Push and Suck

[bluefishgary]

My truck 3500 ram Dually and 3axle car hauler goes down the road great.
My buddy 2500 and 2 axle trailer get a lot of Push and Suck from big truck
IS there any thing we can do to make it better for him? His trailer wt is
8900 loaded. Truck is 2017 gmc 4x4 .Toung weight is 980 lbs. Trailer is 32'ft.
No swaying in wind, just when a big truck passes.

[mkirsch]

Many have the attitude of, "It's a heavy duty truck, I don't need a weight distributing hitch or sway control."

You might not need it in the "by the book" sense, as you have plenty of axle capacity and receiver capacity and payload for what you are towing, but what a WD hitch with integrated sway control does is stiffen that ball joint between the truck and trailer, making it go down the road like one long unit, like a bus.

When the bow wave hits your trailer without the sway control, it pushes the trailer off line just a hair. Because the trailer has so much leverage on the truck, it yanks the rear end of the truck, then shoves it as the trailer comes back in line. That is the push-pull that you feel.

Sway control prevents the trailer from getting blown out of line in the first place, or at least minimizes it, reducing or eliminating push-pull entirely.

[JBarca]

bluefishgary wrote:
My truck 3500 ram Dually and 3axle car hauler goes down the road great.
My buddy 2500 and 2 axle trailer get a lot of Push and Suck from big truck
IS there any thing we can do to make it better for him? His trailer wt is
8900 loaded. Truck is 2017 gmc 4x4 .Toung weight is 980 lbs. Trailer is 32'ft.
No swaying in wind, just when a big truck passes.

Tire pressure and sometimes tire brand can make or break a stable towing trailer. What brand and type tires does he have and what pressure front and rear? Also pressure on trailer.

At 32 feet, everything needs to be adjusted to be optimum.

As was asked, is he using a weight distribution hitch? If he is not, the front end of the truck can be light and that can aggravate stability in this case.

Adding some extra tongue weight can help but it will hurt the setup if tires and or lack of a weight distribution hitch is in place.

Your 3500 dually is a much more stable suspension. It can overcome a lot of other factors. 2500 or even 3500 SRW trucks you need to have all the setup items dialed in optimally when towing those weight and lengths.

Also, is his trailer level when towing, nose up or down?

Hope this helps

John

[Wishin]

I use a Reese Dual Cam system and get virtually no push/pull with my 29' trailer. It is 7500-8000 lbs loaded and has 1200-1300 lbs of tongue weight. During my fist summer with this trailer I had issues with the dual cam mounts and had to remove the mount on one side. So I had a normal bar with a chain on the drivers side and still had the dual cam on the passenger side. I did notice it had more push pull like this, but not bad. It was worst driving around Boston in heavy traffic with semi's on both side. We drove it home to Michigan like this. After beefing up the dual cam mounts, I have hauled the trailer thru 32 of the lower 48 states with no issues. I love how the Dual Cam performs, but the mounting system leaves a lot to be desired. Mine is good now but it took some modifications to make it robust enough for me.

[owenssailor]

What Weight distribution setup is he using. I have the equalizer and very rarely get any push suck from trucks. The times I do it is usually from a straight job not a transport. I find he Equalizer has worked very well. also I do have high tongue weight and the trailer is a little bit nose down. Trailer tires are at max pressure and so are the rears on the truck.

Previous trailer with the WD hitch with the anti sway bar hitch had much more push.

[noteven]

Had the same issue towing a 32ft with a 3500 SRW long wheelbase truck. Not a "Danger Will Robinson!" issue - just annoying. ProPride 3 hitch fixed it.

[dodge_guy]

enblethen wrote:
Sounds like too much tongue weight making front nd light.

Didn’t think about enclosed but it makes sense.

But, either the other guy isn’t using a WD hitch or he has insufficient tongue weight.

[CarnationSailor]

When I had a bumper pull TT, I switched to a Hensley and it removed 95%+ of the push/pull plus it provided the piece of mind of knowing I would never experience another dangerous and scary sway incident. Expensive, yes, but they do sell reconditioned ones if you need to reduce the cost.

[newman_fulltime]

stiffer tires and shocks on the truck . 4×4 rides soft

[SidecarFlip]

Been my experience that the 'push and suck' comes about more when it's windy and more when a big truck with a van trailer passes you because of the turbulence created by the higher profile trailer....

I also get that on a 2 lane when a truck passes the opposite way with a tail wind going my way. It's like a huge wall of air hitting me.

[enblethen]

Sounds like too much tongue weight making front nd light.

[BarneyS]

Dodge guy, I'm thinking he has an enclosed car hauler not an open one like used by the commercial guys. It would not be any different than a travel trailer.
Barney

[dodge_guy]

Is he using a WD hitch? And/or using sway control? You will almost always get the push/pull from semis. I get very little with my setup. If I have the trailer loaded properly it does not get any push/pull. If not I get some.

If his numbers are correct then he is too light on the tongue. With an 8900lb TT he should have 1200lbs on the tongue. Your Car hauler is different, they have no sail area so you can go lighter on the tongue, usually 10% is plenty for those types of trailers and boats.

[BarneyS]

mike243 wrote:
Snip...I run 2 sway bars and don't think 1 of the high dollar hitches can stop it or you couldn't steer the truck but having never used 1 i'm not sure on that

Note: Moderator edit because of stupid mistake I made! 😮

Yep, One of those "high dollar hitches" (think Hensley) will stop it and the truck steers great! 🙂

Sorry about the mistake on your post above. I hit "edit" instead of "quote" when trying to make this post.
Barney

[Hannibal]

I found a barely used Equalizer 4 point 10k on ebay that stopped it for me. I had no sway before and very little push pull so it was an easy fix. Perception might be part of it. For some, it might feel like he's all over the road while the next guy feels a little trailer wag.