My dad thought he was a goner

[Kennedy64]

My 72 YO dad, retired trucker, not afraid to tow anything, has a early to mid 2000 Cedar Creek, 26-28 ft long. When he bought it, he also got the "chain" type WDH. He has always hated it, doesn't eliminate a lot of sway. After talking to several salesmen (thinking of buying a smaller TT), the neighbor and myself (from reading this forum), he decided to buy a WDH similar to the Equa-l-izer hitch.
Him and the neighbor who also is a retired trucker and now professionally hauls trailers all over the US and Canada, hooked up the hitch and off dad went for a test drive. Not knowing, I called him a couple of miles from home and immediately got a ear full. At first I thought he was calling my mom a B*&^% because it sounds a lot like hitch when he was yelling, thought the old man finally lost his marbles!! He said "I thought I was going to die, that trailer had so much sway on the expressway, I thought for sure I was going to end up in the ditch with the truck and trailer on the roof" Good Lord, my dad never gets scared driving.
After he got home, him and the neighbor made adjustments 3x's with a ride after each. Dad said the sway was slightly better but he would never attempt the e-way again. In fact, he is thinking of selling the whole thing and being done with it. Which can't happen cuz I am looking forward to camping with them this summer. We brainstormed, tires at max PSI, Yes, TT tires at max PSI, Yes. WDH hooked up correctly, Yes. My husband asked about the tongue height but I haven't heard back. I think maybe broken belt in the TT tires, neighbor thinks rear tires on his TV. It was also windy here yesterday. Dad thinks his TV is to small. I told him to take it to his local RV dealer today for an inspection.
Dad's TV is a '12 Chevy Silverado, 1/2 ton, 2WD, bought all set up for towing.
Do any of you have any suggestions for me to throw out to him? Don't want the old coot to stop just yet!!!

[WyoTraveler]

mowermech wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:
In 1996 I drove into an RV dealer in southern CA and said I was interested in buying a small TT. The salesman asked me "is that your 1/2 ton PU"? I Told him yes but was interested in the 16 ft TT in the lot. The salesman responded "I don't have anything in the lot that your 1/2 PU can safely tow". Times have changed. They are so desperate for sales they would have sold me a 40' TT and wished me well.

That salesman was, IMO, a fool. You would have been fine towing a 16 foot TT with a half ton pickup. I base that statement on personal experience, having towed a 16 foot camp trailer from Greybull, WY to Tucson and back with a Ford E150 Club Wagon, using a standard receiver hitch with no WDH or "sway control". We frequently took it to Medicine Lodge Campground, as well.
In fact, I towed a 19 ft. TT with that same Club Wagon from Great Falls, MT to Wood Lake Campground in the mountains above Augusta, MT. However, when I towed the 19 foot trailer with the Jeep Wagoneer, a WDH was an absolute necessity, to level the Wagoneer. No sway control was used, though. Our favorite trip with that rig was across Roger's Pass to Copper Creek Campground near Lincoln, MT.

It bears repeating: A properly built, properly loaded trailer, being towed by the proper vehicle, using the proper tires, WILL...NOT...SWAY!
If it does, something is WRONG! DO NOT attempt to "fix" it using some gadget to dampen the sway. FIND the problem, and FIX IT!
Do this for YOUR safety, and the safety of others.

Yup, thats the old days. Being a fool for having ethics. Today is a different world. Absolutely no ethics.

[mich800]

smkettner wrote:

Kennedy64 wrote:
Dad said the sway was slightly better but he would never attempt the e-way again.

e-way? This hitch? http://www.fastwaytrailer.com/shop/e2-hitch/

Looks weak to me. Or something else?

Or was that short for 'easy way' as in some short cut?

I think they meant expressway. Too much sway at speed.

[time2roll]

Kennedy64 wrote:
Dad said the sway was slightly better but he would never attempt the e-way again.

e-way? This hitch? http://www.fastwaytrailer.com/shop/e2-hitch/

Looks weak to me. Or something else?

Or was that short for 'easy way' as in some short cut?

[Terryallan]

DavidP wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

DavidP wrote:
Could be too many things to list but I would look first at trailer suspension as well as not enough tongue weight. A trailer should not sway even if there is NO WDH installed. A properly installed WDH with sway control helps prevent sway from occurring and control it if it does. Adjusting the WDH to deal with sway is just masking a problem. I would look at those two things and go from there.

Actually a properly setup WDH returns steering control to the driver. It may not technically be sway. But a light front axle will make the driver lose control because of the light steering. Returning steering control by replacing lost weight to the front axle will in most cases eliminate the feeling of sway. That is what a WDH does. It does not prevent sway. But eliminates the main cause.

I know what a properly installed WDH does and the importance of it. My point is a properly loaded trailer should not sway with or without a WDH in place. A WDH does not eliminate the main cause of sway and will only mask the real problem which is exactly what I said in my original post. He needs to find out why the trailer is swaying, fix that while at the same time properly set up the hitch.

so you are saying. that having the steering axle completely unloaded has nothing to do with it????
Wrong

Get the hitch right, return steering control, and 95% of TTs will have no sway.

[rexlion]

The very first thing I'd do is get the tongue weighed.

[othertonka]

My bet is not enough tongue weight. Get the whole combination weighed starting with the tow` vehicle unhooked, total weight, then front axle, then rear axle. Then the trailer by itself, then the trailer axle, then the tongue by itself. Post these results and you will get the right answer from many experts here on the forum. You need 10 to 15 percent of the trailer total weight to be on the tongue.
Tongue weight

[DavidP]

Terryallan wrote:

DavidP wrote:
Could be too many things to list but I would look first at trailer suspension as well as not enough tongue weight. A trailer should not sway even if there is NO WDH installed. A properly installed WDH with sway control helps prevent sway from occurring and control it if it does. Adjusting the WDH to deal with sway is just masking a problem. I would look at those two things and go from there.

Actually a properly setup WDH returns steering control to the driver. It may not technically be sway. But a light front axle will make the driver lose control because of the light steering. Returning steering control by replacing lost weight to the front axle will in most cases eliminate the feeling of sway. That is what a WDH does. It does not prevent sway. But eliminates the main cause.

I know what a properly installed WDH does and the importance of it. My point is a properly loaded trailer should not sway with or without a WDH in place. A WDH does not eliminate the main cause of sway and will only mask the real problem which is exactly what I said in my original post. He needs to find out why the trailer is swaying, fix that while at the same time properly set up the hitch.

[Terryallan]

DavidP wrote:
Could be too many things to list but I would look first at trailer suspension as well as not enough tongue weight. A trailer should not sway even if there is NO WDH installed. A properly installed WDH with sway control helps prevent sway from occurring and control it if it does. Adjusting the WDH to deal with sway is just masking a problem. I would look at those two things and go from there.

Actually a properly setup WDH returns steering control to the driver. It may not technically be sway. But a light front axle will make the driver lose control because of the light steering. Returning steering control by replacing lost weight to the front axle will in most cases eliminate the feeling of sway. That is what a WDH does. It does not prevent sway. But eliminates the main cause.

[Kennedy64]

Thanks everyone. I sent all your responses off to him. He is planning on taking it in and having the whole set-up, truck and trailer, everything inspected. He'll do this next week after his non-camping trip this weekend.

[TucsonJim]

Sounds like a classic case of not enough tongue weight.

[charlie_good_ti]

Bet there is too much weight behind trailer wheels.Move all movable things front.I put 2 bicycles behind pull trailer for a friend to take to Florida an that weight almost caused me to bite the dust!

[mowermech]

WyoTraveler wrote:
In 1996 I drove into an RV dealer in southern CA and said I was interested in buying a small TT. The salesman asked me "is that your 1/2 ton PU"? I Told him yes but was interested in the 16 ft TT in the lot. The salesman responded "I don't have anything in the lot that your 1/2 PU can safely tow". Times have changed. They are so desperate for sales they would have sold me a 40' TT and wished me well.

That salesman was, IMO, a fool. You would have been fine towing a 16 foot TT with a half ton pickup. I base that statement on personal experience, having towed a 16 foot camp trailer from Greybull, WY to Tucson and back with a Ford E150 Club Wagon, using a standard receiver hitch with no WDH or "sway control". We frequently took it to Medicine Lodge Campground, as well.
In fact, I towed a 19 ft. TT with that same Club Wagon from Great Falls, MT to Wood Lake Campground in the mountains above Augusta, MT. However, when I towed the 19 foot trailer with the Jeep Wagoneer, a WDH was an absolute necessity, to level the Wagoneer. No sway control was used, though. Our favorite trip with that rig was across Roger's Pass to Copper Creek Campground near Lincoln, MT.

It bears repeating: A properly built, properly loaded trailer, being towed by the proper vehicle, using the proper tires, WILL...NOT...SWAY!
If it does, something is WRONG! DO NOT attempt to "fix" it using some gadget to dampen the sway. FIND the problem, and FIX IT!
Do this for YOUR safety, and the safety of others.

[Emptypockets]

I know where you Dad is coming from - I am also a truck driver (now retired)& had the same trouble your Dad is having with two different tow vehicles - looking back if I had known then what I know now I would do things differently. I blew a transmission & my nephew brought his brothers 3/4 ton heavy duty p/up to me - hooked up with no W/D hitch & had no sway at any speed. The rest of that story is, I traded for a ton dually. As I said if had known then what I know now I would try loading the trailer differently.

[WyoTraveler]

In 1996 I drove into an RV dealer in southern CA and said I was interested in buying a small TT. The salesman asked me "is that your 1/2 ton PU"? I Told him yes but was interested in the 16 ft TT in the lot. The salesman responded "I don't have anything in the lot that your 1/2 PU can safely tow". Times have changed. They are so desperate for sales they would have sold me a 40' TT and wished me well.

[lanerd]

Please be aware that a WDH in itself is NOT and anti-sway device. All it does is distribute some of the trailer's tongue weight to the front axle of the truck and the axles of the trailer.

However, there are some WDH's that have built-in anti-sway designed into them. The brand Equi-l-zer and Reese Dual Cam are the most popular. The WDH that your father has, may or may not have anti-sway capabilities.

There are anti-sway devices that you can add to a standard WDH to help with the sway and depending upon the truck/trailer combination, will work fairly well.

As mentioned, a perfectly set up trailer will not sway even without an anti-sway device...so it sounds like your father's problem lies with the trailer or possibly the truck. Not knowing any weights of the truck's payload capacity or the tongue weight of the trailer, I can only surmise that the tongue weight of the trailer is too "light". Highly doubtful with that size of trailer.

When you say that he "hated" the previous chain type of WDH, did he also have trailer sway with it? Why did he hate it?

As mentioned, there are many factors that can contribute to trailer sway. If you can get us some weights of both truck and trailer, it would really help us to determine a more probable cause.

Ron