My Blue Ox Sway Pro Experience (Bad, but now resolved)

[freymann]

I bought a 19 foot trailer about 10 years ago and it came with the basic Reese Weight distribution bars and the anti sway bar and did the job.

We later upgraded to a heavier 21 foot travel trailer and brought the Reese system with us. I guess it worked ok.

Last year we upgraded again to a 26 foot TT after upgrading our tow vehicle (2008 Ford F150 XLT Crew CAb). The Reese system moved with us but I didn't feel it was doing a good job with the 26 footer so I decided, after changing TV again (to a 2010 Dodge Ram Quad Cab) that I still wasn't happy with the way the TT towed so I was going to buy a new weight distribution system with anti sway.

I had decided on looking at the Husky Centre Line, Eqaulizer, and Blue Ox Sway Pro.

I called a dealer that was recommended to me, Peterborough RV and discussed my 3 choices. Rick said he doesn't recommend the Husky at all, said they prefer the Equalizer and when I mentioned Blue Ox he said they have never installed one but have only heard great things about the company. My friend has the Blue Ox, same truck, and a 28 foot TT, so I decided to go with Blue Ox.

I arranged a time when we were camping in Peterborough to have the old Reese system removed and the new Blue Ox installed at the end of one our camping trip in the area. Peterborough RV said this was the first Blue Ox system they have installed in 17 years of being in the business.

The tech seemed to have issues with the driver's side rotating latch coming undone and rotating and dropping the chains and bar when he lowered the rig to check for level. I witnessed this twice during the installation. This was a Monday and the tech didn't seem to be a good mood at all that day.

After more than an hour I am told everything is fine and I can leave. No instructions provided.

It towed home very well and I felt pleased.

Get home and try to remove the thing? I end up with cuts and bruises and **** near a broken arm.

I find their rotating latches to be a real problem. Instead of facing the trailer frame, where you have lots of room and lots of leverage, you have to position your body facing the front of your trailer to get leverage to rotate the latch. On the other side you have to face the rear of your truck.

The little "wrench" they provide to rotate the latch is small and awkward and rides too close to the bar and trailer frame. It can be difficult to have your hand around the wrench and rotate it because there's no room for your hand when you rotate past the bar or trailer frame. This thing requires a good half rotation or more to lock or unlock, so it's pretty difficult to spin it without finding your hand or arms dangerously close to something.

Even raising the trailer and TV didn't seem to help out much here. Who wants to risk injury every time you hook up and disconnect?

Ok, so I figure maybe it's just me. When we leave on our next trip I am careful to try and not position the wrench where I can't get hurt. Easier said then done.

It was a struggle and was scary trying to work with this system and not injure yourself. Wearing gloves helps prevent srapes and scratches.

I made it through a couple trips but then found out when backing up, the driver's side latch would rotate and come undone, causing the bar to hit the ground, and if on grass or dirt, it would embed itself and you would have to drive the truck forward and have somebody pulling on the chains to get it lose and over far enough that you could remove it. Not too handy when on a busy path.

I called Peterborough RV a couple of times to let Rick know I wasn't very happy with the system. I suggested they remove it and install the Equalizer system instead. Rick said NO as the warehouse won't accept used returns. When I explained the above issues to him all he said was he would call Blue Ox and see what they advise. Oh boy.

After 2 days of waiting I called Blue Ox myself and they decided to ship me replacement latches. When I asked for a refund they said that was up to Peterborough RV not them.

The new rotating latches arrive and Fed-Ex wanted $60 in import fees. I refused delivery as why would I want to spend more money on a system I don't like?!

I call Blue Ox back. Now they tell me if I had made the payment they would have paid me back. Oh well. So they agree to send another.

In the meantime I continue to struggle with putting it on and taking it off and it continues to pop off the driver's side bar when I back up. I advise Peterborough RV but my concerns seem to fall upon deaf ears.

Second replacement package arrives, no extra fees from Fed-Ex. I remove the driver's side rotating latch and place it next to the new one. I can see right away that the locking pin is not doing the correct job on the original. It barely goes into the hole! Glad it never rotated while we were driving down the highway!

I install the replacement, call Blue Ox to tell them what I discovered, ask them to speak to Peterborough RV.

We just did our last trip last weekend and I'm still struggling with this system. It is not pleasant to hook up and even worse to take off.

I emailed Connor at Blue Ox to state how unsatisfied I am with this thing and I print a copy and write a short letter to Peterborough RV stating how disappointed I am with them, the dealer, for not standing behind what they sell.

My goal was to upgrade to the latest and greatest and instead I am stuck with a system that is dangerous and difficult to use.

Based on my experience, I cannot recommend the Blux Ox Sway Pro system and I certainly do not recommend Peterborough RV either.

I don't have $1100.00 CDN to throw away again but when I do have some bucks I will have Blue Ox system removed and something else installed in its place.

In the meantime I can only cross my fingers and hope I don't hurt myself when hooking up.

What a huge disappointment.

[gmw_photos]

Not to be disrespectful here Sound Guy, but do you have first hand experience using the hitch in question ?

....because I do. I've been using it for close to 40K miles on both my travel trailer and my horse trailer.

In true RV dot net fashion, folks are trying to make a very simple situation seem complex indeed. This is not hard. This is not a major high school science project here. It is in fact, a staggeringly simple three step procedure:

1. jack it up 'til no tension on bars
2. pull the lock pin
3. turn the latch

This literally takes less effort and less time than I spend walking around the truck checking the air in it's four tires.

[freymann]

lots2seeinmyrv wrote:

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Are the plates mounted backwards?

That is what I was looking at. Does the OP have the Blue Ox booklet.

If he does, read it completely and see if the Dealer set it up right.

We have the 1,000 lb bars. What are yours rated??

I have the booklet. The rotating latches are installed correctly. I think it's impossible to put them on 'backwards'

I have the 1000 pound bars. I have never had the tongue weight checked at a scale. The trailer manual states the tongue weight is 815 pounds.

[Hoxtongue]

Also do you know what load bars you purchased? Thinking this also may be part of the problem.

BXW0550 (550 lbs)
BXW0750 (750 lbs)
BXW1000 (1000 lbs)
BXW1500 (1500 lbs)

[lots2seeinmyrv]

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Are the plates mounted backwards?

That is what I was looking at. Does the OP have the Blue Ox booklet.

If he does, read it completely and see if the Dealer set it up right.

Everyone says keep jacking the trailer up...but I have not found in the book where you should do this. Jacking the trailer up into the "V" is for the bar and chain W/D bars that you use the crowbar to snap the chains on.

The Blue Ox chains on ours go on so easily.

We have the 1,000 lb bars. What are yours rated??

[SoundGuy]

gmw photos wrote:
I disagree with the premise that difficulty in latching and unlatching is a sign the hitch is not set up correctly.

Disagree all you want but that's not the issue here ... the real issue is the OP doesn't know for a fact whether his Sway Pro is correctly set up or not. Yes, a dealer set it up for him but even he said they'd never even seen one before so what are the chances? Until he does know the set up is correct anything else is just a WAG. :R

[gmw_photos]

I disagree with the premise that difficulty in latching and unlatching is a sign the hitch is not set up correctly. The real measure of whether the hitch is setup correctly is whether or not the front (steer) axle has been restored to the correct weight, and whether or not the trailer tows correctly.

Again I say it, jack the trailer and truck up high enough to take ALL of the load off the bars. It will then be easy to latch and unlatch. So easy, you can literally do it bare handed, no tool needed.

You are not hurting the truck at all to raise it up high. You are not hurting the trailer to raise it up high. The jack is made to extend, and as others have suggested, place a few few blocks of wood under the jack to give it a bit more reach.

[SoundGuy]

freymann wrote:
I have watched quite a few videos on the Sway Pro, including that one. Both before and after purchase.

My bars do not go on/off that easily AT ALL. EVER!

I have complained about this from day one.

This in itself would suggest your Sway Pro isn't correctly set up so since you've watched "quite a few videos on the Sway Pro" the question then is whether you've yet taken your trailer to a lot where you can properly level it and go through the setup procedure yourself. :@ Obviously no system regardless of what it is will work properly if not correctly set up as recommended by the manufacturer. Since it appears you may be able to have your friend who successfully tows with a Sway Pro take a look at yours checking the installation setup would seem to be your next logical step.

[freymann]

coolbreeze01 wrote:

CopilotCompanion wrote:
A picture's worth a thousand words but can you post a video? I'm very interested in seeing all the moving parts?

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLDhAYw943U

I have watched quite a few videos on the Sway Pro, including that one. Both before and after purchase.

My bars do not go on/off that easily AT ALL. EVER!

I have complained about this from day one.

In the video the guy mentions having 3 links hanging out from the bottom is a good place to start. Look at my pictures. I see three links hanging out the bottom and I see my bar flexed a whole bunch while in the video, the bar has just a slight bend.

If I loosen the links, then my tow vehicle and trailer sag in the middle and it doesn't drive well down the road at all.

Now if only my dealer, Peterborough RV, actually spent some time with me to review their installation job.

My neighbour is coming by this weekend to compare setups. I'll let you know what he thinks. The next step it to take this to a dealer with experience setting up the Blue Ox Sway Pro system. I'll let you know how that goes too.

Let me just say the only assistance I have gotten here is from Blue Ox. Your comments and suggestions here on the Forum have been helpful too. Thank you all for your comments.

[rbpru]

I am with the group that loves the Blue Ox. I tow a 25 ft Dutchmen Lite with an F-150 and have had zero problems in almost three years of towing.

When I connect or unhitch I crank the tongue jack up a bit to reduce the hitch pressure. One side turns clockwise the other turns counterclockwise.

I found it handy when I unhitch to release the locking latch, then sometimes the ball will pop out when the bars are released. Since the TT has been cranked up to reduce the bar spring back, the ball will often clear the socket.

The only other hitch I have work with is an Equalizer and it was okay but creaked and moaned like my old bones.

[coolbreeze01]

CopilotCompanion wrote:
A picture's worth a thousand words but can you post a video? I'm very interested in seeing all the moving parts?

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLDhAYw943U

[freymann]

To the OP - when parked at home is the trailer relatively level front to back or do you have to fully extend your tongue jack in order to lift the tongue & rear of the truck in order to mount the spring bars? In fact, is there a possibility you're not elevating the combination enough? If so, using a stack under the tongue jack would help alleviate this situation ... in my case my driveway slopes noticeably to the street so I use a triple 4x stack under my tongue jack.

At home, our driveway is not level. Like you, it slopes down towards the road. I have 6 boards under the jack and I do have to raise it a lot to get the trailer to be level when parked but when hooking up it goes down a lot.

I was wondering if this was the issue at home. I jack the tow vehicle and trailer up A LOT when connecting/removing the bars at home. But now I'm wondering if I need to go even higher? My poor truck would be lifted very very high at the back to go higher than I am doing now.

As suggested by the Blue Ox rep, I think it is best to have another, more experienced dealer (with the Blue Ox system) take a look at my setup, and/or, get Jason down the road to come have a look and compare against his system too. I have time on Saturday... I'll give my neighbour a call to see if he has time to come take a look.

[SoundGuy]

BillyW wrote:
A power tongue jack has made hitching and unhitching my Equal-I-zer tons easier for the same reasons.

Yeah, I guess there are some who stick with a manual tongue jack even though they're using weight distribution but I sure wouldn't be one of them, gave up that nonsense long ago. :W

To the OP - when parked at home is the trailer relatively level front to back or do you have to fully extend your tongue jack in order to lift the tongue & rear of the truck in order to mount the spring bars? In fact, is there a possibility you're not elevating the combination enough? If so, using a stack under the tongue jack would help alleviate this situation ... in my case my driveway slopes noticeably to the street so I use a triple 4x stack under my tongue jack.

[Cdaddy]

I don't get the dislike of the husky centerline. It works great on our 33 foot trailer. And simple to use. No real sway yet pulling.

[coolbreeze01]

Are the plates mounted backwards?

[TurnThePage]

A power tongue jack has made hitching and unhitching my Equal-I-zer tons easier for the same reasons.