Steering wheel angle while towing

gmw photos wrote:
Wes, those are certainly some interesting thoughts, and sounds like there is a lot of logic there in a potential troubleshooting exercise.

Still, if it were mine, I would spend the $14 or so at a CAT scale to do three passes, and start with the basics. I always like to start with the premise, that the truck, the trailer, the tires....etc, etc are all "correct" ( as in, within design tolerances ), and try to make all of "my" part of the setup as correct as can be.
Then, if there is still an issue, I proceed one step at a time, and often, start with the least expensive change, and keep working my way up through the process until the problem is cured, or it's determined that this dog just won't hunt.

And again, the red flag for me was his early on statement that the truck steering felt heavy.
A lot of folks like to say when setting up a WD hitch, "to load both ends of the tow vehicle so the squat is equal front and rear". I disagree with that, consider it bad advice, and it runs counter to what all the truck OEM's are saying in the manual these days.
A scale ticket is the only way to know.

I, too, would consider the CAT scale if it were handy. But the OP did say the truck did not appear to squat on either end and I saw no mention of steering "felt heavy", but rather felt "dull", as stated in his first post. I took it to mean the steering felt less responsive.

My bet is that though the springs held true when hitched, the underinflated rear tires definately bulged more, and that is the problem in my opinion. So the first economical thing I would say do (and the OP has mentioned this) is that he raise the tire inflation to max. This alone might cure, or nearly cure this strange steering wheel angle while towing. I merely offer a physical explanation of why this steering effect might occur with soft tires.

I totally agree with you on leveling. Before the newer method of retaining front height, rather than matching height rise to both axles became common, I found that my lightweight Ford Ranger (Mazda) needed excessive WD settings to level it, while it easily set and drove well by just returning normal front level. The same happened to my Excursion because the front spring suspension travel is so limited. I found that setting the front to normal height at least gave me my 1 inch of travel back before the bumpstop engaged. (Excursions are lowered compared to the F-250 they are based upon. They use stiffer spring packs to make up for the shorter travel.)

Wes
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