New Travel Trailer Family: It's been 3 years in the making and we finally took our first outing with the new Travel Trailer this past weekend.I drive a 2014 Ram 1500 Outdoorsman/ Crew Cab/ Hemi/ 3.92 rear. Max tow is 10,050 with max payload of a little over 1400. I've also added Air Lift 1000 bags in the rear coil springs. I have load range E tires on the truck. I pump up the rear tires to near max pressure when towing. We tow a Jayco 31QBDS. Trailer empty is just under 8,000. Maybe closer to 8,500 when loaded. We traveled with tanks empty. Tongue weight is 820. Between myself, my wife & 2 small children we have around 400lbs in the cab and not much loaded in the bed. We took it out to a campground about 80 miles from home and there were 15-20mph wind gusts most of the trip. The whole trip was white knuckles on the wheel and I'm a little surprised my wife didn't tear off the door handle from squeezing it the whole time. Using a Blue Ox Sway Pro Hitch. Jayco's "Sway Command" is on the trailer, but I didn't feel it doing anything the whole trip. A little background on me: I'm not an every day trailer driver, but I've been driving a 28' and 35' cargo trailer for work purposes occasionally for almost 11 years.2 Questions1. Is there anything more I can do to my Ram 1500 to help stabilize the towing? I came across "Total Load Control Suspensions".... Anyone heard of/ used them?? If yes, do anything?2. Will the sway improve if I trade in the 1500 for a 2500? The trucks I've used at work have been an F250 and a GMC 3500 and I've never felt as much sway as I did this weekend. Goal with this TT was to show the kids as much of this beautiful country as we can and I'm very hesitant to do that with our current setup. Thank you for your advice/ help.

Well yes a 2500 will be naturally more stable, every thing just a little more hefty.I believe your biggest issues is to little tongue weight, closer to 15 percent would be better. You appear to be just under 10 percent.

I am not familiar with that hitch, but I think adjusting the hitch somewhere is needed. Can you adjust the friction on the sway. You will still have sway with a bigger truck. I think you should look at the sway/ hitch set up and make she sure it is set up correctly to accommodate your truck and the size/weight of your trailer.

Sounds like you aren't really sure of your weights. I would also make sure the WD is setup right. Are you transferring enough weight to the front of the truck? I'm guessing that you're maxed out on RAWR and GVWR on the truck. At 36' and 8500lbs I think you're really in 3/4 ton territory.

It does sound like you have too little tongue weight. Move as much stuff forward as you can. Even fill the water tanks if they are forward of the wheels and give it a try, you'll know pretty quickly, otherwise you may need a different sway control system or an adjustment to the one you have.

I needed closer to 15 percent hitch weight before it settled down. I had taken 300 lbs of sand bags in back of truck. drove a little and then added weight to hitch. finally enough weight, rode so much better.

Trailer Sway Question | Good Sam Community

Walaby
Explorer II
May 18, 2016
So the tongue jack, and the axles were both on the scale? If so, then looks a little better, but still more than I would want to tow with a 1/2 ton.

Try adjusting/verifying the Blue Ox adjustments per the directions.

Mike
ericbos
Explorer
May 18, 2016
The 8200 weight on the trailer was from unhitching the trailer from the truck and leaving it on the scale by itself
Walaby
Explorer II
May 18, 2016
OK.. so here's my take.

You say your cargo capacity is 1400(ish). You are at that, or over. 980 tongue weight, 100lbs for the hitch itself. 400lbs for family.

I had a 2011 GMC Sierra 1500, cargo capacity of 1600(ish), a 26 ft trailer, weight loaded about 6800 lbs. That was all I wanted to tow. No way I would have done a 8200 lb trailer

Im not familiar with the scale you used, so, question. When you say trailer weight of 8200, is that supposedly including the tongue weight, or is it basically the axles on the scale. Because, if it is the axles on the scale, and does not include tongue weight you are looking at 9180 total trailer weight, and a tongue weight of 980 which is just a skosh north of 10 percent. So, that will create a situation where you will be prone to sway.

I still think you have too much trailer for that truck. But, you could try to re do the hitch. Follow the instructions for setting up the Blue Ox. Take measurements of wheel wells from ground up with no trailer hooked up. Then same measurements with trailer hooked up. Objective is to get the WD hitch setup so the height of the wheel wells when the trailer is hooked up, is the same as truck standing alone (or within 1/4" I think).

That's a lot of trailer... that's along the lines of what Im pulling with my 3/4 ton. No way on this earth I would try it with a 1/2 ton.

Mike
ericbos
Explorer
May 17, 2016
Tongue weight was with tongue down on the scale

Total weight was truck and trailer with bars on

Trailer weight was with trailer parked on the scale.

Weight in cab was more than what I normally would have in there. Fridge was empty, but tanks on propane and truck gas tank were full.

Weights listed above are all the weights they gave me at the scale.... Didn't see the comment about weight without bars before going.
Walaby
Explorer II
May 17, 2016
How did you arrive at the tongue weight?

Please post all the weights you got.

Truck: Front axle weight, rear axle weight, total weight of just truck

Truck and trailer without WD bars engaged. Front and rear axle weight of truck, axle weight of trailer

Truck and trailer WITH WD bars engaged. Same as above.

Is this empty, or loaded, ready for camping?

Mike
ericbos
Explorer
May 17, 2016
Weighed it this afternoon:

Tongue weight: 980lbs
Trailer: 8200lbs
Total weight of truck & trailer: 14,620lbs

Advice??
Community Alumni
May 17, 2016
ericbos wrote:
Forgot to mention this, there are four different strengths of bars for the blue ox. I'm using the thousand pound bars

You definitely need to 1,500 lbs bars. You probably didn't feel the Sway Command system work because you haven't hit its boundaries yet. Looks like you have to be in pretty big trouble before it kicks in.
myredracer
Explorer II
May 17, 2016
^^^ Follow Wallaby's advice. ^^^ Drive slow & safe to the scale. When you weigh the trailer and truck, you want both to be loaded up as you would for camping. With accurate weights, then you can make informed decisions.

That trailer is 10,250 lbs GVWR and 36' long! Wow, waay too much for that truck IMO. I would not go by the UVW to estimate actual wt. 500 lbs of additional loaded wt. could be way off. You will probably be more like 1,000-1,500 lbs of added wt. for 36' of trailer. Any factory options and mods. need to be factored in.

Based on the GVWR, the actual tongue weight could be in the 1200-1500 lb range. Based on the dry tongue wt., the actual would be in the 50-100 percent range higher, 1200-1500 lbs. The truck has a sticker payload capacity of 1400 lbs but could be less after going to a scale. Besides the tongue wt., you need to add the wt. of passengers, groceries, camping gear, etc. to the truck that *could* be say 400-500 lbs or more. It appears that you will be over on the GCWR and way over the truck's payload capacity. No amount of fiddling with the WDH or anything else will overcome that. You may very well be over the receiver and WDH ratings. I'm not sure you should even be towing it at all at this point.

Sorry, but it certainly does look like the next step is a 3/4 ton truck with more payload & towing capacity. I would suggest a truck with a long wheelbase too (extended or crew cab plus long box). We upgraded from an F150 to F250 and it's hard to put into words how much better the F250 is for towing.
Walaby
Explorer II
May 17, 2016
Get three weights

Truck by itself
Truck and trailer hooked up WITHOUT WD bars
Truck and trailer hooked up WITH WD bars.

And be careful driving to the scales. I agree with others, I think your tongue weight is too light. Keep your speed down, and stay off the freeway.

Mike
ericbos
Explorer
May 17, 2016
I called around this evening to find a place to weigh it. Found a Farm Co-op near me. I'll take it in sometime this week to get scaled weights. I'll post once I do.

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