F150 Towing Sway

Get a tow vehicle that doesn't have a soft mushy suspension system like the f150 and a longer wheel base that is adequate for towing and controlling the trailer. Your trailer is controlling your tow vehicle, that is suicide.

mkirsch wrote:
A bit of advice to the OP and anyone reading this thread in the future:

When you ask someone if they think you can tow it, and they scrunch up their face in concentration, ummm-and-ahhh a bit, then say "Yeah you should be alright," or "I think you'll be okay," you probably shouldn't take their advice.

Answering that question with any sort of validity requires sitting down with a pen and paper at minimum.

X2.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what the numbers say. Sorry to say, but OP has too small a truck and is playing with fire. No amount of tweaking can fix the numbers.

A bit of advice to the OP and anyone reading this thread in the future:

When you ask someone if they think you can tow it, and they scrunch up their face in concentration, ummm-and-ahhh a bit, then say "Yeah you should be alright," or "I think you'll be okay," you probably shouldn't take their advice.

Answering that question with any sort of validity requires sitting down with a pen and paper at minimum.

TXiceman wrote:
F150 towing a 33' trailer is the problem. You need a 3/4 ton truck.

Ken

Come on, to little TV too much TT!!:S

That isn't even a Max tow, for a 34" TT, I tow a 32' 5er with a GVWR 12,320# ZERO sway issues, semis passing same direction or oncoming!! You really need more TV!

F150 towing a 33' trailer is the problem. You need a 3/4 ton truck.

Ken

karlrmac wrote:
So we have dropped the hitch an inch (one slot) and added the 2nd sway bar. The ride was much better the last time and could go 65 on hwy 31. There were no treetops swaying and traffic wasn't bad, but we'll see more real world this weekend. I plan on getting some weight when we go to the big city with scales. Thanks for the progress!

Going in the right direction, but note that all things engineered/designed
are NOT for the good days like you just described....but...for the worst
day out there when Mr Murphy crosses your path.

IMHO, that trailer is too much for your half ton...OBTW...which half
ton do you have? +6K GVWR or the fake half ton's +8K GVWR? If you do
have the fake half ton, then you might be ok

Hope you are not one of those who thinks it only happens to the other
guy...ask that other guy...

Mainly to manhandle the setup during that bad instant. Either you have
the proper setup (sizing, adjustments, components to even the competency
of the driver...that many times turns out to be pure luck or not)

NO time to go back to the store for proper whatever or to resetup. Either
it is there or not

There is only one person responsible for the setup and that is the
driver. Makes no matter a thousand 'sure you can'...'been doing it for
decades with no issues'...etc printed out in a stack right next to you


Good luck

Fact is you have too much trailer for your TV. For a TT to handle like it should you need a lot of truck. I had too much trailer once and it nearly killed my wife and I and I had the WD hitch and sway bar but sometimes that is not enough and we rolled over. Throw a lot more truck in front of the TT or better yet go to a 5er you will thank me!

So we have dropped the hitch an inch (one slot) and added the 2nd sway bar. The ride was much better the last time and could go 65 on hwy 31. There were no treetops swaying and traffic wasn't bad, but we'll see more real world this weekend. I plan on getting some weight when we go to the big city with scales. Thanks for the progress!

The scale has seperate platforms for your three (truck front and rear, and trailer) axles.

First pass- pull onto the scales with truck front axle on one platform, truck rear axle on second platform, and trailer axles on the third platform. This is with trailer hitched up like your going on the road. Then pull off the scales and remove the weight distribution bars.

Second pass - Pull onto scales same as first pass. Then pull into the parking lot and unhitch the trailer.

Third pass - Truck alone, pull onto scales with front and rear axles on platforms one and two. Pay for weight tickets, hitch up and go home.

Some scales will allow you to stay on the scales for all three weighs, others prefer you pull off and back on. Check with scale personnel (before you weigh) to see how they would like to proceed.

What you need is:

Axle weights of truck and trailer hitched up with wd bars installed and set for travel.
Axle weights of truck and trailer hitched up without wd bars
Axle weights of truck alone (remove the hitch)

Thanks, I'll get scale reading in a few weeks when I load up for the next trip. I'm making mods to the setup (measurements, adding 2nd sway bar, dropping hitch, etc) now. I'll be taking it the dealer Saturday with these mods in place and hopefully see some difference then.
As far as on the scale, I think I get measurements as...
1. the entire TT and TV together connected on the scale
2. the TT on the scale and TV off the scale, connected still
3. the TT on the scale and the TV off the scale, disconnected
Is that correct?
All this information has been great by the way.
Karl

RCMAN46 wrote:
How about some scale numbers.

The forum can give much better advice on what to do when we know what you really have.

Load up ready to go camping and visit your local CAT scale.

As said you will need three trips across the scale and make sure you get each axle when on the scale.

This can be done on a single bed scale if you get weights as each axle is added to the scale bed. But still requires three trips and a total of 8 scale readings. I do 10 readings my self as I do each trailer axle to make sure my tires are OK and if the trailer axles are sharing the load.