Jerky while towing

[Npdchief07]

I am towing a Wildwood with an F150. The Wildwood is 4600 pounds. I made sure before buying I would be well within my capacity for both towing and payload. I have only been out 4 times with it and most were about an hour drive except for a six hour drive to Gatkinburg.

Sometimes when I am towing it is really jerky. Other times I don't even notice it back there. We always travel with relatively the same amount of gear. I always hook it up the same. I did notice when I push the tow button on the 150 it gets worse.

Any ideas on the problem. I have a friction sway bar. Could having that turned too tight cause it?

[NMDriver2]

downtheroad wrote:
What roads were you towing on....cement highways with joints are notorious for jerky, bouncy ride with travel trailers...

Sometimes called porpoising.

X2 easy to check too. Just slow down or speed up and see if the jerking/bouncing changes as you go over the joints. If the jerking is as you maintain constant speed, accelerate, slow, and brake then likely the hitch but if only when braking the brake controller.

[gmw_photos]

I would go back to the basics, the beginning.

Make sure the trailer has about 12% to 14% tongue weight.

Ensure the WD hitch is correctly set up and you are at 100% FALR. Verify this at the CAT scale.

Consider changing the shocks on the rear of the truck. I like and use Bilstein 5100's.

Do all this and report back. In other words it's helpful to have all the basics in a known configuration, then if there is still a problem, you can start changing things one parameter at a time until you find the problem and solution.

Hope this helps.

[Npdchief07]

It is an eaz lift elite hitch. With weight distribution and friction sway bar

[downtheroad]

What roads were you towing on....cement highways with joints are notorious for jerky, bouncy ride with travel trailers...

Sometimes called porpoising.

[Farm_Camp]

What Dutchmen said. And you didn’t specify what hitch you are using. That might help “us” help you.

One thing that happened to me once - my hitch Ball came loose. I started noticing something was amiss and started really looking over my setup. I paid no attention to the ball at first, but finally I saw that it must have moved and got a hold of it. Sure enough I could move the dang thing with two fingers! Shame on me and lesson learned. Visited a friendly local RV dealer and they had one of their service guys get it tightened back at no charge. Now I check it and the other parts a LOT more closely at every hitchup.

Also not mentioned: You don’t happen to use a sleeve in your receiver by any chance? I doubt it but that’s another source of slop.

[DutchmenSport]

If there is movement of the hitch shaft inside the receiver, you may experience some jerking. If the hitch pin through your receiver is even a. It smaller in diameter than the hole it slides into, this small amount of slop can feel like jerking when first starting or braking. If those holes begin to wear also, you eilm experience jerking too. No much you can do about the slop except find a better fitting pin.