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?

[cordellm]

Ever though I have standard loss tires the weight rating far exceeds the rear axle rating, which from the scale I am under. To describe the sway I feel like the rear of the pickup wants to wiggle back and forth. When I look in my mirrors I can see the back of the trailer moving back and forth. Not sure if anyone has a suggestion for that with everything else discussed?

Also, what purchase of the tongue weight should be transferred to the front axle?

[fdwt994]

I wish I could offer a specific suggestion for you. For what it's worth, I have a 2012 F150 SuperCrew and my camper tows just fine. My camper is nearly identical in weight and dimension to yours.

I use an Equal-iz-er hitch. I believe it is the biggest reason for the good ride. I'm also using LT tires at 55 psi. A little too rough for everyday driving but nice when towing.

I wish you luck in your efforts, this stuff is way too much fun to be spoiled by miserable towing!

[bobndot]

You won't be the first person to experience an incorrect hitch set up from a dealer.
Before you run out buying add-ons. Make sure the WD bars are parallel to the TT frame with a slight bend to them.
I would narrow it down. I would unload the truck and take the rig (TV and TT) for a highway drive. See if handles better unloaded.
If you load the truck back up and take the same ride under the same weather conditions and it rides better, then I would look at the tires.
Check the weight rating stamped on each "P' tire, add them together to get a rear axle rating. Tires are sometimes your limiting factor in your rear axle rating . If that's the case, you need LT tires with a stiffer sidewall and higher weight rating.

If you did individual scale weights, then you know each axle weight of the truck as well as the tongue weight of the TT. Are you overloading the tires ?


If you are using one friction sway, a second might help on a long trailer with bow waves from overtaking semi trucks and buses as well as crosswinds .
If that is your issue now, then a second bar will probably be helpful.
However, if you actually have a true sway issue, a friction bar band-aid might just be masking the problem.
It's also possible, if you are having excessive tongue weight, which causes 'squat'. It makes light steering where the tail wags the dog.

[Carrier]

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?

[camperforlife]

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.

[3oaks]

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 certainly try adding the second anti sway control bar. That was one of my first thoughts after reading your initial post. 😉

[path1]

You sure wind was 10-15mph? Couple times I've looked at what wind was supposed to be and found weather sites to say 10-15 but what they don't mention is the "gusts" might be a lot higher.

I also have eaz lift. (Eaz lift is as great "get them off the lot hitch") While not a highly rated hitch, mine works great. I'm at 13% of tongue weight and don't use a sway bar just weight spring bars. Trailer is 8,500 pounds and TV is full size 3/4 ton.

[cordellm]

I usually carry a few hundred lbs in the box. I had the fronts fully inflated at one point but was told front tire pressure didn't matter as much because the front wasn't getting that much of the load. Thoughts?

Without investing a lot more into the hitch, will adding the second sway control bar help?

[westend]

Do you carry anything in the box of the truck?

Your E-z-lift is a fairly unsophisticated hitch. It may benefit you to get another hitch with integrated sway control.

If you have 860 lbs partly transferred to the front axle of the TV and are using dissimilar tire pressures in the tires, you may be aiding a sway situation because the trucks rear end is freer to move.

[cordellm]

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?

[cordellm]

They do look to be standard tires or same as "P" rated tires.

What I've read about the anti sway control of the pickup is it doesn't activate till really severe sway where you basically are out of control before it kicks in.

[johntank]

Like Boband4 said check tires on truck, most likely they are P rated tires, run them at max psi as per side wall this will help some.

[Retired_JSO]

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.

[HGL]

Have to say when we got our trailer 3 years ago, we had our dealer "set-up" our equalizer hitch. Drove home 270+ miles with not a lot of issues until we hit the sidewinds...then it was a tail wagging the dog situation. Next trip out we had the same issue with side winds. Husband decided to start from square one with the hitch setup. Figured out that the hitch was probably never adjusted to our truck as he had to move 5 washers to set things up correctly. After that fix, we didn't have issues with sway in side winds unless it was blowing 40+. Might be something to check!

[Boband4]

Check the truck tires too. Are they "P" passenger tires or "LT" light truck tires? The P's have more sidewall flex, and this will become more pronounced as the loads increase.