Can't stop sway
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?
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?
