Can't stop sway

[cordellm]

I am relatively new to camping as my wife and I just bought our first camper this spring. We bought a Jayco Jayflight 287BHSW. I am pulling it with a 2016 F150 Super Crew with 5.5' box. I am using an Eaz-Lift weight distribution hitch, 1000 lbs spring bars with one friction sway control bar. I am very use to pulling large trailers, but a 24' enclosed trailer was the largest wall behind a pickup I've towed till now.

On my first trip out I left everything as the dealer had set up for me. I had a 60 mile trip on a 65 mph road and everything was great for the first 30 miles. I started to get into some rolling hills with a 10-15 mph tail/cross wind and I began to get enough sway in the trailer that I was very uncomfortable. I managed to maintain that speed to my destination but it was white knuckle.

I read some forums and thought I maybe didn't have enough tongue weight so for the return trip home I filled my fresh water tank (located right infront of the front axle.) The drive home (no wind) was great, no issues.

My second trip out the following weekend was on the exact same route. I don't remember the wind situation, but I had really no issues. The return trip home I was driving into mostly a 25 mph head wind with the occasional cross wind. I was barely able to even go 55 and had to drop to 45 most of the time to even maintain control as the sway was so uncomfortable.

Since then I have been doing everything I can think of to correct this. I took the entire rig to the scale and I have 860 lbs of tongue weight without being full of water. I make inflated the rear tires of my pickup. I lowered the ball on the hitch one hole to get a very minimal drop in the front of the camper. I tilted the head unit of the hitch to take a little pressure off the distribution bars and to allow the front axle of the pickup to lift slightly per Fords recommendations in the owners manual. I went for a test drive yesterday in a 10 mph wind and very minimal uses, little enough I could live with. Today I tried it again as the wind was 20 mph and once I got to 60 I couldn't maintain that speed as the sway was too nerve racking.

What am I missing or what suggestions do you have at this point?

[Mwolfe450]

I have a 15 screw shortbed f150 also. I'm towing a 31' prowler with mine. I had serious sway issues when I first purchased the trailer. Dealer had set my blue ox sway pro up really bad. In my case they had no weight on the rear of the truck. I have one trip so far with no issues after lowering my hitch height and taking links out of my sway bars. I've noticed wind gusts moving the truck and trailer around slightly, but not swaying, more as a whole unit. I find that turning the sway control off in the truck makes me more at ease when towing. Even towing my 16' box trailer I shut it off. I don't like it, maybe it's in my head, but the truck seems much better with it off. I found having the rear of the truck taking some extra weight helped me. I don't have my truck set level when towing, It's slightly lower in the rear. I've also found on a gusty day 5mph will really change how things ride. It took me some tweaking and trial runs to get dialed in. It sounds like it might be in your hitch setup. Best of luck!

[myredracer]

One thing that could help is if you post some photos - at least a couple of close ups of hitch and at least a couple from a distance with both TT & TV.

That TT is long at 33'-5" and heavy at 7500 lbs GVWR and could possibly be pushing the truck to it's limits unless you have the right options. A truck with a longer wheelbase would have been better for that length of trailer.

Relying on a dealer's WDH setup is not a good idea. Never trust them. They may not even have the bolts/nuts torqued properly. Did they measure the before and after front fender height? Even if they did, it would have been for an unloaded trailer and truck and when you are fully loaded the setup can change a fair bit. How much weight is restored back onto the steer axle? I thought newer Ford manuals say to restore approx. 50 percent (less than older trucks). How many chain links are under tension? You should aim for 5 links and if that transfers too much or too little weight, adjust the hitch head angle as needed. Less than 5 links may cause binding in turns. Getting a WDH set up correctly sometimes can take a lot trial and error tweaking of various things. Took me a whole season of fiddling last year to get it right, including playing with truck tire pressure, and I ended up having to get a ball with a 1" rise to get the TT to sit where it needed to be.

How much does the TT scale fully loaded for camping - is it 6900 lbs based on your 12.5 percent TW? Did you weigh the truck and subtract that from it's GVWR to get the available payload capacity? Actual payload capacity can sometimes vary a lot from the sticker number. Did you calculate the weights being transferred onto the steer and trailer axles? How much does the truck squat when you're hooked up?

It could be a combination or things, but I would say one thing that stands out is the truck's tires. If they're P rated, I would upgrade to LTs. I run our Michelin LT LRE tires at 75 psi front & 80 rear. Much less than that and it doesn't feel right. I would highly recommend some good heavy duty shocks on the truck like Bilstein. Shocks on the TT would help but that's not a simple or inexpensive bolt-on and go install. I would look at upgrading the WDH to something like a Blu Ox or Reese dual cam. We have the Reese DC hitch and it works great for us but it is not for everyone. I don't know how the two compare for sway control but I really like the proactive design of the Reese and the way it makes the truck and trailer almost snap back into line. Add the 2nd sway bar. However, it might just be at the end of the day, you need a bigger truck. We upgraded from an F150 to F250 and it is a huge improvement in towing.

[bobndot]

With a 27'/6500# 2016 Jayco and 2016 1500 Maxx tow package Silverado , I followed these general steps and just completed a 3000 mi trip with zero issues. Average speed was 60-65 with quick bursts to 70. The effects from crosswinds and bow waves were minimal.
Start over taking measurements and decide then if heavier bars are needed. The 1000# bars you now have should give you an good idea of a proper tow feel but heavier bars would probably a better choice having less stress on them. If you use too heavy a bar, you will feel a harder ride.
http://davidsrvtips.blogspot.com/2009/02/hitch-setup_2781.html


when you have the time .......
read Ron's posts

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/14265335.cfm

[dadmomh]

A simple and free thing to check is.....maybe take 5 mph off your 65. Most find that 55 - 60 is a better tow speed and can help with the sway. Also, the winds can be a huge factor. Agree on overloading. Go through your trailer with an eye to "do I really need this and how much does it weigh?". Amazing how much stuff you load that you'll never use. Also agree that's a pretty healthy size trailer for your truck. Try the simple stuff first, then move on if needed. Good luck.

[Carrier]

camperforlife wrote:

Carrier wrote:

camperforlife wrote:

Retired JSO wrote:
I have read on other forums, the trucks built in anti sway control may be at odds with WDH. Try turning off the trucks anti sway control. Ir will default to on after every shutdown. It made for a better tow with ours.

I just had this conversation with Blue Ox. I wasn't having sway but was getting pushed by wind gusts more than I felt I should. One of my issues was the dealer installed under sized bars so with that point don't blindly accept the dealer set up. Secondly Blue Ox mentioned turning off the factory sway control because it can be at odds with the hitch sway control.

What truck/trailer do you have and what size bars did you have and have now?

Mine is a '11 GMC 2500HD Crew pulling a 35' Cougar. Original bars were 1000lb based of the posted dry hitch of 940 which I argued wasn't right at the time. Actual tongue weight is 1320 and 1500lb bars are on the way.

I have mine at a seasonal but the 1000lb bars I think are too light. Dry hitch weight is 780 lbs but is closer to 1200 lbs loaded. going to see about getting the higher bars and try them. Please let us know how they work when you get them.

[allen8106]

cordellm wrote:
Should I add a second anti sway control bar? I currently only have the one that came with the hitch, but now reading some other posts should I add a second or is that not really going to help my situation and just be a waste of money?

I would add a second one and make sure they are both cranked down tight.

[Acdii]

AGHHH I had a nice writeup and cntrl A'd it to death.

Anyhow, i ran into this on my first trip with a 28' Coleman. I also have a F150 Screw with the short short short bed. I had annoying sway, but the winds were up to 30MPH gusting.

Turned out that bars weren't tight. When I first hooked up it looked like the trailer was too nose high, and I didn't have a level with me to check(though should have just bought one). I weighed the rig when I left the dealer, and then weighed the truck later(yesterday in fact. The front was light by 180#, all the TW was on the hitch at the tune of 840#. All this led to sway with the cross winds.

First for your truck, not knowing the tire size, will have to suggest. Set air pressure front and rear to 40 PSI, I have 20's on mine, and are P rated not XL. Equalize the pressures between front and rear for best stability.

Second, go through the manual step by step, measure everything twice on level ground. Go by what the hitch manual says, not the truck manual, reason being, the hitch manufacturer does testing on many vehicles, and if they found that the truck manufacturers statements were better than theirs, they would say so in the manual. It is also what they came up with from their testing.

Third, weigh it, weigh everything. Verify that you are transferring TW to the front axle. The thing I found is that after weighing it when empty, I heard DING DING DUMMY! That's why I had sway, the hitch wasn't doing its job. Knowing the weights is 2/3rd's the battle

Fourth, add a second friction bar, one is not enough for a long trailer with the 145" WB F150. I added one just today, and if I find I still have sway(which I am pretty confident I cured), I will add a second. My trailer is 7600# GVWR, and is about 5100# dry when I brought it home. I also have a 19' Horse trailer that I tow occasionally, and never had sway with it because it was setup by the book. I also tow a 6x12 V nose enclosed that is 8' tall, and last weekend a trip to Iowa on very windy days I had a touch of sway with it, but just enough to let me know, hey its windy back here. It is a standard 2" hitch, but well balanced

As far as the electronic sway control on our trucks, they only work when the truck detects an imbalance, and applies braking and engine management to reduce the sway after it occurs, and has zero effect on active sway control. When it happens, you will know as the dash will light up and alarms will go off, at least that is what mine does, tested it out one day with my little trailer.

From your description, sounds like you didn't have enough tension on the spring bars, and since you say you can't get them up to the tip up, I would suggest taking the hitch apart, measure everything twice, and reassemble by the book. Your head is tipped too far back causing the bars to be too far down. Don't be fixated on having the bars parallel with the trailer frame as sometimes, you wont be able to get them perfect, and it is better to have more pressure than not enough. It is said to have the hitch 1" higher on the TV than the socket on the trailer, but if you can't get it, go lower than higher as the higher setting would put it exactly where you describe yours at, bars too low or too high. Sometimes no matter how you set the shank, it just wont line up, you need to be 1/2" higer or lower and can't get there, so take the lower measurement. Thats how mine is setup and on the HT its perfect, and I believe it will be just as good on the TT. It's OK to have the bars up a little and have a slight bend if you can't get them parallel. Everything you described to me sounds as if the hitch needs to be reconfigured. Try that before throwing any more money at it.

[camperforlife]

Carrier wrote:

camperforlife wrote:

Retired JSO wrote:
I have read on other forums, the trucks built in anti sway control may be at odds with WDH. Try turning off the trucks anti sway control. Ir will default to on after every shutdown. It made for a better tow with ours.

I just had this conversation with Blue Ox. I wasn't having sway but was getting pushed by wind gusts more than I felt I should. One of my issues was the dealer installed under sized bars so with that point don't blindly accept the dealer set up. Secondly Blue Ox mentioned turning off the factory sway control because it can be at odds with the hitch sway control.

What truck/trailer do you have and what size bars did you have and have now?

Mine is a '11 GMC 2500HD Crew pulling a 35' Cougar. Original bars were 1000lb based of the posted dry hitch of 940 which I argued wasn't right at the time. Actual tongue weight is 1320 and 1500lb bars are on the way.

[Mark_and_Linda]

Please keep us updated when you get it straightened out.

[Mark_and_Linda]

I bought my trailer at a dealer, they set up the hitch. Being new to travel trailers I finally figured it out after the trailer was loaded with all of our stuff. Everything about the original set up was wrong. I have finally tweaked it to where I am comfortable with it. I have a ProSeries WDH with sway control...the bars are 1400. I added some rear suspension blocks to my Cheverolet plus I added a Friction Sway Bar that I purchased from Etrailer.com. I never adjust tire pressures for what they are set at the tire dealer.

[westend]

I'd suggest to keep all your tires pressured to the same maximum pressure.

Adjust the hitch as per Mfg's suggested procedure with enough weight transferred to get the wheel well height to within 1" from it's unloaded height, i.e. with no trailer attached.

Angle of the bars isn't too critical as the torque of the bars is where the benefit is. You may encounter too stiff or too loose a tow and fine tuning then becomes important with angles and such.

[TomG2]

Borrow/rent a tow vehicle with more capacity to determine if it is the tow vehicle or the trailer that is contributing to your problem. Time to do some troubleshooting, sway is not good or normal.

[cordellm]

Again, thank you everyone for the thoughts, suggestions, advice, etc... I do have a few questions now that I have some input from you.

To answer a previous question I have a 10,000 lb hitch 1,000 lb spring bars.

I feel I have adequate tongue weight with no fresh water in my tank (I'm at 12.5%), should I be filling my fresh water tank which will get me to about 15% on the tongue?

Should all the tires on my TV be aired to max pressure?

My Ford manual says to measure my front wheel well space with no load and then again with the trail hooked up, but no connected to the spring bars. Then adjust the hitch with the spring bars so the front wheel well space is a quarter way down from total desitance between the initial two measurements. What should the space be on the front axle compaired to the measurement when not hooked up?

I'm told the spring bars should be level when hooked up. I do not have enough chain on my spring bars to reach the hooks on the tongue when level, I have to tilt the hitch head up in order to hook up and this leaves the spring bars angled up slightly, is this ok?

[Huntindog]

cordellm wrote:
Should I add a second anti sway control bar? I currently only have the one that came with the hitch, but now reading some other posts should I add a second or is that not really going to help my situation and just be a waste of money?

YES! Get another one. I have had those in the past. When I added the second one, it improved dramatically. Also the manufactures of the friction devices state that over a certain weight and or length requires two sway controls. It varies a little between the different companies bu 24-26' and 5-6K seems to be the limit for one.

Now don't fall into the trap of using these devices as the primary means of sway control. The TT loading and hitch setup should be the first priority. Your TV appears to be marginal for that TT, so getting it perfectly dialed in is more impoertant that if you had a bigger truck. I do believe that it is possible though.

[westend]

I believe Ford states to leave the front wheel well height within 1/2" of unloaded height.

It may be that your trailer has an intrinsic sway problem. It could be caused by axles being out of alignment or other reasons. I'd have a second truck pull it to rule that out as a possibility.