Issues towing 36 or 37 foot TT?

I have to agree with what most others have said. Our Vibe is around 35 feet long. We do have a WD hitch and have traveled from Indiana to Florida and to Kansas without any issues.

I can say that our old TV had a shorter wheel base and I would feel some sway with it but I have zero issues now with the Suburban.

I believe you will have zero issues as well. Parking is something you will get used to. Some camp sites do not have enough longer spots so you have to book early.

The TT in my signature is 35.5 feet long bumper to hitch. I have towed it with 2 different F150s (2012 and 2016) a Ram 2500 gasser and the Titan XD in my signature. With the Ram you could tell it was there but more from a power standpoint NOT stability. The F150s were white knuckle at times but overall ok to tow with. The Titan XD gives me the best of both worlds.

You'll know its there, there is no way not to with 36 feet behind you. With the F250 diesel a 36 foot TT is a great match for it.

Dont drink the Anti-sway WD Kool Aid.

The facts about trailers are: The longer they are the EASIER they are to tow and the more stable they are...IF loaded and balanced correctly. And while they might be a bit more work to park in some places most will be fine.


The further the distance from the pivot point to the Center Line of the rear axles means the trailer will track truer and pull very well.

What you hear so much of on this site are a lot of people who are essentially afraid of their trailers and uncomfortable driving them.

It's this fear that drives the business for those expensive and in my view useless Anti Sway devices. For which there is not one independent test that supports their manufacturers claims.

My trailer is more than 33 feet overall and this includes a large Bumper platform I designed and had manufactured for it where my generator and a large storage box resides.

I have towed that trailer more than 23 Thousand miles this last year (2016) from Cabo San Lucas to Alaska to Michigan and to Minn then south to Fla. and along the coast of Texas and up and over to Tucson. So I feel confident in saying that I have met very few guys with Sway Equipment and overwhelmingly when I talk to others they say the same thing...Never needed it.

As for a 5th wheel being easier to tow I would dispute that. I have towed both over many thousands of miles. I actually prefer the bumper pull. And I get the full use of my truck bed.

Take heart you will be fine. and a 3/4 ton truck either gas or diesel will tow it just fine. The Diesel will handle it with less huffing and puffing and revving and be better on the hills.

Good Luck

Sway is a function of how you drive and how the trailer is loaded. It is not intrinsic to a trailers design.

We have a Reflection 313RLTS which is 37'4", towed by 2008 Dodge 2500 Cummins. We have no problems moving it down the road, up a hill or down the hill. So for, I have not found a site that could not be backed into. But the site length is something that you will need to pay attention to. Our son has a Jayco that is 35' as well as my baby sis has a camper (can't remember brand) that is 35'. We have roamed from Maine to AZ with out any problems.

small trailers are the ones that have the sway issues

towed my Jayco 38' with a 1-ton Dodge with no sway control and no problems

Here is another point of view.

I have a 2016 Chevy 2500 and a 33bh with a total length of 36 feet.

My Chevy owner's manual says a weight distributing hitch is optional for trailers under a certain weight-something like 12k lbs. My trailer is 7500 and loaded it is probably about 9k lbs.

I have towed it about 2000 miles, over multiple trips, with NO weight distributing hitch. As long as the trailer is level with the truck and I do not overload the rear of the trailer with too much weight (generator and full water tank-there is no sway.

It pulls great without a wd hitch. I would not do this if I had any doubt about safety.

I am using a ball and shank that is rated for 14k lbs and I have the factory tow receiver-Class V I think. I don't want to check under the truck right now. But, I know I am within factory recommended towing guidelines and this is safe.

Do your own research and you will know what is safe and what is recommended by experts for your vehicle. I am confident this point of view will not be popular here.

The basics of towing a long trailer is the same, but it is harder sometimes backing up in state campgrounds with lots of trees on the side of the road. The trees prevent me from getting more or less turn angle sometimes.

Some campgrounds do not have long enough sites for a 35-37 foot trailer or they only have a few that book up fast. We are about 80% booked for a cross country trip from Fl to Ca and back this summer.

Good luck, have fun.

tim1970 wrote:
Wife and I are considering the Jayco 32TSBH or 32RBTS which means a 36 or 37 foot TT. I am curious if it will be possible to pull this length without any sway issues? TV will be a 3/4 ton diesel and I would be willing to get whatever hitch necessary to prevent sway. (If such hitch exists)

Thanks

Tim

Hi Tim,

Our camper is 33' 6" tow ball to rear bumper. I looked up those 2 floor plans, you either did a typo on the 32RBTS or Jayco had that one not on there site. I found a 33RBTS though which I think is what you meant. Jayco 33RBTS

I also want to congratulate you...:C You have been trying to research this and you even went and weighed your truck empty to know real world numbers before buying. WOW. Your truck weights

I see you have the 2016 F250 Diesel. Nice ride! And I see you have been doing the math trying to fit a 5er into that payload. You have a good handle on your weights and your truck.

I'll give you some of my thoughts and how I came at this same situation. In our case, our camper weighs 9,950# loaded with a 1,600# fully loaded tongue weight. I have the F350 gasser. In our case the F250 with the diesel would not work as I would be out of payload with our camper, the way we camp and when I would add a truck cap to the back. The Diesel which a pulling monster, eats up payload.

In your case you have 10,000# GVWR with a 8,180# GVW. Your rear axle is 3,260# against a 6,100# GAWR-RR. This leaves you 1,820# on before GVWR and 2,840# before GAWR-RR.

Since you are looking at bunk houses and have a crew cab, that sounds like kids. At first pass, depending on what "stuff" you put in the truck bed, your GVWR is on the radar. Everyone has their stuff they take. In our case I have 500# of "stuff" that lives in the truck bed and this is with no truck cap. So I went the F350 SRW route to gain more cargo capacity and the gasser gave me a little more payload too.

Point I'm looking at the truck is your total rig. When you get to 36 to 38 foot campers, the truck has to be right, the WD hitch has to be right and the camper tongue weight to TT GVW balance has to be right.

I use the Reese DC. I have 16% loaded tongue weight on the TT and I also have rear helper springs (overload springs). Does your have rear overload springs? Some F250's do, some don't. Reason for asking, in our case those overload springs when I load the bed and adjust the WD, the overload springs just kiss the frame hangers and that create a much more stable towing rig. They sort of act like a rear sway bar. Does yours by chance have a rear sway bar?

Now the trailer. Heads up on these. Jayco is counting on you to load weight in the camper. I can tell by the weights of the camper, they are trying to control how high the tongue weight is going to go.

On the 32TSBH they have a 9.6% dry tongue weight. 815# TW on 8,520# dry weight (empty camper). The heads up is, you need to get that tongue weight up higher for more protection against sway. Ideally get this up to 13% or more with that 36 footer. Which is not that hard to do with the front cargo hole and bedroom. Just watch what you put in the rear wall storage as that will reduce the TW. If you load the camper to the max, of 10,950, 13% TW is 1,424#. More TW helps the stability, but the truck has to carry it.

On the 33RBTS they have a 10.1% dry tongue weight. 865# TW on 8,530# dry weight (empty camper). Same heads up here, empty you are sitting on the bottom end of good TT weight balance to the tongue weight. And on 37' 8" long camper, the TW balance needs to up higher. Again load the camper to get it up in the 13% and above area.

The camper and the 1,400lb area tongue weight will affect the truck. The WD hitch is a must in my opinion with these weights and camper length.

Next comes the anti sway. The Reese DC offers 1,500# and 1,700# WD bars. I "think" your truck receiver can handle those but check or you need and upgraded receiver. And your loaded tongue weight may be above the 1,400# number. In my case, I could not use a Hensley or ProPride WD hitch as they are only rated to 1,400#. The other choices were Reese which I prefer in the ultra friction type of hitch or a PullRite which offers up to a 2,000# TW. Pull Rite 2K TW hitch

The Pull Rite is the best bumper pull WD and anti sway hitch out there in my opinion. The pure mechanical concept it works on is very solid. It does however have 1 drawback, in non WD mode it is only rated for 300 to 500# pending which turck it fits weight carrying. Since I tow other trailers then the camper, and even some with WD, that low weight carrying rating was a hard one for me to get past. And, this hitch adds weight to the truck. I do not recall how much, 300 maybe more pounds.

My setup with the 1,700# Reese DC, the 15 to 16% loaded camper and F350 when setup correctly, does a good job but I did have to work through some adjustment as it was not a slam dunk. I get no movement from semi's passing or high winds (30mph) but the rig in not invincible. I have only had 1 time when extreme winds broke the DC loose from holding the truck. They were for sure above 30 mph, may have been 45 or more mph I had no reference.

Truck tires also play in this setup and the wrong tires can be bad news when towing long campers. More on that later if needed. But the OEM Continental Contrac TR's work well.

If I was going to tow 37 feet, I would seriously consider the Pull Rite and figure out how to deal with the low weight carrying rating. This is based on my towing background and knowing the good and bad of the Reese, we also do a fair quantity of towing (~ 5K miles a year). You are right on, for asking about towing that long of a trailer that has that much weight on a TT. Open flat beds are a different story then a TT.

I had some time today to type, so hope this helps give you a perspective to research further to come to a good decision.

John

As others have said, it the hitch is set up correctly then you shouldn't have any problems. I'm at 35'6" and have no issues with sway with my Blue Ox.

I tow a 35ft, 8200 lb TT with a 2014 F250 gasser. Weight distribution hitch and friction sway control. Tows flat with no sway over thousand of miles in all terrain from expressways to logging roads. Have never had a problem backing or finding a place to fit/stop. Much prefer the TT over previous 5er.

Get a Henley hitch and you will not have any sway.