sway I can, since I still need to get used to towing it. The previous owner never used one, and said I wouldn't need one, but I don't have his experience, and would rather play it safely. I had figured on putting supplies in the bed of the truck. Is that not advisable?

I'm not sure if you can even use a WD hitch on a Ridgeline, you would have to check with Honda. The problem is the WD hitch kind of "lifts" the front of the trailer transferring some weight to the front wheels of the vehicle. The Ridgeline does not have a full frame so I'm not sure how that would work. The friction sway bars act as kind of a brake to slow sway from side to side. We towed with just a sway bar for years and had no real problems. Bought a WD because we still got some bounce with certain road conditions. Your trailer probably has under 300 tongue weight so you would probably be ok with the sway bar. Just don't load too much into the bed.

petnzoo wrote:
Firstly...I am new to all of this. My first camper. I'm a little older, and retired, and hoping I can do this. My camper is in the middle of being worked on. I've never towed before. So..I see from previous posts, weight capacities and such are required. I'll have to get those later. My question is..do I need a stabilizer bar, or weight distribution? And in laymen terms, how do they work? What I can tell you.. My TT is a 1987 Shasta 155MB. (15 ft). Specs say 2280 pounds.
My tow vehicle is a 2008 Honda Ridgeline with after-market reese hitch.. I've heard several different things. I want not to get sway, if avoidable. Can anyone help me understand what I may or may not need? Thanks in advance..

Welcome to the forum.

With a Ridgeline I would say that you would need a WDH and also a way to control sway. There are many WDH systems that have anti sway built in and the one in my signature is one of them.

In layman's terms they work like this:

WDH - There are sping bars that are an integral part of this system so that when sized and installed properly, they take the rear end sag out of the rear of the truck after the trailer is connected. The weight is re-distributed forward to the front axle of the truck and aft to the axle of the trailer, flattening out the hinge point (the hitch).

Anti-sway - Any anti sway device would involve some measure of resistance (friction or dashpots) to counter trailer sway, which is a "fish-tailing" of the trailer as it is being towed. With resistance countering this motion, the motion is "damped" and the trailer tows true (straight)

Before you can get the proper sized hitch system and before installing any anti-sway device (built-in or separate) you need to get the trailer and truck weighed on truck scales. That is a topic for a separate thread.

What you need to know is the percentage of weight that is at the hitch and the total fully loaded weight of the trailer. The hithc weight should be between 10 - 15% (or more) for a good balance to minimize sway. This should be ensured BEFORE you install any anti-sway device.

You also need to ensure that the total loaded weight is not exceeding any capacities (tow capacity, rear axle capacity) of the truck.

If all of that is taken care of then you are good to go!

Good luck.