Need advice on toy hauler swaying on freeway

[09KZMXT266]

I would greatly appreciate any feedback and advice please. My TV is a 2012 Toyota Tacoma DBL Cab short bed 4x4 with a 4.0 V6. I just bought a toy hauler that is 22' long and weighs 3600#s dry with a TW of 620#s. I pulled it home 350 miles in my Dad's 3/4 ton with no issues using just the hitch ball mount. Tonight I picked up my rig from E-Trailer where they installed the break controller and WD Hitch. The hitch looks to be installed correctly, but I'm a total newby and could be mistaken. Both the truck and trailer look to be pretty level, although the front of the TV may be a little raised. Normally my truck is raked and now it sits level.

On the way home I was fine until I entered the freeway and at about 45 mph I started to feel the trailer walking around behind me. It spooked me enough that I exited the freeway to take surface streets
home.

I know it will all change after I load my gear and a 980# Harley in the back. But, should I be getting sway at 45 mph on the freeway with a properly installed WD Hitch? Is it possibly due to not enough load in the back of the toy hauler? I was thinking adding more weight to the rear would only increase sway?

I realize I would be better off with a different TV, but I really, really, wan to keep my Tacoma if I can.

Help!!!!!!!

[BarneyS]

The OP has evidently solved his problem and had his question answered. Since the replies are now getting contentious, I am closing this thread.
Barney

[RinconVTR]

silvercorvette wrote:

RinconVTR wrote:

silvercorvette wrote:

09KZMXT266 wrote:
I

Well, I love small trucks. So, if the new F150 doesn't do better than the Taco did, I'm gonna puke. No way am I buying 3 new trucks in less than a year just to pull a 3300# toy hauler. 🙂

What is the fascination / love of small trucks, They make small ones for light duty, and the big ones are for serious work. A truck is a tool get the right tool for the job.

Enough with the "big truck only"******in this thread. My goodness, it's disgusting.

He's pulling what a minivan van pull VERY well until he adds the HD. So give it s rest people.

The problem is when he uses the vehicle for it's intended purpose he will be unsafe. .

Well, the OP is no longer towing the the Toyota which has a 6500lb rating. His trailer, loaded, would be around 5000lbs. Explain why that's unsafe please.

And dont bring up sway issues as the "unsafe" reason to buy a bigger truck. Sway is almost always set up related, and not induced by the TV.

This place does have influence, good or bad, the OP bought a new truck. But please, spare me from the "unsafe" and "law" related comments when that is such a stretch from the facts in this thread.

[silvercorvette]

RinconVTR wrote:

silvercorvette wrote:

09KZMXT266 wrote:
I

Well, I love small trucks. So, if the new F150 doesn't do better than the Taco did, I'm gonna puke. No way am I buying 3 new trucks in less than a year just to pull a 3300# toy hauler. 🙂

What is the fascination / love of small trucks, They make small ones for light duty, and the big ones are for serious work. A truck is a tool get the right tool for the job.

Enough with the "big truck only"******in this thread. My goodness, it's disgusting.

He's pulling what a minivan van pull VERY well until he adds the HD. So give it s rest people.

The problem is when he uses the vehicle for it's intended purpose he will be unsafe. If he is willing to take a risk on willing himself that is one part of the equation but what about all the people he is sharing the road with that are not willing to risk getting killed when his vehicle goes out of control?

If someone tows a vehicle that is unsafe and the vehicle winds up going out of control the driver could be charged with criminal negligence.

When I was a cop we would impound any vehicle involved in a fatal accident, and if we discovered the cause of the accident was that the vehicle was overloaded there could be criminal prosecution.

[RinconVTR]

09KZMXT266 wrote:
I couldn't stand waiting, so I drove up the trailer storage place. This was not ideal, but I wanted to mess around anyway. The lot slopes a little right to left. Front to back was fairly level. I put the scale on a 2x4 atop my 2 ton car jack and lifted the trailer. My hitch and bars were in the front compartment, so I weighed it with the hitch sort of. I tried it 3 times and came up with 800 lbs. all 3 times. So, the TW is pretty much what I thought after doing the 3 weighs with the Tacoma at the Cat scales.

I quickly read over your previous posts, and please tell me if I'm missing something, or did not one single person pick this up???

You have a trailer that weighs (rounding up) 4,000lbs with a confirmed tongue of 800lbs, without the Harley on board??? AND you were towing with a WDH????

800lbs is 20% of the trailer weight on the tongue, WAY to high and very likely the cause of your earlier sway problem with the Toyota.


However, what really matters is what it tongue and trailer weigh when you have the Harley loaded. It sounds like you have a typical toy trailer with as designed heavy tongue weight when unloaded, for when its loaded you dont end up with a very light tongue weight.

So don't get too worked up about weights and payload until you weigh everything as your loaded for a real trip...most importantly with the HD strapped down.

Then you can use your new tongue weight scale to dial in the perfect balance of 10-15% tongue weight. (Most 1/2+ ton trucks like a 12-14% range.) You could also place some items you thought you'd put in the truck bed in the trailer, which takes more weight out of the payload equation.

[09KZMXT266]

I couldn't stand waiting, so I drove up the trailer storage place. This was not ideal, but I wanted to mess around anyway. The lot slopes a little right to left. Front to back was fairly level. I put the scale on a 2x4 atop my 2 ton car jack and lifted the trailer. My hitch and bars were in the front compartment, so I weighed it with the hitch sort of. I tried it 3 times and came up with 800 lbs. all 3 times. So, the TW is pretty much what I thought after doing the 3 weighs with the Tacoma at the Cat scales.

[RinconVTR]

silvercorvette wrote:

09KZMXT266 wrote:
I

Well, I love small trucks. So, if the new F150 doesn't do better than the Taco did, I'm gonna puke. No way am I buying 3 new trucks in less than a year just to pull a 3300# toy hauler. 🙂

What is the fascination / love of small trucks, They make small ones for light duty, and the big ones are for serious work. A truck is a tool get the right tool for the job.

Enough with the "big truck only"******in this thread. My goodness, it's disgusting.

He's pulling what a minivan van pull VERY well until he adds the HD. So give it s rest people.

[Wishin]

09KZMXT266 wrote:

BarneyS wrote:

09KZMXT266 wrote:

carringb wrote:

09KZMXT266 wrote:


Okay, now you're scaring the heck out of me. 🙂 Guess I still have a lot to learn. I would have thought that if the truck by itself weighed 5000 lbs without a trailer and 5500 lbs with one, the TW would be 500 lbs. 5500-5000=500?

True, if you have the trailer sitting on a regular ole hitch ball. Not the case with weight distribution, since the trailer axles have to react the same moment which picks up the back of the truck and put weight on the front axle.

So, assuming it was a WD Hitch, would the TW be more or less than 500 lbs.?

It would be less. It would be around 400lbs if you weighed it with the WD hitched up. The extra 100lbs would be found on the trailer axles because the chains on the WD hitch are pulling down on the trailer A frame at the same time they are pulling up on the bars.
Barney

Thanks, I would agree which is why I'm finding it hard to understand the one poster saying my TW is 1000lbs.

I'm reading all the sticky's on WD Hitches, etc. It's a lot to digest. Actually, I find myself getting even more confused.:)

If you are connected without a WD hitch and you weigh your truck with the trailer and then later without the trailer and the truck weighs 500 lbs more with the trailer hooked up, it is simple your tongue weight is 500 lbs. If you took the same truck/trailer back to the scales with the WD hooked up, you'd see the truck axles change as well as the trailer axles change. The total weight would stay the same of both truck and trailer.

Front axle of truck would get heavier than without the WD hooked up.
The rear axle would get lighter than without the WD hooked up.
The trailer axle would get heavier than without the WD hooked up.

The WD bars bend the truck and trailer connection and try to reduce the sag by straightening it up with 2 levers. This reduces the weight on the rear axle by moving it to the trailer and front axles of the truck. Because some of the tongue weight ends up on the trailer axle, the total weight of the truck axles will be lower than without WD hooked up. So the 500 lbs on the truck might reduce to 400 lbs for instance once the WD is hooked up.

For your truck, the 800 extra lbs on your truck with the WD hooked up would be closer to 1000 lbs if you did not have the WD hooked up.

I think you will eventually get this figured out. You've already got the first weigh done with just your new truck. Later you'll get the weights with the trailer hooked on. If I were you I'd just pull off the scale to the truck lot, remove the WD bars, and then drive around to the scale again to get the weights with them off. Then when done getting that weight, you can go back to the lot and put them back on for the ride home. This will minimize driving around with your receiver over loaded. It won't matter just while you're at the scales and the lot there.

The hitch equipment can weight quite a bit and many consider that to be part of the tongue weight, which makes sense to me. When you use your scale for the tongue, put the hitch equipment on the trailer tongue to weight it as well. Do it with and without so you have all the information. Make sure you do it on a level spot as well.

[silvercorvette]

09KZMXT266 wrote:
I

Well, I love small trucks. So, if the new F150 doesn't do better than the Taco did, I'm gonna puke. No way am I buying 3 new trucks in less than a year just to pull a 3300# toy hauler. 🙂

What is the fascination / love of small trucks, They make small ones for light duty, and the big ones are for serious work. A truck is a tool get the right tool for the job.

[noteven]

Load Range E tires on the tow pickup will help settle things down too.

Chock the trailer wheels when you are riding bikes in and out of it when it is uncoupled 🙂

[09KZMXT266]

09KZMXT266 wrote:

BarneyS wrote:
When using the tongue weight scale, be careful that you get the weight pressing STRAIGHT DOWN on the scale. It is very easy, when you put the device under the coupler, to have it just a very small bit off center of the coupler which will cause sticktion in scale and throw off the reading quite a bit. Good idea to take several readings in succession to make sure it is consistant.
Barney

Any advice on how to do that? The coupler is like 18" to 20" off the ground. I guess I need to fabricate some sort of stand for the scale that is like 13" or 14" tall. If not, I'll just put the scale on the ground and lower the jack onto it.

Never mind, I searched this forum and found lots of info on how to use the scale. 🙂

[09KZMXT266]

carringb wrote:
Yes, that is how you figure payload. Were you in the truck when you weighed it? The yellow sticker is supposed to factor in the driver (who they assume weighs 150 lbs)

I was not in the truck. I did leave some bubble gum, an iphone, and a bottle of mesquite rub in the cab. 🙂 I wondered if they assumed 150# body in their figure? Is do, the sticker on the door jam is pretty accurate.

[carringb]

Yes, that is how you figure payload. Were you in the truck when you weighed it? The yellow sticker is supposed to factor in the driver (who they assume weighs 150 lbs)

[09KZMXT266]

So, today I picked up the tongue weight scale from E-trailer. Looks like a well built piece that I'll use a bunch trying to dial in my cargo.

I also filled the 36 gallon tank and weighed the new F150. Without anybody in the truck she weighs 5880lbs. The GVWR of the F150 is 7200lbs. Am I correct in assuming that the GVWR-Curb weight= Total payload capacity? So, in my case 7200-5880=1320 lbs. payload. If so, I'm better off than I thought because that's 121 lbs. more than the sticker states in the door jamb. Maybe I will get to take both dogs camping after all. 🙂
I also put more miles on the truck, so I'm up to like 620 now. Closer and closer to the 1k miles Ford states you have to get to before towing. I can't wait to get everything hooked up and loaded to see how it all checks out. Fingers crossed.

[09KZMXT266]

BarneyS wrote:
When using the tongue weight scale, be careful that you get the weight pressing STRAIGHT DOWN on the scale. It is very easy, when you put the device under the coupler, to have it just a very small bit off center of the coupler which will cause sticktion in scale and throw off the reading quite a bit. Good idea to take several readings in succession to make sure it is consistant.
Barney

Any advice on how to do that? The coupler is like 18" to 20" off the ground. I guess I need to fabricate some sort of stand for the scale that is like 13" or 14" tall. If not, I'll just put the scale on the ground and lower the jack onto it.