Is my TT too big for long trips?

[Fishwater]

We are at a crossroads with our current travel trailer. It’s a 2017 Flagstaff 831 BHDS measuring 34’9” total length & a dry weight of 7195, GVWR 8761. The tow vehicle is a 2015 F-350 with a 6.7 diesel & 3100lbs of payload. I purchased a tongue scale & weighed my tongue weight at 1200lbs, removing some useless. Items from the front & only storage area I got tongue weight down to 1125, I have 1200 lbs round bars on the hitch. The family is myself, wife & two girls ages 8 & 9, pick up bed typically has three bikes, some firewood, bbq & cooler.

I’ve struggled this season fighting sway with my 10year old Reese Strait Line DC hitch, I’ve had this hitch on my previous 33’ Passport for 4 years & never had sway. Once we purchased this camper I realized I needed to step up tow vehicles from my Dodge Ram to a 2003 F-350 with a 6.0 diesel. At that point I started to notice sway with the new camper but the 1 ton suspension handled the trailer better than ever. I picked up the new 2015 F-350 at the end of the season so this is the first year with the new truck pulling this camper. I’m struggling getting this camper to pull without sway with the new truck, especially getting the ball height right as well as tilt. I’m thinking the round bar set up is getting tired & worn, slop in the receiver hitch etc giving me fits.

So typically I tow about 2500 miles a year in the season. Typical weekend trips averaging about an hour or two at most each way. We pulled to Burlington VT in the beginning of the season this year which was about 190 miles each way & the camper fought me the entire way. When we got home I spent some time in a vacant parking lot leveling the trailer but struggled to get the nose of the trailer perfectly level or perhaps pointed down a little but the next three trips were much better sway wise, still had some sway on a real windy day up the coast with about a constant 15mph wind but it was manageable. Now that the kids are growing we want to expand our camping area, particularly head to Niagra Falls which is about 9 hours from here.

So the crossroads is what do we do from here? I know I have plenty of tow vehicle, no worries from the weight police but do I just bite the bullet & buy a fifth wheel or replace my current hitch? We love our camper, love the floor plan, the quality, everything about it but the thought of towing for 9 hours battling the beast behind me is not at all appealing. I’m considering purchasing a new Reese strait line trunion bar set up since so many folks rave about them when set up properly & thinking with all the slop I currently have it would be an improvement. I’ve also considered purchasing a Hensley which currently see one on Craigslist but the seller knows nothing about it & neither do I so purchasing used is a gamble plus they look like an absolute PITA to deal with.

So after writing this novel I’m at the crossroads of buy a fifth wheel or buy/upgrade my hitch. Is a 35’, 8800lbs bumper pull too much for the long distance tows? I mostly see folks on this site & others pulling smaller bumper pulls or fifth wheels when talking about towing all over the country, not 35’ double slide campers like ours.

[dodge_guy]

mlj427 wrote:
I had a squirrelly 35 ft trailer that I could not get to calm down until I upgraded to load range E tires. It was a night and day difference. I also set all of the tires to the top of the factory recommended pressure.

Good luck

Yes it does make a huge improvement. And so does replacing loose suspension hardware on the trailer.

[mlj427]

I had a squirrelly 35 ft trailer that I could not get to calm down until I upgraded to load range E tires. It was a night and day difference. I also set all of the tires to the top of the factory recommended pressure.

Good luck

[dodge_guy]

Good deal. PP from what I have read on here is very good with customer service. and I agree with you on the availability of a 2.5" shank and it being adjustable.

Both are excellent sway control hitches, with the only negative being the price, however that's not really much when you consider what it does!

[Fishwater]

I decided to call Propride & spoke with Sean. He recommended the 1400lb bars, answered all my questions & then took my order even offering to expedite my shipping since I’m leaving for a trip next Friday. Yep, it hurt a little but after reading all the positive reviews on the PP & Hensley I decided to just bite the bullet.

A couple of things that swayed to the PP vs Hensley was the available 2.5” shank stinger as well as the adjustable height & tilt. I didn’t feel confident enough in the 2” or 4” option with the Hensley stinger & it seems short sided to not offer a tilting head. Also in my F-350 I have the factory 2.5” hitch & I am not a fan of the adapter, I bent my last pin which I’d never done before as well as some wear on the new pin that I feel is caused by using an adapter vs a 2.5” shank. Sealed the deal for me once I found out he offered a 2.5” shank that I can adjust.

[Lantley]

Huntindog wrote:

Fishwater wrote:
I called & spoke with Hensley today AND they sure don’t give those away do they? Wow! Sticker shock aside I believe they answered all my questions but I wonder how accurate the height set up is with a fixed stinger? I like that the Propride offers an adjustable stinger, seems more practical to me. Does anyone have any opinions on Propride vs Hensley or fixed vs adjustable stinger?

I’m still considering another Reese dual cam set up, especially for the money but worry it won’t be enough of an improvement to justify the expense. Hmmmm.

As far as bringing the the trailer to the scales , I have found two local to me, about an hour from home each way. Now finding the time to get there is the challenge but I do understand that it would help me figure out exactly what’s going on with my set up, just need to find the time.

I would make the time before spending a ton of money.....That would be wasted if you have a weight problem.

I agree going to the scale is worthwhile. Regardless of the hitch you need a baseline on your weights.
Hensley makes offset stingers that are still fixed but they allow you to adjust your height. While you do have to pay shipping you can exchange your stinger for a different size.
Adjustable is nice, but the stingers are already kind of heavy and a PIA to deal with. An adjustable stinger is even heavier.
Once the correct height is determined you no longer need to make any adjustments. I can see an adjustable stinger being beneficial if adjustments where constantly necessary, but once you sort things out a lighter fixed stinger is easier to handle and carry.
You only need to adjust stinger once however you need to carry /handle stinger each and every trip.

[Huntindog]

Fishwater wrote:
I called & spoke with Hensley today AND they sure don’t give those away do they? Wow! Sticker shock aside I believe they answered all my questions but I wonder how accurate the height set up is with a fixed stinger? I like that the Propride offers an adjustable stinger, seems more practical to me. Does anyone have any opinions on Propride vs Hensley or fixed vs adjustable stinger?

I’m still considering another Reese dual cam set up, especially for the money but worry it won’t be enough of an improvement to justify the expense. Hmmmm.

As far as bringing the the trailer to the scales , I have found two local to me, about an hour from home each way. Now finding the time to get there is the challenge but I do understand that it would help me figure out exactly what’s going on with my set up, just need to find the time.

I would make the time before spending a ton of money.....That would be wasted if you have a weight problem.

[Fishwater]

I called & spoke with Hensley today AND they sure don’t give those away do they? Wow! Sticker shock aside I believe they answered all my questions but I wonder how accurate the height set up is with a fixed stinger? I like that the Propride offers an adjustable stinger, seems more practical to me. Does anyone have any opinions on Propride vs Hensley or fixed vs adjustable stinger?

I’m still considering another Reese dual cam set up, especially for the money but worry it won’t be enough of an improvement to justify the expense. Hmmmm.

As far as bringing the the trailer to the scales , I have found two local to me, about an hour from home each way. Now finding the time to get there is the challenge but I do understand that it would help me figure out exactly what’s going on with my set up, just need to find the time.

[rbpru]

The model is interesting, but it lacks driver response, braking or reduced acceleration, excessive weight shifting and scaled speed.

It does show you can make a rig unstable if you try hard enough.

[llr]

I have a like sized trailer with a 3/4 ton and a blue ox sway pro and no issues with sway, a slight push from trucks or winds but it moves as one.

I would get to a scale loaded ready for travel to be sure there is no issue here. Adjust the hitch based on actual weights and be sure the trail is level of slightly nose down.

The only time I would worry about lowing tongue weight is for TV payload issues which I doubt you have.

As someone else said check the trailer axle alignment or take it to a good truck / trailer shop to be sure.

everything else checks out you may want to get a better hitch.

[Lantley]

valhalla360 wrote:

Lantley wrote:

My 2nd thought on projected pivot point vs.actually being on the axle. Is that the fiver is much taller and heavier than a TT.
What the fiver may gain by actually sitting on the axle it looses due to being so tall and having a higher center of gravity.
On paper maybe someone can determine that the projected pivot point is less effective, but from the driver's seat my experience is the Hensley does tow just as well as a 5'er.

There may be exceptions but reality is the 5er center of gravity isn't much higher. The vast majority of the higher up stuff is empty air space. Most of the heavy stuff (tanks, appliances, storage spaces) are concentrated down low. It is a little higher but not near as much as it would appear by looking at the side of the rig.

Probably more importantly, trucks rolling over from the higher hitch point of a 5er are almost unheard of compared to trucks jackknifing due to a TT sway getting out of control.

A TT properly set up should tow safely & comfortably but even with the right setup an equivalent 5er with no special effort will tow better.

I'm still betting, we find the OP is missing something significant...my best guess is he is well over the GVWR for the trailer and the pin weight is low.

I agree in general. But it is the air resistance that makes RV trailers, both TT and 5'er more difficult to tow than other trailers, because they have larger frontal areas. A fiver has even more frontal area to contend with.

[hawkeye-08]

D-C-Johnson wrote:
I recently upgraded myself from a 32ft to a 37ft I have a blue-ox swaypro 2 weight for 1200lb, I have less sway with the 37 footer than I did with my 32 but I struggle more with what I guessing is called proposing I get alot of bounce I have played with weight a little to see if it helped not much change moving 100lbs front/back, my 05 2500hd is sitting quite level and my TT(2018 kodiak 331bhsl) is level in tow but on some roads its an bit nerve racking when I hit dips or humps in the road, any input on possible cause is welcome.

This sounds like the issue I had... my WDH bars were only 1000lbs and I had more TW than that. I also noticed when hitching up that my truck receiver (2011 GMC Sierra 2500HD) flexed some. I ordered new Torklift receiver for the truck and new WDH with trunion bars (14,000/1400) and set it all up. WOW, I didn't have bad towing prior to change, but I have great towing after.

If everything else is setup correctly, perhaps you have some flex in your receiver that is working with the WDH bars to create some spring, which increases bounce.

[2cknights]

x2 on the friction sway bars. I had the same problem in 2005 with a 31’ Jayco. I added the sway bars and never had another problem.

[valhalla360]

Lantley wrote:

My 2nd thought on projected pivot point vs.actually being on the axle. Is that the fiver is much taller and heavier than a TT.
What the fiver may gain by actually sitting on the axle it looses due to being so tall and having a higher center of gravity.
On paper maybe someone can determine that the projected pivot point is less effective, but from the driver's seat my experience is the Hensley does tow just as well as a 5'er.

There may be exceptions but reality is the 5er center of gravity isn't much higher. The vast majority of the higher up stuff is empty air space. Most of the heavy stuff (tanks, appliances, storage spaces) are concentrated down low. It is a little higher but not near as much as it would appear by looking at the side of the rig.

Probably more importantly, trucks rolling over from the higher hitch point of a 5er are almost unheard of compared to trucks jackknifing due to a TT sway getting out of control.

A TT properly set up should tow safely & comfortably but even with the right setup an equivalent 5er with no special effort will tow better.

I'm still betting, we find the OP is missing something significant...my best guess is he is well over the GVWR for the trailer and the pin weight is low.

[RedRocket204]

Per your previous comment, you mentioned that your shank seemed a bit short where you still needed to drop the hitch by about 1". Get the right length drop as modern trucks are definitely higher than older trucks. And as many already mentioned, get that tongue weight back up to a proper weight for the loaded trailer weight. Even if your tongue weight is at 12%, consider going up to 15%. With the adjustments you made to align your cams, you are on the right track but not there yet.

The Reese DC Hitch is good but it requires fine tuning to get it right and get that solid tow.

This is always a great gif to get an idea of what too little tongue weight can do: